Cotton Wood

We have a cotton wood tree in our backyard. It is a very pretty thing....but also a very messy thing! It keeps us from opening our pool early because the "cotton" just clogs everything up and makes a terrible mess....it's better to just wait for the seeds to all drop.....trust me. It's about done now so we'll probably be opening the pool in the next weekend or two. We thought long and hard about not opening it....but decided to. We are NOT planning a family vacation this year so we hope the pool will be a good filler for something fun to do. The cost of the chemicals and extra electric to run the pool is just shy of $100 a month....so hence the thinking if we really wanted to open it. There's a lake about 35 mins from the house with good swimming but gas is gonna be high this summer. So we decided that the extra $100 would be an ok amount to spend on recreation. Plus it's good exercise for the kids (and Mom) and they ALL like to do it. Sometimes when we plan activities that are gonna cost us money as a family....it's hard to find something all four kids can agree they like. One movie out for us as a family is over $60 and "if" we get snacks there.....well that puts it over $100!!! The kids will get far more entertainment value out of the open pool this year. Here are some more shots of the cottonwood summer snow!! Enjoy!!!

I tried my hand at home made funnel cakes for my youngest son's birthday....they were fun and super easy....I'll get a post up soon with directions!!!

~Moxie