We bought a pack of these Tesco Birthday balloons for my son's first birthday this year. He wasn't having a party as such - just a family gathering - and he was too young to really notice or care but we wanted to decorate the house just a little to mark the occasion. These were priced at £1 for a pack of 10 balloons so they suited our needs perfectly. You can purchase these in a bag of mixed colours (white, green, blue, yellow and red) but we purchased a pack of 10 blue balloons. The balloons come in a small plastic wrapping with a cardboard label stapled over the top. They can be purchased from the party section in Tesco (usually located near to the cards).

The balloons each have a black picture printed on one side. This is the outline of a birthday cake with the words 'Happy Birthday' surrounding it. This is a dark, jet black on the balloon before it is inflated. After blowing up, this fades to more of a charcoal grey colour but it is still very noticeable and evident that these are birthday balloons.

Now, I am rubbish with balloons. I seem to make very hard work of blowing them up and even more hard work of tying the end in a know afterwards. My balloons are usually very obvious as they end up half inflated and rather pathetic looking! So, it was with great hesitation I agreed to help blow these ones up. However, I did find them quite easy to blow up. They started to inflate immediately as I was blowing into them rather than taking one or two puffs to 'get going'. It was also easy to tell when they were reaching capacity so you didn't get too much of that fear of them popping as you squeeze just one last puff in! I did find them quite difficult to tie but my husband found them relatively easy so this is probably due to my lack of ability rather than a flaw in the balloon design.

They were easy to hang using string and actually stayed inflated really well - lasting about a week without starting to look too deflated. The older kids and toddlers at the party also had great fun playing with these and they stood up well to the rough handling - no nasty bangs to contend with! For £1, I couldn't really ask for much more. They are good value and certainly help to decorate for a birthday party and give the room a bit of colour. Recommended.