How hot was it today? It was so hot, that just being in the swimming pool wasn’t enough, Annalie needed the sprinkler on too.
Yes, you’re reading that correctly. That temperature reading is 112F. Now, this is a cheap thermometer we bought on clearance at Target, so I tend to take whatever it’s telling me with a grain of salt. But when I checked online it said the temp in our town was 105F, and that’s not counting the horrid humidity. No wonder my brain seems to have melted a bit.
Troy and I got into the pool with Annalie for a little while, but we were cramping her style. She wanted to splash and we wanted to not be splashed, so we dried ourselves off and baked on the deck for a while, armed with large glasses of iced lemon-limeade.
Eventually Annalie got out too. As she dried herself off, she draped her towel around herself toga-style and said, “Look, Mommy! I’m a Greek person!”
Today was one of those mishmash Saturdays where we did a little of this and a little of that. In addition to hanging out in the pool, we did some cleaning and straightening up around the house and yard. I made Brenda’s stir-fry for lunch and for once got the sauce exactly right. Annalie and Troy hung out in the basement for a while, watching 80s movies and eating snacks while I had a nice long chat with my mom on the phone.
And we hacked a pink girly foo-foo ceiling fan for Annalie out of a boring white one!
When we moved into this house, none of the bedrooms had ceiling fans. That wasn’t a problem in the spring, but as summer heated up the bedrooms tended to get stuffy, especially at night, because our air-conditioner is weird. It keeps the living room and the whole basement cool, but the kitchen floor gets icy-cold, and the bedrooms stay several degrees warmer than is comfortable. Troy and I got a ceiling fan for our bedroom a few weeks ago, and had planned to get one for Annalie’s room when we got back from our trip to Omaha.
Of course when we took Annalie to Home Depot to look at fans, she fell in love with a pink one, decorated with ornate white hearts, that cost $100. If she didn’t get that pink fan, she was gonna be so very sad, you guys. We explained that the price was a bit too high, and although she bravely said she understood, her lip started to quiver. I pointed out a less-expensive cute fan with rainbow-colored blades and tried to talk her into that one, but she had her heart set on pink.
Then Troy came up with a brilliant idea. We picked up a plain white fan for half the price of the fancy pink one, plus a $3 can of pink spray paint. Later we picked up two dollars’ worth of sparkly white flower and butterfly stickers from Michaels. Troy painted the blades with two coats of the spray paint, and once the paint was dry Annalie and I arranged the stickers on them. Troy installed the fan, and voila! That’s how you hack a girly pink ceiling fan for half the price of the one at the store, and make your kid happy at the same time.
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Aw! You guys are such great parents!!!
That is soooo much better than buying the pink pre-painted fan! You guys rock.
I am sorry you are roasting. Could you send some of the heat to San Diego, it’s still too cool to swim if you live near the beach! The fan is just perfect! Annalie looks happy as a clam and probably cool as a cucumber tonight :) As for us, we will probably have the heat on by morning.
I’m being punished for mocking your misery earlier today (see Twitter comments about how it got up to like 82°). It’s 1:05am and it’s still 75° out. I can’t sleep unless it’s 68° or below, dangit.
So I’m really sorry. And that fan is adorable. I’d have put glow-in-the-dark stickers on it.
I think you need a vacation down here in sunny but not so warm Newcastle where it doesn’t make it above the mid sixties.
What a great idea! I’ll have to remember that. :)
This heat has been pretty crazy.
I love the pink ceiling fan!
Great hack and that bottom picture? LOVELY!
High-five on Troy’s resourcefulness and your craftiness!
I adore the pink ceiling fan! Im looking forward to hacking my own fans now :) i still cant believe it was over 100 degrees, thats insane!! And i thought close to 90 was melting! I just imagined your baby in a womb jacuzzi, haha. Stay cool and hydrated :) ( oh, congrats on your new GIRL!!!)
“Look, Mommy! I’m a Greek person!” My favorite line! hahaha
We love our ceiling fans. Fish and I still need to put one in our room, but they keep the playroom and the girls’ rooms sooo much cooler than without. Such a smart move with the painting. I bet Annalie likes that version even better than the one she saw at the store.
I hope you get some cooler days soon. We’ve had oddly cooler weather out here. We’ve only had to run the air conditioners a few days so far this summer, which is definitely not the norm out here.
I have YET to eat Brenda’s Stir Fry.
That is way too hot. what a difference from here. Usually summer is disgustingly hot. But not lately. I was watching the news the other day and it was talking about how cold the weather has been out here. San Francisco hasn’t seen weather this cold in 40 years. I rather like it.
And what a good idea for the fan. That would be just like Isabelle wanting the pink fan. Bet it was way more fun getting to choose what stickers to go where than buying the expensive one.
I love the outcome of the fan! That’s such a great compromise! :) Love it!
Spray paint has become my best friend…i’ve changed the color in my kitchen thanks to spray paint…a quick coat over my white clock and white paper towel dispenser:D
Perfect fan. We have them in our upstairs too as it just gets way too hot up there, even when the temperature doesn’t get up that high.
I love the fan!! It’s beautiful and perfect for a foo foo princess!!
Stay cool and hydrated!! It’s hotter than the dickens here too!
So lovin’ the creativity..and waaaayyyy better than any fan you could find in the stores! Like Annalie, it’s one-of-a-kind!