3 Blondes and the Law

Madison celebrated her 14th birthday with her girlfriends on Friday night. She's always had a large circle of friends which has always made birthday parties challenging for me. A large group can get pricey if you don't watch it. This year we had the birthday girl + 12 others.

She wanted an evening of water fun in our back yard so that's exactly what we did.  A slip 'n slide was on the list of activities. The commercial ones that are wide enough for at least 2 people at a time start at $35. I didn't want to buy a water toy that probably wouldn't get a lot of use given the ages of our girls. So, we improvised and made our own.

A $20 tarp and our yard sprinklers worked like a charm. The tarp came with grommets so we used the stakes from our tent to hold it in place. And, the tarp will become part of our camping gear as our old tarp needed replaced. Other activities included water gun fights ($3.00 for 12), water baloon toss and fights ($2.75 for 250 baloons) and flash light tag by the light of the moon.  Dinner was a simple meal of hot dogs on the grill, chips and water melon with birthday cake for dessert (of course). 

The girls all said the highlight of the evening was flashlight tag. It was so much fun that my girls organized a neighborhood game on Saturday night and plans for a large co-ed game on July 3. I would have never guessed that something so simple (and old fashioned) would have been so popular with the teenagers!