ACES Summer Bash

On Saturday, we went to the 2nd Annual ACES Summer Bash. This is a party with Kyle's company. The party was held at Karl's house (you'll remember him from the ACES night at the Oriole's game back in May). Karl has a really nice inground pool and a decent backyard, which is why has been chosen to host the party for the past two years. The party started at 2:00, but we didn't get there until a little after 3:00 because we let Peyton take his nap.

It was sunny when we got there. Kyle, Peyton, and I got some food, which was really good. It was catered by the Olive Tree. There was penne pasta with chicken, beef tips, ribs, twice baked potatoes, vegetables, crab balls, Chik-Fil-A nuggets, shrimp, oysters, and a ton more. We ate our food outside and were harrassed by one of Kyle's annoying co-workers and their significant other (but I'm not naming any names). Once we were able to free ourselves from the never-ending-talkers, we walked down by the pool.

We didn't bring our bathing suits because Kyle didn't really feel up to swimming with Peyton, and we thought it was going to be raining anyway. All of the other kids were in the pool though, so Peyton got really jealous that he wasn't swimming. They also had a basketball net set up by the pool and Peyton was also mad that he wasn't playing with that. Evenutally, I just took the basketball net over to the grassy area of Karl's backyard and Kyle's boss found a volleyball for Peyton to play with. He was a happy boy and forgot about the pool.

Peyton played basketball for a little while, but then it started to rain, so the party moved indoors. Karl had a tent set up over his deck, so some people stayed outside, but the covered area was pretty small, so most people went inside. There were lots of kids there, including Karl's three kids, two boys (12 and 8) and a little girl (4). All of the kids were having fun playing with Peyton.

Peyton even convinced one of Kyle's bosses, Coley and his wife, Katie to play ring-around-the-rosie with him.

This is Karl's daughter, Peyton (I'm going to have to refer to her as "girl Peyton"), and my Peyton dancing together. Peyton is a dance machine and girl Peyton just loves my Peyton.

Aren't they cute? Notice how my Peyton is trying to escape, but girl Peyton just won't let him go.

All of the kids, especially girl Peyton, continually picked Peyton up and carried him around. I felt so bad for Peyton though because they were all barely bigger than him, and therefore basically dragging him around the room by his armpits. He had this look of "Please help!" on his face a lot of the time and a few times he escaped and ran over to me looking for safety, I think. Needless to say, it was pretty cute anyway.

The kids played with two giant balls, ran around, danced, and chased each other. Somehow, I got to be the lucky parent that all of the kids wanted to tell stories to. Let me just say that kids can tell some random stories.

Next, the dessert was put out. There were a ton of cookies, cream puffs, pastries, a delicious ice cream cake from Coldstone, and this chocolate fountain. Yum.

It's a shame that it rained so much because we could have more fun if we weren't pent up in the house, but we still had a good time. We headed home around 7:00 when Peyton (and me!) started to get tired. Those kids wore me out and I was pretty much just watching them play.