China Beach

We took the back road through Port Refrew.  Three hours of trees.  Boring for the kids.  They weren't terribly impressed with the giant Spruce tree we stopped to see.  When we finally got there we were shocked to see cars parked way down the road.  Yikes. 

The hike was way over the boys skill level.  Kai basically glided all the way down. By the time I got him to the bottom my legs were pretty shakey.  Eric helped Luk down.  The beach is beautiful.  There was an outhouse at the top and bottom!  It was hot out and the water was freezing.  Eric and Lili were the only ones to get in.  We were settled near a driftwood structure.  I finally had to move in for the shade.  The boys joined me and the girls took off exploring with Eric.

The day didn't turn out as planned but everyone had a good time.

The boys and I headed up with a head start.  Up was way easier for them than down. They trudged all the way without complaining. 

Eric decided to surprise us with Spaghetti Factory after our hike.  Traffic was atrocious.  We accidentally ended up at Symphony Splash.  Drove right into Empress parking.  Had dinner and then went to the event for a bit.  Crazy. Super crazy. Sooo many people. Then we went to see tent city.  Good times.

Happy to be home and looking forward to getting into my Harry Potter book! 

Giant Spruce.

Mer-man!

Photo credit to Fei.

Photo credit to Fei.

Tent City.

Waves

We're heading to the waves tomorrow!  Packing up the gear tonight.  It's a little bit crazy how much stuff we need for the beach now.  Bag of towels, suits and water wings.  Cooler back pack. Bag of food. Bag of swim shoes. Body boards, hats and beach blankets.  Thankful for the mini buckets!  We haven't been to China Beach in years.  In my memory it was a horrible hike down and there are no bathrooms.  It would be too much to pack the porta-potty but I wish we could.  Not kidding. 

We went for a walk after dinner at the river park and it was hot and stinky.  Whole place smells of pee.  We all agreed the urban park wasn't cool.  Then we went to Walmart to pick up picnic food and ended up with boards for the waves.  The downside of having five kids is the cost of entertainment.  Well the cost of everything really but it seems to hurt more for the unesessary things.

Heading to waves tomorrow is pretty exciting but even better, the next Harry Potter book is being released!!  I think we'll be stopping at Walmart on the way!

Fei's shadow is as tall as me!

Fei, me, Kai and Lili.

The boys are in jammies headed to bed and Jia is off swimming with Dad.

Jia just figured out that she can touch bottom in the pool and doesn't need a floatie anymore so she is begging non-stop for someone to take her swimming.

Kid's Day

Our camping plans fell through.  I don't think we've ever been home on this long weekend.  Plus a flex, home on a four day! Unheard of. 

Sites are booked solid so we have opted to do some day trips instead.

Today Eric was working with my Mom and Dad so I took the littles to the Forest Museum for kid's day.  I was expecting hoards.  It wasn't too bad. It's reduced fare and the ticket is good for three days.  Nice deal.  We had our pass. 

So we hit the field and got tattoos, played with bubble heads, made a wall hanging and listened to music with a snack.  They were so enthralled with arts and crafts that they forgot to play at the playground!

Now we're home for the heat.  Hoping to head back out to play after dinner when it cools down.

Last night the girls and I went to see the last Ice Age movie.  It's awful. Don't go.  Even if you've loved Ice Age so far.  I would have happily left early but Jia liked it. 

Arbutus Park

Lili was off with friends to Gordon Bay.  The rest of us decided we wanted to go swimming too. So we went to Arbutus Point in Youbou. Always amazing to me how empty this spot is.  The water is still cold but it's nice and clear.  They've brought in sand so the littles had fun with their mini buckets again.

Mandarin, language and speech.

More Kai stuff.

He has consistently rejected any Mandarin speaking person.  We have never heard him speak any Mandarin.  He hates Chinese food and wants nothing to do with photos from China.  When he tries new words he barely moves his mouth and we can't get him to use the first consenents on words. We had come to the conclusion that he wasn't speaking Manarin in China and that people hadn't really talked to him because he doesn't seem to know how to move his mouth to talk.  We were thinking we had a super, duper, really, really long way to go with his speech. 

It's clear he understands us. And he responds appropriately most of the time.  It's getting him to enunciat that is the trickiest part.

I've read that at his age he should be able to have basic communication after six months of immersion.  We're nearing the six month mark and we're no where near a full on conversation.  That said, on any given day communication is the least of our problems.

So, at the park on Sunday night and the wildest thing happens.

A Chinese Gramma, Mama and little boy around 2 show up.  The little boy is trying to play with Luk and Luk is just avoiding him and walking away.  Kai leaps in to protect Luk from the intrusion and yells at the little boy in Mandarin. Fei and I were keeping an eye on him.  The Mama was staying close and talking to Kai who was now yelling at her.  He seriously wanted them to go away.  I would normally intervene but Fei and I were enthralled with watching.  His speech was clear and loud and expressive.  I finally let the Mom know we didn't know he could speak Chinese.  She said he uses little words but is clear.  She told us he didn't want her son to play with his brother.  We had a nice visit.  She said it took her 8 years to speak English and her Mom has learned none.  She thought Kai's English was pretty good.

And then miraculously the next day his English was better.

I'm not sure if it really did improve or if some of my worries were laid to rest and that changes how I perceive the situation.

Kids are amazing. 

Shopping for the boy's birthdays.

Their 5th Birthdays are coming right up.  They're tough to shop for.  We have most outdoor toys and sports.  We're loaded up on games and developmental toys.  Then factor in their delays and the fact that neither of them can handle anything with pieces.  I've wandered around a few toy isles and it's hard to find much.

It's super quiet at work today so I went to Walmart on line and managed to find 8 items for each of them.  All the same but different colors.   Walking dinosaur and dragon. Transformers.  Doodle pros. Hot wheel splash cars. Rc car for Kai and robot dog for Luk. Spiderman masks. A game for each of them and a duplo set for each. Done! 

Prices were great, free delivery.  One happy Mama. 

FCC Picnic

Small turn out but most of the regulars were there.  We all had a great time.  It was fun showing off our new surprise son!  Last time we saw the Victoria group was CNY and we didn't have Kai and when asked if we were adopting again had told everyone NO. 

Kai and Luk were beyond adorable yesterday.   They love dressing alike so they were pretty pleased with themselves.  They sat at a picnic table good as gold playing with their cars and having a snack.  Kai was loading cheerios into a truck, squealing ooohnooo and tipping them out before eating them.  Luk was busy turning the cars over and then shaking his head and saying sooo silly.  They were charming as usual.

Jia was all about Emily.  They had a riot together as usual.  Lili and Fei managed but were getting bored at the end.  They cheered up when Anna and Abigail joined us for dinner. 

Another park after dinner and a late drive home.  All five kids were pretty quiet on the drive.  After three action packed days they still didn't sleep in today!  

Finally in the pools.

It hasn't been warm here.  It was finally hot enough for the girls to want to cool down.  The pool is still cold.  A few more days of this heat and I might get in too.

The boys were thrilled with their little pool.