Thursday, May 31, 2012

A Homemade Water Table to Open Summer

So this year we had a super laid-back Memorial Day.  Usually on Sunday night we have a party and invite a bunch of people, get drunk, and hang out until the wee hours of the morning.  When we were asked if we were doing it again this year, I realized that I was just not feeling it.  Apparently what I am feeling is like an old person.  We did decide to have a small group of people over, just to hang out around the fire pit/bowl/burnable garbage depository and drink a few beers.  It was a bit awkward for whatever reason, actually, but I think all involved just don't do that kind of thing a lot.  Better get used to it, though, because we're all getting old and having kids and this is gonna be the new norm.

We always make food for our gatherings, but with so having so many fewer people over, I didn't want to make a whole lot.  This kind of fell on deaf ears when it came to hubs though, so we wound up with a ton of leftovers.  They were delicious though, so I was ok with that.  I'm sure you're dying to know what we had.  Jed made what I call his tea sandwiches (but they're open-faced): mini-rye bread, butter, salami, cucumber, in that order, open-faced.  Weird combination, but yummy.  And Jed is ridiculous, he actually cut the salami into squares to fit the bread.  We also had Spinach-Artichoke dip, veggies (let's call it crudite and pretend we're fancy) and this Oreo Layer Dessert (holy crap was that stuff good.  Super rich).  I also made this Sarasota Lemonade for myself - it was so good, but seemed super sweet to me and I could only drink a little bit of it.  I think it was because I'm not used to drinking pop and really sweet drinks like the pink lemonade that is in it.  And of course I found all of these recipes through Pinterest.  Except the veggies, duh.

Anyway, the next day we just hung around the house since it seemed nobody was really doing anything or had other plans.  It was nice to just laze about.  However, during Romy's nap I did assemble the water table that I put together.  I really wanted to get one for her after seeing my friends pictures of theirs, I knew that she would have a lot of fun with one.  However, they are kind of expensive, especially the one I wanted because come on it's a pirate ship!  Anyway I looked around and decided that I was going to put one together myself on the cheap.  I saw one made out of an under-bed storage tub and I just happened to have one hanging out in my car doing nothing useful.  A water wheel and cheap bag of sand toys ($6 each at Toys R US), a $1 bag of marbles and a cheap pack of sponges later, we were set.  The sponges I just cut into strips, but I did take 4 of them and a rubber band and make this:

Hey, it works.
Her favorite part was the marbles, though, just feeling them in the water, taking them in and out of things, etc.  Yes, she was supervised, all that jazz, and yes she had them taken from her after she discovered (after an hour) that she could put them in her mouth.  This whole setup still kept her entertained for over an hour, so much so that she almost completely ignored the kiddie pool that I'd set up next to it.

Yes our setup is a little janky but IT WORKS.

Jed came out and grilled some chicken (with this Peanut-Ginger Marinade, so good!) with some broccoli and cauliflower, we sat around, we were lazy.  It was good times.

2 comments:

  1. The food sounds amazing and it looks Romy had a blast with the DIY table. And again, sorry about the mix up with the sponge balls. I only feel slightly bad because it was Jed searching for them and not you!

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  2. I love the water table! I'm really wishing I had seen yours before we bought one. I, too, wanted that sweet ass pirate ship one, but it was way too much. We got a $30 one from Wal-Mart. It gets the job done. Oh, and I didn't even think to put marbles in it! So fun!

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