Jaelyn's 9th Birthday Party

Jaelyn turned 9 last on Sunday.  We celebrated quietly with just us and my parents at Ruby Tuesdays (her pick).  We had her party this afternoon.  My parents and I had been working for days to get ready for her outdoor water party.  We cleaned the house and brought chairs and a canopy from the motor home.  I paid way too much money to get an extra long slip n slide shipped here in time.  Last night, I baked cupcakes and my mom helped me filled 500 water balloons. {tangent - it pays to buy the nicer water balloons.  They fill and tie so much easier than the cheap ones.}  My dad helped me set up the yard this morning.  It started sprinkling as we got the canopy and slip n slides set up.  Within 30 minutes it was raining cats and dogs.  The bucket I had filled with chalk had 6" of water in it when it finally stopped.  By 1:30, the rain was gone and we were ready to party.  It wasn't a huge party.  We had ten kids, including mine, but it was perfect.

I bought water blasters to take home as party favors.  The kids used the swimming pool to fill them up.

Jackson and Caden quickly turned our rocket blaster into a water canon.  They were quite the team.

The extra long slip n slide was a hit; although I still saw the big kids go off the end.

Everyone had fun with the water balloons. 

Get ready...

Get set...

Fire!

My Dad, my brother and my nephew slipped behind a big bush where we had hidden a few "reserve" buckets and started lobbing balloons into the fight.  It didn't take the kids long to join forces to defeat the grown-ups.

We actually celebrated two birthdays today, Jaelyn's and Joan's, my mother in law.

It was truly a great day and I'm so thankful we could be here in Pensacola to celebrate it with friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who came and made Jaelyn's day so special.  As always though, I wish Dan could have been here with us.  We have just a few more weeks until we are all back under one roof.  It might be the roof of a hotel, but we'll all be together and that's what's important.