Sprinklers and Squirt Guns

When Cas headed out of town, I headed to my parents' for two extra sets of hands and some play date fun with friends.  We invited two of my best friends and their children to my parents' backyard for some simple summer fun with squirt guns and a sprinkler.  There were 7 kids ranging from Maya at 6 weeks to Mackeon at 6 years.

Loading up the squirt guns -

Mackeon and Collin engaging in water gun combat -

Collin posing with the super soaker gun

Later that afternoon, my dad came home from work and joined the water gun fight.  While all the moms had been consistent with the rules of not squirting in faces and only squirting people with water guns, my dad immediately broke both rules, though he was outnumbered four to one!

 

 

We had to stop for a short popsicle break.  Collin often bites off more ice cream/sno-cone/popsicle than he can handle, and then runs to me for comfort from the extreme cold or ice cream headache.  Here he is getting a popsicle hug -

We set up an obstacle course around the backyard.  Running through the sprinkler -

Shooting the owl (the statue is protecting the tomatoes) with the squirt gun -

Around a tree with cheerleader Jill encouraging her son Chase -

Over the see-saw, sometimes with a little help -

And back through the sprinkler to the porch -

Esmae decided to climb into the squirt gun refill bucket, and then of course every kid wanted their
turn in the bucket -

 Brothers Mackeon and Holden -

 

And siblings Chase (the only one who opted out of the bucket shot) and cutie pie Kiley -

 

My best attempt at a group shot.  Next time we'll have to make the group shot pose a prerequisite for the popsicles!

I'm always surprised by the innate gender preferences - like how in the under 3-years area of the Children's Museum, the boys beeline for the trucks and the girls beeline for the tea house.  When teaching three and four year olds in Sunday School, the boys didn't ask a single question about my big belly, but the girls wanted to feel the baby kick, know the gender, know the name, etc. 

And so the guys in the play date could have cared less about Maya, but both girls were fighting their mamas for the chance to hold our sweet baby!

Kiley and Maya -

Esmae and Maya -

Amber and Maya -

And my best friend and me with our daughters -