100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 82: Water Bombs

Our last water balloon activity completely bombed. Oliver still wanted to play with water balloons, so I filled another dozen or so and took him out front. I told him to throw the balloons. As soon as he threw the first one and watched it explode all over the sidewalk, he was hooked.

Some of the fun in action:
         

The activity only lasted a couple minutes. Oliver was a little water balloon machine gun. After he threw the last one, he cleaned up the busted balloons, and we went inside to do some rock painting.

Oliver loved this activity. It was so simple, too! Ultimately, my only big problem with this activity was that it took me about 10 minutes to get it ready, and it was over within a minute. I hate when cleanup takes longer than the fun. I know we'll definitely do this again, but I think I'll do it on a weekend when Andrew can watch the kids so I can fill a ton of balloons all at once. I give "Water Bombs" a B+ as a toddler activity.

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!).