Update: End of Spring, Beginning of Summer 2011 Edition

The last two months have FLOWN by.

Don't I say that every post?

Since I last posted:

This guy had a first birthday.

And a first birthday party complete with a blow up slip n slide.  He didn't get to partake in the slip n slide portion of the party, but other kids did and they had a blast.

 Willie James, our little daredevil, flies down the slide with no fear!

 Guests sit on the deck and enjoy the beautiful afternoon.

 Will on a tummy slide.

 Maggie gets in on the slide action too.

 Crashing at the bottom.

 We had a froggy theme birthday complete with a froggy cake.  The little cupcakes to the side of the frog are supposed to be decorated with flies.  I ran out of black food coloring, so I had to make them red.

 Whit was a little hesitant to eat his cake at first,

 but once he saw his big brother, Will, scarfing down the cake,

he dug in pretty quickly with his hands.

 At the end of the day we had lots of sleepy

 It was a huge success even though we didn't get our pool in by the time of the party.  The day was beautiful, and as always, we have wonderful family and friends who make every event so special!

This girl had her last day of preschool and is now officially a Kindergartener!

Maggie May on her last day of school with her super sweet teacher, Mrs. Yam.

This guy finished first grade with all A's and B's and despite having all A's and B's, he was worried he wasn't getting into second grade.  I reassured him he passed and he's now happily working the summer away waiting to start second grade while I pray that time slows down so I can have him as my little boy forever.

First day 2010:  

Last day 2011: 

 He's actually wearing the same outfit, you just couldn't see it on the first day because he wore a sweatshirt.  You can't tell, but in the first picture he is missing teeth and his teeth are crooked, and the last day, his teeth have all come in, they are straight and he's wearing braces and expanders.  He's getting all grown up looking and I can't even stand it.  So far since school has been out, he's chosen to go to work with Erik more days than he stays home, he talks and acts like an older boy, and I can tell that as the summer wears on, he'll lose the remaining "little boyishness" he has left.  It makes me extremely sad.

This guy:

hasn't changed a whole lot except his vocabulary is becoming more four year old than three year old.  He  can swim without a bubble for a limited amount of time, dives into the pool, swims underwater and can dive for things on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool.  He may be my Michael Phelps.  He only has had swimming lessons since September of 2010 and we quit all lessons for all of the kids for the summer so we don't have to adhere to a schedule so we could enjoy our new pool.

Which brings me to THE POOL!

We found a used above ground pool for an amazing price.  It is an old aluminum one and when Erik went to look at it back in MARCH, he said it was in great shape, the people took really good care of it and it was perfect.  

We didn't even begin to tear it down until the beginning of June.  If you can remember, prior to this drought, we had a month of rain.  Even if it had been dry enough for Erik to go get the pool, he was busy catching up on work from all the days of rain we had.  So, the pool party I was planning for Whitaker's first birthday became a slip n slide party.

Enter mid June, we finally get the pool to our house and set up.  Our awesome friend, Fred, spent the entire afternoon with Erik along with another friend that sometimes works for Erik, we got the pool set up and the liner installed.  It was the hottest day of the year by far, and they were working with brown aluminum.  I should have known it all went too easily.  

The three men got the 27 foot pool up with what I would consider little difficulty.  It was hard, physical work, and they made it look very easy.  

By the time evening came, the liner was in, all the pieces were in place and by amazing fortune, a local Volunteer Fire Department happened to return my call saying that they would be able to deliver water to fill the pool so we were able to cancel the more expensive delivery of water from a water service.   Once the liner was in, Erik commented as they were putting the caps on, "Wonder if we should have tried flipping the J-channel to see if the liner was supposed to fit the other way?"  Those words would turn out to be might fortuitous . . . but in the meantime I was dancing a jig that in just a measly 24 hours, we would have a pool to swim in!  

They were going to deliver the water the day after we got the pool put together.  PERFECT!

Enter the 5,000 gallon tank delivery truck.

The volunteer fireman begins filling the pool up with water.  I'm watching, contentedly knowing by afternoon we'll be swimming in our very own pool!

Just like that, tragedy strikes.  I look away for two seconds and the liner has fallen out of the track and the day is over.  Turns out Erik's prophecy was correct and we did indeed have the J-channel upside down.   I politely ask the volunteer if he can please stop, almost have a heart attack as I check the liner thinking that it has torn, not just fallen out, and then I go inside and cry my eyes out.  Not really.  I called my husband in a panic, we mayday/sos message all of our friends and set up another work night to get the liner pulled back into the track and get the pool fixed.

We are blessed with an amazing group of friends who rolled up their sleeves and helped us out so much. God has truly blessed us with such amazing people in our lives and I can't praise them enough for their sacrifice and love.  They all know who they are and know that they now have a lifelong pass to the Schwalm pool!

I finally arranged today for delivery of the final 16,000 gallons of water to our pool!  Hopefully by Sunday afternoon, we'll be sitting in our pool rafts sipping an icy beverage while the kids splash around us.  

Of course, that's the plan and you all know about the best laid plans.