We love Play-Doh

The girls were upset this morning when Papa left to take Rielee to school so I broke out some new Play-Doh. They wanted to play the usual "gingerbread man" with a bed and a blanket. Ava asked for a sad face on her gingerbread man, then she tucked him in and gave him a kiss.

Harper wanted a happy-faced man and picked him up and rocked him like a baby. We had a good day with them, they are so fun to watch now as they play make-believe, tucking their babies and Elmo in bed and shutting the bedroom door, or playing with the Lil' Petshop animals. Harper separated all the dogs to play with, and she had 2 little ones she called the "babies". Ava was riding around on the stick horse, carrying a purse and said "bye-bye, town".

Yummy corn

Auna came over after school (since she was staying overnight with us as were the twins) so we took the girls outside to play. We decided to take them in the garden to pick some corn for dinner and they were excited about that. I shucked it and then gave them each an ear to carry in the house, but when I turned around to check on Harper, she was already eating hers and didn't want to give it up either. They really love corn. In the evening we all went to watch the Rockets beat Ilwaco in 3 sets. The twins were really good and kept busy coloring with Rielee and Jillian, eating snacks and watching all the action and people.

Crawling Harper

Rielee had early release today so she and I took the twins for a walk this afternoon while Papa was blowing off the driveway. On our way back from seeing Buttons at Rielee's house, Ava decided she wanted to be carried so I picked her up for minute. Then Harper cried and wanted to be carried, so I put Ava down to give Harper a turn and Ava started crying. So I put both down and tried to explain to them that I couldn't pack them both that far, they would have to walk. Now both are crying and refusing to walk, Harper even started crawling a couple of times while Ava was dragging her feet and screaming. I knew they weren't tired, they had just got up from their naps, they were just upset because each thought the other was getting all the attention. Harper trying to prove her point.
Okay, having had enough of that, I packed both of them from the woodshed to the playfort...
This vying for attention is an on-going theme with twins. Papa and I are fortunate that both of us are home to take care of them so they normally each get plenty of attention, but it is times like this that remind us how hard it can be sometimes to have them by yourself. You always feel like maybe one of them is getting short-changed, or that they might feel that way and it is worrisome.

At the playfort, the girls wanted to swing. Alan came over and he pushed Harper while I pushed Ava. They love "twisters" and stayed on the swings longer than ever. Rielee said she loves Fall the best. She wanted to rake leaves but I pointed out that they haven't fallen yet. She decided she could rake all the pine needles into a pile and try jumping into those. Not much fun she decided, they were stickery and poked into her legs.

Playing with Alan

The girls were still in the tub when Alan came over to visit, but it wasn't long before they were out, dressed and playing with him. We were able to visit with him, too, while the girls took a break and watched Caillou. They loved wearing these tutu dresses today. It was funny when Papa was leaving to run to the store, they decided they wanted to go along with him so I told them to get their shoes on. Of course, Harper grabbed her boots and since they were only going to Castle Rock, I just let her wear them. She was looking like a country girl.
We took them back to Vancouver and met their Papa Mike at Costco, they squealed with delight when they saw him. Then after doing some shopping we went to Ridgefield and watched the Rockets win easily.

Little helpers

This morning the girls helped Papa load up the recyclables and went with him to town to drop them off. It was rainy and muddy by the bins though so they didn't get out to help unload. After their nap I asked them if they wanted one pony or piggies in their hair, they went for piggies and were looking and feeling pretty darn cute.

Em & James party

Rielee picking corn, we cooked it after the craft party-she was so excited since she helped plant the corn.

Emmy and James at their party today. Laury made this cute "cooking" themed cake since Emmy really developed her culinary skills over the summer. It was a fun party, especially the yummy "cake batter" ice cream, which surprisingly Ava didn't like, but she did eat lots of chocolate cake.

After the party, the kids went over to Des' and did some crafting in preparation for the Christmas Bazaar. We started with earrings and that was pretty funny. Tierney just couldn't get the hang of putting beads together into a pleasing design and never did finish any earrings, we laughed a lot at her attempts, but laughing with her not at her! Fortunately, Macee got into it as did Auna and Rielee and they made several nice pairs. Tierney decided she was better suited for cutting out felt shapes and decorating ornaments.

Some of the earrings they made.

Emmy's home

Today is Em's 20th birthday! She drove home this morning and will have a party with James tomorrow. She and Auna came to Parker's football game in Longview. Parker's team lost, but he played well, with a sack and a couple of good tackles. After the game, we took Emmy and Auna to Applebee's for lunch. The girls and I all ordered soup and salad, and then had to wait and wait since Uncle ordered a Phillie sandwich, which took forever to cook. Seemed like forever anyway since we were starving. But it gave us extra time to visit with the girls which was really fun.

Friday-Parker's braces

Parker came over to show us his braces, he got the top teeth done today and will go back for the bottoms next month. He said he was so nervous that his stomach ached when he first sat down in the chair at the orthodontist's office, but it didn't hurt at all. Ava and Harper were happy to see him, and he got to stay and play with them all afternoon. He made points with Harper when he removed a big spider and web from the playfort.

She was also impressed to see him walking on top of the monkey bars, it made me nervous though.

Bucket heads

I bought these buckets for them at the after Halloween sales last year. I was sure they would fight over them but Harper grabbed the Elmo and Ava the Hello Kitty and that was that. They've been carrying around their toy cars and people in them but today they found a new use.

Potty training begins

The kids stayed home today with Barb and Mike but Kelly sent this picture of them wearing "big girl" panties.

Ava and Harper stayed home Monday since they had colds. They were feeling better today and ready to play. Rielee had put out the Halloween decorations yesterday so they had lots of new things to look at this morning, but the Monster Mash decoration and our talking hand candy bowl scared them so those had to be put away. Papa reacting to one of Harper's little body slams, she just loves to tussle.

We couldn't stay outside for long this afternoon, too many bugs and they were making Ava nervous. Later we dropped the girls off to Kelly on our way to White Salmon where we watched the Rockets win in 3.

Friday

Jillian came up to play with the girls today, and we are hoping to make it a regular playdate with her. The girls were really interested in what she was doing, and watched her very carefully. Harper decided to put all her babies down for a nap and then she briefly joined them, that didn't last long

though and she asked for a book to read to them.

Flashlights

Harper had a flashlight this morning so Ava wanted one, too. We sent them in the bedroom so they could play in the darkness but they came out with their sleepers unzipped, shining the lights on themselves instead. They were going to a birthday party with Grandma Barb and Great-Grandma in the afternoon so we got their dresses on and hair fixed, and after a little disagreement over who was going to wear the brown shoes, Harper

decided maybe they would just wear their boots... not.

Rielee

It was a good afternoon for the girls since Rielee had early release. Fortunately they went down at 10:30 for an early nap so they were ready to play when Rielee got here. She wanted to play "babies" with them, with them being the babies, and wanted them to get in bed and she would read a story. Ava wasn't interested in pretending to sleep since she had just gotten up, but Harper played along, quite happy to be Rielee's "baby girl". After this, they headed outside for some fun at the playfort. Rielee showed them how to use the hose and water the plants, they loved that and Harper also watered the slide and their cars. Then Rielee decided to pick a bunch of leaves to press and the twins helped Papa clean up some cones. They had lunch outside, too.

Volleyball

We had lots of company today, Laury, Alan and Macee all stopped by to visit. The girls are always happy to see Laury since she brings cats with her, they had a good time playing with Alan and then showed off for Macee, especially Harper, who danced and spun around getting dizzy. In the afternoon, Auna came over after school and played with them. Later, Ava was running through the house yelling "Papa, Papa, bear eat!", she wanted to show him how she had set up the table with Pooh Bear and a kitty in the high chair. We have heard many more 4 word sentences from Ava this week, often "no Harper, my _____(fill in the blank with any toy)". Volleyball season officially started tonight, the girls beat Kalama in 3.

Smokey

Rielee and Papa talk about Smokey the Bear every time they drive by his sign on the way to school and they sing the Smokey the Bear song, too, so today he stopped and took her picture by the sign. We took Ava and Harper for a walk today and they had their sandals on at first, but after some time in the sandbox Harper suddenly remembered her boots and wanted to come back in and put them on.

Ava wore her boots, too, even though they are a little big on her. They noticed some leaves on the ground and had to study them before they started stomping and crunching them.

Riel's soccer

We took Ava and Harper to Rielee's first soccer game this morning. On the way there, it was funny, they asked if they were going to see "Rie-Rie" oh, at least a 100 times. Macee holding Harper, Ava with Riels.

The girls were very good at the game, sitting on someone's lap, eating snacks, and watching the whole time.

Rielee was kind of frustrated at the start of the game, with a milkshake as incentive for her first goal, she brought the ball down the whole field and was ready to score only to have one of her teammates get his foot on it and score instead. She was happy for the team though and high-fived him, and ended up scoring several goals and got her milkshake.

If I only had a brain

I decided this morning that I am losing it. Since the girls were spending the night, I thought I would get organized after breakfast and quickly iron a couple little dresses and their clothes for tomorrow while they were busy playing. While I was ironing, I noticed that the handle of the iron was greasy, I figured maybe something was spilled on it, and also the iron was sticking, too. No matter, I kept going and finished up and then when I was putting everything away, I realized that I had been spraying the clothes with PAM, not with Magic Sizing like I thought!...so then I had to do a load of wash instead, and mop the floor a couple more times to try to degrease it from the overspray. Alan laughed when I told him about it and said I should have just let them wear the clothes and see how fast they would go down the slide. The girls all cuddled up with some new dogs I got them at a garage sale. Ava took the black dog and Harper latched on to the other 3.

Ava showing us which player is Emmy.

We were watching very bad video from Simon Fraser U. where she was playing tonight, they won in 3. It was such terrible video, like it was filmed with a very old camera by a 5 year old, you could barely make out the players.

On your mark, get set, go!

Our morning with Ava and Harper involved playing in the sandbox and wading pool, eating the last of the peas out of the garden, and Play-Doh (making gingerbread men w/blankets and pillows is the latest theme). Oh, and running races, we both had to race with them several times. After naptime, we left to meet Barb and Mike in LaCenter. When we were ready to leave, Ava and Harper were busy playing with the dollhouses, Papa made the mistake of saying "come on, it's time to go, just bring whatever you want" and did they ever, both loaded their arms with dolls, Barbies, and furniture. You couldn't see the floor or the backseat of our car for all the toys.

A perfect day

It was a beautiful, warm morning so we were outside early. Alan came over to visit
and we sat and watched
the girls play, they were so funny, Alan said his face was sore from smiling. They were really busy running around, singing their ABCs and being very animated. You could tell when they got to the end of the song, their arms out wide and head shaking for a big finish. Laury's cat Charlie was also running around and climbing trees, something that the girls found fascinating.Harper cooling off Ava's feet

Ava was disappointed, she wanted to go to the "big water" (Rielee's pool) instead of the wading pool, but once Papa warmed it up with about 9 pots of hot water, she was able to enjoy it. They put their rocks in the pool, too.

After their naps, all the kids showed up to visit, which prompted a last minute jump in the pool with Rielee, which got their dresses all wet so we stripped them down until it was time to go home. Papa said they were perfect on the ride home, just like they were on the way here in the morning. Charb sent this funny priceless picture tonight-Harper's "tough guy" poop face, didn't hear if she had any success or not, but she looked cute trying!

Auna & Parker

Auna and Parker came over this morning, ready for their first day as sixth graders.

Friday/Saturday

Poor Ava spent all day sitting around, dragging herself around, crawling, walking on her knees, anything but walking. She had a sliver taken out of the bottom of her foot Thursday night and from what we heard, it was a very traumatic process for her (and for Kelly and Charb trying to hold her still). Her foot must have been sore because she just refused to use it. We kept worrying that maybe something else was wrong because she wouldn't bear any weight on it at all, yet it wasn't sore to the touch, and she seemed to have some trouble remembering which foot hurt. We tried everything to get her to walk, even putting "candy" (choc. & yogurt covered raisins) on their table for her, she crawled to it and got up on her knees to reach it. Finally, we took her outside, and she stood up once in the sandbox and then ran from the sandbox to Papa at the hammock, so we knew it was just sore and nothing worse. She sat down after that and only stood up once more in the afternoon, again while we were outside. It wasn't until Saturday morning that she started walking again, and then Kelly said it was on her heels. She was happy just sitting on the couch all morning playing with stickers.

I gave Ava my camera when we were outside and she took lots of pictures of everyone's feet and legs, these are Harper's.

When it was Harper's turn, she took pictures by holding the camera to her forehead so all of her pictures were mostly of the trees and sky, although she did get part of Auna in this one.

Saturday

We went to watch Macee, Tierney and the rest of the Rocket v'ball team at the jamboree at Mark Morris. They did great, winning all 4 of their games.

Night night

Ava and Harper putting Auna and Parker down for a nap in the chair. they covered them up and then brought them babies, stuffed animals and toys. Harper was patting Auna's leg and saying "night night".