Defective dollar store water baloons and the ambush at the Tilby home

Hmmmm, ok, I have a story that I want to tell but I did promise that as I write for this blog I would always try to have something automotive included, I'm not sure how I am going to do that this time but I will do my best. 

I took my 7 year old daughter out for a date last week, we DROVE my 95 GMC Sierra and had a great time.  Our date ended up at the dollar store where she had a great time looking for something that she could blow a couple of dollars on.  With two "turtles that grow 600% in size when you put them in water" (not entirely true advertising we came to find out) we headed to the front of the store to make the purchase.  While standing in line I noticed some packages of 100 water balloons for sale (only $1 ea.) and tossed 2 of them them on the conveyor belt.

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When we got home I just set them on my dresser and figured we would pull them out sometime and have a water balloon fight.  My wife took my oldest daughter last night to buy clothes for school so I stayed home with the rest of our kids.  After dinner I had the bright idea to get out the water balloons.  I pulled the cooler out of the garage, I put the plastic filler spout that came with the balloons on the hose, turned it on and started the long tedious process of filling the cooler with water balloons around 7pm.  I had forgotten how long this takes.  My daughter was having a lot of fun helping me and we were just cranking through them, she would get the balloon on the spout and then hand it to me to tie the balloon.

It took an hour and a half to get through the first 100, my cooler was about 3/4 full.  I couldn't believe that none of the balloons were breaking, these seemed to be pretty good balloons. Our thoughts began to turn from a regular water balloon fight to a full on ambush for my wife and daughter when they got home.  With our minds set on an ambush the conversation turned to how funny it would be to soak them when they weren't expecting it.  My 11 year old son caught wind of this and of course he was "all in."  The next hour was spent filling the other 100 balloons and creating our plan of attack.  We would lock the door from the garage into the house and let them pull into the garage with all of the water balloons hidden outside.  Once they couldn't get into the house and came outside we would let them have it... a foolproof plan. :) 

Anticipation continued to grow as it got later and later, we were filling balloons and getting more excited for the all out war that was sure to come out of this.  The sun was going down and they didn't pull into the driveway until 9:30pm.  The temperature had cooled off a lot from when we started and I began to have second thoughts about soaking my wife, I quickly brushed the doubts aside.  They drove into the garage, turned off the van, and we were ready.  My oldest daughter came out first, it was kind of dark.  My 11 year old son, 7 year old daughter, 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son grabbed handfuls of water balloons and went to work. 

My wife and I were coming out of the garage right when the first barrage of balloons hit my daughter, funny thing though, they didn't break, they bounced right off of her and hit the ground, rolling down the driveway.  My kids were already back at the cooler and buckets reloading for round 2, this time they aimed for my wife and again, maybe one broke but when they hit, they hurt and I think my wife might have had tears in her eyes, she showed me the red marks on her back later.

Tracy, my wife has never backed down from a water fight and last night proved to be no different, she ran in the house, grabbed two 48 ounce cups of water and the fight was on.  30 minutes later, broken balloons all over the house, lawn, inside the entry ways because somebody likes to hide behind the front door instead of keeping it outside, and everybody was soaked.  And yes, the hose was involved. 

All things considered, we had a lot of fun but I think that I will spend a little more next time and get balloons that will actually break when they are supposed to.

GT