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The Daily Kool had a great Fourth of July holiday this past weekend. We went to our parents, had an amazing barbecue lunch (courtesy of Dad and Weber's Way to Grill), enjoyed Mom's famous pasta salad and spent the early afternoon playing games with the kids. Ah, family togetherness...you gotta love it. Okay, who are we kidding? Fourth of July is all about the fireworks. Our city park has a spectacular concert and fireworks event every year, and the kids spend all afternoon, anxiously waiting for it to be time to go to the show. Unfortunately, the sun is still brutally strong when the show begins, and by the time it gets dark, the evening rains inevitably come out to put a damper (couldn't resist the pun) on our fireworks fun. Sure, we have a beach umbrella that we use to ward off the elements, but it's cumbersome and doesn't provide nearly enough coverage for our family of four.

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!

Getting mail addressed to them makes kids feel special and grown up. Keeping it consistent and age-appropriate is often the challenge. Thank goodness for the classic Highlights educational magazine for children. Our parents treated us to this wonderful subscription when we were younger, and we were truly blessed to be able to carry on the tradition in our family. Launched in 1946, Highlights is the most widely read children's magazine in the world..and with good reason. Recognizing that kids are the world's most important people, Highlights feeds their natural curiosity and love of learning with stories, brain teasers, riddles, crafts and other activities in this wonderfully wholesome and fun publication.

Do you remember learning your first card game? Ours was Go Fish, of course. A deck of cards is the simplest and perhaps the most versatile form of entertainment for the entire family. Seriously, can you think of another object that can provide anywhere near as many different activities for less than $2? So many wonderful memories from our childhood are centered around card games. We spent hours playing games like Spit, Slap Jack and War with our brother...in fact, it was practically the only time we got a long. Gin Rummy really helped us bond with our grandparents., even through those difficult teenage years. And who could forget all of the drinking games from the college years...um, maybe we shouldn't go there.

The Daily Kool family has always toyed with the idea of getting an ice cream maker for our home. As parents, we are often concerned about controlling the quality of ingredients in the food our children eat. Store-bought ice cream often has additives, so we often prefer the premium brands...hey, if we can't pronounce it, we certainly don't want to eat it. But, wow. Premium ice cream definitely comes at a premium price. An ice cream maker may seem like a perfect solution, but since no one in our household can ever agree on one flavor (heaven forbid), we always figured it would be a wasted investment...until now.

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.

Yesterday, we returned from our gluttonous trip to our local Carvel ice cream shop on a euphoric sugar high. Oh yeah...The Daily Kool family has officially kicked off our celebration of National Ice Cream Month! Needless to say, we were in a fabulous mood when we walked through our front door. Of course, so was our lovable dog, Pepper...we may have mentioned him a few hundred times or so in our previous blog posts. Well, Pepper (as usual) was beside himself with joy when we came home, wagging his tail a mile a minute to show how excited he was to see us. We're telling you, there's not much that beats the feeling of unconditional love from a furry friend. Wait a minute...did we say unconditional? Because when Pepper got closer to lick our faces (hey, he's a French poodle, after all), he literally took a giant sniff of our ice cream breath and reeled back from each of us in indignant shock. Okay, we realize we're attributing human characteristics to our dog (doesn't everybody?). But seriously, you should have seen the accusatory look on his face before he pointedly turned his doggie butt on us and walked away to pout on his bed. Yep, Pepper's big brown eyes can really bring on the guilt. No doubt about it, our dog wanted to be a part of July's National Ice Cream Month holiday.

The Daily Kool is always losing things. We just don't have enough storage space in our home to accommodate all of the...hmmm, what's the politically correct word here? Stuff! Yeah, stuff...that's it. Gotta keep our post family-friendly here, folks. No matter how organized we try to be, we wind up wasting a ton of time each day looking around for our (achem)...stuff. Just last night we searched high and low for our son's Lakers jersey that he just has to wear to basketball camp today. Our house is really not that big. Our keys are the absolute worst...they're right up there with that one sock our dryer eats every time we do laundry. They always disappear, especially when we are in a rush. After all these years together, we still haven't really designated a proper place for our keys. We usually jut toss them on the dining room table when we walk through the front door. We definitely need a better solution.

The Daily Kool family does a lot of driving. In fact, between work, school and enrichment activities for the kids, it often seems as if we practically live in our car. By the end of the week, our poor Saturn looks like a bomb has hit it...snacks, juice boxes, papers and toys are strewn all over the place. We've seen people recoil from the shock, shake their heads in wonder or, if they're parents, simply nod in commiseration at the mess of our car....yep, it can be pretty embarrassing! So, Fridays have now become the official "car cleaning" day in our household, and everyone has a job. No one ever complains...except whoever is responsible for window cleaning. The fingerprints and dog snot (Pepper loves taking rides in the car) are not such a big deal. The windshield, however, is another matter altogether. Our car has a pretty deep slope in the front, requiring us to drum up our best contortionist skills to clean it deep down. We admit it, our flexibility is quite pathetic...thus, so are our windshields.

The mother of the bride dresses are probably one of the most important items because the bride cares a lot about her family. The mother is a help for her, and she will also be the center of attention. This is the reason these ladies should take a closer look to the way they appear in public.

We know what you're thinking...why on earth would The Daily Kool be discussing a Christmas tree trim set in July? Well, ever loyal to our readers, we simply wanted to give everyone a heads-up to QVC's full weekend of everything you need for gift-giving and decorating. Hey, the big day is only five months away, and quite frankly...most of us are pretty broke in today's economy. We're all for preparing earlier this year and, of course, taking advantage of as many deals as we can get before the holiday season actually begins.

Here at The Daily Kool, our arms are getting quite the workout this summer...well, at least one arm, anyway. Our kids have been having one playdate after another at the house, and we've been doling out ice cream scoops practically by the dozen each day. Dig, twirl, release...dig, twirl release. Such is our life. It's amazing how one single perfect scoop of ice cream just seems to brighten a child's day...wait a minute, did we say perfect? A lofty, yet often elusive goal, we know. But apparently (and we've just recently learned this, mind you), a dish or cone of ice cream just tastes better to a kid if it has that professional, ice cream parlor look. Go figure, but kudos are important in the world of parenthood...we'll take what we can get. Pretty shallow of us, isn't it?