Get the Bad Guys

I'm not a big fan of guns.  But I feel that if I try to keep them completely out of my house, they will only become more tantalizing.  Besides, it would be impossible for me to do that--anything will become a gun in my little boys' hands: a sandwich bitten into a gun shape, a stick, or my high-heeled shoes.  Even my husband loves to run around his parents' house shooting nerf darts at his brothers.  

So I caved.  This past Christmas we got nerf guns all around.  Just you wait, in law brothers--you are going DOWN next Christmas.  But that is besides the point.  {ahem}  Now we have nerf guns.

They have made for some good family fun.  Usually we line all sorts of toys up on furniture and shoot them down--fun!  But every once in a while, for a super special treat, we grab some helium balloons on the way home from the grocery store.

When we get home, we draw "bad guy" faces on them--don't forget this part!  It is part of the fun!

Here is one of my four-year-old's balloons:

 

And a lovely example from my husband:

Tie the balloons to something that will hold them down--we use legos.  It makes the game more exciting if you tie them all at different heights.

 

The rest is simple--shoot those bad guys!

 Don't forget the safety glasses!

You can adapt this in so many ways!

-Write points on the balloons and keep track. Winner gets a prize!

-Make it more challenging for older participants.  Can you hit two balloons with one bullet?  Can you hit a balloon right behind another with two quick shots?  What if you are standing around the corner--can you bounce the nerf disc off the wall and hit a balloon?

-You don't even need helium.  Blow up balloons and tape them to the ceiling, tables, chairs, windows.

I do have one warning--last time we played this, my three-year-old tried to pop his balloon when it was low on helium/  This resulted in black marks all over his hands, which translated to lots of black fingerprints--all over my house!  So I recommend  that your bad guys "go to jail" (a.k.a. the garbage) when they are no longer able to float.

I would love to hear if you try this--how do you "get the bad guys?"