State Champions

Wow, of all times to forget the memory card to my camera-when the Rockets
win the 1A Softball State Championship was the worst time of all. What a tournament,
rain delays and cancellations led to 6 teams tied for 3rd place. First they beat Cascade, then
Connell, who the paper had said was out to get revenge for a loss to us last year, then we beat Onalaska 13-2, who had taken 2nd in district and everyone felt was the team to beat.
We beat Cle Elum 7-3 in the championship game. Tierney came in as relief in the 4th inning and finished it -she finished all of their games and played great. One picture I would have loved to have taken was one of all the parents and grandparents out on the field taking pictures of the team with the trophy-there so much pride and happiness out there. Macee got to play in the semi-final game against Onalaska and hit a single and came in and scored on a later hit, so that was fun. It was an awesome tournament for the Rockets!

Shopping and a play

Parker and Auna's 4th grade class put on a play today "The Case of the Missing Paragraph", Parker played a Style Reserve Recruit (with his new haircut he fit the part perfectly),

and Auna played a Maid. They both did a good job, Auna sang solo a couple of times and has a really good voice. I think Auna enjoys being in plays a lot more than Parker, who it seems, would just as soon be in the back row of the chorus. It was really a cute play, funny and very educational at the same time. Their class has some good actors in it.

This morning I decided Rielee and I needed a "girl's day" shopping. Macy's had some Hello Kitty clothes on the sale rack so we went there to look for a dress for her to wear on her birthday, since she is having a Hello Kitty theme. After telling her life story to the sales clerk, she picked out several things to try on. She settled on a dress and also found a t-shirt that she liked, but she still wanted to look around some more. I noticed the swimsuits were also on sale and she found a cute pink and black zebra print that she loved because it had beads on it. It had a cut out circle in the back so I told her about it, but I think she misunderstood what I meant because she said "I don't care if it does have a hole in it Grandma, I still want it."

Tuesday with twins

Papa has never spent so much time on the floor as he has been lately with the twins. It is just so much easier to entertain them both if you are on their level. Notice he is using their soft block for a pillow though.

The girls continue to enjoy eating just about everything these days. I made Rielee a bowl of broccoli today for lunch and mashed some up for them and they loved it. We had a lot of laughs when Rielee shared her GoGurt with Harper, she was making the goofiest faces:
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The Feisty Twins

Ava and Harper were in-I was going to say "rare" form today, but for them, it isn't really rare at all for them to be feisty and a little wild. They did sit still for a moment in the morning for a picture together. Ava was so sweet, I held her and slept along with her for her morning nap and as she was starting to wake up, she still had her eyes closed and started patty-caking, waking up with a big grin, what a happy baby.

Both of them got very upset today when Papa left for the softball game, crying and following him to the door, Ava even climbed up and stood at the closed door. Fortunately, Rielee was still there so we put them in the high chairs for a snack to distract them.

Alan came over in the afternoon and they were playing up a storm at their music table. I also gave them some pages out of a magazine and they really loved playing with those, although they kept trying to eat the paper.

The Rockets won today and get to go to State on Friday. The first game they won 15-0, Tierney hit a home run. Macee hit a double in the last game which they won 11-0.

I tried to get a cute picture of Jillian and Rielee at the game, but oops, forgot and asked them to smile, Jillian only cooperates when asked to "show her teeth"so this is the best picture I got. Rielee was really sneaky and tricked me by putting some pickle-flavored sunflower seeds, which she knows I hate, in my bag of plain seeds. Yuk.

Late night with Riels

Saturday we went to Macee and Tierney's district softball game, unfortunately they lost a close one 7-6 and now have to win Monday to go to State. Rielee decided she wanted to spend the night at about 8:30 p.m., we couldn't refuse her, of course. She asked Auna to come over for an hour and watch TV with her, so it was after 10:30 by the time I got her to bed. She watched a few more cartoons while I read before we turned the tube off. Then she talked and talked and talked, finally saying "Grandma, the clock says 12 :04...she is so funny rambling on and on I just couldn't tell her to be quiet. I figured she would surely sleep in, but no, at 6:30 a.m., she was wide awake and saying it's "morning-time, let's get up" and no amount of pleading would convince her otherwise. I had promised her we would finish her ocean scene picture for the fair and she didn't forget that, so after Papa made us 10-grain waffles, we started on her picture. She glued some shells in the sand, and she remembered she had heard that you can hear the ocean in a shell, so she tried it and was so excited that it worked. She took several shells home with her to take to school Monday for show and tell. After the craft project, she took a long bath and then it was time to go home. We were so busy I didn't even think to take a picture of her, but after I took her home I walked through the very wet yard to look at some of the flowers so I took a picture of them instead.

Speedy crawlers

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Ava (in the stripes) and Harper have really picked up speed in their crawling. They are into everything now, and will spot an open door and be off to investigate in an instant. Also, several times today, Ava would be standing and let go of what she was hanging on to and balance. Harper has become fixated on the pictures we have around of her brother and sister, and when she spots them, will squeal and get all excited and just keep trying to get to the picture until I finally have to hide them out of her sight.

Rielee under the weather

Rielee came home from school today not feeling too well. She had a cough, sore throat and said she felt like she was going to throw up, so I gave her a bowl, just in case. She still had an appetite though, and after a bowl of pears, an apple, and a go-gurt, she seemed to be feeling better since she was wearing the bowl on her head. The food perked her up enough that she asked to get on the computer and find some animal pictures to print out and color. After she went home, we checked the mail and her caterpillers had come, so we took them over to her, with their special butterfly house, so she could set it all up. She was so excited.

Save the drama

The busy twins checking out the dishwasher for the first time. They are into everything these days, and both sporting many little bruises to prove it. They are also starting to let go and balance briefly while standing now. Still no teeth yet, and they were both very cranky at times today, so we used the Ora-jel and that helped some. Here is a little video I put on YouTube of Rielee singing them some advice when they were fussing:

Saturday painting

Saturday was a busy day of softball, treehouse painting, and baseball. Parker and Auna spent the night Friday night (actually Auna stayed with us all weekend). Parker and James went to see "Ironman 2" and Auna stayed home and played with Rielee. Sat. morning we got up and went to watch Macee play softball in Rainier. When we got home, Parker and Auna started painting the interior of the treehouse. Parker started painting it last summer, but he used red exterior wood stain, which smelled funny and looked really bad, so he was happy to cover that up. He and Auna stayed with it for several hours, and then he and I finished it this morning. He found an old rug to put down, too. He was very happy with the finished result.

Saturday night we took Auna and went to watch James play baseball. It was a fun game, James hit his 3rd homerun, we've seen him hit 2 of his 3 homeruns, so we feel really lucky. His team won, too.

A good day outside

Ava and Rielee swinging.

Harper and I in the hammock, she was studying her sister in the swing. Just after this picture was taken, she started hollering for her turn. She can't talk yet, but Harper manages to get her point across.

Ava tried out the teeter-totter with Papa's help.

Ava also tried out the Push Buggy.
We had lots of fun outside with them today. They were really happy to sit in the swing and on the hammock and look around at everything. They especially kept a close eye on Rielee.

No swimming today

We tried the twins in their pool today, but mostly they were overwhelmed by it all, being outside with few clothes on, the grass, the big (to them) green pool of water...

Papa put Ava in, but she wasn't liking it one bit. So, after all the preparation (lots of sunblock) to go outside in the sun in their swimsuits and hats, they were probably out there all of 3 minutes, next time we'll have Rielee there to play with them.

The happiest they were all day was when we took them for a stroller ride. Papa decided to just leave Ava in hers for awhile once we got inside, she was so content.

Later in the evening, we went to watch Auna play ball. She played 3rd base, right and center field, and shortstop and did a good job at each position. She was walked, stole 2nd and 3rd base and then scored a run.

Make-over day

Rielee is such a girly girl, loving all girly things, especially her"make-overs" as she calls them, but where she just puts on make-up. Today she let me fix her hair, which is rare, this is something she always wants to do herself. I told her I'd fix it like Tierney always said she wanted her hair when she was little- "some up, some down" and she thought that was okay. Then she decided she wanted to make-over me, with piggie-tails, oh boy, I sure was hoping nobody stopped by while this was happening.

Then, after putting every shade of eyeshadow on me, powder, blush, and lipstick, and flattening my bangs like she wanted hers (just like Jillian's, she said) she said "Grandma, you look so cute!"

Messy Monday

It still cracks us up to find one of them like this when we get them out of the car...

A little reading time before naps.

Quite the morning with the twins today--by 8:30 I had changed 3 messy diapers, 2 of which were blow-outs requiring a complete change of clothes! The last diaper change had me yelling for Papa's help to wash Harper's hand, as she had crawled from behind me to grab Ava's messy diaper. Fortunately, by 9 they were both down for naps, giving me time to recuperate.

It is so funny sometimes, once in a great while I think I have everything in control, and the next minute, chaos!

Mother's Day

Ava is chewing on Han Solo's feet...

Charb and Lexi cooked us a wonderful breakfast for Mother's Day. Afterwards, we were all sitting around watching the babies play, and Charb showed us how, when he would raise his arms and "yell", Harper would do it, too:

We all laughed and laughed at her, and Charb told me later that she continued to "yell" at everyone for the rest of the day.

last JV game

The JV ended their season with a win against Montesano. Macee will play post-season with the varsity team now. After the game, Papa took Norma, Parker, and Elena (the exchange student from Poland) to Longview to do some Mother's Day shopping. It was very traumatic for Norma when her debit card was refused at Fred Meyer, so they went right over to the credit union to straighten out the problem (all her money was in savings, not checking).

Parker came over later to spend the night, and he and I went to the the mall. We found some bargains at Macy's, and since he was so patient while I looked around, we went to Panda for orange chicken to take home for dinner. We also stopped at Safeway for a couple of pints of our favorite pineapple-coconut ice cream for dessert.

Auna came over to spend the night, too, and after a lot of begging to go to Ironman 2, "No way" from me, "No way" from Emmy, at 9:30? too late... they settled on a trip to BK for crowns to decorate. Parker's ended up saying "PK loves BK".

Cousin visit

Emmy came home for Mother's Day weekend, and came to see Ava and Harper first thing this morning. Unfortunately, Ava was feeling a little under the weather with a cold she caught from Harper. Neither were their perky selves today, a little bit needy, but they still had their appetites (cardamom bread was a hit with them today) and still played quite a bit. I did give Harper some Tylenol in the afternoon, she was so cranky, we thought maybe her gums were bothering her.

Once it warmed up, Rielee wanted to go out to the sandbox, so we put Ava in the stroller, and Em carried Harper. Rielee managed to get Emmy up in the playfort, and Emmy said it seems a lot smaller now than it used to. She was about 9 yrs. old when it was built.

Rielee had a scary run-in with a slug today. There was one on the sidewalk in front of the house, so she ran all the way around the house screaming for me so I could get rid of it, shaking in her flip-flops. It seems she has the same fear of slugs that Parker had. She wouldn't go out there until I had hosed it completely out of her sight.

Update: Rielee read her book to the class today.

Bubbles

I bought a bubble wand for Rielee to play with and she had so much fun making big bubbles today, then trying to pop them. In fact, she got so wild swinging at them that she broke her wand in a couple of places. She's a bubble-loving girl.

Norma's Senior Presentation

Papa was honored to be asked to attend Norma's Senior Presentation today. He said she did a great job and got high praise from everyone there. The Seniors must give a power-point pres. on what they have achieved during their high school years and what they intend to do in the future. Norma wants to go to college to be a veternarian like her Mother, but she must first pass a test in the fall to get into that program, if she doesn't pass that, then she will study to be an attorney.
We had Rielee to ourselves today since the babies went with their other grandparents. She brought over a couple of books to show me how well she could read them. I suggested she should take one to school and read it to her class, but she didn't think she could do that, so we decided she should perhaps "practice" reading it to Papa and I, like we were the class. It certainly gave us some insight to what "story-time" is like at Enter-K. She had both of us sit on the floor while she sat in her chair. Although we were listening carefully and being quiet, Papa coughed once, and Rielee quickly threatened to put him in the "red" chair if he didn't "zip, velcro, or button" his lips! He had to choose which method he would use right away, too. She referred to him as "student with the white shirt"-and it was obvious that she pays close attention to everything the teacher does! Before she was done, she had a chair on either side of her, in case one of us acted up... She did a great job of reading the book and showing each page, I am curious to see if she will take the book to school. I have a feeling that she has more fun reading to her "students" here at Grandma and Papa's though.

Bumps and bruises...

They still have no reaction to their reflections in the mirror, the only thing they did was ram their heads into it... and if you look closely at Ava's forehead, you can see her latest bruise. We got a kick out our hungry baby girls today-- Auna came over after school and made herself some toast. She came into the living room with it and sat down on the couch, well, it took about 10 seconds for the babies to realize that she was eating something and start begging for bites. Auna tried to hide her toast behind the baby wipes box, but that didn't work, she was forced to share it all with them.

Papa took Norma to the fish hatchery today so she could take a tour with Ann and learn what a fish biologist does. Papa said it was quite interesting (he tagged along) and that Norma was fascinated by it all. She said as far as she knows, no one studies fish in Italy.

9 month check-up

Ava headed right over to the stairs first thing this morning, showing me how fast she can crawl now. I was surprised by the increase in their crawling speed, and the way they slap their hands down on the floor as they go.

Harper was right behind her, it is like there's a giant magnet attracting them there.

I took them back to the family room, then went to clean up their high chairs, turned around and they were headed right back to the stairs. Where is the gate, Dad?! He put the one at the top of the stairs but figured they were still slow enough he didn't have to worry about the bottom one yet, I really have to disagree...

They sit face-to-face in their highchairs at home. I was feeding them yogurt and some little Munch 'Em cracker snacks that were the "Vegie Dip" flavor, which they just loved.

They had their 9 month check-up today- Ava is 2'2" tall, 17 lbs. 10 oz., Harper is 2'3.5" tall and 17 lbs. 1 oz. They are very healthy, and the dr. said Harper is ready to break through with some teeth very soon by the look of her gums. She was making the funniest faces today-what her Dad calls her "Walter Matthau" faces. Had a tough time with Ava and her nap today, she was not about to stay in her crib. 3 times I rocked her to sleep and then put her down and she would wake right up, screaming like only she can scream, hanging on to the bars on the crib, very pathetic, I couldn't stand it, and didn't want Harper to wake up either. Oh well, we will have to work on that another day.

Prom

Macee and Norma, all dressed up and ready to go to the prom. It had a masquerade theme,

so they made masks to match their dresses. Several couples were meeting at the Country Club and riding in a limo to Portland for dinner at Beaches. Norma had been counting down the days until the prom, she was so excited for it, they don't have dances or proms in Italy.