Why are you smilin’ like a rabbit in a briarpatch?

We are fairly frequent visitors to the CLAMS house. Cora is 4, Liam is 5, Annie is the mom, Miela is a dog and Scott is the dad. Like their other parties, this one was wildly fun! The horse theme was in celebration of Cora’s 4th and Lola’s 5th birthdays. Lola is another part of our clan…i.e. the youngest daughter of Kevin Flick and Melissa Hartley. Presents and a cake did happen but the dominant event was horsing around in the best way. Why with straw, mud, ice cubes and bubbly water… Right?

As we got out of the car, Scott (Cora’s dad) zoomed by with a dozen kids on his heels trying to lasso him and put him in the jail out back.

Seattle was built on the gold rush and the kids fell for it too or I could just say that the girls had fun panning for gold (beads, that is) in the mucky kiddie pool and stringing up necklaces for their horse’s manes. Okay…maybe there were no real horses…so us parents had to ante up and wear the muddy things.

So a hay fight erupted. It was tons of fun but it didn’t stop there. Ice cubes were great to drop down pants but that too got old. I’d say the mud was probably a bad idea but the seltzer bottles….now those were genius as, with a little shaking, they could get someone from a yard. Oh that reminds me of that old saying…don’t judge till you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. Pretty good advice really as you are a mile away by the time they get wind of your words and YOU have their shoes. Back to the fight…and the discovery of a projectile seltzer.

Not everybody joined in the chaotic rough-housing. There were safe spots one could take turns swinging or (below) …their were moms to nestle up with like Catherine and Francesca below.

Here is a clip with some of the action.