A New Toy.

It's funny how the tiniest most mundane things can cause such amusement for a child. As adults we muddle about not giving a second glance to ordinary things that would cause a three year to giggle themselves into a blissful stupor. Is it because this all new to them? A butterfly pausing a moment on the tip of a teddybear's nose. A batted balloon bouncing off the top of their head. Bubbles!

My kids, all six of them, have an exaggerated love of water. Not to drink, but put into things, to pour, to spray, to spill or just generally sit in. The world absolutely stops and sheer happiness abounds when they are playing with water. It doesn't much matter what it is they are doing with it, just so long as there is plenty of it, and they aren't required to sit at the table and drink it.

Right this moment they are holding their six hundredth water balloon fight today. They have found so much joy in it that once they ran out of the 300 water balloons I gave to them yesterday, they spent THEIR OWN MONEY on buying 200 more! Normally this money is lovingly spared for the purchase of candy and ice cream, so this is a big deal.

Yesterday my hubby brought home a new backyard toy. An above ground pool with a salt water chlorinator and a solar cover. The kids are positively itching to get it set up and filled. I doubt any amount of cold could keep them from diving right in, full body on the first go. I wish I enjoyed something, anything that much. A line from a movie I saw. "I wish I loved anything as much as kids love bubbles." So true.

The downfall to this wicked cool purchase is that it requires a great deal of planning and set up. A fifteen foot wide above ground pool needs to sit on level ground and will need a few buckets of water to fill it. Our backyard is graded away from the house to keep water from washing into our basement. A good plan, and something that shouldn't be messed with. So I guess the first point of business is to find a spot where levelling out the ground won't cause damage to our foundation. No problem. Fair sized yard, and thanks to our female dog, not much grass left to kill.

Now to level it out in a sixteen foot diameter. Okay, let's pause and take a break. Pina Colada time. Book time. Blog time. Kids are quickly running out of water balloons, and if the pool is still in it's box, they WILL resort to entertaining themselves some other way. We don't want this. Kids with nothing to do on a beautiful summer day will inevitably lead to "Mo-o-o-m-m-m-m. I'm bo-o-o-o-r-r-r-e-e-d-d-d-d!" Ugh! Damn delicious pina colada! Damn interesting book!

No problem. Maybe the hubby is ready to get this set up. I know he isn't looking forward to bored kids...

Nope.

Shit.

Okay, looks like I'm gonna have to manipulate the situation. Sleepovers are always fun, and I bet I could distract them with ice cream. It's worth a shot. Hopefully we can get ourselves organized and motivated to get this done for tomorrow. I think I might just be as excited as the kids for this one! I LOVE swimming pools!!! I'm just too old to love it enough to bare the icy cold waters that will reside in said pool until the sun has a chance to warm it.