Payback for 70-degree February Temps

When it's 120-degrees outside, activities become very limited.  It was even too hot to consider going swimming until very late this afternoon.  Poor Alstott could barely summon the strength to go outside to do his business; within two minutes, he was scratching at the slider door panting like he had been out there for hours.

I was desperate for some new indoor activities, so after the morning's swimming and gymnastics lessons, Alexa and I headed to the store to pick up a new board game, as I'm growing very tired of Candyland.  As soon as she saw the game Operation, the decision of which game to buy was made instantly.  Wow - - this game has changed in the past twenty years.  It now features various skill levels, allowing you to adjust the sensitivity of the metal to the tweezers, the items for extraction are no longer bones, but rather random objects, and the game has sound effects beyond the obnoxious buzz.  I think we must have played 10 games of Operation...by that time, the sound effect-free Candyland seemed like a much more desirable option.

This evening Alexa and I made a trip to Michaels to stock up on arts & crafts, and on the way there, I was recounting what we would do to stay cool in the summer when I was little.  After she overcame her shock and disbelief that I didn't have a pool growing up, Alexa became very intrigued by the concept of the lawn sprinkler and water balloons.  After Michaels, she convinced me to go to the dollar store and buy some water balloons.  I spent the next thirty minutes inflating water balloons, and Alexa was tossing them across the backyard as far as she could, laughing hysterically as they broke with a splash.  She idea of getting splashed by the broken balloon didn't exactly resonate with her; oh well, she had a blast chucking the balloons and burning off some of her pent up energy!

Enjoying some limited outdoor time with water balloons.

Watching the balloon carefully to make sure it didn't break on her.