Thursday, August 30, 2012

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 81: Water Piñata

Yes, I'm addicted to Pinterest. When the kids are asleep, I find myself sitting at the computer, flipping through crafts and children's projects.  Months ago, I found this pin for a water balloon piñata:
http://pinterest.com/pin/216383957066018804/

All you need to do is fill up some water balloons, tie them to a string (I used yarn), and hang it up outside. Hand your child a bat or cardboard tube, and stand back!

Tip: I found a large package of water balloons in the toy aisle at Walgreen's this week that were on clearance for under a dollar.

It was OK.  Oliver couldn't bust the balloons on his own. He swung at them as hard as he could over and over. He was having fun, but I could also tell he was frustrated. I hit one for him and let him try for a while again. 

Here he is, swinging the broom handle like crazy. Doesn't he look adorable in his new monster jammies from Costco?


After breaking two balloons for him, I decided to shoot a video of the activity. You can tell it just wasn't working out as I'd envisioned. I felt really bad for Oliver because he was so excited to test out the water balloons I'd made.
                                                          

It was a pain getting the balloons filled and tied up. Oliver was practically jumping out of his skin to get at the balloons. I felt excited for him, but the activity didn't live up to our expectations. It gets a D grade.

Don't feel too bad for the little guy. We went in, made more water balloons, and I created another activity for him (to be debuted soon!).

1 comment:

SNistetter said...

I love this idea! Maybe it would work better if the broom had texture, something pokey to help break the balloons. I'm not sure what that would be. Maybe putting the rough half of velcro on the broom handle? I'm thinking something thorny but not enough to hurt little hands. Maybe get a few twigs and tape them to the broom handle.

Water balloons can be so frustrating! They are too hard to break, much harder than they should be! Usually when we use them, they bounce off the person we throw them at and break on the ground. No fun!