Ava and Harper shooting hoops 
They want to push the cars back themselves now, without any help of course. 
We had to go for a walk in the rain today since it never stopped raining all day. We went out to look for Easter lilies and once all the girls had found one, we tried to get Ava to stop for a second for a picture, but no way, she had too much exploring left to do. 
And this is Ava and Harper exactly 1 year ago. How can these be the same little girls that now shut the playroom door and don't want us to bother them while they are playing?! 
Auna was playing with the camera, taking pictures of the girls while they had a snack after their bath. They are wearing some of Rielee's clothes while I washed their outfits (since they didn't have a change of clothes with them), they thought that was fun, Ava got a skirt to wear, she really liked that. It is going to be an easy week for us having Auna around on Spring break, she is so helpful and keeps them entertained. 
When they came back out in the living room, Ava and Harper started pulling the clothes out of the bag, and Ava wanted to put on Auna's new shorts. In this picture, she is wearing a baby hat that she often puts on and wears around the house, and trying hard to get those shorts on. Papa is putting a shirt on Harper. 
We laughed so hard at these two, they were hilarious and I think they knew it. Pretty soon, Ava had her shorts on her head. Then they did some spinning around in circles to get dizzy and stumbled around. 
We didn't have any problems getting them to sleep, they were worn out! 
Ava and Parker
Harper going down the slide.
At the playfort they rode in their toddler swings for a long time, then when it was time to get down, Harper wanted to get on the big swing. Ava followed but her swing was slippery and she wasn't feeling very secure. Then they played on the slide before going inside.
Since Rielee and Parker were spending the night we had an early firepit before Rielee had to go to Tee Ball practice. She wanted to cook her own hotdog...although she was proud of that one, we tossed it and started over. Auna and Parker were really wound up (Spring Break starts tomorrow!) and started hitting pop cans with a golf club for fun. It was a short firepit.
Then during their bath, for the first time, they were both down on their bellies trying to put their faces in the water. Harper can blow bubbles which just cracks her up, but today she managed to suck some water up her nose which brought the bath to a quick end.
Ava and Emmy
Emmy said I always put nice pictures of the kids on this blog, so this morning Papa and I were talking about it and decided to take pictures of them every time they cried or were unhappy. The only problem was they were so good most of the day there wasn't an opportunity to grab the camera and catch them arguing over a toy or fussing about anything!
But this is how they look sometimes when they both want to sit on your lap at the same time. A little intense but that''s all.
We have been getting a kick out of Ava lately. She says "no" and really enunciates when she says it. Most of the time she says "no" when she really means "yes" but today I had given them both a couple of chocolate goldfish crackers and Ava really didn't want hers and gave them to Harper who obviously loves them.
And this is--a rare sighting of WILL! He came over with Emmy and sat down to watch a little college basketball.
I think he was amused, or maybe annoyed, by Parker, who is now an obsessed basketball fan-Blazer basketball fan. 
Parker still had lots of energy, so we got out the hedge trimmer and he cut down ferns and Rielee and I raked and loaded the fronds, and either Papa or Parker hauled them to the burn pile. With the promise of a firepit tomorrow, they were working like mad. 
enter all the raffles, so he didn't want to stay for long. Rielee played all the games, made a spin-art frisbee, and
had her hair rainbow spray-painted. She tried to win a goldfish in a ping-pong ball toss, but didn't and was very disappointed. Fortunately, she and Papa had already made plans to go to Petco tomorrow to buy goldfish for the pond.
This picture was taken just before the injuries, they sat there quietly looking at books for, oh, maybe all of 30 seconds, long enough to bore the heck out of Big Dog.
Ava and Alan
We had cabin fever today so we went to Vancouver early and went shopping with the girls. We got them all dressed and ready to go and I noticed Ava was limping badly, so we took her boot off and found she had a hair clip in it, no wonder. We got a car cart to push them in at Fred Meyer and they had a great time play driving it. Papa was buying some oil and gave them each a quart to hold, they were thrilled and hugged them tight, which made us laugh, doesn't take much sometimes to keep them happy! Then at Target they were sitting in the double cart and started getting really 
silly, giggling, kissing and hugging each other. They were so good, and really good walking in and out of the stores, too, holding hands with us and watching for cars.
Doing the hokey pokey with their flip-flops on. Papa was so happy to find these for them at Old Navy yesterday. Now we just need some nice weather so they can wear them.
Harper showing a little attitude. Guess she didn't want her sausage since she put most of it on her sippy cup.
excited, she could hardly stand it! I heard later that they had a great time. I asked Rielee if they sat by some of her friends and she said they hardly sat down because they were dancing so much.
James and Ava, she had not seen him in awhile and was a little shy. James was staying with his Papa and Grandma for the weekend. He, Parker and Auna hung out with us for awhile and played with the girls, they were especially interested in James' cell phone pictures.
Ava and Harper took their "buddies" outside with them today. They sat with them on the driveway and looked at rocks, then they went down the slide with them. We went to see Uncle Alan, but he was gone, and suddenly Ava realized she didn't have Big Dog, I could see him over by the slide so she took off running fast to get him. When she got back, she found a leaf in the driveway and said "Alan" so I told her we could leave it on the porch for him. Well, it blew away, so I had her put a rock on it to hold it, then she piled up some pretty rocks on it for Alan. She was very precise about stacking her little pile of rocks one at a time.
Harper, however, had her own method of piling rocks-by the handful. 
Rielee fell off the bar stool yesterday afternoon and landed on her side. She said her leg hurt and was limping some. By this morning she was miserable and wouldn't bear any weight on it at all so Des got her a dr. appt. and Rielee and I met her there at 10. The doctor thought it was her hip and sent her to Kaiser for an x-ray to rule out a break. None was found so she is just sore, thankfully. One day of packing her around was plenty enough. Ava and Harper were happy to have her home for the day though. Rielee sat on the floor with them and played duplos and legos, and she tried to play
flashcards with them, but they just wanted to look at all the different pictures on the cards and see who could grab the most. 
They were in good moods after Auna left and sat still in the chair and posed for me, Harper with baby and Ava with Big Dog.
It was an inside day, much too stormy to take them outside. Ava took about a 15 minute nap since she messed her diaper and couldn't stay asleep because of the smell (she really doesn't like having a dirty diaper on). By the time I got her cleaned up, she was awake and couldn't go back to sleep. She was in a good mood though and happily played by herself while I cooked us a chicken stew for lunch. It was funny, at one point she was too quiet so I came in the living room and she was laying on the floor, she pointed to her diaper and wrinkled up her nose-messy again.
The girls thought they really hit the rock jack-pot when they found these glass stones in the yard. They both carried as many as they could with them when we came back in the house. Papa also found one in Harper's pocket.
Harper had been packing around the big rock that is sitting in the leaf, she quickly abandoned it though when she saw the prettier, shiny ones. We got them outside twice today, the first time it was about 9 and still pretty chilly out, they walked over to see if Uncle Alan was in his shop, but he wasn't. He came over later though to see them. The second walk was much more comfortable and pretty nice when the sun would come out. Ava was sad and cried a lot when we went back inside. 
They found several things to try on and both were successful at finding some great bargains. It was so much fun for me to watch them shop and see what they like.
then Ava wanted to wear the shoes, too, so they compromised and each wore one. Harper wore the jacket until bathtime. Then in the bath, Rielee showed them how to put their faces in the water and blow bubbles, and they both did it for her, Ava did it over and over.
Rielee read to them on Starfall, but it looks like Ava was much more interested in Papa's gum.
They colored for a long time, too. Then Rielee went to play with Jillian and Ava and Harper went down for naps. 