July 4, 2014

I absolutely adore July 4th as a holiday. It's a little to do with my military childhood, but mostly in large part to it's during the summer when it's sunny and warm outside. I bought a slide and pool online and paid $3 in shipping to have both arrive on July 3rd. It was so worth that three measly bucks for the smiles I got in return. Vivienne was originally scared to death of slides, but now she's a pro. Don't mistake her covered face for fear of the slide...that's actually fear of the dogs getting loose.

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I had originally wanted a hard-sided pool, but with my 'late' summer purchase came very few kiddie pools in stock. It was the inflatable blue dog wading pool or the inflatable pink poodle wading pool. I couldn't bring myself to get the incredibly ugly pink poodle, so blue we went. After blowing for an hour and not making much of a dent, I finally decided to ignore the warning label and hook up the air compressor. It took some ingenuity, but after watching a youtube video on how to connect the hose to the compressor, I succeeded (you have to depressurize it first...I was never gonna have the arm strength required with all that air pushing back). After five minutes of compressed air blowing, we still weren't getting anywhere. In a frustrated moment, I grabbed a screwdriver and punctured the one way air valve I was so diligently trying to squeeze to let air in. Eureka! Air went in and another five minutes later, we had a dog pool with no dog head (his air compartment is separate and I couldn't get my screwdriver trick to work, so I said to heck with it, who needs a stupid dog head to wade any ways?). I filled the pool with water, then got the kids into their brand new swimsuits. Laith screamed bloody murder about wearing a swimmie diaper. I guess it will be a while before potty training...they're like undies that pull up and he just couldn't handle that change.

We ran around in the pool for an hour, with much splashing, gleeful laughter going down the slide at mach 1 speed, and slipping all over the pool's sides. Laith became a pro at sliding into the pool, crashing with elegant style to create a huge splash. After we finished up and got changed back, I found Vivienne at the front door with my keys. I didn't hold back. Off to McDonald's we went to have a chicken mcnugget feast. For the second time in their lives, we ate inside. I've only braved going inside with the twins by myself once before. It went pretty well then, and this time did too.

 

We finished off the evening with our own mini fireworks show. Vivienne had her face covered the whole time, as our neighbors to the east put on a big party and blast fireworks from about 6ish to midnight (and a little later) nonstop. The massive booms got the better of her, and after a couple of our own pathetic fireworks, she turned her back and whimpered. I couldn't let her miss out, and it was breaking my heart seeing her panic so badly. Laith was a good sport and stayed where he was at while I tried to calm her nerves and get her brave enough to peek out to see our colorful fountains.