Squirt toys and water play

It's hot, and I'm out numbered. Including the little guy I babysit I can't take four kids which includes two babies to a pool to swim. Yet it is like 114* outside and everyone has cabin fever. Why do we live here? I want to live somewhere where summertime is riding bikes and playing in treehouses, playing tag outside and laying in the grass on a blanket in the warm evening. Here if you try any of those things you run the risk of heat stroke. Deke is almost done I keep telling myself, then we will get out of here. Grass, trees, seasons...I will be coming, soon. Anyways I remembered that last year we had a play pool for Em, a cute little inflatable with a palm tree shade top. Last year this time missy was only three months old and couldn't even use it. This year as I got it all set up she watched curiously from the window.Hunter and Avery equipped with goggles headed out to start splashing around. It was pretty hilarious since it is a "baby" pool and they could hardly fit in it but you'd be surprised how little of water it takes to make for a fun time. Emma for quite a while enjoyed being an observer of the action. Hunter and Avery had to alternate turns laying down completely in the water to actually be able to go under.
They had so much fun. Laughing and splashing, pretending that they were diving in the ocean and looking for treasure. Seeing how long they could stay under and trying to go under without plugging their noses. I love this picture of them they are such good buddies.
After awhile I decided it was time for Emma to get in. I had to physically get into the pool myself that coax her into it with me. Nice right. Grown woman in baby inflatable pool. For the first five minutes or so she would let me put her down. Everytime I would try to put her in the water she would pull her legs up.
Once she finally got comfortable and I put her down in the water she started clapping for herself.
Hunter and Ave jumped back in with her and the three of them played and played. Within the first five minutes she had already taken a little spill and completely dunked herself under the water. Which led to this face...thank goodness brother came over and made it all better :) We brought out Emma's favorite squirt toys for her to play with in the pool. She's definitely Deke's child in the way that she likes stuff organized. She promptly took her squirt toys and started placing them one by one in a life on the edge of the pool. The part that was amazing to me though was that she made sure they were all facing front into the pool. It took her like ten minutes to arrange them, she would put one down and if she saw that it was facing the wrong way, she hurried to turn it around and get it perfectly spaced. It wasn't until they were all lined up facing the same direction that she stood back, smiled at me and clapped for herself. So her dad.
All three played and played until they were beyond normal pruning and mom couldn't stand the heat anymore. When I took Emma out of the pool her pouty lip came out and she started pointing and crying saying, "yay," "yay" and pointing at the pool. She just learned this word and I don't know if she totally understands it but I think she knew it was something fun and so that was her association. It was so cute. Even as I changed her back into her clothes she kept looking out the sliding glass door pointing then looking at me and saying "yay?" Then crying when I told her no more swimming today. Precious. I guess swimming is just fun no matter if the pool is teeny. We need to find ourselves a day to really take a swim.