The second week of Short Sports with the Caldwell Rec Department started off pretty calmly. Troy led the kids through a series of stretches. It was pretty cute to watch them try all the different techniques.
The one leg standing stretch proved to be pretty much impossible for most of the kids to maintain. They all laughed and giggled when they tipped over.
After everyone was all stretched out, they headed over to start a water balloon relay. The object of the relay was to carry a water balloon on the lid of a paint can down the field and around a cone, then back to your team. If the balloon fell off, you had to start again where it fell.
Annabelle’s team didn’t even break one balloon. When it was her turn, she took the lid and loped confidently off. She was down and around the cone in no time.
The other teams struggled with dropping the balloons. Annabelle’s team was completely finished before some of the other teams even had one player back.
Batman was no exception. When he finally got the lid and the balloon, he took little tiny baby steps toward the cones. After about three steps he dropped the balloon.
This process was repeated seven times. He finally did get the balloon back to the finish line. More or less.
The next event was target shooting with marshmallow guns. Troy lined the kids up and demonstrated the technique.
Unfortunately, there were not enough marshmallow guns to go around, so a few kids had to go and toss the football while the others shot. Batman and Annabelle were in the football group.
It started off with a nice four way game of catch. Batman can throw a mean spiral for a kid his age. He didn’t get that from me.
Unfortunately, Batman’s level of accuracy did leave something to be desired. He probably did get that from me.
His sister tolerated this for a few throws. Then she took matters into her own hands.
Before long, the little disagreement turned into a game of keep away.
Then an all out brawl.
I was on the other side of the field near the marshmallow shooters, taking pictures with my zoom lens. Which was a good thing, because it was easier to pretend I didn’t know the little heathens with some distance between us.
Finally the coaches took notice of the pummeling taking place next to them, and they switched the kids so that the wrestlers had a chance with the marshmallow guns.
Annabelle took to the shooting like a fish to water, confidently blowing marshmallow after marshmallow through the chain link fence that was the target, then reloading her gun to go again.
Batman ate his first two handfuls of marshmallows, then he set about figuring out how to load his gun.
Once he put his mind to it, he shot just as well as his sister did. Every other marshmallow. He ate the rest.
After the marshmallow gun target practice, the kids moved on to a water balloon fight. I mean toss.
They all lined up across from each other and went at it.
Annabelle and her partner actually tossed the balloons back and forth a few times without breaking them.
I think you can tell from the look on Batman’s face what he did.
All that water flying around got the kids in the mood for some splashing, so when we got home they spent a couple of hours on the slip n’ slide.
They ran and ran and slid and slid.
It really wasn’t all that warm outside, so they had to take frequent breaks to warm up in the sun.
Annabelle was shivering but she wouldn’t quit.
It sure is going to be a great summer.
Chronicles of a Desperate Horsewife 