It was pretty hot Sunday afternoon. While Laura was napping, Kathryn and I went down to ToysRUs and pciked up some backyard toys. We grabbed a Wham-O Slip ‘N’ Slide and a pair of pump action squirt guns.

We went with the cheapast Slip ‘N’ Slide, the $4.95 model. It was well worth every penny, I wouldn’t get the fancy models, everything they want is in the basic model. I hooked it up and Kathryn had tons ‘O fun with it while I tried to inflate her pool.

We have an Aero pool that we bought last year on E-Bay. It’s a great little pool, but you can only inflate it with their rechargable pump and the pump needed a charge. While Kathryn was slipping and sliding, I was try alternative methods of getting that thing inflated. I have a small electric pump that I use for tires and I tried that, but after 20 minutes, it wasn’t pushing enough air in. The Aero pool has a large opening for air, it’s pump inflates the pool in just a couple of minutes. It was time to bring out the heavy artillery. I grabbed Anne’s hair dryer it was the same diameter of the pool’s intake. I was able to get the pool 95% inflated (close enough for toddler use) in about 40 seconds with the hair dryer.

By this time Laura was awake and wondering what was going on. She didn’t like the pooln last year and I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be this year. She was hesitant on going in, but when Daddy picked her up and swung her through the water, she started having fun. Then it time to go Slip N Sliding with her sister.

While Laura was napping and I was letting the tire pump attemp to inflate the pool, Kathryn and I broke out the squirt guns. We had some fun, but first we covered the rules of Squirt Gun.

  1. Don’t squirt Mommy
  2. Don’t squirt Grandma
  3. Don’t shoot the dog
  4. It stays outside.

With the ground rules out of the way, we had lots of fun. I’m not used to being outgunned by 5 year old, it’s a good thing I can still out run her.

It turns out Aero has an AC only pump, but it costs almost what I paid for the pool. And it’s out of stock.