My friend's daughter is a year younger than Erin and the two of them have such a good time whenever they see each other. I wish we lived closer together. They haven't played together in months but as soon as we stepped in Sophia and Erin were inseparable, like they were lifelong pals reunited. Here they are on Sophia's bed, playing hairdresser.
After our visit we continued on our way to Jessica's (another college friend, and the maid of honor at our wedding) housewarming party for her first home. It was a beautiful day out, but HOT--much hotter than anything we've had at home so far this year, but all of my friends who still live around there were commenting on how mild the weather has been.
Jessica has a huge lot with a giant backyard. For the party they got a jump house for the kids and then Jessica brought out her backyard games equipment bag, with frisbees, croquet, badminton set, volleyball, etc. Kate gave croquet a try. It's been a long time since I played croquet, but I'm pretty sure that Kate's understanding of the rules and objective (to pick up all the balls after they are hit and run away with them, and intermittently hit one or more of your sisters with the mallets) was incorrect.
The bounce house was a good idea, but instead of the sort where you jump inside the house (which is what was ordered), the company delivered a pirate ship type where you jump around on the top surface, which is probably lots of fun if it isn't 95F, or if you have some shade to keep it under. Since we didn't, the colored plastic surface of that ship just got unbearably hot for the kids and they gave up on it pretty quickly, and then Erin suggested an alternative activity.
The girls thought it was lots of fun to take the various pieces of game equipment and soak them in the sprinklers too.
A while later was the party's grand finale activity, the pinata smashing. John was the official pinata holder, and only got clocked in the knee one time for his trouble. Everyone enjoyed the obvious sense of humor on the part of the pinata maker. The paper tiger was layered with plastic on the inside, so after several rounds of all the kids letting loose on the thing, without a blindfold and with John stepping and crushing it while the baton was being passed each time, it still held together. Another friend cut its side open with a box cutter. Still held together. Finally John just ripped it wide open and with the next smack of the baton the candy finally went flying.
A short while later Allison collected the poor broken kitty and was very upset about its condition, so she kept trying to put him back together. John got some duct tape and repaired him, and Allison carried him around like that for the rest of the afternoon.
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