Last Day of School Water Fight

I love traditions. Having things to look forward to that are repeated year to year just fill my heart with excitement! I'm such a nut for these moments you can always count on... so, you can imagine my joy over our newest adopted tradition -- Last Day of School Water Fight!!

We moved into our neighborhood a year and a half ago, midway through Charlie's first grade year. On our walk home from the last day of first grade, we were surprised to see that our entire block was having a HUGE water fight - water balloons, squirt guns, buckets, hoses, kids in the street, parents sopping wet and the grand finale -- popsicles!! I encouraged Charlie to run across the street and join in. He LOVED it! I loved it! It was such a fun and wonderful way to end the school year. A neighbor explained that they've been doing it for several years and that it's kids verse parents. The parents get everything ready and when the kids turn the corner from walking home, it's war!! How fun! I couldn't wait to make sure we were ready for it this year!

My little helper LOVED playing with the hose and filling up our arsenal of water balloons:

This bucket was filled with 75 water balloons. Yes, seventy-five water balloons. That's one and a half hours of filling balloons. Gone in 30 seconds or less.

This is my neighbor, Nancy, unleashing the parental smack down on this kid! :)

And here is Charlie thinking it's a "safe zone" to fill up his water gun. What he doesn't know is that I was signaling to Anna to squirt him with the hose when least expected! Ha!!

And... no shock here... Henry did NOT like it...

But Charlie DID! And a new tradition continues!

Henry, His Buddies, Pinkberry and a Real Cup

Henry's last day of preschool was last week and it was really hard on me. Over the year of drop offs and pick ups, the other mommies' and I became friends just as our boys did. Ok, so maybe it was just the pick ups when we became friends over chats - because, if I'm being honest, I think I was actually on time for preschool drop off once. Anyway, the boys became friends and so did we. It was very special to me to give Henry a real preschool experience. Charlie was always in day care at that age and as much as we loved all of his day cares, there was no sense of community and friendship like we experienced this year.

Today, the moms and I met up at a local splash pad with the boys but none of them were all that interested in the splashing. They were much more interested in their picnic lunches, making us chase them and our dessert trip to Pinkberry.

From left: Max, Rhys, Henry and Kyle. 

I forgot to pack a sippy cup this morning for Henry so I had to give him a regular cup of water at Pinkberry. Henry thought this was a grand experience - no doubt savoring that he was doing something the same way his big brother does it. He drank from his cup and I shot off the following pictures of how proud he was with himself afterwards. It. Was. Adorable.