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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.

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.

Our younger son is very afraid of the dark. In fact, his anxiety is so great, he insists on being carried into the house whenever we come home at night. The lack of street lighting in our neighborhood doesn't help...neither does the fact that our kid's going through another growth spurt and is definitely not a lightweight these days. We also tend to forget to turn on the outside light, especially when we leave the house earlier in the day when the sun is still shining. This is a particular sore point with our son, especially since the darkness makes it tough to see the keyhole on the front door and get us in the house quickly.

The importance of the neckline continues to the back of the dress, particularly if you consider that it is the view that the wedding party will spend most time contemplating as you are conducted through the service.. The back of the dress can give dramatic effect in the combination of dress, train and veil, which must be taken into account when you come to deciding upon the details.

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!

Ooze with beauty as you represent the gene pool with this mother of the bride dress made of sequined lace with chiffon overlay. It has a jewel neckline flanked with pea beads to emboss it. The short sleeves make the shoulders narrower while the crisscrossing pleats at the bodice and waist makes the body shapely. The brooch holds the overskirt gracefully.

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.

The train is fabric that sweeps the floors, either cut into the skirt of the dress or attached as a separate piece. Like the veil, the train is a romantic evocation of the bridal dress,  with attendants carrying the acres of fabric into the church for that dramatic sweep down the aisle.

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 been having an ongoing challenge these days in The Daily Kool household. Our boys are at the age when we have to constantly remind them to wash their hands. It's not as if we are obsessive about cleanliness (well, maybe just a little). We do have rules, though. Washing hands after coming in from the outside, after meals and certainly after using the toilet shouldn't be too much to ask, right? Apparently, it just might be...at least for our boys. You should just hear some of the arguments and excuses coming out of our two little guys...everything from "My leg hurts and I can't stand by the sink" to "My hands aren't that sticky from the breakfast syrup." Our favorite of course, is the ever-popular "Hey, we stand up anyway...what's the big deal?" Imagine our embarrassment when our four year old proudly confessed to his grandmother how often he and his brother try to "trick us" into thinking that they've washed their hands (as if we didn't know). Seriously, they expend more energy trying to avoid washing their hands than it would just take to do it already. Sheesh!

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?

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?

Nothing says summer quite like an ice cream cone. Some of our best childhood memories include strolling down the boardwalk by the beach with our parents, eating ice cream cones while watching the ocean waves crash against the shore. We could never quite understand how anyone could dishonor the sanctity of ice cream by eating it out of a cup. Good thing we've never quite grown up...as adults, we still love our ice cream cones, even when the sticky mess drips down the side of our arms. Waffle cones help us stay a bit cleaner...not that we care much. We just love them because they are so darned yummy!

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!

The Daily Kool's beloved pooch Pepper, has just turned 9 years old...wow, time is definitely flying by quickly. Though he still acts like a puppy much of the time, we have noticed that things are slowing down just a little bit for him. The vet has told us his hips are beginning to weaken, as is often common for a standard poodle of his age. Plus, we've seen the extra hesitation when he jumps in the car, on the couch, and especially on the bed...yep, it's definitely time to get Pepper a pet ramp.

Our wedding ten years ago (yikes!) was a beautiful Victorian affair with rich fabrics, bold colors and flowers in every corner. We even found these beautiful jewel-toned potpourri pillows at a local flea market. Each pillow was an actual picture frame, and we decided to use them for place card holders/party favors. Thank goodness they were all individually wrapped or the scents would have been overwhelming! Anyway, we spent the last night before our wedding carefully cutting open each pouch, putting the place card in the holder and resealing the plastic wrap. It was a long and tedious process, but the results were truly magnificent.

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 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.