There is nothing quite like a good water balloon fight to make a 30ish woman feel like a kid again. The action started innocently enough. We were to have an organized water balloon event for the kids. It started out as a few competitive tosses as I snapped a few pictures of the nieces and nephews delicately tossing their balloons and tenderly cradling them to keep them from bursting upon the catch. Suddenly without warning, I had tossed the camera down and jumped in on the action by snatching a balloon and flinging it at my dear husband, Jason. My recollection is a little hazy, but as it burst on his chest I think I may have stuck out my tongue at him. The few seconds of shock wore off of every ones faces and it was on. Jason haphazardly propelled the balloon he had in his hand for the organized balloon toss and missed me by a mile. James sprinted out into the line of fire to protect his big brother. As a reward for his effort, I pegged him right, smack on his pretty manly head. I had only a second to shout "Yesssss! and do a small "in your face" victory dance before Jeremy began to defend his brothers and fight for the family honor which forced me to take evasive maneuvers. In the blur of adrenaline , I may have knocked over a few kids, and even though they took a few hits intended for their Aunt Issa, I am sure they survived and won't have any long lasting ill effects. It was all over in a couple of minutes, but I came out with getting hit only once and that was only because in my wisdom I knew it was the last balloon, so I tried to catch it to launch it back to enemy lines, but my ring snagged it and it burst. (Sometimes it just isn't worth adorning myself with jewels) Even though, no one else there will admit it, I was the victor, and for a brief moment I was simply a kid again without a care in the world.
It reminded me of a summer day back when I was a kid. My brother and I bought some water balloons at Motts Five and Dime and painstakingly filled them all without losing any of the precious water weapons during the process. After a few seconds of chunking them at each other and remaining dry, we had just begun to realize that it wasn't much fun with just two participants. Suddenly in a surprise ambush my dad streaked from the side of the house and was lobbing water balloons at us faster than we could count. We were soaked before we even realized what happened and in awe at how fast our dad could run when we began the counter attack. That skirmish was over in just a few moments too, but we walked away with sloshy shoes knowing our dad was pretty cool after all, and adults didn't have to be grown up all the time. I am left to wonder if he was as sore the next day from his daring feat as I am today. Evidently adult muscles are not willing participants when it comes to our brief moments of acting not so grown up.
