the dolphin pool

This is the dolphin pool. The girls love the dolphin pool. They have also lived in Arizona for the past three years. That means that they LOVE swimming, but the temperature has to be right, or they chicken out.

Thursday was gorgeous, I think it got up to 86 degrees. But Thursday was busy, so I promised we would go swimming on Friday. Friday was not so gorgeous. 63 degrees for most of the day. But the girls insisted that it was not too cold for swimming. So I found the dolphin pool. Cleaned the dolphin pool. Blew up the dolphin pool. Discovered a leak in the dolphin pool. Found the missing piece that fixed the leak in the dolphin pool. Filled up the dolphin pool. Emptied and moved the dolphin pool to make the "spout" work. Filled up the dolphin pool again. Got everyone in their swimming suits. Grabbed towels for everyone. All three hop in. . .

. . . and back out.

"It's soOOOooooOOOooo cold Mama!"

Me, of course, being the wonderful mother that I am, replied with:

"Uh uh. No way. You kids said you wanted to play in the dolphin pool, I found it, cleaned it, blew it up, filled it up, which has used up my entire morning, because YOU ALL said it wasn't too cold. NOW YOU GET IN THAT POOL RIGHT NOW AND YOU BETTER HAVE FUN DOING IT! Come on now, smiles, happy faces and giggling-- and it better start soon, because I have a memory card and fresh batteries in the camera ready to document how much fun you have IN THE POOL! GO!"

This is what we compromised with. Playing in their swimming suits around the pool.

By lunchtime they had turned the dolphin pool into a cauldron and were making potion, used the sides to ride on, many Ariel-on-the-rock re-enactments, running and jumping in only getting their feet wet, and finally using the towels to wash their pet dolphin, resulting in the towels being so drenched that they couldn't be brought inside.

But wet or not, they still look stinkin' cute in their swimsuits.