Painting, and Bowling, and Skating.. Oh My!

For those of you local friends reading this- you understand my quandary.

We live in a desert. Yes, the shopping and restaurants and entertainment spots are all awesome with their cool AC and misters everywhere you go. In fact, I find that there is more to do here than when I lived in California (northern- not southern). But let's be real- it's still a desert. And as a California-girl, born and bred, I still never fully adjust to the summers as I have been told I would. There are 9 gorgeous months during the year... and then comes summer.

And as a side-note, I am really tired of people reminding me that "at least it's a dry heat and not a humid heat". It doesn't help. I'm still hot.

So when it comes to keeping kids entertained and happy (and mom happy), I seek out all the ways to play inside or in water! So here are a few ways that I enjoyed playing with my munchkins, while avoiding the heat:

Pottery Painting

Bella loves it, and I'm not gonna lie... it's pretty therapeutic. I may have made a "MOM" mug that I kinda love... =)

Ice Skating

What is the opposite of boiling? Freezing! Enough reason.

And it doesn't hurt to add in a little ice cream before skating... and a sweet kiss from a cute little brother.

Ty wasn't sure about it at first...

But then quickly caught on, and had a blast.

I have tons of video I took with my phone, so I'll try to figure out how to post it all.

Bowling

My kids have played that bowling game on Wii Sports about a million times, so I was pretty impressed by how well they did at actual bowling! I think Ty may have thrown the ball a few times.... we may have left a dent or chip in the flooring if you looked closely enough. Oopsie.

But what's better than bowling?

Disco bowling!

We stayed and played a second game when they turned on the disco lights, because you just can't deny how much more fun that makes it!

Anything Water...

And of course, we live in our pool during the summer. But it's also pretty fun to meet our best friends at the aquatic center and play in the beach pool and float down the lazy river =)

Lots of Indoor Play Areas

And I mean lots. I can count at least 8 places that we frequent regularly, just to play and let them run off some energy in the nice cool indoors. We have everything from indoor bounce house places, jungle gyms, indoor mini golf and amusement parks, indoor trampoline parks, make-believe "play cities".. I mean really, you name it, and it can probably be found here. Indoors. Thanks goodness for A/C!

So here we are. Summer is almost over... and I'll have 9 months to enjoy the weather until June hits again. Sometimes I don't think 9 months is long enough to recover!