Will You Be Super-Soaking?

Aloha my friends. Tomorrow is the last day of school for us, and like we've done the last two years, the moms at the bus stop will spray the kids with water guns when they get off the bus. This is really Normal Neighbor's tradition, but she enlisted me in it when we moved here. We hide behind her giant Suburban and ambush them. I don't know if the kids are really surprised by the prank at this point, but it is fun. Last year we told the German au pair who lived around the corner about it, and she showed up with this ginormous water bazooka. Seriously, it looked like it needed to be mounted in the back of a pickup truck. When I saw that thing, I was like, "Oh crap." Total overkill. I had water in my shoes. Do you guys have any end-of-school traditions or fun things? I would love to do something else to mark the occasion, but I am short on ideas.

Update: it rained today, and squirting kids who are walking through the rain just seems mean! But we did it anyway. We drove up to the bus stop and I let Hank ride shotgun. Then when Laura and her friend got up to the van, I said, "Hank, now!" and he popped through the window and started shooting his little gun. So funny!

Today was the class luau, and it went swimmingly. The food was simple and tasty, and the decorations were great. We could have done way less, but the kids thought it was really special. Jan completely outdid herself. I am going to give her a Target gift card that I've been keeping for some occasion. Familiarity breeds fondness, in this case, because I have come to appreciate her eccentricities and her bubbly personality. That chick worked her ass off at this room mom gig, whereas I mostly thought of stuff and wrote emails.

So this morning I was loading the car to set off to help with the party. Hula hoop, check. Treat bags, check. CD player for luau tunes, check. I needed to get batteries for the CD player, so I hopped in and away I went. On the way to CVS to get batteries, I thought, "I'll get some good pictures for my blog." And then I thought, "Where is my camera?? Wah!" I started groping around in the passenger seat with my hand. I had left it at home, which is no biggie, but for some reason it stressed me out enough that I started to sweat, or you know how you don't really sweat, but your body temperature goes up a little? Like, preparatory to sweating? I could only tell because my eyebrows made my sunglasses fog up. Lovely. Does this happen to you?

I don't know why the camera seemed so dang important at that moment. And then I got worried that the sweat would make my mascara run. Rewind: Earlier this morning I was standing at the bathroom mirror putting on makeup. I have this fancy Shu Uemura mascara that builds and builds on itself. Like, it cost thirty dollars and you could probably make furniture out of it. So I got distracted talking to Matt and just kept putting it on. I had already curled my eyelashes (that's my new thing--love it!), so the effect was, well, striking. Think Elvira. In a muu-muu. I thought I should dress for the occasion, so I wore this long, somewhat shapeless, white maxi dress. So, muu-muu, check. Shu Uemura, check. Dewy eyebrows, check. Let's party.

If you're doing a luau thing--hi Googlers!--here's what worked and didn't work. I thought the food was very kid friendly, and pretty. I did manage to get a few pics with my iPhone. This is the table all set up with the cabana thingie that Jan got at Party City.



The food was not fancy, but presentation is everything. Don't worry, I told the mom who brought chex mix in plain plastic bowls that she needs to up her game. Kidding! Don't believe my detractors. Anyway. . .



The kids loved the fruit kabobs. Easy and pretty. I wouldn't have thought to leave the leaves on the strawberries, but it made them more decorative.



Now, you know what wasn't worth the time? The slushie machine. Jan brought an ice crusher and put popsicles in it to make little snowcones. Yummy, but it was another thing that the kids had to line up to get, separate from their snacks, and it just took up time that they could have been playing. Next time, I would just have punch. And use the slushy machine for frozen margaritas for the moms.



That's a happy partier. Laura won her round of the hula hoop contest, so everything's groovy in her world. The kids also coconut-bowled, knocking over pineapples. The winners got to pick a prize out of a big tub, and this time only one kid, and no parents, complained about the prizes. One boy picked a big foil-wrapped chocolate that looked like a baseball, and it turned out to be a Baby Ruth. After all the games were over and the prizes were gone, he said, really irritated, "But I don't like Baby Ruths!" I said, "Then don't eat it." Aren't I the sweetest room mom ever? Mahallo! Then I offered him a squirt gun that was shaped like a frog, which he turned down.

I hope you guys are enjoying the last days of school. If I think about how time is passing, I get a little verklempt. But hey, I'm not a room mom anymore! That was one of those "glad to do it, and glad it's over" situations. Like a lot of things in life.