Water Themed Birthday Party
Last weekend we threw a joint birthday for our oldest boys. Since their birthdays are in the middle of June and it’s typically pretty warm here in North Carolina I decided to throw a water themed birthday party. Jude had been asking for a pool party but I don’t really want the responsibility of a lot of small children at the pool and a party. So we compromised on a water party. I bought over 500 water balloons, small water squirt guns and a slip-n-slide, plus we used our sprinkler and all of the kids had a blast.
Tips for throwing a water party
Order supplies online – I found the best selection and best deals online. I bought inexpensive water balloon sets as well as water squirt guns on Amazon.
I picked up an inexpensive slip-n-slide at Aldi.
Bonus – The kids took home the water squirt guns as party gifts instead of goodie bags.
Keep it Simple – We planned our party for after lunch so we would just feed everyone a few snacks, drinks and cake. The outdoor activities were are main focus so more time was dedicated to playing than anything else. I bought plates and napkins at the Dollar Tree, Cake at Costco, and other snacks and drinks at Target.
Schedule – I made a rough schedule of when we would do each activity.
- Water Balloons
- Water Guns
- Slip-n-Slide
- Sprinkler
Rules – Before we started everyone got a quick overview of the rules: No hitting people in the face. Stay in our yard. Have fun. That’s it!
Clean As You Go – Water Balloons can be very messy, leaving bits of balloons all around your yard. So we paced the balloons and charged kids broken balloons for new ones. This way they were cleaning as they played! To get a squirt gun they had to tun in 10 balloons, to get more water balloons – 5, slip-n-slide -15, cake – 10, etc…. Parents still pitched in to help clean up the 500+ balloons but having the 16+ kids pick up as they played was a huge help.
Keep the Mess Outside and Towels at the Door – We played all the games in one spot outside and even did cake on the back porch, keeping all the mess outside. I kept a pile of towels just inside the door in case someone needed to go inside or use the bathroom.
Overall, it was an awesome day and a great party to host during the hot summer. I didn’t spend a ton of money and all the kids left happy so I’d say it was a success.
