Betsy: More Summer and the 4th of July

The summer has been rolling by quite quickly. I have a list of things to do on my fridge with G before I go back to school, and visiting a splash park/pad was one of them.

Gee whiz, sounds like fun, right?

Not if you're my child.

I have never seen a bigger display of wussiness in my entire life.

She never cried, but she was not interested.

There was water everywhere and big buckets of it that would dump down at unexpected times.

You all probably know this.

However, I'm a splash park/pad novice.

I don't even know what it's technically called.

Genevieve maintained the perimeter, if you know what I mean. She was like the weird kid sitting on the sidelines watching the cheerleaders practice.

Until she spied a little pole where there was a tiny hole. The water came out with about the same amount of force that water is ejected from a water fountain.

In an elementary school built in 1923 that is about to be torn down.

Then she was in heaven.

We spent most of our time at the slide at the park that was located about 10 feet away.

My ever cautious Myrtle continuously slapped the slide and stated emphatically "slide hot, Momma!"

As if she was on some type of toddler safety patrol team.

I learned later that my mother had taught her touch the slide with her hands before sliding to avoid 3rd degree burns.

Thanks Mom.

We rounded out that big day with a trip to Mrs. Curl, an old little ice cream spot.

Later in the week we had a play date with Charlotte and Liam. We walked on the Monon to the fire station, and my sassy lady refused to get in her stroller.

Liam was no dummy.

He hopped right in for the free ride.

We toured the fire house, which mostly involved climbing all over the trucks.

We had an early dinner at Bazbeaux and then walked across the street for Huddles frozen yogurt.

G seems more smitten with ice cream than cake!

On the 4th of July we spent the day and night with my parents.

YaYa gave Genevieve a little flag, also known as an eye impaler.

The flag flipping was vigorous.

Robby was on grill duty again.

I'm not sure where or when my once helpless brother learned his way around a grill and kitchen, but he's quite a talent now.

On Saturday Genevieve was treated to a visit with the "yee haws" at Teri and Ken's house.

Saturday was just beautiful in TH, so we pooled it at the Country Club.

The 4th of July pool games at the Country Club was once my mother's annual summer project.

She and Teri and several other women organized the whole day's events.

We participated in swimming races, diving board competitions and egg tosses on the front lawn.

It was the greatest summer spectacle ever created until the infamous summer of '92.

I nearly drowned while competing against a group of overzealous teenage boys in the watermelon game.

The "game" consisted of a greased watermelon in the middle of the deep end and there were two opposing teams that swam towards it from opposite sides of the pool. You had to work with your team to drag the watermelon to your side and actually hoist it up on the pool deck.

It got brutal.

I was 13 or 14.

A lovely chap named Brian ( who I would totally kick in the nuts to this day)

got a little rough.

He held my head under the water nowhere near the watermelon brawl.

I believe Jane blew the whistle, about drug him out of the pool by his hair, and had a verbal altercation with his mother.

Good times.

Jane promptly retired from her post that year, eloquently stating:

"let them go out there and kill each other. Bob, our kids are out."

Sadly, mother did not go on to pen The Hunger Games, although she had the original idea.

All of those great memories aside, I took my toddler in the pool with nary a watermelon in sight. Oh, and I so get the mother bear complex now that I have a child. I applaud my mother for her restraint. I nearly smacked a kid for squirting water in my baby's face.