10-Towel Mess

If necessity is the mother of invention, a month of being trapped indoors with a houseful of small children is the mother of imagination...or insanity.  One of the two.

It's been snowy and cold and yuck here for over a month now.  Thing 1 has been on Christmas break for a week.  Things are thawing outside and it's really icky out there.  We're bored and it's starting to show!  So, yesterday we took a field trip, because we just needed to GET OUT!!  (I'll post about that later.)  Today I scheduled a beach party!

It's been in the works for a while now.  See, we went to the sprinkler park a couple times over the summer and the kids started asking a few weeks ago if we could go back.  They, apparently, didn't realize that you don't typically go to the sprinkler park in snow boots.  I may be crazy, but I'm not quite crazy enough to bring sprinklers indoors.  Thus was born the idea to bring a swimming pool inside!

My husband thinks I'm nuts.  He didn't seem thrilled with the idea then and probably still isn't now.  I just promised that whatever mess they (we) made, it would be cleaned up before he gets home from work. 

So, this morning I filled the (borrowed) baby pool with 15 gallons of warm water and threw in some toys!  I scrounged to find swimsuits (or swimsuitish shorts) for all the boys.  Then I told them to have fun!  We turned Vacation Bible School music on loud and "swam" away!  I wish I had Beach Boys on my iPod.  I might, I suppose, but I didn't want to take the time to search.

Did I mention that there were SIX kids in the baby pool at one point?

I figured the pool would buy me 15 or 20 minutes of sanity.  I was wrong.  Those kids...all but the younger baby...stayed in that pool for nearly an HOUR!  It was a good thing I filled it with warm water rather than the colder than cold hose water they get in the summer!

The big kids dumped and poured and splashed and squirted to their hearts' content. 

The babies mostly just found things to chew.  Stinky is teething...thus the octopus he nearly gnawed in half!



One by one they got cold and climbed out.  (Not before making a 10-towel mess all over the kitchen!)  At last, all that were left were these two brothers.  See that bucket?  It's about to be dumped over the baby's head, leading to a major crying fit.

And then there was one.  I took Stinky into the other room to get him dressed.  I heard Bugs getting out of the pool, so went back in to check on him. 

You know how you can start to see their personailities coming out even when they're tiny?  I've always said Bugsy is going to be our "Frat boy."  He's the "do anything for a laugh" type.  That theory became a little more pronounced today when I walked back into the kitchen and saw this:

Yep.  As soon as the Bug was alone in the pool, he stripped down to his birthday suit for a bit of skinny-dipping fun!  Silly boy.  Gotta love him!

And what would a December beach party be without beach food?  (Thanks for the idea, Aunt J!)



String cheese octopi (we didn't have any hotdogs), turkey-fish, sand dollars (left over from a lunch earlier in the week) and seaweed!  And for a little added fun, ocean water to drink!

And then they went to sleep.  As I type, all but Thing 1 are still sleeping, 2 FULL hours into naptime.  They were all out in less than 10 minutes.  All 6 of them.  Glorious!

I think we may be taking more "vacations" in our home!  What a fun morning!