Sunday was the End of Year Pool Party. The forecast foretold a cancellation, but nothing rained on this parade.
Genevieve and Chris were in town, but Shane and I weren't about to miss the fun (If anything, it gave the adults some quiet time!).
The Pool planned all sorts of activities like tie-dying and a selfie-scavenger hunt.
I asked Shane if he wanted to bring a T-shirt, but he refused. That meant he was one of the only kids in the pool swimming around while the others dyed. I think he was fine with it, but Shane's super social so I wanted him to plug in with something.
I half-encouraged and half-made Shane join the saran wrap game. He got to wheel and deal candy as a result!
The party was a pot-luck. In hindsight, I should've asked Carrie to bake some bread. Since we didn't bring anything, I planned on visiting the snack bar to show support that way. Shane wanted to try their chicken patty, so I bought him one of those.
He said it was better than Chic-Fil-A!
A game of water polo broke out not long after and Shane worked his way into it!
Shane sometimes frustrates and sometimes amuses the other kids. Rather than play by a game's rules, he creates his own mini-games. He'll do things like make noises and act like a robot who can't decide who to pass the ball to, or follow around a single older kid and try to cover them. He likes to play announcer and hype-man from the field of play, too.
I thought Shane would be full, but when they served food he ran to jump in line. He came back with a full plate of mac and cheese. "[The adults] were all surprised by how much food I got!" Shane said.
"Then you better eat it," I replied. "Taking all that food means someone else can't have it. If you throw it away it's an insult."
Shane ate 80% of the plate and then acted like he wanted to barf.
It was at least partially an act, because he went back to swimming, no problem.
He took a few more bites before we left to satisfy me that we weren't wasting much.
The pool was one of my best parenting moves this summer. I've been thrilled. The party was the 32nd day we went there this summer. There were a few days we showed up as thunder closed it down, but most of the time we spent hours (and some days we showed up twice!). I hope Shane will feel more plugged in and a part of his school's community this year.
We are so proud of you for paying the money to join the pool. In Beaumont, there was no neighborhood pool so we paid to join the West End Y pool. They had both an outdoor pool and an indoor pool that was covered by a tent-like huge structure. It's so important for kids to be around other kids and our neighborhood in Beaumont did not have enough kids. It would be good exercise for you, too. Monday, September 6, is the last day that the pool is open so make the most of it. It is a place that you could help Shane make friends if you got in the pool, too, and chatted it up with the parents. He's at that age where he really wants to have friends that he can go to their houses and have them come to his house, or at least meet up places. We miss y'all. I'm trying to decide whether to volunteer on Sunday nights from 5:00 to 6:30 with Club 45. It's a hard call because of the number of new Covid cases and not wanting to bring it home to Pop or Aunt Dot, but I know that Maddy needs help and I know a lot of the kids. Please pray for God to guide me on that.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Nana