Being a pool owner means family and friends fun in the pool. I enjoy being poolside mama and pool in mama on a regular basis. The pool brings out creative play in the kids and is a great place to relax with family and friends.
Kiddie Pool in the Big Pool
In my last post about the pool (Poolside Mama) the kids sat in the kiddie pool in the big pool using it as a boat for themselves. Now the kiddie pool in the big pool becomes a boat for the guinea pig. The kids plunked the guinea pig in and motored him around the pool. He got a fun little ride. The kids had so much fun touring him about the pool. In case you were wondering, guinea pigs can actually swim. The chlorine is questionably bad for them so we put them in the bathtub to swim rather than the pool. Though our guinea pigs can swim, they don’t love to swim, but some actually do enjoy it.
The floating kiddie pool was a giant hit with the kids this summer and it doesn’t even need to be blown up. Bonus! Plus even if it develops holes it stills floats for awhile until it fills up eventually with water and sinks. They love the sinking part because it’s play time for pretending to being a boat going down.
Swimming Races
We watched the kids do swimming races through the bonfire smoke one late summer evening. The kids were creative in their swimming time and decided to do swim races for the full length of the pool. The summer Olympics had just finished so they were inspired to race each other. They would designate a certain swim stroke and then the race was on! The front crawl, the butterfly stroke, the breast stroke, back stroke, and freestyle were their categories. Exercise, friendly competition between friends, and time away of screens made for a win-win evening.
Mama Gets in the Pool too
Yes, I get in pool time too. But my version of swim time is a glass of wine on the side and a noodle to float on. I love the plastic wine glasses because when a kid runs by and accidentally kicks it, which let’s face it is just a matter of time, I won’t have to clean up glass shards. I love to relax and float in the water. The kids swim around me like sharks wanting to splash me, but usually I can them to not spray me in the face. We play games in the water and they hang on me while I swim around the pool. Occasionally I get alone time and that is a slice of heaven like no other. I turn on radio, set up my plastic wine glass, and my noodle and in I go.
Game Time
Game time in the pool never ceases. The kids play volleyball, football, made up jail games, jump contests, and shark tag games. All things become toys in the pool like golf clubs, plungers (used to get wrinkles out of liner–seriously we have designated pool only plungers), buckets, and actual designated water toys like noodles and floaties. We have a ball that bounces on the water and the kids created a game where people stand on each end of the pool and throw it at the opposite wall. If the players block the ball, no point is earned by the other team. But if the ball hits the wall unblocked, the team that threw the ball gets a point.
Cooperative Play
They play toilet bowl where everyone creates a current by going continuously around the edge of the pool. The favorite water movement event is when they jump up and down on tubes to create a wave pool. It works amazingly well when you have several of them jumping.
Nighttime Swimming
Nighttime swimming is the most fun with the LED lights in the pool. Our lights came with multiple colors and speeds. The lights can stay as one specific color or blink and change colors in varying speeds. Swimming at night in the dark is awesome with the luminous glow. It’s a favorite swim time for the kids (adults too). The pool heater with the lights on makes swimming at night just wonderful.
Relaxing by the Pool
Poolside mama approves. Even when not in the pool it’s relaxing to sit by the pool. There is something soothing about sitting by water no matter what type of water it happens to be. A beverage never hurts either.
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