Finally summer arrived this past week. We have put forth our best efforts to make the most of every sunny day, because when you live here in B.C you never know how long it is going to last. Thursday we spent the hottest day of the week at Crescent Beach near White Rock with some other mommas and kiddies. It was a lot of work, but the kids had fun playing in the tide pools, poking at dead crabs, building sand castles and eating sand for Violet. I'm not sure of the appeal, but I was continually scooping it out of her mouth.

Despite my best efforts to keep my gang coated in sunscreen, we all came home with missed sunburned areas. I was relieved that Leif's bottom stayed white, even though his swim shorts continually slipped well below his crack. I won't post that picture, but he did get a fair amount of head turns and chuckles.
  We spent the following sunny days at a free community kiddie pool out in Coquitlam, and several trips to our local Maple Ridge water park. We are still eagerly anticipating mom's pool being ready. It is wonderful to live in such a beautiful area with so many great parks, lakes and beaches. I really think B.C. is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I feel so blessed to live here.
  A few other things I would like to mention: My girls received their Summit report cards this week. Summit is the distributed learning school we are working out of. They were fantastic report cards, and not because they were exceeding expectations, because they weren't. They were however "meeting expectations" both in all areas but one which was "approaching expectations ". When they were in public school their report cards mostly read "not yet meeting expectations". The best part of their report cards was that their teacher ( The woman who marks their work and meets with them occasionally) referred specifically to the individual assignments they had each done, making detailed comments. This is what I loved. It gave me confidence as their main teacher and reaffirmed why I decided to do this in the first place.
  Christopher was accepted into graduate school this week. Very exciting! He is going to get his masters in clinical counseling. This does mean he'll be going back to school in January full time, for around two years if we include practicums. So it will be back to living off student loans for us, but I will try to find some part time work as well. It is better that he go full time to get it done sooner. I am excited for the end results, when he has a good job and makes a decent wage. To celebrate getting accepted into school he went for a 100km bike ride on Saturday with a couple of his friends. Then he came home and cleaned the entire house, vacuuming, dishes, laundry, washing floors. I was out with the kids. It was so nice to come home to a beautifully clean house. He's still recovering today.
  I am a little jealous of his long bike ride. I haven't run more than 11km since my half marathon. I really want/ need to go for a long run, but my left hip is giving me so much pain. when I run I really favour my right leg, and tend to limp a little bit. I hate it, but I don't know what to do about it. Physio therapy is not at the top of my financial need list. Hopefully it will go away over time and I can get out for a long run while we are still having this fantastic weather.

      Okay, I couldn't resist.

  Before I end for this evening here's a cute little thing Miete said the other day. "Mom, when are you going to sign me and Lilli up for that Brownie or Waffle group that our friends are in?" Maybe it's a "You had to be there moment." It was funny to us though.