July 9-10

Now what does one do when one only has TWO kids??? Well, we pack them up at around 11am and truck them off to the local splash park to enjoy the sunshine, water and company of other bathingsuit clad children. 

Bathing beauties

With Daddy

With Mommy

We lucked out and ran into Emma there as well, she is at the pool (most of the time) each week day for her summer program and this time our showing up lined up perfectly with her group’s time at the splash park. 

With Emma

Such a helpful girl

I love these cheap cups for splash parks!

In fact, the rest of the day we were tied to the landline getting things sorted and allowing Ken to finish up the work he has left to do. This gave me the chance to go through what we DO have here and downsize, organize or chuck what needed to be done. 

Spending lots of quiet time

With one more full day boy free we had one more trip to the splash park. Less busy without the summer program kids but no less fun! With their cups to splash and each other for company the girls did just fine. Of course that meant we had to take LOTS of pictures!!

New suits and more fun

Skipping in the water

Together in the puddle

So much fun

With other kids too

Which means Wednesday ends up in another entry… after all we had to go to pick up the boys AND visit AND drive back. Seriously the past week or more has been go go go and it feels like there is NEVER enough time! 

From a distance making some noise

Just so much cuteness

July 4th and 5th

When one is within visiting distance of a god-parent/great friend what can one do but… VISIT. It just so happened that on Wednesday we had the time and she had the day off so what did we do? Pack everyone up and head to a different part of town to visit Gavin’s godmother Christine. We so rarely see her with how busy she is with her job as a pharmacist and our not living in the same town. BUT we lucked out with her days off and our spare time though the weather was not nearly as nice as the company.

Gavin and his Godmummy

No kids to play with but TWO dogs and THREE cats, though the cats went out of site quite quickly one by one (with one not making an appearance from the start). Echo was quite intrigued by all the fluffy critters. 

PUPPY

There was a bucket of toys and some snacks and some good company and the time apart just sort of melted away. I have to say, I love visiting with Christine and miss her so much. It is so wonderful that when we DO get together it is like the time has not passed. Gavin was over the moon with his chance to spend time with HIS god-mother. 

The Lego structures he created for her

Chatting

Thursday was a day of kids time INSIDE with a weird continuation of crap weather. Thankfully having kids to play with made the weather bearable.

They got in a brief amount of time outside before the weather truly turned

Giggles at the table

Logan and Echo

We adults dealt with the doom and gloom weather with homemade hamburgers on the grill… note the lovely apron!

Isn’t he cute?

And that was that, sometimes you just need some slow down sorts of days! Which brings us to the end of the week and FRIDAY… which began a much more exciting weekend so… more on that later! 

Ominous weather

July 2nd and 3rd

And so goes the days one after another… well this week was different! With Darryl off to California and back again for the week and Sharon at loose ends we volunteered up our company. The kids were beyond excited as that meant THREE kids to play with along with their toys and electronics. For me it was a chance to relax, hang out and with Sharon’s amazing selection – WATCH MOVIES! She has the comfiest movie watching bed EVER! 

Self sufficient for breakfast

And the best news of all – we FINALLY managed to coordinate with our facilitator and he (with wife in tow) were able to meet us at the Bleau family’s house and do our end of year assessment. It was actually rather a pleasant surprise to see everything spread out on the table. With how our last 6+ months have been from the extended move to Echo’s heart surgery and everything in-between we actually accomplished a lot! We had more than he could look through in the time allotted and he was very pleased with our progress. We talked about the upcoming year and how we want to homeschool. The verdict? Well, we need to school the REINSCH-JOHNSON way… the way that works best for our family regardless of what others think or say or do. After all, what is the most important is that it WORKS, that there is PROGRESS and that we are HAPPY. I think I can do that!!! And with our sort through I found ideas, items I had forgotten about and things to pass on to other families that would find better use for it. 

6+ months of work

The facilitator was a little later than scheduled so we overlapped our next exciting visit – Karyn and Victoria here for the afternoon. As Canada Day fell on a weekend some people had Friday off, others Monday (some chose). The timing was perfect as Ken and I had to run out and get passport photos done of myself and the girls (the boys’ are still good, time to get ducks in a line). So instead of all 5 kids sitting and waiting at Walmart the boys went out to the park that is a few blocks from Sharon’s to run out some of that excess energy. 

Local park

So much fun

And some fun in the backyard

Our next adventure was a government/travel inspired one. Time to get/renew the 3 passports we are lacking (thank goodness the boys’ are all still good). So there was forms to fill… a drive to make and a rather surprisingly SHORT wait at the passport office in the city. So of course I had to take pictures… apparently you are only allowed to take them facing North and South! The nice guard told us AND gave the kids flags! So learn something new every day!

Yup, that flag is RIGHT in front of Gavin's face

We also took pictures of the arch that marks the start of China time. The kids recognized the country of origin right off the bat. Proof of our China units taking root in the mind. 

The arch

Plaque

What else to do in the city.. stop and get my favourite red pepper dip to go with pitas we bought at H&W… 

Out front of the produce store

Pitas and dip

And then a quick stop off at Bulk Barn!

Bulk Barn

And then back to the Bleau house and the fun times with kids. It feels good to have lots of kids for our kids to play with and a friend to watch movies with… and watch movies we will!!!

Emma and the girls