Sea Sponges

Usually when you have a summer party, it inevitably involves water of some sort. Well,  I decided we were having an Under the Sea Birthday Party for my two youngest, whose birthdays are both in June. I wanted to have something that they could play with. We had a sand box and a small kiddie pool, but each of those couldn’t support the masses of the birthday party guests as well. So, after tirelessly searching on Pinterest, I came across these magnificent sponges to replace water balloons. I do not like water balloons for several reasons:

1. I hate filling up each one and tying them off, especially when they either break in my lap or once I try to lay it gently in the tub with the others.
2. The broken balloon pieces all over the ground. I have small children and a dog that literally eats everything. I don’t want either part to ingest these small pieces.
3. The balloons themselves never pop when you want them to. Instead they fall as casualties to the ground after bouncing off its target, in the hand of the thrower mid aim,  or random objects caught in the line of fire.
4. You use so much water in the process of filling the balloons.

This is why I felt these were fantastic alternatives. So, let’s get down to how they were made. For this project you will need the following:

• Sponges (dollar store sponges are the best for this project)
• Rubber bands
• Scissors

The first step is the take out all the sponges from the packages and  cut them into strips. Looking over all the tutorials, there is no right or wrong way to do this, however, in my experience, cutting them longways into four strips worked out the best. After I cut them all out, I separated them out into color piles.

I then chose to pick out 12 strips. You can use less strips, but I wanted full sponges for the most splash:toss ratio. I tried different amounts and honestly 12 is the best. So I lined them up in non-pattern form of 12 strips.

I then squeezed the center and tied a rubber band tightly around the center. After I tied the sponges, I spread out each of the ends to make a perfect circle.

After one was complete, It was quite easy to finish the rest. The total project took less than 20 minutes. Be aware that I had made four full sea sponges out of 12 sponges of various colors. Depending on the amount of sponges you need, plan on using 3 sponges for each sponge ball.

The benefits of using these are as follows:

1. They fill up with as much or more water than a water balloon.
2. Hands of all sizes can handle them.
3. They do not break easily.
4. When they do hit the ground, They don’t gather a lot of dirt because of the shape. Only the tips touch the ground.
5. One bucket of water lasts the entire party.

When I reviewed them with the kids after the party, it was a unanimous YES! for making more of these in the future. The good thing about them is that once they dry, you can place them in a bucket in the garage for use the next time you want to have fun with water!

Have you ever tried alternatives for water balloons without wasting water? I would love to know your thoughts in the comments below!