Summer's nearly here

And that brings its own set of challenges, living with a hubby and two small energetic boys in a small house on a small peice of land in the middle of the 'burbs.

No creeks to paddle in and they're not allowed to run through sprinklers in these days of water restrictions.

What to do to keep us (me and the kids really as hubby gets the luxury of working in an airconditioned office, well, it's a luxury when it's stinking hot outside, otherwise not perhaps) coolish and entertained-ish? I'm all for the boys entertaining themselves but for the sake of sanity, I sometimes need an activity that doesn't involve the words "it's MINE!/I had it!/I want it/he did it first/go away!/RRRAAAAHHHH!". (I'm hoping that's just a stage)

So, yesterday afternoon....hottest day so far..... saw us having a water fight.

Not a really wet and annoying type of water fight, but an everyone-has-a-squirty-bottle type water fight. The kids stripped down to as little as I'd let them get away with (considering we're playing out the front so passers-by are inadvertently entertained) and we all ran round like mad, hot things.

This is an ideal type of water fight as the possibility to get really drenched is very slim, the bottles don't shoot all that far, they don't fire a lot of water at once and even my 2 yr old could join in....no air-pump action required.

And they don't break down.

And they're cheap to purchase.

In my books, squirty bottles (do they have an official name?) are an essential part of your thrifty, summer, keep-the-kids-out-of-mischief outdoor equipment stash.

The other thing that I plan to do a lot of this summer is make...and eat...lots of healthy-ish, home made icypoles/popsicles.

I started off with a mango sorbet made in my beloved thermomix the day before...

And the leftovers went into the molds I purchased last summer for this express purpose.

Ahh, what more could you ask for on a hot day?

Well, apart from a creek to splash in or a sprinkler to run through perhaps, but we're making sure to love what we DO have, not pine for what what we don't.

Roll on summer!