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This week has marked the beginning of summer vacation for The Daily Kool family. Unfortunately, everyone's been sick for the past few days, so we've been stuck at home. Poor kids! They really just want to go outside and ride their bikes or swim in the pool. Instead, we've been raiding our closets all week, trying to come up with different ways to keep them entertained indoors. It hasn't been easy, especially since television is not our favorite pastime. It was time to introduce a classic from our own childhood to the kids.

The au pairs normally live in the house of host family and hence they are also stated as a "live-in au pair". They provide child care for your family between 25-45 hours and some light household responsibilities per week. They shouldn't be asked for any extra household chores.

Remember your first few Christmas after having a child. You wanted so badly to give them the best gifts you could. You scrimped and saved and looked at sale inserts out of the paper. Wrapped it up nice with bows and ribbons. You waited with pained anticipation for weeks until finally Christmas morning came....

Just a week until Christmas. Time to reflect on Christmas past and the pain and suffering caused by that fat guy in the red suit...

These days all anyone wants to do is play video games on their phones, Ipods or what have you. That's why this week I'm launching a new company...

Now that the children are older the act of tucking them in at night seems like a distant memory. For my older kids it was a quick story and a kiss. When it comes to James (Age 9) it's a whole process that I had forgotten about. This week I had a refresher course...

Star Wars MMO open universe fans are getting their way. Lucas and Sony announced this week the coming release of a new MMO universe based on Star Wars :Clone Wars. Fantastic !

This inspiring book is bursting with fun, festive ideas for things to make and do in the weeks before Christmas.

This Kid Kit contains shape cutters, paints, colorful construction paper, glitter glue and sequins for making amazing Christmas ornaments and festive paper projects. These activities will keep excited children happily occupied during the weeks before Christmas.

This great activity book will keep excited children happily occupied during the weeks before Christmas. By following the really simple step-by-step instructions, even young children will produce some amazing results. Imaginative ideas for cards, decorations and wrapping paper are among the festive projects included. This book also contains over 50 stickers to use with the projects, and on homemade cards and gift tags.

Announced Tuesday, manufacturers of pediatric cold and cough medicines will change their labels advising their products not be used by children under 4. The announcement follows an FDA scientific panel's testimony on the issue just last week. In addition, FDA safety experts recommended banning the use of over the counter cold and cough medications for children under 6, with an advisory panel in full agreement.

Today, The Daily Kool has decided to play hooky. That's right, folks...we are taking the day off from school and work to do absolutely nothing but have fun together as a family. Novel idea, huh? Since we are a group of classic workaholics, we occasionally need the break to reclaim our sanity. Yes, we realize this is why we have weekends, but ours tend to be spent running around to birthday parties and catching up on all of the chores/errands we've neglected throughout our hectic week. This calls for a day at the waterpark, complete with a picnic...without the weekend crowds.

Last week, there was a breaking news story about one of the larger baggage theft rings ever seen at Oregon's Portland International Airport. Baggage handlers literally stole hundreds of items from travelers' checked luggage...one of them even sold some of the property on eBay. Think about how easy it is to gain access to someone's luggage...you don't even have to be an airline passenger to go to the baggage claim. With crime in general escalating in today's tougher economic times, it's no wonder that baggage theft is on the rise as well...it's certainly one of the easier crimes of opportunity.

Tomorrow is National Teacher Day, and is part of a week-long celebration honoring our teachers. It is our children's opportunity to thank the special teachers in their lives for their hard work and dedication throughout the school year. Few professionals impact our lives as teachers do...each of us has undoubtedly had at least one teacher who profoundly affected and inspired us as children (and adults). Though we believe that teachers should be recognized every day, National Teacher Day is indeed an ideal time to join together with other communities and acknowledge how much we value and respect their contributions to our children's future.

Last week was a miserable time to fly to the westcoast...trust us, we were there. The weather was severe enough to cause several flight redirects, delays and cancellations. There were babies crying, kids screaming and adults complaining everywhere we turned...at the airport and on the plane. And did we mention the turbulence? We were all shaking in our seats...literally. All in all, it was a frustrating, exhausting and noisy experience for those of us traveling.

Here in Florida, we have been experiencing consistent afternoon thunderstorms for the past couple of weeks, wreaking havoc on otherwise perfect temperatures for swimming...yep, it's summer all right. It's not easy keeping kids entertained in lousy weather, especially when you are trying to conserve costs in today's economy. After hours of playing family games, dancing to music and baking brownies, we decided to bite the bullet and splurge for a family outing at the movies. You guessed it...we took our children to see the new Disney Pixar movie Up.

School is just around the corner, and our lazy days of summer are coming to an end. Okay, who are we kidding? The Daily Kool family doesn't do lazy days. We have to admit though...our boys may have kept us on our toes this vacation, but it was pretty nice to have them all to ourselves for a change. In a couple of weeks, we are back to being overwhelmed with activities. School (one half-day, the other three towns over), homework, soccer, hip hop, basketball, karate, birthday parties (there are a ton) playdates...not to mention our own work, home and Pepper (our lovable pooch) responsibilities. Pretty exhausting, huh? As our boys get older, it's really becoming harder to keep track of it all...we need some serious organization!

What better way to celebrate the end of our National Ice Cream Month week-long feature than with cake? Or should we say cupcakes? The Daily Kool family is headed out to a friend's house for dinner together tonight...of course, we're in charge of the dessert (we have a bit of a reputation). Since there's going to be a pretty large group of kids at the house, we thought it might be fun to do something a little different for them.

Guess what The Daily Kool found out the other day? July is National Ice Cream Month! Apparently, President Ronald Reagan decided to help out the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) back in 1984 by recognizing this cool and creamy treat. How we possibly could not have known about this is beyond us...but, we would be remiss if we didn't honor President Reagan's memory by throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into the spirit of this very important holiday, right? Since the third Sunday of July is officially National Ice Cream Day, The Daily Kool will be featuring some "kool" ideas and recipes over the next week in celebration of this event. Oh yeah...we're definitely going to take advantage of this legitimate excuse to indulge in one of our sweetest obsessions!