Pool Party

I'm only going to post the pics right now. I am BEAT from working all day...crazy hospital!! Tomorrow we leave for two nights at the beach so I just wanted to get these on here. I'll talk about Sully's party later on in the week. :o)

Okay...I'm up waaaaayy too early today so I guess I'll fill in the info about the party...

It was fun!

In attendence were: Jamey, Phoebe, Morgan, Nora, and Zanden. Along with them were the grown-ups & wish-they-were-grown-ups: Debbie, Ginger, Jules, Sam, Erin, and Mason.

Plus Mike, Patti, Keats, and Sully....so we had plenty o' people!

There was no form to the party, just pool time followed by eating time followed by present time followed by cake & ice cream time. ;o) The weather was much warmer than I thought it would be so it was a perfect day for a pool party. I found two pools on clearance so we had those two, one partially-popped pool that served as the slide pool, and the slip n' slide. I grilled some pineapple, hot dogs, and burgers, plus there was a tomato/cucumber salad and chips.

The cake was pretty cute. Not bad for my first attempt at getting really fancy (the sandbox cake was soooooo easy and required minimal creativity so I don't count that one!) and I learned some things about cake decorating in the process. Mostly I learned that I bought too much candy! Lol. Mason was kind enough to take a bunch off my hands though. Such a selfless, thoughtful kid, huh? ;o)

For gifts, Sully received a rocket launcher (totally fun!), Star Wars tent (which Keaton has hijacked already), a big red ball (awesome especially since our other big one popped a month ago), two seek n' find books, a bouncy cartoon character (the kittens freak out over this toy!), color/sticker book & crayons, a package of five Matchbox vehicles, and a little electric keyboard. I'll post little videos of how excited he was to open each gift, too.

We did a "practice run" on the gift opening early in the day. You see...Sully gets mad when you choose the song rather than His Controllingness choosing the song. So, I knew he'd get mad when we sang Happy Birthday to him at the party. We bought him two gifts so I decided to let him open one in the morning...after suffering through a rendition of the birthday song.

True to Sullivan Patrick form, he was pissed!! He yelled at us to stop, but we continued. Afterword I told him that we sing and then he gets the good stuff...hoping that he'd remember it later in the day.

(He didn't. Look for video coming soon.)

So the first pic shows him opening a Wonder Pets backpack & lunchbox set. He was thrilled, as you can see.

I baked three cakes so that I could have one extra in case I messed up. I cut the edges off the cake so that it was just the soft, moist cake, and set aside the pieces. When the boys asked for some, I initially thought to say "no way" but realized it really wasn't much worse than having a bagel or something for breakfast: eggs, oil, flour...so I let them go for it. Here's Sully enjoying a very big piece of plain cake.

Keats, hamming it up.

Close-up of the pool occupants. They are mini-Teddy Grahams. Three are sitting in Gummy Lifesavers and two are on little pieces of sour fruit roll. The blue pool water is Jello.

Not exactly as I wanted it to turn out but it sure was fun!

Sharks circling the cake...much like the kids were just before it was serving time!

This is Morgan, my friend Ginger's daughter. Morgan was born exactly six weeks after Sully, so she turns three on August 29th.

Phoebe on the left, Keaton on the right, and Zanden diving into the water. Brave boy!

Phoebs, getting ready to slide into the water.

Keaton and Zanden. Zanden is just two months younger than Keats. They went to preschool together for about a year. I've mentioned Zanden before, but he is the son of Michelle & Sharrie's cousin, Sam.

The birthday boy giving a sweet smile!

Mason & Jamey trying out the slip n' slide.

The crowd playing in the pool.

Daredevil.

Keaton, Jamey, and Zanden. Jamey & Zanden are second-cousins. :o) The three of them played so well together! Actually, all the kids did great and had a fun time.

Once Sully noticed all the big boys sitting on the trampoline he just had to sit with them!

(Notice how good Zanden is at smiling for the camera?? Awesome!)

Morgan, the swimsuit model. Look at the sweet waves in her hair...

Here is Nora playing with the dry-erase board. Nora is the daughter of my friend Jules. Nora turns two in September.

These are Sullivan's very favorite book-books. They are "seek & find for toddlers" and are big board books with hidden pictures. He knows them all by heart (yes, even the two he just received for his birthday) but that doesn't stop him from doing them over & over & over again.

Aunt Debbie really got into the job of helping Sully with his gifts! Love the expression on her face. I can never help the boys with their presents because I am the one taking the pictures! Aunt Dobbie (how Sully pronounced it at first) was nice enough to hold back the swarm of kids while Sully tore open his loot.

Phoebe & Ginger. Phoebs has gorgeous eyes, huh?

I found some neato Crayola window crayons and let Erin decorate all the windows downstairs. This creation was done by Debbie, then Erin added her stuff, and Mason filled in the bottom part.