Redneck Waterbed Failure

I so love coming up with fun things to do with my sweet girls.  It is so fun to pull out a new activity and see thier little eyes brighten up.

I saw a post on Play at Home Mom that I wanted to do so badly.  It was called a Redneck Waterbed and it looked super fun.  I wanted to do it the moment that I saw this.

This week I finally bought a tarp, purple duck tape (because how cool is that!) and got ready for some fun.  The instuctions were easy to follow and pretty simple.  Take one tarp (I bought a 10x25 foot tarp), fold it in half, tape the three open sides and fill with water.  Simple enough, right?

They forgot to mention a really, really important thing.  If your backyard is not flat then this WON'T work.  I thought my yard was pretty flat.  Kinda sorta flat.  Except for the big mound that looks like it should have a RIP sign on it.  Seriously!  And except for the way that the ground almost all the way down the yard has a big gorge in it.  I think a huge rainstorm came in when the ground was dirt and the water made a mudslide, taking out part of the yard.  Then they just laughed, threw down some grass seed and walked away.  So except for all that. . . my yard is flat.  NOT!

I talked my awesome hubby into helping me tape it all up and fill it for the girls.  We followed all the steps and waited patiently while it was filling.  However, the water only filled up in the left 1/3 of the tarp.  I was getting a little worried that this wouldn't work. . . but I still had hope.  Then the whole thing rolled like a huge water filled ameoba into our ditch.  It was a sad and crazy awesome sight.

I went inside to work on my chicken pot pie so we could eat dinner.  When I came outside, I found Chris dragging the water filled tarp across the yard to put it in a "flat" spot.  Had to laugh so hard since it looked like a really weird robe.  He put it down and it immediately rolled into the ditch at the end of the yard again.  We left it and let the girls play.  They had such fun!

So instead of seeing a really cool pictures of a great Redneck Water Bed, here are the pictures of what a Waterbed failure looks like.  It was a fun failure and one my girls are so happy that I tried, but it didn't really work the way it should have.

Bekah loves this.  Can you tell?

It does really make a nice waterbed.

The girls had such fun running and jumping onto the waterbed.  They did damage the tarp but loved getting soaking wet as all the water drained out.

The next day Chris fixed all the holes and put it half on the sidewalk and half on the "flat" part of the yard.  We found out we really, really, really don't have a flat part of the yard.  We could tell it was going to roll into the ditch again.  So the girls and I sat in chairs on the edge of the tarp until it was fullish.  When we stopped filling it, one side had a centimeter of water and one had 5 plus inces of water.  It stayed in one place while we sat in the chairs.  The tarp ripped and water slowly made the waterbed into a slip in slide.  Since we (ok I) wanted the girls to have fun slipping and sliding, I poured dish soap all over the tarp.  This was against my wise husbands advice.  He told me the grass would die.  I didn't believe him.  What a fool I am.  Half of the grass in my yard is now dead.  Very, very dead.  Again, I am a fool.  Ladies, listen to your husbands even if you don't think they are right.  Then your grass won't die like mine.  Anyway, the moment we got up and the girls jumped on it, it rolled right into the ditch again.  I love the pictures I got and the fun memories we made.  Now, to find a flat yard to do this in. . . 

I love this faces of Bekah while she slid down the tarp in the bubbles and water again and again.

The look on my little girl's face right now is totally worth all my dead grass and a ruined tarp.  Do it, even if you have a RIP mound and ditch in your yard.  You will have fun!