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| Pix and Vids |
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| Pre-Party Prep |
| Although I left several hundred bottles
when I moved in Dec., we've been building up our supply
of pop bottles once again. We've stripped all the labels
off, and have them stacked in the back of the garage
until we start to build our floats. |
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| (I drank a lot of Coke to
get this many bottles!) |
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| DO came over to not only
help me start cleaning up for the party, but to get
started on her float. |
| Laying out the pieces, DO plans on the
best way to connect all of the sections together. |
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Since I fell out of my
float last year, I decided to retry being the "Phantom
of the Opera"; however, I completely redesigned this
year's float. It's longer, has an extra layer of ballast
bottles, and the back is better attached (so I don't
fall out again!
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| Planning and Laying out my float |
The bottom section of the float
completed |
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| One float completed and one
half-done waiting in the garage. |
| A few days before the
party, Jim took part of his day off to build his Pooltag
float. We drank some Mountain Dew, Ginger Ale, and
Sprint to have some green bottles for Jim. All he's been
telling anyone is that his float will "fly". |
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| With a touch of green spray
paint, Jim's float turns out to be a "fly"
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| Setting Up |
Getting the supplies ready
for the games.
Hula-Hoops? Check!
Point Bottles? Check!
Leaky Cups? Check!
Shooting Gallery? Check! |
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We had left the water in the "point
bottles" too long after last year's party, and we had to
dump out all the smelly water and gravel (that weighted
the bottles enough to float for the game). I kept
forgetting to get more gravel, so I used a bag of kitty
litter to partially fill the bottles this year. |
| The weather for the past week has been
cool and rainy, so I was glad I had some relay races
planned, just in case. We set up the badminton game too,
so if anyone thought the pool water was too chilly, they
could go work up a sweat. |
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The "Birthday Boy"
turns 51 this year. |
Wow!
 Our sunflowers
are still growing taller everyday. I'm sure this last
rainy week made the plants very happy after a couple of
months of very hot and dry weather. Some of the stalks
are finally producing heads, and we'll have big yellow
flowers within a week I would imagine. |
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| The patio is a little nicer
this summer. After I moved over to this house, we put
Jim's couch out onto the patio, giving us some nicer
seating. The blinds from my old house not only give us a
little shade during the heat of the day; but add a
little privacy, making the patio a little cozier. |
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| Guests |
| Because of the recent rainy
weather, we were all a little leery about whether we'd
be getting into the pool or not. When we have nights
below 60, the pool loses quit a bit of heat, and with no
sun in the daytime, the water temperature had dropped to
70. It's warmer than the ocean but still pretty chilly.
Luckily, the day started off very sunny and by the time
every finally arrived, it was quite hot, and the water
had already gotten back up to 78 degrees. |
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| MouseOver for a Birthday
Boy CloseUp! |
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| After working at so many
car dealerships, Jim had quite a supply of balloons. The
kids filled up some very large balloons with water,
making them look like something from the movie "Cocoon". |
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| Everyone seems to be having
a good time |
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Jim got this picture of me
while I was waiting for the beach balls
to come flying back to my side of the pool. |
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| Games and Activities |
| Because everyone arrived a
little late, and because the weather had turned out to
be so nice, we didn't get around to playing all the
games that I had planned. Just like last year though,
I'd rather had to many games ready to play than not
enough.
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| First, we played two rounds
of Hula Hoop Toss. The object is to toss the 5 hoops
around as many point bottles as possible. I kept score,
while Kerrie and Sarah, managed the hoops and bottles
floating in the water. |
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| To see everyone playing,
you can either cycle through all the pix or choose a
specific person to see. |
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Ringing the "500" point
bottle a couple of times,
Kerrie was our winner in this
game.
See all the scores on the Score Page |
| Next, we played a round of "Koosh
Toss". The object was to get as many of the 10 balls
through the center of the star float. The catch was that
every time a ball hit the float without going down the
hole, it would push the float a little further across
the pool. So the worse you played, the harder it got.
LOL |
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To see everyone playing,
you can either cycle through all the pix or choose a
specific person to see. |
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Linda, Angie C, mIkIE,
Ritchie, and Kerrie all got 5 or more,
and
Kerrie was our winner in this game too.
See all the scores on the Score Page |
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| Pooltag Floats |
| Since it was getting late in the afternoon, we
moved on to the main event of our party - Pooltag! |
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There were five entries this year from
Jim, mIkIE (with 2 floats!
 ), DO and Becca, Linda
with Kayle and Kerrie |
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| Some of our contestants getting ready
for the show |
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| The first contestant: |
| First into the water was
the entry from DO and Becca. Based on Tom Sawyer, their
float was a raft and pole. |
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Check out the Video! |
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| the second entry: |
| Linda always provides good
costumes for Pooltag! Last year, she created Kayle's
outfit along with the headdresses that the boys used in
DO's skit. This year, she dressed Kayle up as Aladdin,
and even provided Abu the monkey |
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Kerrie finished building
the float after they arrived, and with a shawl draped
over the bottles, had a beautiful flying magic carpet
for Kayle to ride. |
| Check out the Video! |
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| the third contestant: |
| This year was "take two"
for my float. Totally redesigned, I was hoping to play
the Phantom of the Opera, with our dolphin float playing
the part of "Christine", as they sailed across the water
under the Opera House. |
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Last year, I didn't do too
well. I slid out the back of my float as soon as I
climbed in.
This
year I built my float better, and made sure to have the
kids help me get in, and stay in.
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| Starting off, my float
tilted over, tossing me and "Christine" into the pool;
but I was bound and determined to make this float work
this year. |
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My second attempt went well, except "Christine" lost her
"hair"!! |
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| My float held
up pretty well and got me to the other side of the pool.
I did have a few problems with the sides and had to do
some repairs while I was in the pool. |
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| Check out the Video! |
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WooHoo!
My float worked much better this year. |
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| the fourth entry: |
| If we were
giving out a prize for most unique float, the birthday
boy Jim would have won! He had promised that his float
would "fly" and it sure was. It was a giant green fly. |
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Originally, we
had hoped to actually FLY the fly from the roof of the
house into the pool. Our first attempt immediately
snapped the line. Our second attempt was better; but the
fly would only go as far as the bamboo. We just couldn't
get it to fly all the way to the pool.
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| Jim, dressed
up as Spiderman, came to our rescue and saved us from
the attack of the giant fly.
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Check out the Video! |
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| the final entry: |
| The final
entry into Pooltag was another one that I designed. DO
had though it was the propeller to Jim's plane (it's a
fly, not a plane
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but it's actually a tiny island and a palm tree. |
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| After I
"tried" to use this float, the girls took a turn. Kayle
stayed on, and was able to go all the way across the
pool AND back! WooHoo! |
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Below are
three movies for you to see how we rode this float.
Check any picture or the text links to see the movies. |
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mIkIE
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Becca
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Sarah and Kayle
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