How We Spent Our Saturday Afternoon

The only way to play outside these days, is to play in the water. Charlie gets heat exhaustion within mere seconds of exposure to the sun, so unless a little black rain cloud is following him around dumping water on his head- I've got to do it.



So we set up the splash pad for the babies, squeezed the very last drops of sunblock out of the can, and then set ourselves up on our cushioned patio furniture under the shade of the porch.



In between yelling at the babies to stay in the water, and to stop playing with the ants at the base of the tree, and stop "riding" the velcro turtle around- the heat started hitting me hard. No matter how much I try to avoid admitting how hot 100 degrees really is, it still gets to me.



The longer I sat in the shade, the harder it was to keep my eyes open. I started drifting off into a faux heat coma, dreaming of swimming pools and ice cream cones (God, doesn't strawberry sound so good?). When I'd snap myself awake, I'd look over at Christopher, who was somehow wearing pants- and I'd instantly close my eyes again, because just the sight of his leg covering denim was making me even more uncomfortable.

But truthfully, this overheated Mama knows when to admit defeat.

"Go ahead honey, bring me the bucket of ice water", I miserably grumbled to Christopher, who had offered it several times before.



Yep. There I am... awkwardly dripping sweat, looking all sorts of clammy, soaking my giant walrus flippers in a big red wash bucket filled with quickly melting ice water.

And oh- how it felt so good.



"Bubbles, bubbles!", Charlie started shouting from the splash pad, and came running. See, this is the same bucket that we use when washing the car, so he assumed that it would be loaded with white frothy foam to cover his arms and legs in. He was sadly mistaken, but approached with a smile, dipped his hand into the cold clear water, and then started using it to paint all over my legs with.

So while there wasn't any soap in the bucket, like he had been hoping for, it was still loads of fun to get Mama all wet and watch her squirm.

And after sitting there with my cankles submerged in a slightly embarrassing pool of heaven- the world went from blurry, back to normal.

The view from where I was sitting, was quite nice.







Cooled off tootsies, clouds shaped like doughnuts, the babies playing together nicely in the water (without fighting over who gets the toy penguin), hubby reaching over and holding Bean, and ...heeeeeeeeeeeee. Well, there isn't really a description required for that one, is there, haha.



Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Christopher goes inside to get us some glasses of water, and returns with homemade strawberry lemonade! I quickly gulped mine, leaving nothing but a ring of seeds around the edge.




While Christopher was trying to enjoy his, Miss Eleanore weasled her way into his arms, trying to sneak sips of what she knows shes allergic to.

Who can blame her for trying though, right? Its hard, especially on a hot summer day, to not want a tall glass filled with ice cold fruityness.





Towards the end of our lemonade though, just about the time that my feet had cooked the ice water into a pot of toe soup- it was time to pick up and go inside.

Put turtle and his friends away. Close up the garage. And lets go start thinking about what we're going to do for dinner...