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We recently found a fun recipe for goo… cornstarch, enough water to make it “funky” and food coloring. This is generally something that we try to do outside, but the recent record heat wave convinced us to play with it inside.

The kids love the goo because it acts kind of solid when you pick it up and then oozes right through your fingers.

This makes it particularly good for making a big mess.

You’ll notice that I tried to use a sheet to keep things a bit cleaner. It didn’t work.

Luckily, this stuff dries fairly quickly and sweeps or vacuums relatively easily once it does. Cleaning up the kids requires a little more creativity… particularly trying to keep them from shedding bits of colored goo all over the house.

I’ve learned that the pink and green colors clean up more easily than the blue.

After the fun of goo time, everyone needs a break.

Though CareBear’s definition of “break” is different than LiliBee’s.

LiliBee loves be involved in everything. She also loves to share. During the most recent “great playroom clean-up” LiliBee collected a couple of toys to sit in a chair with her.

First, she shared Cartman with me.

Then she shared Pooh Bear with me.

Apparently, that was too much for Pooh and he needed a little reassurance.

It was pretty cute.

When it gets hot, I think it helps to know someone with a swimming pool.

That way, you can impose on them and cool off.

It doesn’t hurt to splash the people outside the pool, too. They appreciate it, even if they say that they don’t.

You can also take the opportunity to teach your little sister to swim.

And just hanging by the pool is fun, too.

I hope everyone survived the record heat… I know that I’m very happy with our decision a few years ago to add an air conditioner when we replaced the furnace. We had to be out and about in the heat some, but it was nice to come home to a relatively cool house (still way too hot for me, though).

Chris finally came down with the plague, almost 2 weeks after I did. I’m not actually sure that it was the same thing, but he was pretty sick for a few days. Since we didn’t want the rest of us to get sick again, he got quarantined to the bonus room with a can of Lysol and hand sanitizer (and a window a/c unit, thanks Grandpa!). He’s feeling much better now so he got to come back downstairs and go to work today.

Between the heat and Chris being sick, we didn’t get out as much as we’d planned. The girls and I made a fun trip over to my folks, though, complete with (kiddie) swimming pool and dinner! The girls had a great time splashing and playing in the water and stayed in the pool for a long time because of the hot weather.

We did get a bit of cleaning and organizing done this weekend. Not nearly as much as we need to do, but anything is good!

We missed out on going to the Ren Faire but, happily, it runs for two more weekends. That is particularly handy as the Pierce County Fair is this coming weekend. CareBear was very excited to see a couple of rides driving down the road this morning. Have I mentioned how much I love fairs?

This week is the start of new classes for the kids. CareBear is taking a swimming class again and LiliBee will be taking one, too (though she has to have one of us with her). CareBear is also going to try out gymnastics. It will be interesting to see what she thinks of that since she’s been so excited about doing summersaults and walking on the balance beam by herself.

I’m just glad that it’s not as hot anymore.

This is what 7am looks like in our house…

I’m happy to report that we’re all well this week. The plague seems to have run it’s course and we’ve recovered… except for Chris, who managed to avoid the whole thing. We think that breathing the filtered air all night probably helped him!

CareBear spent a couple of days at her “day camp” at the Y… music and playing and crafts, she loved it. On the first day, they made cardboard guitars and played musical chairs. On the second day, they made tambourines an played duck, duck, goose. She taught LiliBee and me how to play both games when she got home. I have to say, musical chairs is a lot easier to play with only 3 people than duck, duck, goose.

While CareBear was off at her class, LiliBee enjoyed only child status. I’d forgotten how much easier it is to get around (and quieter) with just one kid! We spent our time playing and shopping, just the two of us.

CareBear also had her first movie theater experience! While LiliBee played with Grandma and Grandpa, Chris and I took CareBear to see Ice Age 3. She was very impressed by the whole thing and alternated between thinking everything was hilarious to thinking that everything was scary and hiding her eyes. After it was over, she declared that the movie was fun.

CareBear decided to stay in Olympia for a slumber party with her cousin last night, so LiliBee and I have been on our own again today. We’ve been having a lot of fun playing with all of the toys and having a quiet nap. We’ve talked about all of the people in our family, all of the colors of the rainbow, all of the parts of her body and all of the neighbors.  She’s become a big fan of the bumblebee song, so we spent a lot of time singing that. And playing “this little piggy”. She cracks me up.

We’re between sessions at the Y, so we don’t have any classes to go to this week! Between that and the heat wave, I’m hoping to spend some quality time with the air conditioner. Of course, the kids will want to go outside and play in the sprinkler so I’m sure I’ll end up in the heat anyway.

As it turns out, I was overly optimistic about this week…

About 2 hours after I sent last week’s email, LiliBee’s eyes started oozing. So we had several days of eye drops for two! On Tuesday, LiliBee had some kind of discomfort that I couldn’t pinpoint (I’ll be so glad when she decides to talk to us) but I suspect that it was her tummy. It only lasted a couple of hours, but kind of cancelled our plans for that day.

On Thursday, CareBear had some very definite and visual tummy trouble that, happily, only lasted a few hours. Also on Thursday, I woke up with a sore throat so we took a quick trip to the doctor for my strep throat diagnosis… by evening, my fever was 102 degrees and I was pretty much useless to everyone until Sunday.

The good news is that Chris was able to take a few hours off on Thursday and go in late on Friday, which helped greatly. Also good that he has yet to get whatever plague we’ve picked up.

We did manage to have some fun with swim classes (they had a special safety day which CareBear loved), toddler gym (the confirmed source of the plague), our weekly trip to the farm and lots of backyard playing.

It’s been tough for CareBear to stay home so many days and I didn’t have enough energy to find as many things to do as she needs. She’s a high energy kid! Consequently, we had a few days of too much tv and not enough good behavior. It’s a good thing that LiliBee is a cuddler and was happy to just hang out with me and play quietly much of the time.

Chris helped by taking them out to ride their “bikes” for awhile. Also by making sure everyone was fed and dressed and clean while I was out of commission.

I’m hopeful that this week will be much better. We have the last week of classes for this session and CareBear gets to got to special music preschool day camp kind of thing (it’s just two hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it’s a big deal to her).

I’m sure that LiliBee and I will find something fun to do with our free time. And one of these days, we’re going to take CareBear to her first movie theater movie!

We had quite an exciting week… a trip to Alder lake, a trip to the doctor, lots of sprinkler fun…

We all headed out to Alder lake to celebrate my dad’s birthday and CareBear had her first fishing lesson. She was very impressed. Pas brought a fishing rod just for her and showed her how it worked.

She got to hold it and practice reeling it in. She was excited about it for awhile, but soon traded fishing in for “skipping” rocks and playing at the playground. They ended up catching a few little fish and CareBear helped release them back into the wild. All in all, a very successful introduction to fishing.

Meanwhile, LiliBee hung out throwing things into the water and watching everything. She probably would have waded right into the lake, but it was one of our chilly days so we wouldn’t let her.

Both of them really liked the tire swing and playing with their uncle, though.

On Saturday, CareBear woke up in a panic because she couldn’t open her eyes. Poor kid picked up pink eye somewhere last week (probably the Y) so we headed in to the doctor for eye drops. That has been a bit of a challenge, though talking her into sitting still for the drops takes much longer than actually getting them into her eyes. She’s actually pretty cooperative.

I told her that we couldn’t go anywhere if she didn’t let me put the medicine in her eyes… that kid hates staying home. She’s not contagious anymore, but I’m guessing it won’t be long before LiliBee comes up with it, considering how much they both touch everything!

We had a nice weekend overall, though. We went to the new pancake place for breakfast and had a fun trip to the hardware store. Chris spent some time smoothing out part of the lawn (or starting the process, anyway) while the girls and I worked on cleaning wallpaper off of a wall.

This week will be interesting. We have the usual classes scheduled, but the pink eye could change how we do things if it travels through the family. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hit a park sometime and enjoy the nice weather.

Our visit south got cancelled, but I’m sure we’ll find lots to do.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!

We had a very busy day. We spent the afternoon in Olympia having BBQ and sprinkler fun with Chris’ family. Cousin H was there, of course, so the three girls made for great entertainment.

After visiting the goats, driving the little jeeps, having lunch, running around in sprinklers and having hose fights, we headed back up to my folks’ place for more tasty BBQ and fireworks.

CareBear has been waiting for a year for the fireworks to come back. She was a little concerned about how loud they were, but loved watching them and waiting for the “pink” ones.

This was LiliBee’s first time to actually be able to track what was going on and she totally loved the fireworks. Every time she saw one, she’d giggle and clap along with saying either “oooooh” or “woooow”. It was very fun.

After all of the excitement of Saturday, we took it pretty easy on Sunday. We had a trip to the library, but otherwise we just hung out and dealt with cranky, clingy and generally out of sorts toddlers (or maybe that was the parents). It was nice to have a quiet day before the week day schedule started all over again!

In other news, Chris had a long weekend. It was nice to have him around and he even got to go to one of CareBear’s swimming classes. He was dutifully impressed by everything she did and she was thrilled to have him there.

I was able to have a great visit with Susanna, who I used to work with at Good Sam. I haven’t seen her in months so it was nice to be able to catch up and get all of the gossip. I really do miss all those lab folks. Hopefully, we’ll get to do that again soon.

The weather has been so nice that we’ve been having park visits and lots of water fun (sprinklers and pools!).

We set up the sprinkler in our back yard for awhile the other day. CareBear spent most of her time running away from the water and splashing in puddles while LiliBee ran into the water. I must admit, though, that I’m glad that the weather has cooled down for a few days and I’m really hoping for a little rain to water down the pollen!

We’ll be heading out to Alder lake this week to celebrate my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Pas!). I guess it’s a lot different than it was the last time I was there… of course, that was probably 25 years ago. Anyway, there should be lots for the kids kids to do there and I hear that CareBear might have her first fishing lesson.

I’m finding it hard to believe that the year is half gone already, but my allergies assure me that it is the end of June. The Fourth of July is next week! I think I’ve lost all sense of time since having kids and quitting my job…

CareBear started her swimming classes this week, which she loves. They’re learning how to kick and float and how to do a few swimming strokes. She’s in a class with a few older boys and they all have a great time splashing each other while waiting their turn to work with the teacher. CareBear tells me every day that she wants to go to swim class.

We spent Saturday out at the Tacoma Highland Games. It was interesting to see how it’s different from the big Highland Games that will be out in Enumclaw in a few weeks. CareBear was fascinated by the hammer throwing and the dancing girls. LiliBee loved the puppet show and the dogs. Chris and I liked the pipers and shared an ice cream bar. So, something for everyone!

This coming week should be fun. We’ll have more swimming classes (and Chris might even be able to come watch, too!) and toddler gym. We’ll be spending the Fourth of July in both Olympia and Puyallup and CareBear can’t wait for the fireworks. Chris will have a long weekend and I might get to visit with some people that I haven’t seen in ages.