Quality Weekend with Daddy

Recently, Emily went away for three days to go on a trip with her sister to Arizona.  It was the first time that she's been away that long from the kids for some well-deserved R&R.

So Daddy had the kids all to himself!  On Saturday, it was a day of errands.  They all went off to REI to return an item and the kids browsed a little bit.  They also tested out camping chairs for their comfort.

Then we drove to Tigard to drop off some supplies.  Our church had created some kits that would be passed out to refugees that are re-settled into the Portland-Metro area.

Here are all the kits our church had put together.  (Gabe is not in the picture because he ran away.  He has always been rather recalcitrant when it comes time to take posed pictures.)

That evening, as a reward, the kids got to eat shave ice.  Or rather, crushed ice that was pulverized in our blender.  They liked it nonetheless.

On Sunday, we went fishing at a local lake.  Xiao Yu enjoyed it--for about one minute.  After that, since the fish did not bite IMMEDIATELY, he put the pole on the ground and declared to Elvin that the fishing pole was broken!

We then went to the grocery store for some shopping.  The kids love artichokes so we bought these huge ones for them to eat.  Karina pretended it was a microphone.

And that night, we has s'mores in our backyard.  Emily had sent Elvin instructions for how to do this in a ceramic clay pot, to keep the fire contained.  And it worked perfectly!

Xiao Yu got to roast them too.

And had his own s'more to enjoy!

And on Monday, we had a rather low key day.  After Xiao Yu was off to preschool, Elvin took the rest of the kids to Petsmart.  It's sort of like visiting the zoo, only closer and much cheaper.

The kids wanted Elvin to buy a dog.  Instead they were able to convince Daddy to buy them a different kind of pet--crickets.  Unfortunately, they didn't last very long as they drown really easily even in one millimeter of water.

And since it was really hot that day, in the afternoon, it was sprinkler time!!!

That was our weekend...and Emily arrived midnight on Monday night--tired but recharged and refreshed to be a mommy again!