Weekend Recap: Surf’s Up

I bet you’re expecting a post about my weekend spent surfing the beaches of California. Or better yet that I caught a big one off the coast of Hawaii and followed it with a delicious dinner of fresh sushi and a fire dance. And perhaps if you strictly based your assumption on my title you could be right. But alas, I’m simply referring to the theme that accompanied my nephew Owen’s 7th birthday party this weekend in sunny yet not exactly coastal Springfield.

After a casual 4th of July in the city, I traveled down to Springfield on Friday to spend some time with family and celebrate one of many July birthdays. Per usual, Finn slept the entire way. Adjusting positions from this:

to this:

Saturday morning I ran what felt like the entire city of Springfield only to come up short on my 12-miler. Bah humbug. I eventually gave up and settled for breakfast and the farmer’s market with my mom. Fortunately that makes up for it every time.

Then it was back home to prep the backyard for the Water World trilogy that would be our afternoon. The snow cone station was set up.

The cupcakes were topped.

And the equipment was tested for water levels and gliding efficiency.

We had a few minutes to kill before the chaos began so I forced Owen to freeze next to the chalk drawing his mom made. It’s moments like this I can’t believe how grown up he looks.

And then he gives me a shot like this and I realize he’s still a kid. Whew!

And then the boys arrived. 6-10 7 year-old boys. I couldn’t keep count. There were water balloons bursting, snow cones crushing and war screams for the next two hours.

We realized quickly that when it comes to boys, there is no easing into a party. No shy introductions to one another and baby steps towards the water slides. As soon as those kids rounded the corner of the house, the shoes came off, the bags went flying and the airstrike began. I didn’t even try to get any still shots until the 1,000th water balloon was popped. And that only took 25 minutes. You can watch my Instagram video or catch another snippet of the action below.

Owen Turns 7 from Sarah Murphy on Vimeo.

Now you wish you took a nap before that party too, don’t you?

Here are a few stats from the party:

• 1,000-number of water balloons filled
• 25 minutes-time 1,000 water balloons lasted
• 15+-number of snow cones ingested by approximately 7 children
• 3-amount of dollars it takes to get children to pick up 1,000 water balloon pieces
• 5-7-slices of watermelon little Evan ate
• 1-number of cupcake liners Finn cleaned up with his mouth after the party

It’s weekends like this that I feel fortunate to have family and friends close enough to visit often. Most of the time Sometimes the drive to and from Chicago can be monotonous, but being able to experience these milestones first-hand makes the hours spent in the car worth it. Hours that I mostly fill documenting the various positions in which my puppy sleeps.

Speaking of puppies, my Finn joins Owen as he celebrates his 1st (7th) birthday tomorrow. Owen was pretty excited to hear that Finn will no longer be “zero years old” and that they will be the same age for a while. Gotta love dog years.

p.s. where did my puppy go?

I hope you are able to ease off the holiday weekend and have a wonderful week. I’d love to hear how you celebrated. Share your comments below. I dare ya.

What’s your favorite 4th of July food? –watermelon for me

Which firework is your favorite?– I like the ones that turn into crazy bugs at the end.

Did you have a water-slide party growing up? –sure did. And it’s still among my top 3 parties of all time. Clown cupcakes and all.