Okay Linn! It is "THE day after"! Have you slept yet? I KNOW I am waiting for a blow by blow!
Kim:cat:
The day after ? As I guessed it took me more than one day to recover after this. Though everything went quite well I was totally exhausted afterwards. Like TOTALLY ! I was up and running for more than 24 hours straight and was busy fixing this or that before and during the event, and then busy with putting everything in order afterwards. I'd lots of help from my husband and many other parents, but it was still quite a load. But now I've recovered and most things are back to normal.
All in all the event was a success. Everyone had great fun and it's a party they'll all remember for a long, long time. There were a few minor problems, but nothing went seriously wrong at any point. Let's take things items by item.
Injuries or accidents ? None really. Only two minor mishaps: one girl sprained her ankle a bit when she was dancing and one guy got a small burn on one finger from accidentally touching the BBQ at breakfast. Security worked really well - our remote location and the barrier at the end of the road made it impossible for any gate crashers to come out here and also prevented the kids here from trying to get anywhere. Everyone stayed the night and in the morning we served them breakfast.
The first part of the party they'd something to eat after which they kept the dance floor busy. It didn't take all that long 'til the first ones ended up in the pool - a guy pushed his girlfriend in and went in with her. After a while many others started going in, some pushed in, some going in themselves. The sound level got up to where it could almost burst your ears..
After not all that long the pool was crowded, or really over crowded. The kids kept going in and out for most of the night. Swimming like that was a bit heavy of course, but they managed better than one could imagine. Some of them were dancing also in the pool ! Still with all that happening, the pool worked fine. The water got a bit cloudy after a couple of hours, but not too bad. The one safety thing I'd to remind them of a number of times was: no diving ! Jumping feet first was of course ok. Somewhere in the early hours the warning light "Backwash filter" came on, my husband did that and it was really the only pool maintenance thing during the event as such. It turned out that the automatic chem system worked great, chlorine and pH values were ok in the also in the morning and I was pleased to see that there were no odd things happening. Of course we must have used up a lot more chlorine compared to normally, but that was of course to be expected.
They splashed a lot and brought tons of water out of the pool. Can you imagine a bunch of kids going in and out with big prom dresses on, how much water that brings out of the pool ? The level controller did its best to add water, but couldn't quite keep up with the rate at which water was lost and after a few hours a warning light "low level /leak warning" came on as well. But since we had the bottom drain partly open (we'd closed it a bit to minimize the suction danger that we discussed earlier on) there was never any risk that the pump could run dry. Inspite of the warning, we know that there was no leak.
Also myself and some of the other parents ended up in the water. I didn't see quire what happened, I was close to the pool and suddenly I was in there. I didn't mind, I was all hot from running around and it was lovely to get in for a little while. I've ended up in the pool i full evening dress before, so I didn't have any trouble with that.
I ended up going in a few times during the night, when I got too hot it was anice way to cool off a bit, even though the water was warm.
Some of the kids jumped in as natural as if they'd been in their swim suits, others, especially those with the really fancy dresses, made quite a show of it. Even though some got pushed in they really wanted to swim, as at with any pool party, if you really don't want to get wet you don't go anywhere near the pool. I'd expected that many of the kids would change into less formal attire after their initial dip in the pool. Some of the guys did, but most of the girls stayed all dressed up all night.
The fact that they went in fully dressed, many of them even with their shoes on, caused no problem with the pool. It got a bit cloudy yes, but that was bound to happen with that many people in there in any case. Also, I think formal attire is better for the filter, as it gives off less lint than if they'd been in e.g. blue jeans or so. They'd all kind of dresses, ranging from simple ones to the ultra fancy styles. As I mentioned earlier, one of them had a $ 5k dress and a few of her friends also had similar dresses. There's a group of girls in my daughters class who're really into dressing up when an occasion comes around (the other girls smetimes refer to them as "the princesses"
). They're a nice bunch, I know some of them quite well and they'd spent SO much time getting ready for prom, like it had been a main thing for the last few months for them !
It took the water a while to clear, but it did so without the need for any extra measures. About one day after the early morning backwash we had to do another one. Now the water looks just like it's always been and the chlorine pump isn't on that often any more. But I wonder about one thing: how does mascara affect the chemistry (or does it ?) I don't mean what was on their faces, that was not such a big amount. But one girl managed to dump like a years supply of it into the water.... I know that they were going to jump in in their prom dresses and I figured that some of them would go in with their heels on as well. But I'd not thought of that any of them would bring their purses in ! However, it became a dare-dare thing amoung quite a few of the girls to go in in absolutely everything, some of them bringing their purses in as well. Most of them put them back on land fairly soon, but one girl lost or left hers in the pool. I didn't see it, the pool was full of people, the water a bit cloudy and our pool lights don't really reach the corners that well. I spotted it in the morning and saw how something that looked like black smoke in the water was coming off the top of it. When I fished it out I got my hands blackish. Her makeup had abviously dissolved inside. Still it was not enough to dye the whole pool black, but there must be a bunch of that stuff in the pool now. Will the filter catch it ? Or the chlorine perhaps oxidize it ? It doesn't seem to have any effect on the pool as far as I can tell.
A few items were lost in the pool and in the morning we had to retrieve a bunch of things. Apart from that purse we found a few shoes, some jewelry, a couple of keys, coins and hair items and so, but most it could all be retrieved without trouble.
Those that changed into dry clothes put their dresses and other thing on the clothesline. I looked quite funny with a bunch of those dresses hanging like that ! Most of the kids stayed up all night, but some got too tired and needed a nap and we'd fixed two areas like that, one for the guys and one for the girls. In the morning we'd brakfast together and most of the kids were then picked up by their parents. A few stayed on for a few hours still.
I think that damages were quite minmal, also to their dresses. One girl totally ripped her dress, but the way it happened I'd say she ruined it on purpose. I haven't checked with everyone, but the dresses I saw seemed to be ok and I didn't hear anyone that was worried about that. I don't know for certain about the fancy dresses of the princesses but I didn't see anything to indicate any special problems. Anyhow, they come from families where money is not an issue, so even if they'd happen to ruin a dress it would be no big deal. Some kids are also planning for a trash the dress shoot later on, so compared to that this was mild - I think that those who go for that one will really ruin their dresses. They've discussed ideas far wilder than just getting wet, like having a food fight or playing with paint...
My prom girls dress was ok anyhow, it only need a little touch up with an iron to make it look like new again. I wasn't quite sure beforehand how it would take it, but in either case it wouldn't have been a problem. Compared to all the dangers of prom nights, giving them all a safe alternative was more important than any concern about her dress or her shoes.
What could have been still better ? Well a considerably bigger pool would have been nice ! It got over crowded at times, even though they were not all in at the same time. When it got too crowded some went into our garden pond instead ! Luckily this is a clean pond, not one full of muck or mud, but unlike the pool the water is not heated. Colored pool lights might be an idea worth checking into. This time we'd colored lights in the room, but the pool lights (white, 300 W) were strong enough to outdo them really.
In spite of all the hard work that it took I won't hesitate to do this again when our younger kids have their proms !
Well, I've better close now or I'll overload the forum server or something !
Linn
