We Were a Swimmin' and a Jumpin'

A couple of weekends ago, we finally celebrated The Little Man's birthday.  Last year, I celebrated the fact that when hosting a little kid's party, you don't have to have the party perfectly decorated or even a theme.  Of course I probably already knew that, but it didn't stop me from practically killing myself trying to come up with all the perfect decorations, games, details, etc. anyway.  Then, when the winds kicked up so fiercely it was as though we were caught up in some sort of inland form of a hurricane, well there were no decorations, there were no thematic games, and all the thematic and well planned details went right out the window with all the wind.  Guess what?  We all had a great time, and quite frankly, NOT A SINGLE PERSON, SMALL OR BIG, EVEN NOTICED.
Well then.

This year, I remembered that lesson and added that to the fact that I suspected birthday parties didn't have to be on or even within a few days of the child's actual birthday.  No, I was starting to think that birthday parties are supposed to be fun, not stressful.  Imagine that!  So, since The Little Man wanted to have a pool party in the worst way, I knew we couldn't have his party AND have fun unless we celebrated it much later than his actual birthday.  The first part of June in these parts is pretty unpredictable weather wise.  This new found freedom from the rules I had placed on myself for timing of parties was only justified by the torrential downpour and downright chilly temps we experienced on the day we would have had his party.

At that point, I was feeling pretty darn smart.

Only a few weeks later, we had much better, much more predictable weather, and a party with little to no decoration, no real theme,  and absolutely no planned activities, outside of having so much fun we could not stop grinning, and then stuffing our faces full of cake and ice cream. 

Yes, we had a good time.

There was a lot of this:

Some of this:

And even more of these fun smiles:

After a ton of swimming and some bouncing (we also had a bounce house, which oddly enough, I have no pictures of), we headed off to stuff our faces full of cake and ice cream:

Yes, oh yes you can!  You CAN have a Star Wars cake at a pool party.  The Little Man was thrilled to no end with his Star Wars cake. 

See, it WAS all about the happiness.

OH! And here is some more happiness.  The Little Man surprised all of us with his mad swimming skilz.  You have to remember, that just a mere 8 weeks before this, he couldn't swim at all:

Sweet boy has been working so hard at swimming lessons. 

They have paid off!

And my lack of attention to detail and downright tardiness, it paid off too. 

Fun was had by all.