Summer's Finally Here!!

We kicked off summer with our first annual Welcome Summer Party  last week (we had one of these every year growing up and I wanted to continue the tradition in my family). The party's theme was "luau" and some where the tropical gods knew that we were celebrating because the day turned out beautiful. Sun was shining, children were rejecting my pulled pork and chicken salad sandwiches asking for PB&J instead (in time they will drool for my culinary skills!), luau music was playing, and of course, water games were in full swing.

We gave the kids bubble activities.   I guess we should have specified that you blow bubbles OUT not inhale the solution through the pipe, 

hilarious to watch...icky to taste. 

The thing that cracked us up is that kid after kid made the same mistake. They sucked in then ran for the house gasping for water.

Amusing all around. 

Next came the water gun fights. My husband was so kind as to make targets for the kids to shoot at, but, one kid "accidentally" squirts another, and you know how it ends. 

The next activity was punch balls. Can I tell you how much I enjoy watching kids try to hit other kids with balloons only to hit themselves in the face because the balloon is attached to a rubber band? 

   This is the brave group waiting for the water balloons they saw getting filled up all day. I told them to line up while I explained from the back deck how to play the next game. Oh, the fun I had watching them scatter a few seconds later as I unleashed the bucket of balloons I had hidden next to me. The other kids were wise to my little plan and opted to stand next to me on the deck, they knew that you stay were the balloons are at all costs. In the end it was an all out balloon war which resulted in a lot of wet children eating their ice cream sundays out side.  At that point, we figured that they were wet already so we might as well go all the way. I had them all go to the front yard and warned that dripping children were given a "no reentry" into the house but they were unfased. We set up an obstical course in the yard and they did that until it just dissolved into CJ (my little brother) spraying all the kids. They loved it. Everyone went home tired, wet, and so happy that summer is finally here. 

Thanks for filling up like 150 water balloons mommies! 

   

And thank you CJ for the 45 minuets you spend squirting a group of 15 screaming kids, to quote him, "that is every grown up's dream"!