They're easy to entertain.
I found this little gem on Pinterest. It sounded easy (and cheap). Buy some plastic painters sheeting (the thick stuff), duct tape it together, stick a hose in, fill it up with water, and you have a ginormous water pillow type thing. Sounds like a perfect way to keep the kids entertained.
I bought the materials and waiting for a nice day to try it out. It was 75 and sunny today, so I decided to give it a shot (even though I should have been cleaning the house today for my mom's arrival tomorrow...some things are more important).
I taped the plastic together and shoved the hose in, just as the website told me to do. We even added a bottle of red food coloring and some spongy insects inside to add to the fun.
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| Making kids happy with plastic and water. |
Apparently whatever person built their little water balloon fun pit is a Martha Stewart clone with the most perfectly flat manicured yard owned in the United States of America, because her pictures of hers is so beautiful, filled up completely to the brim with water evenly without any bubbles or anything, in a perfect rectangle. Or it's Photoshopped, one of the two.
Our front yard APPARENTLY has a hill that I didn't know about. My next door neighbor and I filled up the big water play mat maybe halfway, but it was all leaning towards the street, filling up unevenly, huge bubbles etc. Then it rolled itself down the "hill" onto the sidewalk like a remake of The Blob movie.
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| Screw choking hazards! Throw your friend's 18 month old into a pile of plastic and see if he survives! |
However, even though it wasn't filling as perfectly as the website showed, it was still a huge hit. We invited Calen's little friends that live across the street over. Plus our next door neighbor boy and of course Calen and Camden. (Cam was NOT impressed with the cold wet moving object and wanted to leave immediately. I think he thought it was some sort of baby eating water monster that was going to fold into itself and swallow him up). Then two of our other neighbor kids joined in. And two other random kids I don't even know that were walking down the sidewalk and wanted to check it out. Hey, why not? Join the party. At one point there were like nine kids playing on the thing (and the plastic pool beside it).
Brad and I took turns sprinting across the yard with a toddler in each hand (and our 7 year old neighbor boy running beside us) and literally tossing them into the water thing (what the hell would you call it? It's like a water bed pillow balloon thing). Kids were flying in all directions, laughing, begging us to do it again. The neighbor boy sprayed water on the top and used it as a humongous squishy slip in slide.
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| Chucking small children into giant plastic water balloons = fun! |
Water parks have nothing on us! And it's free admission!
The Dad's finally moved it over at the end of our yard next to the street where apparently it's flat, and it filled up quite nicely and Martha Stewart like. Of course by then all the little kids were more interested in the little plastic pool, but it still got lots of use.
Hell, I thought it was awesome. It was like laying on a water bed. That's cold. And wet.
In fact I think we pretty much got the Coolest House On the Block award today for our random plastic entertainment. We even decided to order pizza and just eat it on the front lawn. Perfect freaking awesome spring day.
I even got a sun burn! My first layer of the year. I always get a starter burn in spring, and then after that each sun "burn" actually just contributes to a nice tan. Thank you to the like 1.5% Cherokee Indian I have in me. Not enough to trace or anything, but enough to get a nice tan. That's all that matters anyways.
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| The look of satisfaction. |
And then the day ended with two sun-bathed extremely exhausted little Hansen boys, that couldn't have gotten to bed fast enough. And I came into my house and realized just HOW much cleaning I have to do before 2pm tomorrow. Yikes.
I chose a helluva week to quit caffeine.
Forget it. I'm not quitting yet. Some things are just essential when you're a young mommy.
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