Has anyone ever taken part in a food fight...I haven't, so I wanted to make sure that my kids had a food fight to remember. Everyone's childhood should have crazy fun memories.
In order to make it more fun [and affordable] I invited a friend of mine who also does childcare [she's a nanny], and a couple of Bean's older friends and their moms. Everyone brought two or three food items to contribute to the fight.

Food List: Mini marshmallows, whipped cream, sliced banana's, diced hotdogs, oatmeal [watered down, in fact I didn't even cook mine I just let it soak in a bowl of water for an hour or so], mashed potatoes, popcorn, pudding, jello, cooked noodles [both rotini and spaghetti sprinkled with oil so they didn't stick together], chocolate syrup, soft tortilla shells [to use as paper plates], canned pumpkin [watered down], apple pie filling, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and finally juice to drink. We scooped out a watermelon but it turned out to be to hard and it stung when the kids hit each other with it so I don't suggest it. The rind did make great helmets for the boys however and the kids all love eating watermelon.
Tip #1: Some of my kids get here as early as 5:45 a.m. and I have kids until [sometimes] 7:30 p.m. and they can talk the entire time so don't tell them in advance about the food fight, mine were nagging me for days about the details, and let's not even talk about the day of the food fight. O.K let's...my morning went by in five to ten minute increments punctuated by the questions..."Terrie how long until the food fight?"..."Is it time yet?"..."Terrie what time is it now?" Next time the food fight will be a surprise!
Tip #2: Make it a picnic as far away from the house as possible. I set large bowls of food in the yard and had the kids gather round and eat lunch before we started throwing the food. Make sure the older children know that they have to eat first...no throwing until YOU say so...if they start early make them 'sit out' and miss the fun...don't go soft stick to the rules or you'll have whipped cream on the hotdogs and the kids won't eat.
Tip #3: I used 'real dishes' and had to loads of clean-up. Please learn from my mistake and use disposable containers. For those who worry about the enviroment you can recycle milk jugs, soap bottles and butter dishes, otherwise make a trip to the 'cheap' store.
Tip #4: Place a sprinkler in the general area of the food fight. I left mine turned on for the entire food fight [about an hour] so they could wash food off of their faces or [as in my daughter's case] they can get 'gross' food washed off of them before it makes them puke. I also filled an infant pool so the kids could scrub up at the end of the fight.
Tip #5: I let the dogs help with clean up. Bogus walked out the back door and stopped dead in his tracks, he looked around the yard, turned his head to me as if to say, "MOM! it rained hotdogs while I was sleeping!" Tail wagging he charged nose first into the yard.
Tip #6: Set the ground rules before the food fight. Ours were as follows: no throwing food at any adult [because we have to go inside to change diapers etc.], also no throwing food at the toddlers [you CAN use them as napkins though], no food in the face [put it in their hair], finally no food fight at the sprinkler [it's safe base].
Tip #7: Warm water wouldv'e been nice to wash them off with, the sprinlker worked great for the most part, but the food needed to be scrubed out of their hair and the water from the hose is soooo cold. I think next time I'll fill some tubs early in the morning and set them in the sun to warm.

The toddlers had no idea what to do when the food started to fly, they pointed and screamed, because you're not supposed to throw your food! Bless their little hearts they even started to pick it up and put it back into the bowls. I had to take their hands and show them how to throw the food and smear it on one another. Little Man threw a few handfuls of noodles, then he and Cookie headed for the pool and stayed there for the remainder of the food fight. Sunshine, was playing in the oatmeal...this shocked me to no end, I can't get over it, Sunshine hates for his hands to be messey and here he sat scooping up oatmeal and letting it run through his fingers.

After the initial shock of having food on them, the older kids had a ball. [ages 4-12 years] The first time Repeat had pumpkin pie filling land on her she tattled, I explained to her that "this is the idea of a food fight, now you get to throw food back". She caught on fast. JuJuBe had no trouble understanding the game, she's an agressive player...I've seen her play soccer and she food fights with the same zeal and it's a good thing too, because the boys thought it was a war. I had to tell them a few times to tone it down, not so hard, be nice etcetera. There in a nutshell is the difference between boys and girls...give a girl a weapon [in this case food] and she'll try to make friends and create a game with it...boys try to kill each other, no friends needed, who cares about the color, texture or taste, the real question is...can I throw it hard enough to make sting.

I do highly suggest a food fight and will be doing one again next summer. Be sure to take lots of pictures or a video. Use them as a Christmas Gift to the parents. Bye for now T.