I didn’t pack my swimsuit or Baby Bug’s swimsuit when I headed out to the sticks this weekend. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was foggy at the beach when I left and I was in the mood for fall I guess. I even packed long-pants pajamas because my mom often runs her air conditioner so cold that I get a little chilled at night.

My mom called me on my cell phone while I was driving out to the sticks to tell me that the swamp cooler at my Grandpa’s (her new house) was broken but I never got the call. I showed up ready to work and was welcomed with 104-degree heat—in the house. Good times! So we’ve been sweating away and pretty much going crazy.

After meeting (church) today I decided it was time for desperate measures. I headed over to the nearest drug store and bought a kiddie pool, a swimsuit for Baby Bug and some squirt bottles for each kid. I didn’t buy myself a swimsuit because the selection was poor. I’m not really into mongo-padded bras and giant palm-frond patterns yet. Thankfully, we can always use extra swimsuits for Baby Bug and everything was 75% off. Three cheers for summer blow-out sales!

Summer may be over in the rest of the world but it is not over here. It is soooo hot! I finally had enough and put on one of my mom’s super-big tank tops and plopped down with the kids in the kiddie pool. It was awesome. There really is nothing like immersing yourself in a bunch of water on a hot dry day in the desert.

I think we’ll make the most of it and pray that the swamp cooler gets fixed soon!

It’s been 111 F out here in the sticks. Most of the day we stayed inside and painted but when it started to cool down, my mom sent the kids out to play in the yard and turned the sprinklers on. It was the perfect time of day to capture the water droplets in the late afternoon sunshine.

I love taking photos of my niece. She’s always been so contagiously happy as long as I can remember. When she smiles, you can’t help but smile back. She’s starting to turn into a tween and I hope against all hopes that she doesn’t lose her inside-out-smile. It would kill me.

I keep telling her that she can’t grow up but I don’t think she’s listening to me.

My niece, Rapunzel (not her real name) is turning ten on Memorial Day but nobody ever can come to her party on Memorial Day so she had her birthday party today. Most of her class couldn’t come today either but that’s because unbeknownst to us, another boy in her class had a pool party at the exact same time. Pool parties seem to trump everything when you’re ten.

Nevertheless, I think the party was a huge success! I’m starting to think I like smaller parties better anyway. You get more time to play games and interact with all the kids. The children who came are the same kids who came last year and the year before. They’re keepers. I hope she stays friends with them forever.

We didn’t go crazy with decorations or party games. We could have but time sort of ran out. My sister-in-law, CC, was going to make malasadas (Hawaiian potato doughnuts) but they fell by the wayside and were not missed a bit.

CC made her famous bundt cake (It’s so yummy! The recipe is on her blog) and we decorated it like an island. I’m particularly proud of the palm trees. They are pirouette cookies stuffed with apple flavored sour punch straws on one end. Getting the “foliage” to stay in the pirouette cookies wasn’t exactly easy but some thread and a toothpick seemed to do the trick. The sand or “coral pebbles” are just rice crispies and the “lava” is chocolate ganache.

Besides more food than we could ever possibly eat, there were more presents than anybody could ever want. I didn’t include any pictures but I’m sure CC will link some later. My niece now has enough clothes now to go a whole year without ever wearing the same outfit twice. Yeah, I’m jealous. But she’s been growing a lot so this is a good thing. I remember those tween years well. I think a lot of clothes would have made it a lot easier for me back then. Don’t even get me started on the homemade jumpers my mom used to make me wear.

birthday party obstacle course from comfortablycrazy on Vimeo.

It was a really fun party. Especially the obstacle course. I was supposed to make a mermaid tail for the kids to jump in gunny-sack-style but I sort of forgot to get around to that. I don’t think anyone noticed. We found an out-of-date mail bag in the ever-present junk pile that is my mom’s carport. I know. Who has mail bags sitting around? Apparently we do. Along with everything else under the sun. But that’s another blog post.

For now we are going to sit around and be fat and happy that another party is in the can. The mess will still be there tomorrow.