Beating the heat

Last week it was ridiculously hot for all of the days that Matt had off from work.  :(  So much for doing anything productive around the house.  Oh, well.  We decided to make the most of the weather and do something fun indoors most days, as well as play in the pool.

Thursday we took the girls bowling for the first time.  They were so cute :)  I had to help Kate push the ball otherwise the ball wouldn't make it down the lane without getting stuck.  After the first frame, Anna wanted to do it all by herself.  They both were thrilled to see how many pins they knocked down each time.

There was a more experienced family bowling in the lane next to us and the whole situation reminded me of a Simpsons episode.  In this one, Mr. Burns was bowling in Homer's league and every time Mr. Burns took his turn, the team next to his went through an entire frame in the time it took for his ball to roll down the lane.  That's about how it was whenever one of the girls took their turn :)

Friday we did some errands in the morning and then played in the pool with some new toys before lunch (since it was supposed to be over 100 degrees again).

Saturday we decided to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum as a whole family.  The girls and I had gone sometime in the winter as a field trip, but they really wanted to bring Matt along to look at the Arctic exhibit.  (Anna had wanted to learn about the Arctic back in March or April and we thought the learning week should culminate with a trip to see this exhibit, but then I got a migraine and the trip never quite materialized.)  It was amazing to see what the girls remembered about the Arctic!  Matt was pretty impressed with how they seem to enjoy themselves at a museum such as this, but was also a bit disappointed that he couldn't stay and read all of the information he wanted to read before they were ready to move on :)

Sunday we had a water birthday party for Anna.  She has SO much fun.

The kids all got to play in the pool first, then we gave them some water squirters and had them do a relay game with them.

They all got to play with water balloons - the first time for many of the kids!

Matt had also rigged up an obstacle course for them to use their squirt guns.

And then things degenerated into a good old fashioned water fight :)  It seemed like everyone had a good time and was very tired at the end.

This week I've been trying to get back on track with the garden, now that the temperatures aren't quite as hot.  We've frozen beets, broccoli, freezer pickles, some green beans, squash, and squash puree.  We've also pulled the onions and dug about a third of the potatoes.  When I say "we", I mean mostly the girls and I;  Matt helps when we ask him to (like when he helped pull the onions), but we mostly try to take care of things when he's at work.  Actually, I either pick early in the morning or after the girls go to bed because otherwise it's just too hot.  Today the girls and I had a great time digging potatoes this morning.  They were both excited to see how many potatoes they could find from each plant and how full we could get our harvesting bucket.  Then they had fun sorting them into different sized ... small, medium, big, and monstrous.  I'm so glad they enjoy some of these chores :)

We've also had a few playdates and done a few activities at our local library.  It's nice having a relaxing summertime schedule right now.