Bday Party Weekend!

We didn't go to Sarah's just to visit Maya.

Or to introduce her to Shane.

We went there to see kids!

Shane went a few weeks back for Lilly's birthday, Sarah's oldest, while I visited NOVA. This time, it was for Wyatt's birthday!

After being in the house for all of a couple minutes, the kids were out back on the playground. Which was fine by me, because I plopped down in a chair on the patio to keep an ear out and play on my phone.

There were some tadpoles that captured everyone's attention.

The kids poked, prodded, and tired to take care of them by adding water to their habitat from the pool.

"There's chlorine in there!" Shane said. "You can't do that!" (Which seemed wise to me, but Sarah said that they'd found tadpoles in chlorinated water before. I can't remember the exact phrasing, but 'tadpoles can handle some chlorine' was what I took away from it).

As more families arrived, the kids piled into the pool.

Shane does a fantastic job of revving everyone up.

He loves it until he hits his limit and then has no idea how to de-escalate the revving! You'd think he'd have learned some calm play skills by now, but it high-energy all the time and every time until the ensuing drama forces a break!

The kids came inside for a kebab lunch. In case you didn't recognize her with wet hair, that's Landie!

Sarah had three dogs including two giants who could have easily served themselves from the table if they were poorly trained.

Once the kids were done eating, it was cake time! Wyatt requested Sonic the Hedgehog decorations.

I only took a few pictures, because Wyatt was so excited he didn't realize his pants were sagging (I only wanted pictures of the horizontal smile which weren't available from where I was stationed!).

It was right back outside after cake. No adults wanted to follow at first, so the kids had to settle for Battleship until the pool was open again.

I went outside and set up station in the shade. I wasn't really worried about the water and was mainly there to photograph and prevent Carrie from having any anxiety about the water. I'd intervene if someone was in danger, but my goal was to stay out of playground politics.

Which of course started up right away. One little boy, Toa (?), was all about having a water gun fight. Shane obliged. Lily, being younger and not as athletic, would frequently appeal to me to make the boys follow rules of her choosing. When I wouldn't help, she'd try to enlist another adult!

To be fair, the boys weren't the best at watching out for collateral damage. Sometimes other kids would get blasted in the face as the boys tried to use them as cover. Still, I don't believe in adult intervention when kids play until it doesn't suit them and then immediately restarting when its to their advantage. 

The kids were clearly getting tired after nearly 3 hours, but it was still going well enough to continue.

I think some of the other adults were surprised I didn't intervene with the second slide went on top of the first!

Frankly, it seemed like fun. I did a quick check to make sure it was stable and no one would fall backwards from a height and then let the play continue unabated. The slides didn't really match up, so there was no risk of excessive acceleration.

What did cause acceleration was Shane turning the green slide into a water slide. He and the other boy loved it. They put a floatie at the bottom to make a pad and it seemed fine to me. 

Unfortunately, it was a little fast for Lilly. She wasn't expecting it and it scared her. She hit the bottom with both legs locked straight. Instead of bending her knees it made her stand up and she fell forward onto her hands. There was no big impact, but you could tell it shocked and probably embarrassed her. She ran inside crying that Shane forced her to go down the slide. More adults came outside and the game was over.

It was a good time to wrap things up. Like I said, the kids had been playing well and wild for nearly 3.5 hours by the time we called it quits! Younger kids run themselves ragged and get grouchy without them knowing why!

We left so glad that Sarah had invited us. It was a fantastic, fun social opportunity. Ellie commented that she appreciates how Shane is always so good with kids younger than him. It seems like he's wild, but he makes sure to be gentle enough to not hurt the other kids.