Hello Chris, yes that does seem to be a lot cleaner - though it does one thing that is not right - 

ie)

add to the previous data

 insert into modvalues (parties,baloons,color,dayofpurchase,amountpur) values
> ('1','big','red','1/2/2011',4);

then the output looks like:

baloons     color        jan first       jan second     jan third

big             red            7

big             green                           14

big                 blue                           3

big                  red                            4

instead of looking like this(having big red only show up once with the new value under jan second):

baloons     color        jan first       jan second     jan third

big             red            7                     4

big             green                           14

big                 blue                           3

thank you for your help and ideas