by: Lindsay Hutton
Backyard water games are a blast for kids of all ages. When the temperatures start to rise, break out the hose and sprinklers and cool off with these wet and wild games.
Water Spray Wars
The player who is "It" gets the spray bottle and must tag the other players by squirting them. The person who is tagged first gets to take over the spray bottle and do the squirting.
Try playing this game as Freeze Tag. You must freeze in place when you are squirted. You can be unfrozen by having another player crawl between your legs. If "It" manages to freeze everyone, he or she gets to squirt again.
If you have a backyard pool, this is a great game to play in the shallow end. Waist-deep water makes it harder to get out of the way!
Water Limbo
Crawling isn't allowed — you have to walk, arching your back as you go! If the ground is too slippery for kids to arch their backs, let them hunch forward, instead.
Freeze-Up
Fill the kiddie pool with water, add ice cubes, and have each person try to remove the ice cubes with their feet. For a real challenge, have each person remove the ice cubes using only one foot. The person to remove the most ice cubes is the winner.
Water Balloon Piñata
Fill about 7-10 water balloons with water and tie them off. Tie each filled balloon a couple of inches apart to a piece of string. (Make sure you use string sturdy enough to support the weight of all the filled balloons.) Leave enough string on either side of the balloons so you are able to tie each end of the string to a low-hanging branch or other area outside.
Using a plastic baseball bat, let your children take turns swinging at the balloons. Make sure the children who aren't swinging stand a safe distance back to avoid any accidents. Whoever hits (and breaks!) the balloons will get a surprise shower!
Sponge Dodgeball
All you need are a bunch of sponges and a couple of buckets filled with water. Put the sponges into the buckets so they become soaked. Divide into teams, and throw the sponges at each other. When a team member is hit with a wet sponge, he is out. The last person standing wins!
