June 30 Erin at Sara's pool party

Sunday:  Kelly is out of town for a few days, which presented a bit of a dilemma for Dylan. Erin was invited to her kindergarten friend, Sara's, birthday pool party which began at 2:30 Sunday afternoon. Erin's siblings were not invited to the party--because they don't even know Sara--and Dylan couldn't just "drop" Erin off for an undesignated period of time; so they asked if I would take Erin. Yes! 

We were one of the first of Sara's friends to arrive at her house. What a beautiful house she lives in! The party-goers spent the majority playing in the pool that was heated to 92 degrees! Good thing, because it barely made it to 70 degrees outside. But it was a perfectly beautiful afternoon for swimming in a warm pool. The kiddos played all kinds of games in the pool. I didn't even bring my swim suit because it was SO COLD at my house earlier in the day; I truly thought no one in their right mind would go swimming. I didn't know it was a heated pool ...

Erin is a little fish--when I told her that, she corrected me in the most FIRM voice. "No! I am a mermaid, grandma!" So there you have it!
 

There were all kinds of very fun pool toys and floatation devices. Erin had no problem climbing up on them and relaxing ...

Many of Erin's best friends were there from her kindergarten class: Olivia, Reagan ... and other kids with unique names that I can't recall.

There was plenty to eat and snack on. I lost count how many cookies and handfuls of caramel chocolate popcorn Erin ate. The snack table was not close by to where I could say anything about it to Erin--the only thing that concerned me was that she would make herself sick. But ... nothing negative came of it, and she even ate a half piece of cheese pizza and some birthday cake just before we left the party.

Sara's house was quite amazing. I didn't walk around and take pictures inside because that would have been ... odd. I was tempted, believe me, because it was interesting architecturally; but I restrained myself.

There apparently was no scripted events during the party--like gift opening or singing "Happy Birthday" but some kids were leaving, and we had been there FOUR hours so I asked Sara's mom if Erin could watch Sara open her gift that she had brought--that request got the events moving ahead. Erin was able to see Sara open her Barbie gift right after the cake had been served, and they even played with Sara's Barbie playhouse for a little while.

Here are Erin and the birthday girl, Sara.

The kids sure had a fun afternoon swimming in the pool and hanging out together. It was fun for me to see some of Erin's friends and meet their parents too. I was the only grandma there, but that was okay.