The Pool is not Open Yet

It's hot out and it's officially past time to open the pool for the summer. I'm kind of dreading it, because the kids tend to be forgetful with the ladder and it scares me with an almost two year old. I've done this the last few years, however, so I'll guess I'll just remain on high guard again. It may sound nuts, but I have a swim-only-once-a-day rule much like my only-go-out-to-play-in-the-snow-once-a-day rule. I find with this rule, the kids swim for up to a few hours and it's worth the towels and mess; without this rule, they get in and out of the pool 12 times a day, use nine towels each and put on at least four out-fits. The rule really helps my sanity.

Anyway, today there is no pool, so they made water-town. The wheel-barrows were filled with water and water toys and they ran the hose down the slides. They all had a good time.

Elijah is completely attached to his black tennis shoes, in fact, he calls them Black, like their name. When I insist he wear sandals, he often cries for a few minutes about it. For water time, I pulled out the flip-flops; he has never worn them, but he was crying, "No, fip-fops, no fip-fops." I kept telling him to just try them. Once he got outside, he happily smiled and kept telling me, "try fip-fops" quite pleased with himself.

This is the end of Julia's fun. It's amazing that she can stand in the water wheel-barrow and not expect to get her face wet, but that's Julia. Here she is hitting her high-pitch scream that let us know the fun was over for her. Notice the other kids are so accustomed to it that they hardly notice!

JD is on a plane headed for home. After taking 24 hours to get across the country on Monday, due to mechanical failure on the first plane and a bad storm re-routing on the second flight, it seems to be repeating on the way home. The plane was heading down the run-way when it didn't take off due to mechanical problems. After he managed to get on another flight a few hours later, weather doesn't look too good in Chicago. Hopefully, he'll make it home late tonight. I'm praying!