In 1988 a friend of mine opened Kids Placehouse. It was a restaurant on one side and a play area on the other side. My wife and I worked there on the weekend to help him get started. One Saturday his wife asked me to put on the clown suit and go in the play area. I went up the rope ladder, down the slide, and played in the ball jump. I fell in love with it. The very next week the mom's and dad's asked if the man who entertained the children was going to be back. They all said the same thing, "The children loved him!." The very next Saturday the owners wife taught me how to facepaint. I started to facepaint and my wife said that looked fun! I taught her how to face paint and now Kid's Playhouse now had two face painters. The owners wife came to me with another brilliant idea of balloon animals.