Fun Times in the "Hood" . . . Just Add Water!

We are LOVING summer!  I made a vow to myself that we would NOT let this summer get away from us.  My goal is to do something fun with family and/or friends every single weekend if not more often.  So far we are succeeding.  We kicked off our summer right on May 17th with a water balloon/water gun fight with good friends and neighbors, then continued our fun-filled weekend kick-off with lots of family celebrating Kiki's grad school graduation.  The theme for our graduation celebration . . . "Last Day to Be a Kid!"  Our celebration was complete with homemade ice cream, bounce house, twister, glow-in-the-dark and a competitive game of kick the can, but since we are actually adults, we used one ice cream maker to make some margaritas ;-)  The kids and adults all had a GREAT time!!

Twister: Jessica, Jacob, Jackson and Aujehl

Twister: Kiki and Jackie

Kiki and Jessica

Gage

Jessica with Gage and Westin

Poppo and Kynlee chillin' on the swings

Westin

Mommy with Kynlee, Jackson, Brooklyn and Gage

Daddy and Westin

Jackson mid flip!!

Uncle Brian, Aunt Jessica and Gage takin' it easy

Kynlee thought Gage could use a little "help" climbing up the slide . . .

The Graduate with the "perfect" graduation gift (at least the perfect gift for Kiki anyway!)

The next weekend found us making homemade ice cream with friends in the backyard while the kids played on the swingset then enjoying a water gun/water balloon fight again the next day!  And last weekend was strawberry shortcake with more friends!  There have been lots of evenings spent in the front yard watching kids play, especially since Jackson learned to ride his bike a week ago and now wants to do NOTHING else! 

Our most recent fun was this weekend.  We spent yesterday afternoon at an airshow, came home and almost immediately we were in the front yard with our slip n slide in go mode.  It took only minutes for the neighborhood kids to start congregating.  We ended up with 6 neighbor kids in our front yard with our 5, slippin' and slidin' away!  We eventually lost the 3 oldest ones, but were joined by the parents of the 3 remaining kids.  Slip n slide slowly faded into water gun fight, which slowly faded into bike and scooter riding as the evening cooled off.  We were in the front drive from 4:30 until 9:30 yesterday evening!!  The kids played until they dropped and the adults enjoyed some summer beverages and conversation.  It was a fabulous evening!

Jackson watching intently (one of my favorite pictures)

One of the many awesome stunt planes we got to watch!

Most of my boys!

 

 
 

Daddy and Jackson checking out the cockpit

Westin and Gage.  Westin was absolutely enthralled with the airplanes.  They played music during one plane's show and Westin exclaimed, "The airpane's singin' a song!"  It was so cute and he's been talking about the airplanes ever since!

By the old Blue Angel!  Mommy's favorite airplane.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure why I didn't get MY picture by it!

Slip N Slide fun.  Westin made me "throw" him down it the first few times, then he started just running down!

Gage would run, collapse on his knees, then flop on his belly!  Too bad I'm not savvy enough to post video on the blog.

Kynlee wouldn't get wet for a while.

Brooklyn thinks she's a big girl!

Gage's running start!

Brooklyn and Westin

Kynlee finally getting wet.

Water gun fight begins!

I was not aware that Jackson's bike came with a gun rack when I bought it ;-)

We capped off our weekend in the pool with cousins who were in town for a very brief visit!  We couldn't ask for more!

There are no pool pictures, but today cousins spent time at our house and my little monsters pretty much got them to do ANYTHING they wanted!

Kynlee and Elissa drawing

Shawn giving rides to Gage with Westin copying him in the background

Brooklyn riding her "little cowboy."

So, over the last several weeks I have learned that in order to start a neighborhood party . . . just add water!  Our yard has been the place to be lately and I LOVE it!  Other lessons learned . . . 1) for a top notch water gun fight (and less work for mom and dad), put a cooler filled with water in the yard and kids can refill the guns on the their own 2) water balloon fights: 1 hour of filling balloons = 5 min of water balloon fight :-(  3) if you check out pinterest, you might find an alternative to water balloons that has the potential to lead to endless fun!  (more on this after I make it happen!)  4) if you teach your kid to ride his bike, you will live outside!

Hope everyone else is enjoying as much summer fun as we are!  Can't wait to live and share more fun moments!

**Note: We have been having so many water gun fights and so much slip n slide fun on top of a significant amount of rain lately, that Clint has banned the slip n slide for a while, so I guess we'll be finding other fun things to do!  Suggestions?? ;-)