Spring has turned into Summer!

Summer arrived early here in the Pacific Northwest and the kids have been busy taking advantage of that.  

Elvin had set up a sandbox in our backyard and the kids have spent a lot of time in that already.  They got in even before Elvin could put the tools away!

They love digging around, pouring sand from one container to another, etc.  Luckily, we have not had very many incidents of the kids trying to bring sand into the house!  

Sometimes the kids do get covered in sand to the point where they need a rinsing when they come into the house.

On our swing set, we got a new addition--it's a glider swing and the kids enjoy it.

Xiao Yu likes it too.

The kids love playing outside in general.  Elvin has tied a rope to our old apple tree and the kids pretend that they can climb it.

Gabey (and the other kids) also like to use a little hammer that Elvin has to hammer things...anything.  One thing they like to hammer are rocks that they bang and bang into smaller pieces until they are pulverized.

The kids also like to pretend that they go hiking.  Here, Gabriel is hiking with a his backpack and walking stick.  (Nevermind that hikers usually are not caught out wearing only a diaper.)

Karina decided to join him for a hike as well.

Outside, one can blow bubbles as well, which Xiao Yu is learning to do.  He is working on his aim.

Big sister helps Xiao Yu with the bubbles.

With the garden coming back to life, the kids like to help out.  Here is Karina watering the plants.

Gabriel found a volunteer carrot in his garden bed.  Each kid has a raised bed where they can plant whatever they want.  This carrot must have grown from a seed left over from last year.

Elvin put in three tomato plants this year and the girls are helping to dig holes for those.

Because we had our unusually warm spring, the strawberries ripened earlier than usual.  So we were enjoying our first strawberries in May.

They were very sweet and juicy!

The kids love picking the strawberries.  

Xiao Yu enjoyed eating the strawberries, whether they were red... 

...or still white.  He eats them anyways.

They can't possibly taste good but he doesn't seem to mind.

As the weather warmed up, the 64 strawberry plants that Elvin planted last year started producing tons of berries that even the kids didn't pick them all!

We enjoyed these during a meal.

Elvin also pulled up some garlic that was growing....also volunteers from last year.

With the warm weather, our blueberries also started ripening early.

We were enjoying blueberries in June, which was the earliest ever.

And also, our raspberries got ripe in June as well.  This was the first time ever that all three berry types were ripe in our yard all at once!  Gabriel has spent many hours in our backyard grazing on strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  Sometimes he comes back into the house with his face completely covered with red and blue juice.

What else keeps the kids entertained?  They like to goof around a lot around the house...

The kids like to paint each other's finger nails with nail polish that their Aunt Jenny gave them.  So they like to pretend that they are in a beauty salon.

Inevitably, Xiao Yu comes over to try to get in on the action too.  Which the girls are happy to oblige.

All the kids seem to love playing with play-doh.  This often keeps them entertained for hours.

Also, Elvin bought some sculpting clay at the local art store because the girls wanted to make vases.

So Elvin got out his tools from his ceramics/pottery making days and showed the girls the basics of hand building a pot.

He showed them how to make a coil pot which uses coils piled on top of each other.  The girls picked up this technique well and each made pots with handles.

As we have mentioned before, Karina and Gabey have a special relationship, to the point that we sometimes refer them as "the twins".  They love to spend time together and sometimes when Gabey hurts himself, he will go to Karina for kisses and to be soothed.  And at that point, Karina says, "I'm like a second mudder to him."  

Here they are working together to make crescent rolls that come out of those tubes.

Here are the twins being silly, wearing their helmets while watching a video together.

We think our kids can be pretty creative and bright, so we're going to brag a little here...  Grandma and Grandpa always bring mylar balloons for the kid's birthdays, and they love them.  The kids also like to tear the strings off of some, just for fun.  But then, they would have to pester either Mommy or Daddy to help them get the wayward balloon off of the ceiling.  

Well, they came up with an ingenious solution.  To a balloon WITH a string, Eliana put on a little circle of Scotch tape, so that the sticky part was also facing outwards.  Notice the tape on the yellow balloon where the nose should be on the smiley face.

Using the string, she then guides the yellow balloon until the Scotch tape is also sticking to the red one.  Then ever so slowly, she gently lowers both balloons down until the red one is within reach...

...and voila!  She's got the balloon.  We thought this was pretty clever of her!

The boys also play with the various toys laying around the house.  We took a picture of this instance because the boys were actually playing together, with the same toys, and THEY WERE NOT FIGHTING! 

This was a major breakthrough for the two of them and so Elvin had to document it.

One time, Elvin was away on a business trip for a couple of days down in Eugene, Oregon.  When on business trips, he always brings back a present, but this time he brought back treats.  There is a cupcake down in Eugene called Toadstools and they sell mini cupcakes that look like toadstools and have flavors like Cookies and Cream, Green Tea, Peanut Butter & Jelly, and Lemoncello.

The kids all enjoyed eating them and trying out the different flavors.  Xiao Yu stuffed his into his mouth with gusto, as you can see.

When not eating cupcakes, Eliana thinks of other creative desserts.  She really like whipped cream and once asked for just a bowl of whipped cream with cinnamon sprinkled on top.  We figured that this was less calories than a bowl of ice cream and so complied.

A stick of butter, however, it NOT less calories than ice cream, but every once in a while we do notice that the butter that we set out on the counter has a little finger swipe mark embedded into it.

This past spring, the girls enjoyed going to several musicals which were put on by the local youth theater.  They dressed up when they attended Mulan the Musical together.

And one day, Eliana and Karina were playing "airplane" together.  Eliana was the pilot wearing a pilot's helmet (which was actually a cardboard box) and was using the tambourine as her steering wheel.  Karina was the co-pilot and the girls laid things out on top of the blue pillow that were supposed to be buttons.

And during dinner one time, Elvin showed the kids the trick of making glasses using your hands.  The kids got all into it, which interrupted dinner for a bit...

Karina could do it quite well too.

Gabey had a harder time doing this.

And Xiao Yu really couldn't do it either.

Well, that's how we've been spending our summer so far.  Hope you are having a good summer as well!