Friday, May 28, 2010

Summer Fun Facts

Not actually our Slip N Slide.
Fact #1-A brand new Slip N Slide has a lifespan of about 2 hours when 7 kids (5 being boys) have been playing on it.

Fact #2-When you set up a Slip N Slide in your yard, kids you may not even know will show up in your yard wearing swimming trunks within 2 minutes flat.

Fact #3-7 and 8 year old boys don't care how many other boys are in the tiny wading pool.  They will find a way to fit in there somehow, even if they only stay in for a few minutes, before they decide that it would be great fun to slide down the swingset slide with wet pants on.  They will have more grass tracked into the pool within 30 seconds than you knew you had in the whole yard.  They will also inevitably take turns shoving the running hose down their trunks until you catch them and make them stop.

Poor Slip N Slide.  When I was a kid, all we got was a long plastic sheet, and a water sprinkler.  (It was rough back then.) Nowadays, they have all of these annoying fun inflatable parts.  Of course when I brought the thing home, I couldn't find the attachment for the bicycle pump to blow up the inflatable things.  So, I had to hold the thingie (technical term) right next to the air valve doohickie (being technical again), and pump away in the 90 degree heat.  That was fun.  Then, I had even more fun.  Have you ever seen a cartoon where there's a water hose, and the water just kind of bulges up in one area of the hose? Yeah, you can tell this won't end well, right?  Well, when I hooked the hose to the Slip N Slide, I watched, paralyzed in shock, as the water just bulged up in the tube thingamajig (I hope I'm not losing anyone with all the techie speak), and then popped open.  Great.  I managed to get it repaired with duct tape (best invention ever), and it actually worked! For a while. Until the inflatables at the end popped, and eventually ripped off.  At least it was sort of cheap.  Except for the water bill that will be coming.

Fact #4- The same moody, (dare I say, hormonal? Dear God, please no! Not yet!) 9 year old girl who was just crying dramatically because she wanted to be able to play on the Slip N Slide without a bunch of "little first grade boys" (she didn't like it when I said, "Well technically, they're all 2nd graders now!), will end up in the wading pool later happily barking and howling like a dog with a 4 year old, and 7 and 8 year old. 

Fact #5 No matter what, popsicle wrappers are drawn like magnets to my yard.  Even with stern lectures about the easy availability of trashcans.  Maybe popsicle wrappers like Slip N Slides, too.

8 comments:

  1. Ha! I'm loving this! I was a deprived child, too. For my childhood slip-n-slide my brother and I had to suffice with two deflated plastic pool floats laid end to end and a water hose. It was not good to be wearing bikini and slide down, only to have the floats pull apart----Talk about grass burn on the stomach!

    Sounds like y'all had a fun-filled day!

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  2. OH joy do I remember those things, kinda dangerous though hahaha. I never owned one but my cousins did. Never ever have one of those dang things on a steep hill or bad things will become of it hahahaha.

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  3. That first one is SOOO true. That actually happened to us last summer. lol

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  4. Hahaha! Okay, so honestly, did you think about trying it out yourself? I think I would have! Then you'd have to added a #5. Slip and Slides and Mothers do not go hand in hand.

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  5. Ahhh...thanks for the brief look into what my future holds. My kids have 3 and 1/2 weeks left...when are they going to make them go all year long? I am ok with like a three week summer break though, because that's about how long it takes before I hear I'm bored!"
    Have a great Holiday weekend!

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  6. Awesome description of the way a slip and slide truly functions, with the grass and all.

    We had one with an inflatable pool when I was a kid, and we would put it on a hill for maximum impact at the end. Yeah.

    Stopping by from SITS

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  7. Oh, I was SO tempted to try it out, but my neighbors were watching. Good thing I didn't, because I would have hurt myself. The Slip and Slide made it's way to the trashcan yesterday. From here on out, they're going to have to settle for a roll of trashbags and a water hose.

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