Summer Begins!

Last weekend marked the first weekend of the summer and we celebrated it by spending most of it doing stuff outside.

I finished work on Friday at my normal time, 5:00. By the time I got home the kids had already eaten and I was going to wait and eat with Jules when she got off work at 9:30. Since there was nothing else to do I took the kids to the park.

"Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" decided that she didn't want to go so I let her stay home alone on the following conditions. Don't answer the door, don't answer the phone and stay out of the food. We've allowed her to stay home for short periods of time in the past and she seems to be okay with it, however every time it happens we come to find that the kitchen has been looted.

So me and the younger 2 walked down to the park. On the way we passed the outdoor pool. This caused me to realized that it was scheduled to open on Saturday. Rather than mention anything about this, and opening myself up to constant question of "Can we go swimming tomorrow?" I decided store this away as a top secret option for Saturday afternoon.

We got to the park and the kids went to work on the monkey bars. "Devil or Angel" made it all the way across for the first time. It was great to see just how pleased she was with herself over her accomplishment. After that it was all about the monkey bars for her. "Let's Go Crazy", being an expert on the monkey bars, only came by now and then to flaunt her superiority over "Devil or Angel" otherwise she spent her time making sand castles with a pink bucket that someone had left behind.

As we were leaving the kids got into an argument about the pink pail. "Let's Go Crazy" wanted to take it home and "Devil or Angel" said she couldn't because it belonged to someone else. I ended the argument by telling "Let's Go Crazy" that she could take it with her.

As we were walking out the gate two other kids were walking in. And wouldn't you know it the first one says, "Can we have our bucket back?"

I replied, "Oh you mean this bucket here? Yeah, this is our bucket now! Haven't you heard the news? Finders keepers, losers weepers! So you'd best get to weeping, LOSER!"

What I really said was, "You sure can!" and I handed the bucket back to the rightful owner.

Poor "Let's Go Crazy", denied at the very last second!

On the way home we stopped for a quick play at a second playground. This one had swings as well as a bunch more monkey bars and climbing structures. After giving this playground a quick run for it's money we headed for home. On the way we stopped and got a drink each and a bag of fruit snacks for the walk home.

We got back just in time to watch "Camp of Rock" starring the Jonas Brothers.

Saturday morning I mentioned to Jules that I might take the kids to the pool for the afternoon while she was at work, therefore I would drop her off and pick her up so we could use the van. I then went out to transfer the insurance from the shit van over to the new van.

Apparently I forgot to tell Jules that I wasn't going to tell the kids until it was time to go because when I got home I was greeted by a barrage of questions about the pool. Are we going to the pool? When are we going to the pool? What pool are we going to? How long are we going to stay at the pool?

We took Jules to work at around 10:30 and were home by at least 11:00. Since the pool didn't open until 12:00 the kids had to wait another hour. By 11:02 they were all wearing their bathing suits and carrying towels. "Let's Go Crazy" and "Devil or Angel" were already covered in Sunscreen!

As it got closer to 12:00 their excitement was reaching fever pitch. This is when I played the lunch card. "Nobody can go anywhere until you guys have lunch."

They all rushed into the kitchen to have lunch as fast as humanly possible. "Devil or Angel" came out with a single slice of bread with nothing on it! Being the mean Dad I am I made her go back and put something on the bread and add another piece of bread on top.

They scarfed their food down and were back to nagging me. When I finally went upstairs to change into my swim suit the excitement level went through the roof! "DAD'S CHANGING!!! HE'S GETTING READY NOW!!!"

And then when their heads were about to explode from the anticipation we headed out to the pool.

It was a nice hot, sunny day. "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" ditched us immediately upon arrival and I spent my time hanging out with the other two in the shallow end. After close to 3 hours the young-uns were ready to go home. I told "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" that we were leaving and that we would be back to get her at 5:00 unless she called earlier.

When I got in the house I noticed that my arms had turned pink. In fact my whole upper body was pink. Ooops! I forgot to put on sunscreen. Oh well it was a sunburn, but not a severe one. I then checked the kids and saw that they were fine. Of coarse they were, they'd bathed in sunscreen about an hour before we left the house. I asked them if "Little Miss" put on sunscreen and "Let's Go" assured me that she had.

When I picked up "Little Miss" it was immediately clear that she had NOT put on any sunscreen. She looked like a lobster. She forgot to put it on before we left the house and she didn't know that we had it with us at the pool and she couldn't use any of the sunscreen her friend had with her. Obviously she had no way of obtaining any sunscreen! I think it is more likley that she was entirely consumed with the idea of getting in the pool. So much so that she couldn't think about something as inconsequetial as sunscreen. The pool is just that much fun!!

On Sunday it was more of the same.

This time "Devil or Angel" had a birthday party to attend (a pool party) so it was just me and the other two going swimming. Again the pool was top priority. The pool opened an hour before the birthday party so they wanted me to drop them off, then take "Devil or Angel" to her party and then come back to the pool. I told them that they would have to wait until after "Devil or Angel" went to her party. Not only that, I was also going to go grocery shopping after I dropped her off and before they went swimming. OH THE TRAGEDY!!

It wasn't until almost 2:00 when we left for the pool. "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" learned her lesson and applied a generous helping of sunscreen to herself before heading. She does have a brain in her head! Me?! Not so much. It took me a good 2 hours of direct sun before I realized that I was getting a sun burn on my sun burn. I put on some sunscreen but it was too late. I was cooked.

At around 4:15 Jules arrived with "Devil or Angel" fresh from her swimming party for a quick swim before summer.

For dinner I'd planned to have a cook out at a park. This made for a good trial run for our upcoming camping trip. We enjoyed some BBQ chicken, hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad and chips followed up with fresh watermelon and toasted marshmallows.

After this we headed home so everyone could have baths/showers and wash off the combined smell of chlorine and campfire. After this there was enough time for the kids to unwind by watching an Air Bud movie and then it was time for bed.

Weekend like these are what summer is all about.