July 21 - Family Reunited

Well, G&G camp was a huge hit!  Although the girls missed us all, they had a fabulous time in Brighton.  For Jacqui and her rattled nerves, it was a salve; for Charlotte and her unquenchable curiosity, it was a fascinating departure; for Natalie and her bottomless need for attention, having us all to herself was in heaven.  It worked out for all of us, hopefully it was fun for G&G too ...

So, Jack set off this morning to collect the girls from G&G camp and Natalie and I headed to the only Children's Museum in town.  It was inspired by the Bay Area's own Discovery Museum and was impressive although will be even more so when they find their permanent home.  It's a museum for 6 and under and Natalie was in her element.  She's usually dragged to the things that the older ones will like and this was just for her.  She was the big kid today.  It was really refreshing to have time with her to play and imagine and interact.  She hasn't been very available in the past for this kind of experience but the improvements we've been seeing in her temperament and social skills of late were shining through today.  She was patient and engaging and uncharacteristically flexible with the other kids.  Kindergarten, here we come!

On the way back to Toronto, Jack braved the heat and took the older girls to the Toronto Zoo.  We're not a big zoo family but the Toronto Zoo has pandas.  Baby pandas.  Mic drop.

All sweaty girls converged on the condo in the afternoon and we headed straight for the pool for more water related shenanigans.  How one leads a game of hide and seek in a pool is beyond me but Jack had 5 kids playing by the end.  Where does one hide in a pool?  How hard can it possibly be to find them?  The answers to these questions seem self-evident to me but the kids were having a ball so I say, bravo!  Keep it up!

We did not have Kayla for date night tonight so we took all the girls out for dinner close to the apartment.  The meal was fine and, afterwards we strolled through the Entertainment District and up funky Queen Street West looking for Sweet Jesus, the ice creamerie of the moment.  We found it but the long line dissuaded us and we ended up somewhere sub-standard.  But hey, when it comes to ice cream, even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.