the calascione connection: THIS weekend...

russ didn't work so we had some pool fun with the kids in the back yard.

i got the kids a sponge bob slip and slide

here's my graceful natalie ;)

russell kept trying to drink the water...

russell in time out:

russell helping fill the pool up with water:

this is pool #4 this summer...

- pool #1 (purchased last year) was just like this except green, not blue, and we had to get rid of it because there was a gash on the bottom of it from a toy being underneath.

- pool #2 we bought (last weekend) after shopping around to a few stores with the kids, looking for the perfect pool that would last throughout the summer. the picture on the box showed a cool looking slide and everything! we go to set it up and realize that "objects are smaller than they appear!" on the box it showed 3 kids in the water (one who looked like she was about 8 yrs old) and 2 kids going down the slide. in reality it was more like a wading pool for infants that barely fit ONE kid. how disappointing! we ended up returning that one and in the same morning, i came back with pool #3

- this pool was PERFECT. large, square in shape, with plenty of room for ALL of us to fit in. after a fun afternoon in the pool, russ tried to drain it and found that there there was no plug. WHAT?! are you kidding me! so after he spent over an hour letting the air out, pushing the walls down, then lifting up the side to get all the water out, we determined that pool #3 was going back to the store too.

- we ordered pool #5 online and splurged a little for the sake of not wanting to be disappointed this time around. while waiting for pool #5, we decided that maybe we should try to get a smaller pool for THIS weekend and just return pool #5 when it arrived (since it was rather pricey). i had russ pick up a pool that i knew would work since we had it before. he set up pool #4 yesterday and we realized that once again, this pool did NOT have a plug to drain the water. it was the exact same pool we had before which HAD a drain plug! apparently they don't put those in pools anymore???? we will probably return pool #4 as well...

- in the mean time, we anticipate the arrival of pool #5...