Flex day/skip day.

Luk had a specialist pediatric dental consult in Victoria. His mouth is too small for xrays at our regular dentist. Specialist is estimating $1300 for work on "possible" cavities. Ya. Not cool. Felt like another colossal waste of time.

Anyways...it was my flex day so after a lot of figuring Lili got a ride to work from a workmate. Fei walked home and we brought Jia and Kai with us so we could spend the day in Victoria.

Costco, dentist, park, baby ducks, baby goats, dollar store and finally Spaghetti Factory. We had some fun. The kids weren't as thrilled about the goats as I was! They were more interested in the peacocks.

Congratulations Lili

Congratulations Lili. We're so proud, as always. Nice to see some recognition for your accomplishments!

Fathers Day

Celebrating Eric with a camping weekend. Made complicated with the girls work schedule. I'll spare you the details.

We finally did the forest trail to the ocean. Eric and I took Jia and Luk. NOT a wheelchair friendly hike. Luk made it down ok. Coming up was brutal and we took the road way back. We finally sent Eric ahead to get the car. Lots of talks about how sometimes adventure days don't turn out as wonderful as others. Thankful Kai didn't come. He can get really difficult when he's not comfortable.

Eric took the kids to the beach to play the next day. I stayed back with the dogs and Kai. Dogs aren't allowed on the beach and Kai hates being outside, sand, being wet and wind. The beach is NOT his happy place. He had fun watching Dumbo for the first time with me. I told Eric that if there weren't pictures it didn't happen. He took one of Jia. Sigh.

I tried a camping hack. Taco salad in chip bags. Basic fail. Too awkward for the boys. Jia would have preferred just chips. Too many chips that were too salty. I think Eric enjoyed the novelty or at least my effort.
Overall it was a good weekend.

Backyard Mushrooms

Eric made the mushroom houses a couple years ago for one of Lili's plays. The troupe can't store everything so we took the pieces to our yard. They asked to borrow them this year. They wanted to paint them and we said sure. My only hope was that they didn't come back neon pink ;) They came back today and I think they're cute. Not as cute as they were as mushrooms. Now they're weird shrubs. But still cute and the kids are happy to have them back.

Today Kai is obsessing sitting or standing on the plumbing pipes for the radiator in their play area. This is new. And frustrating. He won't or can't stop himself. The plan is to turn the tv off and send him away from his beloved duplo each time he's caught. He cries so pitifully each time. This last go I sent him outside to join Luk and Jia. Double punishment. He really doesn't see the joy of going outside. Clearly explaining to him over and over that a broken pipe will flood the house isn't having an impact for him.

Piano Recital Photo

New Family Photo

We went last weekend to the school for a family photo. School fundraiser. $30. Just got them today. Best photos ever of our family!

Rathtrevor

First trip of the season. We had a decently good Saturday. Kai was excited about camping and he did way better than expected. He equates the motorhome as home now and was happy inside. We still struggled to get him outside joyfully. He did the long afternoon walk/play/explore but he asked every half hour to go home. Still...major progress. Jia was over the top excited about being camping again. She didn't calm down until our late evening walk with Isabel.

Miss Lacie was also rejecting going outside. She was exhausted and happy to stay in bed.

Eric took Jia and Luk to the playground before the boys bedtime. Kai adamantly refused to go. He wanted his tablet. We forgot to load a show for him so he was forced to play games. Which maybe was a good thing. It's been difficult to teach him how to touch/tap the screen.

Sunday I brought the teens home. Lili had friends over to finish a project and then they both had work. Eric took the littles to Combs.

Shocking how fast this weekend flew by.