There's only one way to survive an Arizona summer--spend as much time as you can in the water!
When we bought this, our first home, ten years ago, we emphatically declared we did NOT want a pool! After all, we were about to begin our family, and with the many dangers small children are already exposed to, we did not want to have to add the stress of preventing child drownings.
Now, my kids are 9,7, and almost 5. And man, I really, really wish we had a pool! When it is 109 degrees and all you can do is sit in your A/C- cooled home because it's better than sitting in your 140 degree car and going somewhere, the kids get cabin fever pretty quickly!
So, we decided to buy a pop-up pool! The store had a great sale on a 12- foot metal frame pool, so we bought it, installed, it, and tried to figure out how to take care of it!
Let me say, thank goodness for HTH® Pool Care Products! They have made caring for our pool so easy that we can focus on having tons of fun instead of working hard to keep the pool clean! We clean and vacuum it every day, add products such as HTH® chlorinated tablets as needed to balance the water, and shock the pool once a week. Really, it couldn't be easier.
My kids are part fish, I swear. They want to swim every day for as long as I will let them. We have been on Summer Break since Memorial Day,and I think I can count on one hand the number of days we haven't been in the pool!
Look how clear the water is! We put up the pool Memorial Day weekend and the water still looks great!
Because HTH® makes caring for the pool so easy, I can use our "out-of-the-pool" time for fun activities with the kids, instead of slaving over the water. We got to tie-dye these awesome pool towels, and I'm going to show you an easy way to do your own!
I let my kids pick from some patterns included in our kit, and they were completely in charge of the colors. We used bright red, yellow, and blue.
Pattern #1: Swirl
1. Lay your towel out flat. Pinch up a piece of fabric in the middle and carefully twist the fabric in a circular motion, adding more fabric with each turn. You'll soon have a spiral. Keep it loose but flat so the dye can sink in better (ours was a little too tight!) Place rubber bands around the towel to keep it in place.
2. Add dye in "pie slices", with the same color in slices across from each other. After the top is done, flip it over and follow the same pattern on the back.
Pattern #2: Circles
1. Lay your towel out flat. Pinch fabric up and wrap rubber bands tightly around it. Repeat wherever you want circles to appear. My son did his in two rows.
2. Add one color to the fabric in the rubber bands, or alternate colors as desired. Use other dye on the open spaces in the towels in whatever pattern you desire. My son just kind of chose spots and put color on. I thought it would look horrible but I think his ended up the best!
Pattern #3: Brain
1. Lay your towel out flat. Starting in the center, pull the fabric up by scrunching it tightly into the center. Repeat on the other side until all the fabric is bunched up together. Then place rubber bands around the towel to hold it in place. Apply dye as desired.
We were kind of running out of dye and my son wanted lots of white space in his towel for some reason, so this one didn't turn out the best. But hey- he likes it!
We had so much fun making these! Now we have the perfect towels to use when we're finished swimming. If you don't use HTH® products for your pool, you really need to switch! I love them! When you use HTH®, you take care of your kids! HTH® takes care of the pool!
Find tips and tricks for taking care of your pool with HTH at all these places:
