we tried to buy a pool

 Last week I took the kids to walmart.  
We were going to buy a pool.  The hard plastic kind.  $14.88 said the display outside the front door.
We have a pool, but it's the type you have to blow up, and I just don't have the foresight each day to spend 45 minutes blowing up a pool 
when sometimes we just want to go out right this minute and play in some water.

So we wanted to buy a little hard plastic one that I could set up in seconds.

We made it inside both of the double automatic sliding doors.
Then we turned around and went straight home.

Major meltdown from Nicholas.  Because I wasn't getting a cart. Because I was walking too fast.  Because Ellie was walking (how dare she!).
I don't mess around when he acts like that and won't shape up.  We turn around and head straight back to the car.  

But when we got home, I still wanted to play in a pool!  Being a consistent parent is such a bummer sometimes.

A quick dash around the toy room, a few buckets emptied, 
and voila! 
Mommy created a series of three little splash pools.  
And we had a grand time.  I let the kids pour water all down my legs while I sat on the bench.  They gathered rocks and Ellie drank dirty water and we splashed and played all afternoon.

Sometimes you just have to use what you've got.