How to Host a Waterfight to celebrate Summer and Enter to Win a Nerf Supersoaker

We have an end of the school year tradition around here- it started back in 2012 when Ty surprised us by creating an invitation on the computer and handing it out to his entire class of 25 kids!  We were so impressed by his initiative and marketing skills, that we decided to embrace this fun way to celebrate the end of the school year again last year too!

Fast forward to our 3rd Annual Water Fight and we reached out to our friends at Nerf who were more than happy to send us some of the new Nerf Super Soakers to test and give away as a prize!  Of course, I wanted to try the new "Hunger Games"-inspired Rebelle Dolphina Bow of super soakers! We also got the new Barrage.

The arsenal was ready for this year's fight

I love that now Ty and two great friends from our street create this annual event with very little help from me.  Sure I'm the one at the grocery store but they did the entire planning, invitations and even handed their parents the list of "to-dos".  I really tried to step back this year and help when I was asked.  Ty is so incredibly excited and proud to create this water fight every year, that it's a pleasure to watch him learn how to host a party and celebrate its success!

Here are some tips for an end of the year water fight party or even an end of the summer party:

• Plan it for the last day of school for the best turn out.  Our school is let out at 11:30 on the last day, so kids are ready to have some fun and parents love that they have something planned for the rest of the day!
• Get the kids to create the invitation.  Remind them of the important parts to include; date, time, what to bring, location, rsvp information, rain date, but let them run with it.  
• Keep the numbers between 20-25 kids 
• Consider one section for older kids and one for younger kids
• Schedule about 2-3 hours for the water fight and lunch/snacking
• Provide the main lunch (we just make hotdogs) and drinks, ask guests to bring one snack or treat for the party to supply the munchies! 
• Ask a few parents to stay or ask neighbours to provide some supervision during the party- if parents are dropping their kids, ask for a phone number in case you need to reach them
• Keep the kids to one central area and explain the rules of where they are allowed to go
• Have buckets of water for refilling stations
• Provide lots of water and sunscreen for a really hot day
• Make a fun summer playlist and blast your favourite tunes
• Come up with some games, if the kids are slow to get involved...we played "Capture the Flag, Water Edition" and the kids had a blast!
• Buy a prizes for a raffle!

The kids really loved the new Barrage water guns because they were really easy to load and held tons of water!  They had a great pumping action that the younger kids found simple to manipulate.  Our winner didn't have a super soaker at his house, so he was THRILLED to win the prize!

The girls absolutely LOVED the new Rebelle Dolphina Bow super soakers.  They needed to be refilled a bit more often, but they loved how they squirted the water from the cross bow.  The two hosts got to keep one and their older sister actually won one during our raffle!  We know that this new, really reasonably priced line will be a huge hit this summer!

Armed and Ready to start (notice Jayden photobombing!)

ENTER TO WIN A NERF SUPER SOAKER!

If you'd like to Win your choice of a Nerf Barrage or Rebelle Dolphina Bow, 

Enter your name, email (or twitter handle) below in the comments and tell me what your end of the school year tradition is! 

Contest ends July 31st, 2014.