Can We Talk 2

WATER BALLOONS!

         Water balloons! Now there's some summer fun. And the toy stores are ready to help us cool off. We had a balloon battle at my house Sunday night. All the kids were 7 and under. We used two models of the ones being advertised.

         First, we had color balloons. You attach a plastic nozzle to your hose and hold the balloons on the ground. Turn on the water. The balloons have long stems and will separate by themselves when full. We found that if you hold the balloons up off the ground, they fall off before they're full due to the weight of the water. That also leaves dye in the hose attachment.

         One of the girls was wearing a white dress. By the time we had gone through all four colors, she looked like it was a tie-dye dress. Supposedly, these dyes wash out. I haven't had a report on that. The four year old blonde ended up with blue hair and blue streaks on her face. They loved it. You fill about 25 balloons in 60 seconds, so there's a big pile ready for the next person to come grab one. These girls went through them pretty fast, chasing each other and Grandpa. Others who were't holding babies got the occasional balloon or splash from one.

         When the color balloons were done, I got out the plain ones, but I read the directions. So those balloons operated the same way, but when done properly, they were fuller. The hose attachments can be saved for your own water park party on a hot day, without balloons; it sends out 25 tiny streams of water. You determine the force of them.

         The balloons were tough. When one landed on the patio, it would take a second or two before it exploded. The little kids didn't really understand how it works at first. They would stand there squeezing a balloon until it popped. A big splash would occur, but it took a lot of squeezing to do it. So it looks like older children could pick them up and run with them without breaking them.

         Lots of fun. I highly recommend it. Get your towels ready.