Pool party in the backyard

Over the weekend we traded this...

In for this...

Yup, this weekend we packed up our winter gear (it's about time!) and set up our backyard pool.  We love it-- one of the best things about this pool is that it was free.  Someone who wasn't using it anymore offered it to us the first summer we moved into this house and we snatched it up.  It's been a dream come true.

We've become quite adept at setting it up now that we've practiced a few times.  We've now set it up 4 times over the past 3 summers.  I'd tell you why we set it up twice that first summer but it's kind of a "he said" "she said" story.  My version ends with "I told you so".  Nevertheless... Doug and I are a pretty good set up team-- meaning I am pretty good at watching from my lounge chair giving the occasional pointer while Doug does all the hard work :)

This year, however, we had help.  Here Caleb was assisting by killing "spiders" with his plastic golf club-- spiders that were hiding in the pool that was rolled up in storage over the winter.  Doug actually found (and quietly disposed of) a couple of pretty big ones... Caleb was none the wiser :)

Then Caleb did his best to start the fill up process.  It was a gigantic slip and slide.

Eme could have played with the hose all day if we'd let her.  She didn't care that the water was ice cold.  She was having the time of her life.

I tried my best to keep the kids on separate sides of the pool.  Water, slippery surfaces, a hose, siblings = tears and time outs.

And finally... the pool party worthy.

When we weren't in the pool we were lounging in the backyard in the shade.  Eme looks pretty darn cute in a bathing suit.

We discovered a major crawling (well... kind of crawling) motivation for Eme over the weekend-- chips.  She's a lot like her mama... let me tell you.  There are days when I'd do just about anything for a bag of chips.

This just makes me giggle :)

And Caleb's favorite thing to do over the weekend... playing junior monopoly.  He LOVES it.  Doug patiently sat on the deck and played it with him over and over again.  Caleb's learning lots of good stuff from the game-- counting, adding and subtracting, how to follow rules... and how to not be a sore loser.  Some of those lessons are easier to learn than others :)

Well... that was the weekend.  It was awesome.  So in the future, on those hot sunny days... you know where to find us.  And if you need to cool down too... you really should just come on over!