Pool Party!

While Micha and I are both self-professed city dwellers, at least at this point in our lives, we have to admit that the idea of having a giant-ass garden and a pool is pretty freaking hard to resist. A pool, people, a pool!

And not any old pool, a pool with two beer-carton floaties and a floating bar (we may have contributed two of those three items to the birthday boy...)!

Before this summer, I don't even know the last time I was in a backyard pool outside of LA. Maybe never. Obviously, in LA you get a lot more use out of them, and Natalie and I had many a birthday party in our backyard pool back in the day. But I've discovered that pool-time fun really never gets old and even if you can only use it maybe five days a year (which is what it seems like in Berlin this summer), it's kinda still totally worth it.

"No, Aron, the drinkies are all mine!" says Micha... ;)

Having a deep, manly conversation, for sure

Granted, I didn't really go in the pool this time (it was freaking freezing from all the rain water!) but Matthias did manage to get me soaking wet with a cannonball, so I enjoyed it nonetheless. Aron (slash Hef, as he is still known :) also wisely tried to stay dry on his raft and screamed and cried the minute he accidentally fell all the way in, poor little fellow. I felt his pain. (He recovered 2.5 minutes later after he was dubbed "a real man" for surviving the icy waters.)

Cool floaties take work | Micha definitely got the best run-into-his-arms-and-hug greeting of the day from Aron

The other awesome thing about having a huge backyard is, quite obviously, the seemingly endless garden-growing possibilities available to you. And Anja has taken full advantage of their space by planting not only tomatoes, beans, peas, and strawberries (so tasty!), but also carrots, radishes, lettuce, and even pumpkins (which shall be put to use for our Thanksgiving party she assured me; hoorah!).

We spent the whole afternoon and evening outside, playing all sorts of games with and without the wee ones. Micha's remote controlled helicopter (a lame prize I won at my work Christmas party that none of the boys found lame at all) was a big hit, even though he managed to get it stuck in not one, but two trees. But Matze MacGuyver was there to save the day, as he always is (he didn't earn that nickname for nothing)!

The night ended perfectly, with some grilling and drinkies and lots of laughter around the fire, just as it should.

Micha and Stefan having a moment. Clearly, a very private one...

And we wonder where that little cutie (Aron) gets his good looks from (that's dad on the right :)

Aron, future hooligan

It's funny, when I read this post by Holly at Nothing But Bonfires about how now that she has a lot friends with kids they get to have kickass parties, I was like, yeah...you're crazy, honey. But then...

...you see rugrats like these...

 

...and get to partake in moments like these...

...and you're like, ok...

...I get it.