Geo caching

We've got it figured out.  Fei found this teeny micro cache.  Fun stuff.  We've got 13 logged now. 

Anyone know why my phone pictures have the black box under them?

Fun Fair

Seemed a bit quieter than usual, the threat of rain will do that.  Big rain held off for most of the fair.  Variety show did get moved into the gym because of rain right after Lili and Fei danced.  They were fabulous, nailed the sword dance.  They both looked like they had fun.  Oh, and Fei got second on her cake and Lili got a third.  Jia was happy to hang around with Eric and I. 
Today while the big girls went to a B-day party, Eric, Jia and I went to a park and tried a geo cache.  We were with friends and they helped us look.  Took a while but we finally found it!  Then we tried one more and found it too!!  After we picked the girls up we tried two more and found both of those.  I think we might actually be getting the hang of geo caching.
Kids love the searching.  I am totally intrigued that there are literally hundreds of slashes all around us.

Mrs. McPhearson from 1871

Lili's class just had the school marm come for the day.  As a part of learning about pioneer days.  She is a woman who pretends to be Mrs. McPhearson from 1871 and takes the kids to the school house and teaches them about how school used to be over 100 years ago.  An amazing program.  The kids were all in costumes, they had to pack food in class jars, baskets, linen and metal containers.  Lili used Gramma's mess kit from India and used a canning jar with a lid for her water, both placed in a basket with a cloth over her food.   When the kids were lined up they were told about how their class was representing a whole shool and the kids teacher was assigned to grade 7 and had to stand at the back of the line.  Lili and Cole were in grade one and at the front of the line.  They used slates to do some work and Lili said her name was Becky and Dixon was her older brother in grade 3.  Too funny.  She loved the day and talked quite a bit about it last night.  It's so fun to see them get excited about learning new things.

Hopefully Fei will get to do this next year, she was keenly interested in what was happening.

Fun Fair is tonight.  The girls decorated cakes last night for the cake walk.  They're so excited about Fun Fair.  I'm working the first shift so they're coming with me and I'll just let them loose with tickets.  Eric and Jia will join us after I've finished my shift.  Fingers crossed that the rain holds off.  Both girls are dancing the Highland sword dance in the variety show tonight. 

Eric surprised the girls yesterday by building their playset in the afternoon.  Actually got it assembled while Jia napped!  I figured it would take a lot longer than that, so it really was a pleasant surprise.  The girls played on it last night when they got home and were clearly delighted.  Still have to revamp the slide access to get the slide up higher.  Jia took a look out the window and said 'ohh slide'.  I don't think we'll be able to keep her on the baby slide for long :)

Whirlwind

Getting ready to do a treasure hunt.

She thought she was sooo cool on Kalum's trike.

Most of the group hiked to the point and the kids explored the secret summer beach.  Lili said the best part of the weekend was remeninising about summers past on that beach.

Isabel climbed on lots of logs and rocks, I think she'd do great in some agility classes.

One tarp, hung on a rope = a full hour of laughter for one baby :)

Horse tails!

Hillarious.

Swarming Shannon to see her phone and the geo cach site.

We're not in the swing of camping yet this year, the baby changes everything and our system is shot.  It's staggering to me how much extra stuff we pack now!  Seems Eric and I just spend sooo much time trying to hurry up.  We barely see each other and are constantly switching off tasks.  I was violently ill the first night out.  I don't have a colon or the flap that holds the bile in the intestines and if I don't have food on the track down then bile will come up.  The kids didn't want to stop for dinner and Eric had eaten so I just kept giving the kids snacks but in the end I didn't eat.  My fault and boy did I ever pay for that.   My guts calmed down enough by two in the morning to eat some cereal and by Sat. morning I was good to go again.  Just in time for Lili to spike a 101 fever.  We gave her tylenol and she was feeling better after a few hours but was having a hard time keeping up with the kids, she was pretty low energy.  This was Isabel's first trip out since last year and although she did great and seemed to be enjoying herself, she was a lot of work for Eric.  He's the only one that can control her so he had her with him constantly.  They did a lot of walking, running and hiking.  Eric let her off leash for the first time while they were hiking and he reports that she was fabulous out there.  He used to love hiking with Junior and he did enjoy taking Isabel out.  Hopefully he'll find some more time to do that more often.  The girls and I just slow him down and we don't like trekking in the back woods, we like park trails that are clean and groomed. 

So, all in all, we had a great time, totally enjoyed all the kids and the other families AND we need to find better routine to the packing and unpacking.   Oh, and it sure would be nice if we could find a way to get Jia to sleep better in the trailer. 

Shannon introduced the kids to geo caching.  To say they loved it would be an understatement.  We've now created a geo cach family account and loaded a geo cach app on my phone.  A geocaching we shall go.  Hillarious.  Like we weren't busy enough already.

Eric and I don't see much of the big girls when we're with the group either, they rush through their morning routine and then take off, they come back to use the bathroom, grab snacks and they race through their meals so they can get back to playing.  I know it's the BEST thing ever for them to experience and they'll never forget these days but wow, do I ever miss them.   We're planning a family trip off island for 11 days mid July and I'm already so excited about it.  Not sure yet where we're going but for sure we'll do a few days at Kootenay National Park.  We all just loved the Radium hot pools.  I suggested booking three nights there and Lili and Fei are pushing for five, too cute.    

New toys.

The old toys are faded and need a good scrub but Jia didn't care about that!

Jia doesn't like touching grass or flowers, it took some coaxing but she finally picked her Mama a tiny boquet of miniature daisys.

When Lili's not around, her cat Jenny is lots of fun.

Oh so cute with the new hair doo.  She needs those bangs cut again. 

I got home from work yesterday to find Eric and Jia in the back yard.  Eric was digging out the girls old plastic yard toys.  Oh boy was that ever fun times.  Jia was so excited, running back and forth between them all. 

Eric is on a mission to get some yard work done.  We're picking up a slide tonight, the playset tomorrow night and this morning Eric and Jia went and picked up 360 heritage red bricks for a patio.  Just a flurry of activity now that the sun is finally here!

First Dentist appt.

Fei taught Jia how to blow on wish blossoms.

Here Daddy, you blow.

?  She walked right up to this post and kissed it.

Open up Jia.

Gee this chair is fun, what's all the fuss about?

Uh oh, this is feeling a bit real now.

Not so excited any more!

Thank goodness that's over with and I got a new ball too!

Another busy weekend.  Friday we went to see Barry's new puppies, 3 week old Chihuahua pups.  Soooo sweet.  The girls just loved holding them.  Saturday we had our first autism parent support group combined with a kids playgroup.  The parent support group usually meets every fourth Wed. night but we get horrible turnouts.  I suggested we try combining a playgroup for parents that don't have sitters and some of us gave it a whirl.  It worked great, there were 7 kids ages 7 - 9 and they all played Wii together then came up and had snacks and ended with a bounce on the trampoline for everyone.  I'm not sure exactly how beneficial the group is for our girls, they're already so social and it was clear at snack that our guests were NOT used to group snacks/party type gatherings.  Lots of funny moments.  We had a house full of gifted kids for sure.  One boy asked when snack was and I said 2:30 and it was clear as one checked the clock, one checked his watch and one said 'right, 2:30' that we better be prepared to present food right at 2:30!  Lili and Fei enjoyed the play and are willing to have them all over again.  Fei met a little girl in grade 2 and they had a nice time together.  New friends are always fun.  Sat. night we took off for a quick dinner with Catherine and the girls and a play at the playground near their place.  Sunday, Eric couldn't ride because it was raining too hard.  Usually I'm the one on the go but this time it was Eric.  He seemed a bit panicked about a whole day in the house with all of us girlies so we took off to see Rio.  Well, the girls and I saw Rio, Eric and Jia played in a mall.  Then we did a bit of shopping and were back home early.  Monday was my flex and Eric, Jia and I took the big girls to school, stayed for assembly and Jia made it through without having to be taken out.  She normally makes too much noise in there and wants to sit with her girls.  This time she sat on the floor by herself and played with E's keys and cell phone.  She was a bit loud every time she said 'heyow' but other than that pretty good. 

Jia had her first big temper tantrum in a restaurant this past weekend because Eric wouldn't let her take her straw out of her milk.  We just don't enjoy it being flicked all over us, kill-joys I know.  She can get pretty darn loud our little girl.  She wasn't easily distracted either.  Uh oh, here we go again.

On Monday all three girls went to see the dentist.  No one was sure if Jia would open her mouth but she did, Dentist says no real way to tell, but her teeth seem closer to age two than 16mo. 

You'd have to spend time with Jia to really 'get' how busy she is but here's a three minute glimpse:
Changed her butt and placed her on the floor, in the time it took me to put her diaper in the genie and wash my hands, she threw Lili's Lucky bear into the garbage, opened a kitchen drawer, took out a metal measuring cup, banged it on all the kitchen cupboards, dropped it on the floor, went into the dinning room and opened the China cabinet, took out an empty salt shaker, pretended to salt the cat, put that down, picked the phone up out of the cradle in the living room, said 'heyow', put that down and by the time I caught up to her she was sitting on the piano bench playing with pretty fingers.  Phew.

Last week we put Isabel into doggy daycare and she did great there.  I chatted with the fellow who owns the day care and he said he'd do some training with her and get her working in a pack and then would work with us on any other issues.  He gave me tips to stop Lacie from barking when we get home and it's worked!!   Isabel came back tired and was soooo well behaved.  I don't want to jinx anything but she's been fabulous ever since.  We're planning to send her back again this week near the weekend so that hopefully she'll be tired and behaving again while we camp this weekend. 

Last news of the week is that Eric and the girls went out last night to look at a playset for the backyard, big girls have outgrown our little swing set and it's too rusty for Jia to use.  He picks it up on Thursday, the big girls are thrilled.  Will post pics. when it actually happens.
 

Treadmill

Jia was all about the treadmill last night, she was insistant that she be allowed to have a turn!  We were all just cracking up.  16mo. old and training for something?!  She ran for about 20 minutes and was upset at being told she'd had enough.  I took about 18 little videos, they're all hillarious.  I posted four onto youtube.  Lili really wants to submit one to Americas Funniest Videos. 

Link one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPfivWMELIQ

Link two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0FSvdf-7KM

Link three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ8psetQngs

Link four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kioQYRME9BA

Who knew you could ever have so much fun with a treadmill?!!

Monday

Fei being creative.

What a happy group of kids!

Meiling wanted someone to play with her in the doll house, Jia tried but I'm afraid she was a little too annoying for Meiling :)

Night time snacks.  Jia usually skips this but we started the movie earlier than usual for Meiling.  Jia was delighted to be sitting with the big girls and was stealing food from their plates.

Mommy and Jia's first Mothers Day together, she wanted to get moving and Lili and Fei wouldn't stop playing with Willow and Meiling long enough to stop for pictures.

Elvis?

Tap, tap, tap your chalk, tap, tap tap your chalk, and now lets stop.

Mmmm...Dad's tea...I think it's funny that his mug is as big as her face.

Weekend was whirlwind.  Catherine and girls did make it for dinner on Friday.  The girls had an awesome giggle at the restaurant.  They're so sweet together.  The big girls had their dance school Mothers Day Tea on Saturday, that was fun.  Willow and Meiling came with us.  Meiling sat with paper, crayons, a little Christmas penquin and one of Jia's zoobles.  She amused herself for two hours at the table and was happy doing it.  She even set up her crayons as swords and had the penquin and zooble dance over them.  :)  I forgot how fun five can be.  Jia stayed home with Eric so it was a relaxing afternoon.  Sunday morning I got five girls climbing in bed with me, Lili made me a card with a two page letter in it.  Very touching.  Fei made me a clay rat face and a card.  Jia jumped on my head and pulled my hair by sitting on it then gave me a wet sloppy kiss and Meiling drew me a picture of cow. 

I stared at Eric in the morning until he was uncomfortable and finally said 'Happy Mothers Day'.  I did ask him late afternoon if he'd remembered to call his Mom.  He didn't answer me.  I thought about nagging him but was a bit peeved at having to so let it go.  Sadly he didn't call his Mom.  Hopefully he gets to it today.  After 19 years of marraige I still can't figure this part of Eric out.  He did make all the girls and I pancakes which was nice.  He usually makes a big breakfast for us on the Sundays that he rides anyways. 

When he got home late afternoon we were all still in jammas so he made us dinner at home.  The young couple that bought our camper came to pick it up.  She wanted it for her Mothers Day.  Our front yard is free and clear now!  The girls played together in the round about with chalk for a good hour last night.  Eric and I sat on the steps and just watched them play.  One of those rare moments where everything is calm, everyone is getting along, there is no agenda and we got to enjoy the peace and relax.