2nd Annual Back-to-school BBQ waterslide party!

We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again!!

The kids were very intrigued when Tom started using the blow torch on the ribs.

It took awhile but by the end of the night, some dads (and one mom—not me!) went down the slide. Which led us to wonder how on Earth these kids could do this non-stop… The adults got tired after just a few times. 😄

And then it was over…the cleanup aftermath. And we can’t wait until next year!!

Dual pool birthday party…go!!

Katie’s birthday is obviously today and Owen’s was back in February, but both kids love a pool party so we decided to celebrate both birthdays together! (Owen also begged for another pool party!) So we had a 7th birthday and 10.5 birthday!!

The party officially started at 3:30 but we got to the park when it opened at noon so the kids could get in as much playing as possible (and to stake out the best shade seats, as is my usual). I didn’t take many pics because, well, I rarely take pics at the pool… And once people started arriving and the party started it was crazy busy—we had 15 adults and 27 kids!!!

But first, lunch. Of course the kids hadn’t eaten lunch before we left, so they were hungry pretty much as soon as we got there. We asked if we could have some of our party food early and that wasn’t a problem, so the kids had hot dogs and popcorn! (Our party package came with 20 cafe meals but we were bringing in pizza so technically didn’t need all the meals, so we snagged them for lunch! Brilliant!)

The arrival of the pizza!

Once we got it set up it was like a feeding frenzy. You’d think these kids hadn’t eaten in days. For a moment I wasn’t sure we’d bought enough pizza as the boxes were emptying at an alarming rate, but in the end it was perfect and we ended up with about 1.5 pizzas to take home.

Cupcake time came shortly after…

Of course we had way too many. I figured with 42 total guests, 60 would be just right because some kids would have two. But apparently most adults don’t eat cupcakes… So we literally had an entire tray left! I walked around handing out cupcakes to random people then took the rest to the manager’s office (they were happy to get them)!

We left just a little bit of garbage…

Sooo happy to see these guys together again!!

Tom and I went back to the water to cool off (it was still like 85°) and relax and two of our friends snapped pics of us. 😄

Katie was actually done before Owen so she went home with Daddy a little early.

All in all a great day… The weather was hot (I think it got to 94°) but it was perfect around the pool. Everyone had a great time. No one got hurt. Well, I take that back…Tom tweaked his back a bit but he powered through. And I lost my sunglasses on the waterslide—I had them tucked in my suit but they still came out…but they totally disappeared. They weren’t in the pool with me and we couldn’t see them in the pool anywhere. It’s a mystery.

Inaugural movie night!

Thanks to Amazon Vine, we have an amazing LED HD projector. Just add in a $30 projection screen, $40 worth of PVC pipe, and a Bluetooth speaker…and you get an awesome movie night with some neighbors.

We made popcorn, did sparklers and a few fireworks, then watched some music videos. All in all a good inaugural movie night!

Our first successful Roar Run!

The Roar Run is a PTA-Sponsored fundraising event in its sixth year. We are hoping it’s on a weekend next year—it’s a bit difficult getting there to enjoy the other events when the kids don’t get home until 4.

Katie is becoming a master hula hooper!


Stretching before the race!

We were watching the relay races and Katie wanted to try the wheelbarrow.

Neighbors!

Nine minutes until race time!

The group of neighbor kids running together! (Tom was taking the pic down at the fun run starting line.)

Katie came in a minute or so behind Sophia—but we had seen her on daddy’s shoulders for a bit!!

And the same pic close up as she crossed the finish line!

More neighbors!

Love a family photo!

Stacey and Lorenzo, Sophia and Enzo

And I had to try a selfie. It’s a bit more difficult with six people!

We had the results as they were happening and these were the finals (Katie missed a medal by one place—Sophia came in #3):