Hot Fun in the Summer Sun

Mark’s parents got the boys a pool so we broke it out Monday when the temperatures broke 100 and had an absolute blast. Mark and I can fit into the pool with the boys, amazingly enough. Mr. Serious refused to sit down in the pool until we brought Boa out and plopped him down. To my surprise, Boa did not react negatively to being plopped into the cool water. He really loved splashing around. At one point, Mark was trying to get him to float on his back and accidentally dunked his face underwater! Boa was upset and sneezed several times, but he very quickly recovered. The only other time Boa got upset was when he was getting squirted in the face with water by Mr. Serious who was playing with the hose.

Boa and I are very fair skinned, while Mr. Serious and Mark are more olive in complexion and can take more sun. (Naturally, we were all wearing sunscreen.) After about 15-20 minutes, Boa was getting fed up with being splashed and squirted, so we got out of the pool and let Mark and Mr. Serious continue playing. Boa and I sat happily in the shade on the patio for another 20-30 minutes. It was a beautiful day and the pool was a really refreshing way to cool off! Mr. Serious kept getting in the water, sitting down and saying, “Ahh. That’s nice.”

We have several plants now on our patio and I couldn’t be prouder that they’re actually growing! We brought one plant with us from Georgia which we purchased a couple of weeks before Boa was born. It had been kept inside due to the cold weather for several months before we moved. After we moved, it lived in the garage for a few weeks before we got off our lazy bums and dragged it out in the back. By then, a good 2/3 of the leaves had fallen off. We thought all hope might be lost for it, but surprisingly it is starting to grow new green leaves and it’s looking great! Life is so resilient!

My mom got me a rose plant for Mother’s day and the day after taking it outside, all the blooms died. It sorely needed to be replanted, so when we were at the Family Dollar on Saturday to get some stuff for Boa’s party, I got a bigger pot and a cute little plant stand and one of those cute little garden accessories you stick in the dirt (what are they called?), all for under $10! My mom surprised me by replanting the rose bush, which is now starting to bloom again! I think perhaps it was being choked off by living in a too small pot. It looks great! The patio area is really starting to look nice.

Mark and I saw a really nice outdoor patio set when we were at a sporting goods store a couple weeks ago. It had a tall metal frame with a nice looking net/cover over top of it and a 5 piece outdoor furniture set for about $350 or so. I don’t know if we’ll be able to afford it before summer’s done, but we would LOVE to get this and put it out into the yard to have a nice shady space to relax. We’re going to try to save up for it, but I think first we need to go to our neighbors to see if they can give us the HOA information (our landlord is pretty useless and has no clue…) to make sure it isn’t against regulations or anything.

How do YOU like to kick back and relax in your backyard?

All Photos Taken 06/07/10