First Swimming Party of 2011

I am celebrating spring with Kathy. Are you? We'd love for you to join us at http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

This post was ready to publish at a scheduled time when I woke up in the morning and looked out and saw the azaleas blooming. I grabbed my camera and just had to add it to the post to share with you. I was so excited! It does not take much to make me happy. Just show me a colorful garden and I feel like I am in heaven.

I have been having a blast spending time with my granddaughter, AJ, who flew from Florida to celebrate her spring break with us.. So lucky that the weather has been cooperating with us. We had our first pool party for this year a few days ago and I would like to share the fun with you. I am also linking with
Susan for Outdoor Wednesday at http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/
Susan for Tablescape Thursday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday at http://www.tootsietime.com/

and for Watery Wednesday at http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Even though the temp. is in the 80's the water pool temp was too cold for me to swim in it. I want the water temp to be at least 82 degrees before I can dip in so John turned the heat on. Here he is by the vent waiting for the water to warm up.

It was a big challenge for me to prepare for the party. We have been trying to get 2 I Pad 2's, one for us and 1 for AJ but Apple stores are always sold out. I called a store in Jackson and they told us to go there when they open at 9 and take our chances cause they get shipments every morning but they sell them out really fast. So we did just that. It's a 2 and a half hour drive from home to Jackson so we left very early to get there on time. By the time we got there, they only had some with 16 MB left and we want 64 so we did not even buy any. But so as not to completely waste a trip, we went to TJ Maxx and Marshall's to shop for a while and then headed for home. We got home at 1:30 PM and I had already invited some friends for 3 PM, which means that I only have 1.5 hrs. left to do everything. I tell ya, all 4 stoves and the oven were all going, talk about multitasking, after all they call me the energizer bunny for nothing, lol

The guests arrived shortly after 3 and I was still cooking so I told them to go out and swim. AJ and John were already in the pool. I had everything set on the table by 4 and we ate at 5 so everything turned out just fine.

My guests brought some ribs and they were so yummy! Inside the bunny casserole dish is rice.

I made rice as usual, fish with sweet and sour sauce, crab omelette and chicken with mushrooms. AJ and I made brownies the day before and I had a coconut cake and also a pecan pie in the freezer that I defrosted so we just served them since I ran out of time to make dessert.


The kids had so much fun swimming.

We adults had fun chatting, eating and swimming too. There's me and my friend Brenda.

Jett is about to jump from the diving board here.

The ornamental cabbage is blooming.

and half of the trumpet vine flower buds opened up. I just had to show them to you.


The sun started to set and we were still swimming.

It got dark and we were still swimming. I don't think we stopped until it was almost 8 PM. We had so much fun and I was happy to get some exercise.

Thanks to our wonderful hostesses for these fun memes and I appreciate you all for coming by.