Lisa Kothari is the founder of pepperspollywogs.com.

Now that summer is coming, you may decide to have a water park kids birthday party. Here are some fun ideas for this type of party, where you can bring the water park home and make this a budget-friendly party for your nieces and nephews!

Play Water Balloon Volleyball

You’ll need lots of water balloons, stored in a bucket full of water, and towels for each pair of children. Divide the children into two groups. Pair them off and give each pair a beach towel. One side begins by placing a water balloon in the center of their towel. Each child holds onto two corners of the towel. The object is to toss the water balloon over the net with the opposing side catching the balloon in their towel. The volley continues until one side misses and the balloon breaks, giving the other team a point. First team to 15 points wins!

Variation: If you do not own a volleyball net, put two sets of pairs a distance apart and have them volley back and forth.

Variation for young children: Instead of beach towels, use two large blankets. Divide into teams and each team member holds a part of the blanket. Toss the balloon back and forth between teams. Not too tough with a bit of teamwork!

Make sure to carefully clean up the balloon remains, as they are choke hazards for young children.

Squirt Guns

Give out plastic squirt guns and fill them up, and have the kids run around with them...squirting water at one another... They can also keep the toy as a party favor.

Sprinklers

You can get a fun sprinkler or Slip ‘N Slide that the kids can enjoy together.

Pool Fun

If you have a pool, the kids can definitely swim, but make sure to have an adult supervise the pool. Depending on the kids’ ages, you can play relay swimming races or Marco Polo.

If you don’t have a regular pool, you can buy a small plastic pool, and fill it with bubble solution and water, and have the kids wade in the bubbly water and blow massive bubbles!

Water Park Party Favors

Give out a small goldfish as a favor. They can also serve as a centerpiece for your party table!

You could also buy stuffed fish/ocean animals and put them at the centerpiece of your table. You can buy enough for each of your guests to take one home, or have a raffle.

If you have other kinds of kids party favors, you can hide them in a bucket of sand for the kids to dig out as they depart the party.

Water Park Party Decorations

Use green and blue balloons to decorate. Since this party will be outside, this is a great way to keep the budget under control with minimal decorations.

Water Park Party Food

You can have fun little foods for your guests. Usually a cookout would work really well. You can also have gummy candy in the shape of fish or other water animals as party treats!

A water-themed party will be an absolute blast, especially on a hot day! Make sure if you do plan an outdoors party, such as this one, you have a secondary date reserved for a back-up party in case of rain!

Photo: hyena reality
Published: June 4, 2013