The brief
Twins turning two, on a hotel lawn in Sanur under old palms. Two two-year-olds is not the same brief as one — anything they can hold has to exist in duplicate, and any activity that only one can do at a time will end badly. And at two, a show they watch will not hold them. It has to be something they can put their hands in.
What we built
Deliberately little: a pastel balloon cluster in mint, blush and cream with a gold foil <i>2</i> standing in it, and a low bubble table dressed in mint sequins set at exactly toddler height, with a wand for each of them. At this age the decor is for the photographs; the activity is the party.
How the day went
The bubble table did most of the work — both girls stood at it side by side, hands in the water, making their own. Then the show proper: giant bubbles drawn across the lawn, and their parents lifting them up one in each pair of arms to reach for the same one. Everybody else stood in a loose ring in the shade with drinks and watched two very small people be delighted for forty minutes.
What the parents got
An activity that worked in duplicate, a short and calm programme that matched the age, and the photograph of both daughters mid-air reaching for the same bubble.
