Pool time!

It was baking hot today so we engaged in two of my favorite summer rituals: ice cream and the wading pool. There's an ice cream parlor across the square from the library, so we swung by after checking out some new books. James got a cup of chocolate ice cream and I figured Thomas and I could split a small pistachio cone.

It turns out I thought wrong. The chocolate ice cream certainly got eaten, but the pistachio stole the show. James eventually commandeered the cone and would take a slurp off one side, then hold it out to Thomas so that he could take a delicate little nibble. They went on in this way until they reached the cone itself, which threw them off. "Can we give this to you now? We're not sure what to do with the hard bready thing," James explained. "That's fine, babe," I said, polishing it off.

Then we got home and cracked out the wading pool. We brought down the bath toys and went nuts. The boys went to work pouring water from the plastic cup into a funnel; after some industrious pouring they tired of this job and started tossing water around. It was great. When they'd tired of that, they helped me use the water to irrigate our vegetable beds.

James also has a new toy clarinet that he's in love with. "Sing something, Mama! I will play beautiful music to make a duet for you."