Finally!  A chance to work on the puzzle for several days in a row.  It was in small increments, but nonetheless, some progress at last.

Close ups of the mostly finished balloon section.

The balloons are mostly done now with all the pieces I have managed to find in my initial sorting. I am sure there are a ton more pieces mixed in with the clown fish as it was sometimes hard to tell where it went.  When I started the sorting, I had not yet worked with any of the pieces so I really didn’t have any “experience” to say, oh yeah, that’s definitely a clownfish piece.  So I’m sure that’s where most of my remaining balloon pieces will be found later.

I also started on the animals. I was amazed at the size of the “leaping” cheetah (or is it a leopard?). He’s quite large (more than 20 pieces across).  I have also assembled most of the “sitting” leopard, the larger zebra, small parts of the smaller zebra, and most of the largest giraffe. The two zebras, so far, have been the hardest of the animals. The stripes on the larger zebra go in different directions at times making it a bit more confusing.

and

The two smaller giraffes have been started as well, but are not quite finished. I will start working on the elephants next, and probably the panda bear.