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Community Corner

How Water Balloons Saved Civilization

Just as the children dashed into the backyard to find Easter eggs, my husband opened a cooler full of water balloons.

My husband is a maniacal genius, and I’m not just saying that because I married him. He thinks a lot. A 500 count bag of water balloons caught his eye last year, and the rest is history.

It started last Easter. We donned our finest outfits. We went to church. We took a family photo, because we don’t even get that dressed up on Christmas. Then my family came over for dinner, and my sisters and I hid the eggs in my backyard while the kids changed into play clothes. Just as the children dashed into the backyard to find Easter eggs, my husband opened a cooler full of water balloons.

There we were. A middle-class American family doing what was expected of us on the high holiest day of our religion: attacking our children, nieces, and nephews in a water fight.

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Maybe fight is the wrong word. Only the grown-ups had water balloons. Maybe gauntlet is a better description. We started a new tradition, and the kids weren't the only ones having fun.

If you invite my husband to a birthday party, he will likely ask you if he can bring water balloons. They are for the adults, and the kids better run.

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Just when I thought we were doomed to fade into the doldrums of adulthood, the water balloons saved us.

This is so much better than ! And I still win. I suggest you try it out and report back on the results. Here are a few pointers for any adult-versus-kid water balloon fight:

 1)      Make the balloons the night before while the kids are sleeping so they don’t know what’s coming.

2)      Hide the balloons in a portable cooler with wheels and a drain. Some balloons pop before the attack, and you don’t want to worry about pre-fun clean up.

3)      At Easter, use the egg hunt to get you started. At birthday parties, a game of tag will do.

4)      Be prepared to clean up. Small pieces of latex in the ground need to be cleaned up, but make the kids do it. They got the Easter candy, and they are closer to the ground.

5)      Be prepared. Inevitably a tween or teen will get a hold of a balloon and give you a taste of your own medicine.

6)      Be prepared. Some kids will start crying. Tell them “fun” is not something to cry about.  Something to cry about is called “work.”

I hope your Passover and Easter and days of sunshine are happy ones. Be the maniacal genius in your family and start a water balloon fight today!

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