Balloon Tennis

I really didn't expect this one to be so much fun, but it kept my kids and their friends busy for HOURS!!  I've seen different versions of Balloon Tennis on the internet before, but we've never gotten around to trying it.  I wish I would have tried it sooner because I think they'll play this one a lot now that they know about it!!

All you need are some balloons and something to hit them with.  You can use cute flyswatters like I found at the Dollar Tree, or you can make them with paper plates taped to paint stir sticks or rulers.  I'm sure that there must be official Balloon Tennis rules somewhere, but we just had fun with it.

They thought it was the best thing EVER that they got to play with flyswatters, so we were off to a good start!!  They started out with "tennis practice" which involved just hitting it to each other.  The little boys started off in one room...

  

...and the big boys in another so they wouldn't give away their strategy.  I was having a great time watching them come up with the best ways to hit it.

Kelsey just wanted to do her own thing and ran around the house smacking the balloon.  I HATE balloons.  HATE them.  I'm so afraid that they're going to pop!!  I made sure that I didn't blow up the balloons too full, hoping that it would help them survive a good hit.  I have to say that not one balloon popped today!!

Then the boys decided to play 2 on 2 and the competition started!!  I have no idea what rules they were using but it sounded serious.  The only rule that I made up was that they couldn't hit each other or anything besides the balloon.  There was a lot of laughing so I wasn't too worried about it.

Then they all decided that they needed a "net".  A little piece of crepe paper was perfect.

Later on they made it harder by playing on their knees!!

And then they went back to normal tennis with volleyball rules.

I have to say that I fully expected there to be some "accidental" hitting of one's brother, but they all got along and played nicely for a really long time!!  That makes this activity a HUGE win if you ask me!!  

Once they got tired of it, they moved on to other things, but they kept coming back to this all afternoon.  I'm going to keep a few inflated balloons and the fly swatters handy so they can play more often!!

The good thing about this game is that you don't need many supplies or a lot of room, and anyone can play it.  You can make more or less rules depending on their ages.  I think everyone should try this one out!!