Sponge Water Bombs

So today was the big boys’ last day of school. Aside from not being able to possibly wrap my head around the fact that I now have a 4th grader and a 1st grader {I seriously feel like I just wrote about Con Man’s first day of Kindergarten!}, I am a little panicky about what the heck I’m going to do with these jokers all summer.

To make matters worse, it was cloudy with rain off and on all afternoon, so we couldn’t even go to the pool. But it was also hot and muggy and gross, which meant that they needed something to cool themselves off.

Which is why I decided to make them some sponge water bombs.

I have seen about a million tutorials all over Pinterest for these, and the idea is pretty much the same in all of them, but everyone does them their own way in terms of how to cut the sponges, how many to use and what to use to tie them together. This tutorial is just my way of sharing what worked best for me. If you find a better way to do it, knock yourself out.

All you need to make these is sponges, rubber bands and scissors. I tried a few different methods of tying them together, but rubber bands were what worked best for me. I first tried zip ties, as suggested in a couple of tutorials that I saw, but I was nervous about the end of the zip tie sticking out to poke someone in the eye. {I know my kids well enough to realize that no matter how many times I say, “Don’t throw them too hard at people!” they’re going to get whipped around.} I tried cutting off that end piece, which them left a hard, sharp little shard just waiting to jab someone. Um, no. A few other tutorials used fishing line, yarn or other string, and I vetoed that idea as well, because I thought it would be hard to tie them tight enough.

I got my sponges at Target; they were about $1.60 per pack of 4. I got a total of 6 sponge water bombs from 5 packs, and I had the rubber bands on hand, so this whole project only cost me about $8. Well worth the hours of enjoyment my kids have already gotten out of them, especially when you consider that they are reusable!

To start, a lot of people cut the sponge lengthwise into thirds. I tried that with my first bomb, and I didn’t like it. For starters, I was having a really hard time cutting them into even thirds. {I realize that most people wouldn’t even notice that, but being me, it was making me twitchy.} I also had to keep adding sponge pieces to the first bomb until it was as full as I wanted, and I realized I was going to use up all my sponges pretty quickly.

So I decided to cut them into fourths, which made it easier for me to make them all roughly the same size. I ended up using 12 pieces for each sponge, which made them nice and full. 

I just stacked up 12 pieces, pinched the center together and wrapped a rubber band as tightly as I could get it around the middle. 

That’s seriously all there is to it. I made 6 of them in about 10 minutes.

Then I threw them all in a bucket of water in the yard and told the boys to go nuts. 

And they did. 

They played with them for almost 2 straight hours. Even Mason loved them, and I thought he’d get annoyed if someone hit him with one. Because they’re soft, they didn’t hurt when you got hit with them. {I may know this from experience: trying to take pictures of such an event is a dangerous undertaking.}

These sponge water bombs are better than water balloons for a number of different reasons. First, water balloons can really hurt when you get hit with them. We had a water balloon fight at David’s end-of-season baseball party last year, and I’m pretty sure every kid cried at least once, and Connor came home with a huge welt on his leg. Second, it takes for-freaking-ever to fill them all up, and once they pop, they’re done. With these, you literally just dunk them in water, and you can use them over and over. And, you don’t end up with little tiny pieces of rubber all over your yard. {Bad for your lawn mower, dangerous for animals, birds, and little kids. Lose-lose.} 

They got rave reviews from the boys:

Mason: “I love these! It so funny to throw these at D!”

Connor: “Mom, can I just tell you: this is just SO FUN!”

David: “Those water bombs are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Except, you know, being born. And eating.”

So there ya have it.

If you’re looking for some other fun summer activities, be sure to check out these posts!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

 

Multi-colored Crayon Shapes

 

Scavenger Hunt Lunch for Kids

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