Outdoor Water Balloon Game Ideas

[doodlesmommy]

We are having a "hula by the poola" party for our 6 year old in a few weeks and I'm trying to come up with some fun ideas of how the girls can play a game with water balloons without pelting each other with them. Does anyone have any ideas? Any other luau themed games would be appreciated too. Thx.

 

[poohfriend77]

Other than the toss and catch game, I don't have any ideas for the balloons. But I do have another water fun suggestion. We played a relay race with sponges and buckets of water. Each player soaked the sponge in a bucket, then walked across the yard to their team's plastic cup and squeezed the water into it. The first team to fill their cup up to the line wins. The kids had a lot of fun, and I didn't have to pick up a million tiny pieces of balloon. Family Fun magazine had instructions for making "koosh ball" type things by cutting three sponges and tying them together. That would be cute.

I guess along the same lines, the kids could carry water balloons and try to pop them over a cup or bucket to fill it.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Hang a hoola-hoop from a tree and try try to through the water balloons through it?

 

[lovemykids74]

As a school teacher, we have had the kids play "volleyball" with water balloons. Student pairs each have a beach towel and one child is at each short side. Together they work to catch the balloon and heave it over to the other side. The side where the balloon pops forfiets the point to the other team. 3-5 beach towels per side works best.

Another fun water game is Sponge, Sponge, Squeeze, similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. The child with the sponge taps each child lightly on the head with the sponge until the chosen child who he wringes the sponge out on top of. They chase each other around the circle just as in Duck, Duck, Goose. Be watchful for the grass to get too wet or slippery. The larger the circle, the better.

Have fun!

 

[dizneechic]

Depending on the size of the water balloons you make...

If they are small you can do something similar to an egg race with them. You give each kid a wooden spoon (or any type really) and have them race from point A to point B with the balloon in the spoon. If it drops & breaks they have to go back to the starting line and get a new balloon, you can decide if it drops and doesn't break if they return to the start or can keep going. 1st team to either have all players make it across the finish line or if your odd numbered on teams, the 1st to get X amt of balloons in the bucket wins.

Another one we have done with larger water balloons is the standing crab walk. 2 players have to lock arms either belly to belly or we do back to back and carry the balloon with their bodies over to the bucket and drop the balloons in. This was kind of tough and the older kids at my party loved it, but the 4-5 y/o's had a tough time with the coordination of it. We let them do the penguin walk holding the balloons between their knees and participating solo waddling to the bucket to drop in their balloons.

I've also set up sand art tables and this is usually a huge hit with kids of any age. You can get the sand and bottles from ACMoore or any craft type of store. We place the sand by color in plastic cups and include several plastic spoons in each so the kids can easily share.

 

[doodlesmommy]

Thanks so much for all of the creative ideas guys; these are great! I didn't think about the tiny pieces of the balloons to pick up.

 

[Kat77]

My kids love to play water balloon baseball! And water balloons fit well on a t-ball stand if the kids have bad swings!

 

[MSSANDRA]

Thanks so much for all of the creative ideas guys; these are great! I didn't think about the tiny pieces of the balloons to pick up.

Just be sure you do not have toddlers around as this is a huge choking hazard!

Another idea, more for girls maybe, is to let them decorate thier larger size water balloons. Use markers, paper, glue, stickers etc and the see how long they last!! Boy might like this and then let the balloons battle!!

Expect that at some point they ARE just going to pelt them at each other and that is 1/2 the fun!