Water Party -9yr- Watergun Pinata

Watersplash party for my 9 year old son  The only way I would have a birthday party with 20 nine year old boys is if I could keep them outside.  That many boys in one house can be quite damaging. Houston summers are brutal, so the only humane way to keep the kids outside would be a water party.  Without a pool we had to be creative.  With the help of my son, Yossi we came up with some great games.  

We sent out invitations requiring everyone to come in swimsuits and made sure they knew they were going to get wet. We set the time from 10:30am to 12:30 to avoid the afternoon sun. Since we were having the water party we didnt have to worry about rain.  As long as there was no thunder or lightning we were going to keep on playing. (It actually did rain and the kids just kept on playing and had even more fun getting wetter). 

We set games up all around the yard like a carnival and the kids went from station to station.  

Game 1 (A favorite)  We layed a large tarp on the grass and poured some dishwashing soap around the perimeter.  The children sat in a circle and played our version of duck,duck,goose.  It was called "dry,dry, wet". It is played the same as duck,duck goose but the child circles the seated children with a very large cup filled with water. The child selected as "wet" would has the cup of water dumped on their head. They then chase each other on the soapy slippery tarp to get back to their seat in the circle. Playing on the tarp alloved for a clean game without any mud.  This was also a great opening game because as each child arrived they just joined in with the game. There were many buckets of water all around the yard so the cup could be easily filled after each turn.

Game 2 Tug of war was next on our slippery tarp. The kids pulled on a soaker hose/jumprope that was filled with holes. As they pulled they were being sprayed by water. 

Game 3  We had two teams lined up in two lines They each had to shoot the cup of my husband and my head with a water gun. As soon as the cup was shot off, they proceeded to the back of the line. First team to finish, won.

Game 4 Two teams again, with one chair and two bowls for each team. While seated each team player had to transfer ice cubes from one large bowl to a smaller bowl using their toes.

Game 5 Each team had to race to fill their bucket with water. Each had to fill two cups of water and run across the yard till their team's bucket overflowed. Game 6 We had the classic water balloon toss. One team tosses it to the other taking a step apart after each successful catch. The winning team has the most unpopped balloons. Once the game ended all the extra water balloons were just tossed around which was also alot of fun.  

After over an hour of games we stopped for lunch. We served home made pizza, ice cream cake followed by a watermelon seed spitting contest.  We ended with a watergun grab bag which was also a party favor. Each gun was filled with water ahead of time, to save time.  The children now sporting their own water gun gathered around the tarp. Suspended in the center was our home made pinata.  The pinata was filled with a two liter soda bottle (for extra weight so it'll tear quicker) and candy filled ziplock bags labelled with each childs name. (Labelling the bags avoids the mad rush when the pinata breaks.) At the count of three all the children had to shoot the sack until it became so soaked it tore and all the candy fell to the tarp.  The children all had fun. At the end of the party, my son thanked me and admitted that a backyard party for boys his age could still be cool and fun.