Wet and wild!

This week I took Master 3 out shopping with me to Spotlight.  Whilst I was looking through the piles of fabric I told him he could go and choose one of the toys they have for party loot bags.  Of all the toys he had to choose from he finally decided on a packet of balloons.  "Look Mummy, baby balloons" he said.  "They are water balloons, you fill them with water and have water fights" I responded.  His face lit up!  If there is something that my boys love the most, it is having water fights (generally in their best clothes without my permission).  Now, I don't like to encourage my boys to fight, even to play fight as someone inevitably gets hurt, but boys will be boys and I'd rather they fight with water than with their fists.  At least with water fights they are interacting with each other, they are outside getting fresh air and exercise and they are learning and having fun at the same time.

Today being the first day of the summer school holidays we painstakingly filled those 20 water balloons and they went to town.  It lasted less than 5 minutes and Master 3 came running inside resembling a drowned rat, dripping all over my floor, to tell me they wanted more.  Since I didn't have any more I told them they could spend another 5 minutes with the hose (something I very rarely allow due to the water shortage but the garden was looking a little wilted so I thought the extra watering wouldn't hurt).  I came out to take photos of the boys just to find Master 3 now completely naked due to his clothes being drenched (I later found his dripping clothes making a nice wet patch on my dining room carpet) and Master's 8 and 5 almost completely dry.  That soon changed when the garden hose came out. 

The noise was deafening yet also hysterical.  For a bunch of boys there was a lot of high pitched, girly screams attacking my ear drums.  There was laughing, there was crying (the cold water pounding on Master 3's bare bottom was a little too much for him to take - the sobbing was interspersed with shivers) but overall their water sensory play was well enjoyed and it was hard to get them to put that hose away and come inside to dry off.  

Even, with the hose no longer in use they continued running around the backyard naked until their bare, little bodies were shrivelled and prune like.  I lost my temper with them a few times (mostly due to them hosing me down whilst I had my camera in hand) but despite the wet clothes, carpets and floor boards, the look on their faces was definitely worth the mopping and extra load of washing.  

Look at that face!

 Master 3 with strategic use of the cropping function!

Master 5 was the loudest of them all and most prepared.  He put his swimming clothes on!

Master 8 just loving the power of the hose!  I think he actually sprayed himself more than his brothers.

Sitting back looking at the photo's now I get a sense of accomplishment in their afternoon activity that I missed at the time.  Whilst they played I was consumed with thoughts of the mess they would make and how their loud screams would affect the neighbours and I completely missed the excitement of it all.  So, this being just the start of the school break I will set myself a challenge to let go of my anxieties and these feelings of unnecessary agitation and will try to relax more, go with the flow and hopefully learn to live in the moment as my boys do and enjoy just being with them.  Then maybe, just maybe I will survive the next 6 weeks before school goes back!