The Par-tay!

On Sunday, August 12th we had the boys joint pool party. The past two years we've had a slip n slide party at the house which has always been fun for the boys but I was hoping to do something a little easier this year and not have it at our house. We decided to rent a  neighborhood pool where some of our friends live - now that most of the kids can swim we thought this would be lots of fun. I prayed all week against rain - and it was a beautiful day. Apparently I should have been praying against "contamination" (aka poop in the pool). When we got there to set up for the party the big pool was closed for 24 hours for said "contamination"! Ugh! At first I was pretty bummed. But, since there was no one at the pool and we still had the pavillion rented and the baby pool was open we decided to start the party there and maybe move to one of the other neighborhood pools later - but it ended up working out great. We had the whole place to ourselves. The parents loved it because they didn't "have" to get in the pool with their kids since it was only 1 1/2 feet deep and all the kids stuck together in the baby pool so everyone was able to hang out together instead of chasing kids here, there, and everywhere. Of course I was still running around like crazy making sure everyone had what they needed so sadly I only took like 6 pictures of the whole party - and not ONE family shot :( I need to start hiring a professional for these things. It's hard to be the mommy, party planner, videographer, AND photographer :)
Here's the few I got

The whole gang - check out Graice 3rd from the left giving her famous "hey!" wave :)

All the guests (for my memory) - Jeremiah, Fallon, Nally, Coop, Zach, Blake, John-Daniel, Beau, Mary Claire, Ellie, Robert, Ava Ruth, Naomi, and William, (Austin and Cambell not in pic) - so thankful for all these friends these boys love sooo much!!

The boys blowing out the candles (with sister close by:) 

Had to get a picture of sweet Nally and Benjamin - thank goodness for Nally - I basically let an 8 year old keep up with my 10 month old the entire party - mom of the year right here :) But she did such a great job!

This was my first year to make the kids a cake - I usually do cupcakes or ice cream - not only did I make the cake but I did a character cake!! Since the boys are in to different things I didn't want to do the same theme for both of them so I did Toy Story on one side for John-Mark and Baseball for James on the other. I'm no Cake Boss - but for a first timer I think it turned out pretty good - and best of all the boys LOVED it. They were so excited to see it when I finished it - so maybe I am mom of the year after all - ha!