Water Balloons
My 6 year old, his best friend, my 2 year old, and I went out in the back yard last evening with water balloons. The boys were very excited, and were very anxious to play immediately, but I found filling balloons with water is not an easy task. It’s aggravatingly difficult, in fact.
The package of balloons came with a special nozel that attaches to the water hose, but there was no shut off for the water other than at the wall. I filled the first balloon easily, but then struggled to tie off the end. I struggled and struggled and struggled and &%$*##@* struggled. All the while, the water is flowing from the hose. And the boys were coming up to me wanting to play with everything every 10 seconds.
I eventually rigged up a system of filling the balloons without wasting too much water (much water was still wasted, just not “too much”). I never managed to get good or fast with tying off a small balloon filled with water, but I at least got about a dozen balloons filled and tied.
Preparation took about 20 minutes. Destruction took about 2 minutes. Unfortunately, most of the balloons would not pop when they hit a kid’s body—they would bounce off a boy’s back, fall into the grass, and burst on the ground. Rather disappointing. I threw one at my 6 year old’s chest, but he scrunched down instinctively, so the balloon hit him right on the nose. It bounced off and burst on the ground. Fortunately he was not hurt by the smack to the face, and just continued running and laughing.
I think water balloons might be more fun with older kids, so they and I can throw them hard enough to burst on a body. Watching them wet only the ground was just disappointing. So I ended up taking the hose to the boys to get them good and wet.
Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com