Water Babies

Mike and I decided that this summer we would get the girls one of those blue easy fill pools that you can get basically everywhere - Walmart, Sam's, Toys R Us, etc. For several summers, we have wanted to buy a swing set, but the problem we run in to is that 1. They are a pain to put together unless you have help, 2. You can pay a store to put them together, but it costs nearly as much for their services as it does for the swing set itself, and 3. It gets so hot here that they really wouldn't use it much during the day. So, this year we decided to spend the money and get a pool. They are very reasonable and for young kids, they are just perfect.

We bought it last Friday evening after Mike got off work, brought it home, found a place to set it and turned on the hose! The girls were beyond excited! They could hardly wait for Saturday morning so that they could swim - and to be honest, neither could I! :) Well, around 10:30 on Friday night, Mike got home from a ball game and went out to see how things were going. He came back inside and said it was kind of looking "oblong" - not a good sign. At that point it was about 1/2 way full - so approximately 2000 gallons of water. We waited a little while and went back out to see if it was looking any better. Negative. By this time (11:00 or so) one side had basically collapsed and was draining water in the yard. We knew we were going to have to drain it completely and start from scratch. Long story short - we moved the pool to a more level place in the yard (note: the first spot looked level, but obviously wasn't level enough - just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were total idiots who would place the pool on an incline or something like that!), and on Saturday morning we started filling it again. Looking forward to THAT water bill. It'll be awesome, I'm sure.

We had around 3-4 inches of water in the pool and we couldn't keep them out any longer. They begged to get their swim suits on and go play.



That afternoon, I took Macie and Maddie to a movie with my friend Melissa and her kids and when we got home, the pool was getting really close to being ready. They got back in their suits and this time, we even put Mabrie in - they all loved it!



We have only had it for 4 days and I can't keep them out of it. Every free minute they have, they want to go swim. Today they had some kids over to swim with them and spent 2 1/2 hours in it - not coming inside once! I'd say that it was money well spent! I'm so glad that they have something fun to do this summer, a way to get out of the house and stay cool in the process! We look forward to a lot of family time in there and a lot of time with our friends - so if you're looking for us, there's a good chance we are in the pool! :)

Happy summer break everyone!