Block Party 2008

Welcome to Block Party '08! For the third year in a row, the neighborhood kiddos (and some adults) kick off the fun with a good, old fashioned water balloon fight. Actually, the fun begins with the parents filling up hundreds upon hundreds of water balloons.

The participants are gathered here. You can see that the ages range from very young to "I know this is for the kids but I just can't help myself."

The middle-sized members of the neighborhood show off their stuff.

The big kids showed no mercy. Their mission was not just to hit the target, but to leave battle scars as well.

Water balloons are lethal weapons when used improperly to paralyze the enemy. Bare stomachs (Rachel and Allison) are prime targets. Look at those wimps. Can you see that Andy got slugged by a big kid and is crying in pain? It's an ugly world sometimes.

As I mentioned above, some adults get into the fun too. There is one neighbor in particular who gets more joy out of the water balloon fight than the rest of us combined. Yup, that would be the guy with the hose. His motto is "Balloons are for kids, the hose is MINE." He starts out with the pretense that he's cooling off the street for little bare feet, but we all know the truth. It's all about who has the most water.

Even the little kids run for their lives.

We pulled out the slip 'n slide for the kiddos to play with. Nothin' says summer like slippin' 'n slidin'!

Summer just ain't summer without a face full of water.

Rachel was the only one of the big kids to give it a shot. The others were too cool to slip 'n slide.

Nothin' says summer like slamming into your brother on the slip 'n slide.

We ended the day with a cookout, getting rained on, crowding into one neighbor's garage, homeade ice cream, fireworks (no police this year), a camoflage-egg hunt, and of course, cranky kids by the time we all turned in. Let's hear a cheer for Block Party '08!