Busy Mamas

This past weekend, Karen and I attended a birthday party for our friend’s two sons and we all had a blast. In what has become an annual tradition, the birthday boys’ Dad filled up water balloons for the kids (and parents) to play with in the park across the street from their home. Each year the quantity gets a little larger and this year Dad outdid himself. The total count? 1200 water balloons. Yes, 1200. Our gang has a tendency to take things to the extreme.

It took him almost a whole week to fill the balloons and required some very creative storage solutions. Bathing was optional in their house in the days before the party as hundreds of balloons had taken up residence in their bathtubs. The balloon booty was transported to the park via car in plastic storage boxes, buckets and ice chests. I think the car was scraping on the ground as it exited the driveway but the kids were so excited they would have pushed the car down the street if they had to!

Once we got to the park we had to hold the kids back from diving in and going nuts (I think it was more because the Dads wanted to be sure they got their hands on some too). Balloons were distributed across the field, children (including the Dads) went to their stations, and the battle began!

In the end, there were lots of soaked kids (and Moms), several balloons in the face, some tears, but tons of fun. The parents had as much fun as, if not more than, the kids and they certainly did the most damage. The little ones were lucky if they managed to keep the balloons from breaking on their heads as they threw them, much less hit their target. The Moms and Dads however waged an all out Battle of the Sexes on each other and the children were unfortunate victims caught in the crossfire. Karen’s youngest son, Daredevil, got an entire bucket of water dumped on his head when one of the Moms tried to throw it on his Dad, TSO (I’m pretty sure TSO pushed his son into the line of fire, but you didn’t hear that from me). So, next year…1500 water balloons?

Tags: birthday party activity, hawaii, water balloons, water games