The Playdate

Since the commencement of second grade, my daughter, Dani, has made a new bff.   After much pleading and promises of good behavior, we had a playdate with the bff on Friday.

Playdates with my daughter are always...eventful.  She morphs into ENTERTAINMENT mode.  Dani is constantly offering her guests treats, coming up with silly games, messy crafts, and looking for the craziest things to do!

Halfway through the three-hour visit, the bff was giddy when she noticed our trampoline.  My three kids and the bff raced outside to jump.  Perfect!  Trampolines are easy entertainment.

My toddler was sleeping, so I stayed inside and started mopping.  I left the kitchen door open to our gated backyard and listened to their happy jumping squeals.  We have an additional door going to the backyard from a bedroom, and I could also hear kids going in and out of that door several times, maybe to use the bathroom.

The giggles and even screams of laughter just kept increasing.  They were definitely having a fun time.  Maybe too much fun? 

It had been about ten minutes.  I checked on them.  The hose was turned on full blast and white foam had transformed our trampoline into a giant sudsy slip n' slide.  "It's soap Mom!  Isn't this great!" my daughter enthusiastically hollered.

 I was feeling overly generous with the new friend visiting.  I let them play and prayed there would be no sliding injuries.

I then surveyed the damage.  My daughter didn't just use soap.  She had also confiscated every shampoo, conditioner, and body wash bottle in our two upstairs bathrooms.  The empty bottles were strewn all over the yard.  Here is just one of the casualties.

After I sent the soapy bff home, more damages were discovered.  In addition to the sudsy trampoline, somehow our play clothes bin had exploded in the downstairs living room, and an entire full bottle of freezing hair mousse had ended up in Dani's hair.   It was rock solid.

Dani and I had a loving, but serious chat.

There had also been numerous selective listening incidents during the playdate that I was especially not happy about.  I informed her she would be cleaning up and missing her much anticipated dance party that night.  She didn't even argue, "OK Mommy."  She knew.

That night, after taking a soapless shower, my husband questioned Dani about the reasoning behind her great soap caper. 

Her wheels started churning for a response, "Nobody was using the soap.  It was just sitting there."

"I use that soap everyday, Dani."

"Really???"

The kids had also confiscated some food coloring at some point during the day.   My young artist got his mitts on it.  He attempted to clean up his mess before I noticed, but wasn't fast enough.

The purple color on his hands faded to stunning bright pink.  We will be acting out the book Pinkalicious tonight with Dax as the star. 

Grumpy Grateful Mom Goal of the Day:  I will be appreciative of my especially clean trampoline.