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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.

Okay, so we are quite a few weeks into summer vacation, and we've noticed that we're filling out our bathing suits much more than we expected. Somehow, our plans for getting into better shape have fallen by the wayside. What's going on here? Well, though we are not ones to make excuses (yeah, who are we kidding?), we do have several explanations. The kids are home, so we're finding ourselves parked at fast food restaurants more often than not (hey, we're on vacation too). It's been hotter than...well, you know. And, if we're not suffering in the blistering heat, we're getting drenched in the rain and chased by a flock of mosquitoes. Who wants to exercise outside in that? Of course, the heat naturally brings on our cravings for the sweet stuff, so the kids are eating ice cream almost every day...we can't let them eat alone now, can we? Wouldn't it be nice if we had a way to get into shape without the extra effort?

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.

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?

Okay, we admit it. We are not big water drinkers, and never have been. Trust us...we've given ourselves lectures time and time again about the importance of drinking the requisite eight glasses of water a day, but who are we kidding? We can barely choke down two glasses, and that's with living in hot and humid Florida. While we take responsibility for our irresponsibility just as much as the next person (yeah, right), we wholeheartedly blame the Coca Cola company for our lack of commitment to healthy drinking. How dare they make Coke taste so darn good? We have been obsessed with Coke (the real stuff, not that diet stuff) for as long as we can remember. Scoff all you want, but our Coca Cola addiction has caused a real problem in our household. Our kids are at the age when "do as I say, not as I do" doesn't hold water (had to get that pun in). It's our job as parents to teach our children healthy eating and drinking habits, and the best way to do this is by example. But, we really don't like water. We've tried it all...tap water, filtered water, bottled water (whew, there are a lot of brands out there!), cold water, room temperature water, water with lemon (and/or lime). No matter what we do, the results are the same...blah, blah, blah. Are we prime examples of mature and responsible adults or what?

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.

We at The Daily Kool have a confession to make. We have been having a really hard time getting out of bed in the morning lately. Yes, we know we have kids to take care of, places to be and readers to write for. But when the alarm goes off, we find ourselves stubbornly pressing the snooze button (over and over again) and snuggling deeper in our covers. Though we are admittedly a lazy bunch by nature, this is kind of over the top...yes, even for us. It's not our fault, though...really! We have a couple of dear, dear friends who are totally responsible for our recent indolence. We won't mention names, but they know who they are. Boy, are we grateful for them!

Today is the day for cleaning the bathrooms in The Daily Kool household. The master bath is usually not a big deal, but the kids' bathroom? Oh, my goodness gracious! After only one week, the fumes are enough to make us gag, our eyes water and, quite frankly, almost knock us over in a dead faint. But then again, we have boys...and they stand up when using the toilet...and they love to play with their favorite appendage...enough said? All the air fresheners in the world can't compete with that stench. What's a parent to do?

We were talking on the phone with our brother yesterday, when we somehow got on the topic of this year's Halloween costume ideas for the kids. Last we heard, our oldest son wanted a black Spiderman costume (easy), while our youngest chose to be Boots, the monkey from Dora (not quite as easy). Anyway, as we were having our conversation, our 8 year old suddenly said from the background that he now wanted to be Arnold from the Magic School Bus television show. We were shocked to find out that our brother, the brilliant pediatrician, had never even heard of this Scholastic series. How embarrassing for him, we teased in our typical smug sibling fashion. Then, much to our brother's glee, our four year old insisted that he now wanted to be Phoebe, the redheaded girl...yeah, like we'll ever hear the end of that one from big brother. Darn it...we hate it when he gets the upper hand!

We have to admit that we were pretty surprised when a USB flash drive was on the required list for our friend's high school daughter. Things have really changed since our 9th grade days of electronic typewriters...are we dating ourselves, or what? Then again, our third grade son hasn't even mastered script writing, and yet his teachers already have him working on Microsoft Word and PowerPoint presentations. That's what we get for putting him in private school, we guess...sigh. Anyway, at least our friend's can now give their daughter a USB flash drive that reflects her personal style. These MIMOBOT designer USB flash drives are becoming quite the collectibles for kids and adults alike. Okay, so designer flash drives do not exactly fall within the "must have" category. But, still...how cute can a little piece of technology get? We can definitely see the appeal of these little guys.

When we were kids, our older brother hated taking aspirin. Okay, perhaps we're really showing our age here, but these were the days before children's Tylenol liquid suspension and when Dimetapp cough syrup (we remember it as the yummy grape medicine) was by prescription only. Our poor mother could only get our brother to take a pill by crushing it in applesauce and spoon-feeding him. Considering the torture he put us through growing up, it was a great pleasure to have a reason to call big brother a "baby" at times...na nanny boo boo! Our poor pets don't have it as easy as our brother did when it comes to taking medication. Whenever our dog Pepper has to take a pill, we literally pry his mouth open, shove it to the back of his throat, clamp his jaw shut and rub until he swallows. Don't get us wrong, Pepper's pretty good about taking them (certainly better than our brother was), but why should we have to struggle at all? Isn't there a way to let him think his medication is more reward than punishment?

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.

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!

Yesterday, we were playing catch with our kids in our development's common grassy area. It was great to have some old-fashioned outside time, though it was admittedly hard to ignore the oppressive heat of the Florida sun. Anyway, here we were, running for a long pass from one of our football stars-to-be, when we suddenly felt the ground get squishy beneath our feet. Holy sh..achem, oh cra...uh...oh, pooh! Literally. You guessed it, our big feet had landed in a pile of doggy doo. Do you have any idea what it's like getting that stuff off the bottom of sneakers with ridges? Ugh...we shudder just thinking about it.

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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.

Our posts honoring National Ice Cream Month have received a lot of interest from our loyal readers, particularly yesterday's "kool" idea, the Chef's Choice Waffle Cone Express ice cream cone maker. However, our review brought up an intriguing point...is a wire rack really the best choice for cooling off our ice cream cones? What if we do decide to decorate them or simply add some melted chocolate to the bottom? A wire rack would most definitely result in a bit of a mess if we laid our fancier ice cream cones on it. We need a better solution...that's right, an ice cream holder!