05 AUG 25

Driving south for the creek... Yali and Patience whipping each other with bath towels in the back seat arguing over who should get which towel... “This is MINE now!” Yali declares // “NO! YALI! I WANT THAT ONE!” // “Okay. KAREN!”... **laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh**

It's loud at the creek... eight kids between two moms have stormed the banks before we arrive... but Yali and Patience claim another pocket of the stream and get busy sliding down the clay bank flanked by snake holes on their paddle board and pouring copious Boo Buckets of “ice cube” water over each other's heads... cicada's hum... eagle's cry... tiny toad sitting in Yali's hands... packs of ancient sea fossils for the drive home...

McFlurries in the drive-thru... the clerk apologizes for the lack of plastic spoons and offers plastic forks instead... kids don't mind...

Puck is back home researching mechanics tool cabinets after a full work-out from his recruiter before leaving for work...

Yali has re-entered the hot afternoon... fully-suited Spiderman walking across the yard carrying large plastic craft drawer to the trampoline filled with water from the garden hose...

Evening is dropping off Patience at the studio for two hours under Easter sunbursts before grabbing Puck from work...

...he's ready for a plate loaded with fat omelette slathered with salsa and roasted potatoes... cucumber stars on the side which makes him smile...

Oxbear's been out picking up lists of things... returns for round three of omelettes...

Help Yali mix paint to find the right shade of red to paint one of his old teddy bear's eyes into a “violent eye”...

...before getting Patience from dance bubbling about new steps in her hornpipe as she catches some K-drama on my phone for the drive home...