A Beautiful Day in Tempe

The weather yesterday was perfect. 80-something degrees and sunny in the early afternoon. Clear blue sky. Warm breeze.

My daughter was sleeping. She spent the night at her friend D's house Saturday night and then got up at the crack of dawn and went to the Phoenix Zoo for their annual Lymphoma walk-a-thon. D's aunt is a Lymphoma survivor, so D and her dad and brother walk every year in the fundraising event. Of course my daughter & D stayed up most of the night and got almost no sleep, so after the walk, my daughter came home and slept the rest of the day.

My husband was watching football. Normally I'd have joined him, but I was trying to get some work done.

But then my little guy made me the irresistable offer: Would I please set up the slip-n-slide for him? He wanted to have "water day." And this is exactly what I love about Arizona. You can have "water day" in November!

And so, although I really should have worked, I went outside with my little guy and set up the slip-n-slide. This slip-n-slide is a lot fanceir than the plain plastic mat that I remember from my own childhood. It sprays water in little tiny fountain-like arcs from tiny holes in a plastic tube that runs down the side of the plastic mat that you slide on, to keep it properly wet and slippery, and it has a water "cushion" at the end that also sprays water, making a little pool that you land in and providing a small soft barrier so you don't go barrelling out into the mud / grass and get all scraped up and dirty like we did when we were kids.

It's amazing how much fun kids can have with one toy.

He had a blast playing with the slip-n-slide. Slid down it. Walked up and down it. Drank water from the fountains. Splashed the water around. Got out a bunch of plastic balls in various sizes and splashed them, rolled them, and bounced them in the water. Walked around and bounced up and down on the little plastic tube and the water "cushion" at the end to make the fountain-like sprays of water ebb and flow and make cool designs. (Sort of reminded me of the fountain show at the Bellagio, but without the fancy lights and music).

Then he wanted to play with his water rocket, which he got as a birthday gift last year. So I dismantled the slip-n-slide and he helped me set up the rocket launcher. Here is a photo of it from last year (I was too busy enjoying the afternoon to take photos today). That is my little guy's back and his sister's arm in the photo:



The rocket launcher is cool. You attach the rocket launcher to the hose and turn on the water, and it sprays water in a huge stream strong enough to lift the plastic "rocket" and hold it up in the air until a breeze blows it off balance a bit, and then the rocket crashes to the ground. It also has an on-off and volume adjustment lever, so you can turn the water off while you set the rocket on the base, and then turn it on either gradually for a long flight, or suddenly for a huge burst of energy that sends the rocket flying fast and furious and unpredictably. Great fun!

(And get your minds out of the gutter. It's not all that phallic!!)

When he got bored with the rocket itself, he began putting various other objects on the rocket launcher to see how high and how far they would fly.

When he tired of the rocket launcher, he wanted to play with his squirt guns. I made him promise not to squirt me with them. He said ok. So I filled a couple of small squirt guns for him.

And then he drew designs in water on the patio with his little squirt guns. He drew a heart for me, and a robot alien for himself, among other things.

And then he got out the "Super Soaker 5000," and I filled it for him. And then I knew it was time for me to head inside and get back to work.

It's never a smart idea to tempt fate. Or six year olds.