How To Pull Together an Unplanned and Spontaneous Pool Party for a Young Couple With Three Small Children

Over Labor Day weekend, my husband asked if he could reach out to some of his colleagues with kids to invite them over.

“The pool needs to get used,” he said.

“Sure,” I replied, wondering why the 100 laps I swam the day before didn’t count as pool use? Ahem!

Anyway, it was late notice so most people already had plans or commitments. However, our friends, Mike and Taemi, said they’d come with their three boys.

So here’s how to pull together an unplanned and spontaneous pool party for a young couple with three small children.

1. Make sure your husband uses the pool vac to get the leaves off the bottom of the pool.
2. Scrounge pantry and refrigerator for available snacks so you don’t have to go to the market.
3. Be glad that you recently stocked up on beer and wine so you have beer and wine to offer the parents.
4. Fill a cooler with beer and water.
5. Be surprised that you still have a bag of ice in your deep freezer, then be more surprised that there’s only one measly pound of ice remaining in an 8-pound bag that has probably been sitting in the deep freezer since last summer.
6. Hope that one measly pound of ice is enough to keep beer and water cold for a few hours.
7. Be happy to find an unexpected box of Capri Sun juice packets so you have something other than water to give to the children.
8. Fill baskets and bowls with snacks.
9. Hope that boys between the ages of 1 and 6 will eat pretzels, chips, carrots, sliced peppers and spicy jalapeno hummus.
10. Express doubt that any of the children will try spicy jalapeno hummus.
11. Wait for your guests.
12. Greet the family as they arrive.
13. Be pleased that the three boys were hungry and ate the snacks with relish.
14. Be astounded that one of the boys tried the spicy jalapeno hummus and liked it.
15. Appreciate Taemi’s observation that “snacks always taste better at someone else’s house.”
16. Wonder how spicy jalapeno hummus would go over if Taemi served it in her own home.
17. Enjoy sitting on the patio chatting with Taemi as the guys played with the kids in the pool.
18. Remember how great it felt to be a young mom and have a few minutes of relief while the kids played in a pool with guys.
19. Tell your husband to go ahead and grill up some chicken.
20. Throw together a quick, unplanned dinner of chicken, grilled eggplant and corn on the cob.
21. Enjoy it thoroughly.
22. Be sorry that you didn’t have any dessert, then be amazed when your husband cuts up bananas and apples and warms up a container of chocolate to dip them in.
23. Thank God for chocolate for the millionth time in your life.
24. Tell your guests not to worry about the kids spilling juice and getting chocolate fingerprints on the chair cushions because, after raising two sons of your own, you know you can clean it up in 20 minutes.
25. Announce your suspicion that the youngest boy has a poopy diaper.
26. Watch as Mike takes a peek and confirms your suspicion.
27. Realize that all good things must come to an end when the parents admit they do not have an extra diaper.
28. Hug and kiss everyone goodbye.
29. Take 20 minutes to clean the spilled juice and chocolate fingerprints off the chair cushions.
30. Pour a glass of wine, sit back down on the patio and agree with your husband that it was a wonderful afternoon.

    

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