A true SPLASH party!

Our friends let us borrow their water slide which was big fun while it lasted. They let us keep it for a few more days, so I'm going to give it a whirl tomorrow...sorry, no pictures!
I moved our pool and slide outside as well. I am so thankful for this 1 hour of sunshine...the only sunshine the whole day!
The slip-n-slide is always a hit!
The rain
More rain
Story on the porch
Reed's treasure chest of cupcakes...quite cute for homemade cupcakes and a treasure box from the Dollar Tree.
Eating cake and ice cream

Opening gifts
Reed was so happy that a friend, Jett, he had made last year in preschool could come today.
One of the gifts from Pa Gary and Gram Ava...I had to convince him to let me hold it so he could take a turn hitting the pinata!
Speed Racer sheets and cars from Pa David and Gran Debbie. They are going into the wash now, so he can sleep on them tonight!
The Pinata Adventure!

We had Reed's 6th birthday party today. Speaking as an adult and the one who planned it (hence, I had some expectations), it was rather awful. But I am confident that Reed enjoyed himself thoroughly and will remember it fondly...which is the point.

The #1 contributing factor to the demise of my party planning career was the weather(and not my lack of planning a Plan B). Thunderstorms and rain do not help Plan A: All kids play, eat and remain outside the entire party unless nature calls and then they are allowed inside for a few minutes and only in restricted areas. Nope, the thunderstorms called for Plan B which was not really well planned as I had been resisting the idea that it would actually rain on MY PARTY! Oh, but rain it did!

The kids had about an hour of playing on the water slides before the thunder and visible lightening began. At that point, we brought them all in to the porch and I read one of our pirate story books. Randy arrived with the pizza as I finished the story. The eating of pizza, cake and ice cream ensued. They were really quite crowded on the porch and some wanted to go play in the kids rooms, etc... and that wasn't going to happen! Then, Reed opened presents. That was fun for the kids, but it was SO loud in our house with all of the tile. We had planned and hidden clues for a scavenger hunt to find the pinata all around our yard, but it was raining and still thundering outside, so that was scrapped. Randy decided to hang the pinata from a stick, line the kids up and let them each take turns whacking it as he held it out IN OUR LIVING ROOM! It was HILARIOUS to me (and the other parents as well)! Here is a direct quote from Randy that he used frequently as he got each child ready for their turn, "DON'T SWING YET...NO! DON'T SWING YET!" And I am not even exaggerating...I've got it on video! They must not make pinatas here like they do in el Valle because this sucker only lasted about 5 kids...there were 13. But the candy highs smoothed over the sadness! After the pinata, about 45 minutes before the party was scheduled to end, people were leaving...in the pouring rain. Boy, they were glad and so were we. It has continued to rain all afternoon. The parents who came were all wonderful, understanding and helpful...it was just a difficult situation with so many people in the house. I'm glad I've got a few months before Cassidy's party!