A Summer Affair!

Since the final bell rang on the last day of school way back in June, I have been wanting to have a summer party for the kiddos.  Since both Kellen and Audrey's birthdays fall in cold-weather months, October and December respectively, they never get to have fun outdoor birthday parties that involve water, pinatas, hornets (!), etc, so I decided to have a fun little summer party.  It just took me until it was time for school to resume to have it! 

In my mind, the party had to have three components: a pinata, water, and watermelon.  I purchased the invitations weeks ago with the intentions of hosting said party weeks before it actually happened, but it just didn't turn out that way.  Realizing a week and a half ago that our charter-school summer was quickly coming to an end (most other schools go back in about two weeks), I quickly decided on a date and shuffled the invitations out the door.  I invited about nine kids in all, a collection of cousins, daycare friends, and children of friends of ours.  Happily, we had six kids in all show up, so we had a total of eight kids all together! It was a great turn-out, and I got to see a friend and her daughter that I hadn't seen in over a year.  She and I had our babies less than 24 hours apart at the same hospital. 

Here's a little story for you:  The evening after I had Audrey (Audrey was born December 31, 2008 at 10:55 pm), I remember Matt, Audrey and I all hanging out in our hospital room, when suddenly a group of nurses walked by wheeling a mobile NICU unit past our door.  Being sleep-deprived, hungry, hormonal and sore all of which are symptoms of a woman who had just recently given birth, I burst into tears.  My heart was broken for the mother and baby, thinking what a difficult time that family must be having as their tiny baby was being wheeled away to a different hospital while fighting for her life.  I said a little prayer right then that the mother and baby would be alright, especialy since I would never see them again and I would never know how everything turned out.  Later that night, or maybe it was the next day, I walked down the hallway to look at Audrey through the nursery window (I think she had gone down for a bath), and I passed the mother of the NICU baby, who was walking the halls after a C-Section the previous day.  My heart went out to her, but I didn't say anything, not really knowing what to say to someone in her difficult situation.

Fast forward about 8 months:  Audrey came down sick and wasn't eating anything and had a high fever, so we took her to our local ER, which happened to be at the same hospital where Audrey was born.  The ER nurse there looked very familiar, and after we got everything settled with Audrey and her fever started to come down, I asked the nurse if she had had her baby at that hospital on January 1st (I was pretty sure it was her).  She said yes, so I asked her if her baby had been taken to the NICU, and if she had had a C-Section and walked the halls the next day, to which she said yes.  I couldn't believe it was her!  I was so happy to find out that her baby, Sarah, was now a healthy happy baby, the same age as my daughter.  Sarah had been born just over 3 lbs, but was thriving!  My new friend and I exchange information, and we have kept in touch ever since.  She even brought me some freezer meals after I had Kellen! 

Ok, back to the summer party.  After the invitation went out, it was time to shop!  We hit our local Winco to stock up on "bin" candy, and the kids picked out the perfect pinata.  Next we hit the local market and purchased a gold-plaited watermelon (Matt said everyone better crap gold nuggets after digesting it for the price we paid for it).  Finally, we busted out the swimming pool, slip n' slide, and water hoses! 

Over-all it was a great party!  We barbequed hot-dogs and sausages, made a giant batch of pink lemonade and hung out on our beautiful shaded deck while the kids ran and played in the sunshine!  Definitely a success!  After swimming and dinner, each kid lined up to take a whack at the pinata, which we managed to keep together until the last (and oldest) kid took her shot and busted it open for all to enjoy!  Our lawn was sprinkled with suckers, tootsie rolls, gummy bears, sassy sours, and little boucy-balls - a pretty good haul!

I am so thrilled that everyone had such a great time.  The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, and the day turned out beautifully.  :)



Audrey and cousin Keira in the pool.

Kelsey on the slip n slide.

Kellen headed for the fun!

Kellen and cousins Shaydynn and Lundynn hanging out on the deck.

Kelsey all grown up!

Sarah, Audrey and Keira in the pool.

Shaydynn, Audrey, Keira, and Sarah

Kelsey and Keegan

Lundynn.  She and Shaydynn are my brother's kids.

Lundynn, Shaydynn, Audrey, Sarah, Keira

Kellen, Shaydynn and Kelsey enjoying watermelon! I think Lundynn's pigtails are behind Kellen's head.

Audrey, Keira, Sarah eating watermelon!

Keegan

Shaydynn after she took Kellen down the slide!

The rest of the crew...

A diva on the slip n slide

Splash!

Audrey and Sarah.  They are about the same size now...both around the 5th-10th percentile.  Tiny girls!

Cute little Lundynn in her "kini"

The girls.

Dinner time!

Lundynn and her Daddy, Karlin

Audrey taking a swing at the pinata.

Keira

Watching the festivities

Matt being creative so the rest of the kids got a turn at the pinata..

Karlin caught me on camera! My friend Megan is in the background.

The bigger kids got blindfolded. 

The loot!!