Potty training day 2

Day 2 of potty training was basically just like day 1, with Harper having one successful attempt right after her nap. They are trying though and will catch on soon. We got lots of practice in today since they are spending the night. Ava and Parker
Macee, Parker and Rielee came over after dinner to see the twins while their parents were at a meeting. The girls emptied the duplo wagon and Parker gave them rides in it.

Back on the swings

After hearing that Alan was going to be laid up for awhile, we decided to have Ava and Harper take him some of the banana bread we baked yesterday. They were so excited and just ran right in and gave it to him. We stayed for awhile and visited and looked at their new TV and computer.

Of course, while leaving Alan and Vera's both girls had to pick up rocks, Harper went a little overboard and really had her jacket weighted down. Then she noticed that Ava and Papa were over at the swings and tried to run that way but she had too many rocks to move fast so she started pulling them out and oops, filled up one of her boots with rocks and started limping and yelling for help. Never a dull moment with these two!

They were so happy to swing- "higher, higher!", it was chilly out though so it was a quick session.

Meeting Sam

While we were out for a walk this afternoon we noticed that Laury and new puppy Sam were outside so we took the girls over to meet him. He was kind of shy at first and so were the girls but after a few minutes they were playing with him, throwing his ball to him which he chased a couple of times but then lost interest. Harper showed him her little Doggy who turned up again over the weekend.
In the evening we went to watch th CR girls basketball team beat Winlock 54-18. Macee scored 18 pts, I think, and Tierney had 17, I think, Parker kept talking to me during the game. Good start to their season.

Making wreaths

Tonight we got together at Des' and made arrangements for the bazaar. Macee made a candy cane shaped wreath which turned out great. Auna made a nice candle arrangement and then filled one of the boxes that Gabe and Des made with greens and a Santa. Rielee filled a mug with greens, decorations and a candle and is taking that to her teacher tomorrow. Parker hung out with us, helped cut greens and then carved a wooden arrow out of one of the scrap limbs. We got quite a lot done.

Laptop

Parker with my new laptop, which was an early Christmas gift from Steve and the kids. It is so nice, and I was glad that Auna and Parker were around to had to show me how to use it!

Parker's braces

Parker came over tonight, he was so excited to be going snowboarding tomorrow at White Pass with Dad and Rielee. Rielee is also very excited to try skiing for the first time. I found him some Oakley goggles at Ross, he was happy to get those since he loves anything Oakley, but said he is wearing mismatched clothes since he's grown out of his snowboarding pants. He's still adjusting to his braces, last week he had several canker sores and was really hurting.

Turkey craft

I was surprised today when we sat down with Ava and Harper to make pine cone turkeys. They act like old hands at crafts and they listened to our instructions really well, too. I think it helped that we had a picture to show them of how it the turkey was supposed to look. They tried to play with their turkeys before the glue was dry and Harper had to reattach her turkey's eye, she was very precise about it and did a good job.

Lexi's volleyball

These punchballs were the most played-with toy for today. They wanted their names on them and happy and sad faces, too. Ava also has a pantleg full of stickers, we find stickers on everything these days. Papa took the girls and met Charb and Kelly at Lexi's volleyball game in Camas this afternoon while I picked up Riels and took her to piano. He said they are always so good when he gets them out of the car and they walk with him like big girls.

Luke and Ava

Lexi found out today that she made the Cowlitz 14's Blue team. Auna is on 14's Red and Macee and Tierney are on 18's Black. We will have lots of club volleyball to watch.

Auna came over later to watch the last night of Dancing with the Stars with us. She was excited because they are going to look at a puppy tomorrow.

Frosting cookies

Ava, Harper, Luke and Rielee came to stay with us this morning while their sisters went to club volleyball tryouts. I made some sugar cookies and let them frost their own "fall leaves". Ava and Harper were very serious about the process, and sat there working on their cookies for a half an hour. Luke opted to play video games instead of joining in. Their cookies got many layers of frosting and sprinkles.

There is a cookie under there somewhere.

Harper's motto: you can't have too many sprinkles. She ate every bite of her cookie, too.

They had napkins on their laps, but when it was time to get down from the table, I noticed that Ava had been wiping her hands on her jeans and they were also frosted.

Mixing it up

Maybe it is because they are starving in the morning, but they stack all their bites on their forks like this, maybe it is just to beat sister and be the first to ask for more. They have the funniest habit of changing things around now. They took the cars out of the hotwheels case and replaced them with dominoes, the hotwheels are now in the jewelry box. If I give them puzzles, they take all the pieces and put them in their purses, along with some play food. Most of the Candy Land game pieces are missing, yesterday they had Papa searching for the longest time for a yellow piece so they could play the game.
This morning I had a headache, so I was sitting with an ice pack on my neck and Papa told them what was wrong. Later in the afternoon, Ava put Elmo to head and told me he was sick and had a headache, too.

ABC's

It is getting harder to get a picture of the twins these days. If I pick up the camera, Ava frowns, puts up her hand and says "no picture". I had to bribe them with M&M's to get them to sit down and sing their ABC's for me:

Table tent

The twins were up right away this morning and had eaten breakfast before Rielee got here. They were very busy today, making "messes" as Ava says now, right and left. At one point Ava was taking dominoes and happily throwing them, one by one, on the floor. When she was done, she threw her hands up in the air and said "MESS", very proud of her accomplishment. Papa helped her pick them up.Harper playing under the table.

Crafting

Charb brought Ava and Harper up this morning while he went out elk hunting with his Dad. They got an elk early in the morning and he was back to pick up the girls about 1:30. Rielee has early release this week and was disappointed that the girls were napping when she got here, and then they had to leave before she could play with them. Papa let the girls sit at the counter and have their apple snack. They had been taking food orders on their little tablets before that.

Rielee asked if she could get the easel out and do some painting. I said okay since the twins weren't there (I am not ready for them to start painting quite yet). She pretended to be the art teacher and showed me how to paint a flower. She has missed doing crafts, so she made a turkey out of her cut-out handprints and she also found some animal coloring pages on-line that we printed out for her to color. She seems to be wall-papering the playroom with those.

Sunday

The story of our Sunday, Rielee doing her cheer-"Give me a "D", give me a "U" give me a "C" give me a "K" what's that spell "DUCKS" Say it again, who's gonna win, one more time...to a very unresponsive Nathan and Parker. Doesn't matter to her, she will just go on cheering. We left the motel about 9, the kids were pretty good and watched a Wallace and Grommit movie on the way home.

Saturday

We were nervous with the girls playing Lynden Christian since their roster included 7 girls 6' or taller, but they beat them in 3, wow, they were in the finals! Macee was ecstatic!
We all stayed to watch the end of the Kings/Colville match to see who their opponent would be, Colville won. Now it was the long wait till 7 p.m.

Macee being introduced at the start of the championship match.

They played hard and were ahead at times but unfortunately ended up losing in 3 and took 2nd.Maddie, Kenzie, Tierney and Macee with the trophy, a little teary-eyed but still managing to smile.

Ah darn it...

Des and Gabe left with the 4 girls for Pullman after the match to watch the Stanford/WSU volleyball game on Sunday. We took Parker, his friend Nathan and Rielee back to the motel, opting not to drive over the pass at night.

Friday

Emmy and Auna came down to watch their cousins play their first match against Life Christian. Little competition and they won easily. After that we took Emmy and Auna to the mall. Em found a dress and sweater, Auna a top. Posing with silly hair accessories

The Rockets celebrating after their second match was against Freeman. It was a tough one but they won it in 5.

Thursday

After sending the Rockets off to the State tournament, we headed for Yakima ourselves, first dropping off Ava and Harper to Kelly at Union. It was a beautiful sunny day for a drive up the gorge. After checking into the Ledgestone, we went to Ellensburg to watch Emmy's team play Western. We had a little trouble finding the Pavilion in the dark and ended up taking a self-guided walking tour of the campus, ending up at the Student Union (ended up buying a couple of t-shirts there) and Music Department before we finally found the right place. As it turned out we only parked about half a mile away!

When a player subs in, their picture, name and number are on the big screen. Emmy's team played great and won the match, knocking Western out of the play-offs.

Papa's birthday

Ava and Harper were spending the night with us, so they got to have birthday cake with Papa for his 69th birthday. They were getting kind of tired after dinner but as soon as they saw the cake, they perked right up. Harper blew out one candle, then Ava blew out the other.
He had lots of help opening his cards. We all laughed when Ava kept repeating "scratch-off tickets" just like she knew what they were. The girls stayed up and watched "Survivor" with him before heading to bed.

Singers

The girls were very animated this morning!

Lexi v'ball

Sharing their blankets with their babies, they are very nurturing, and they are sharing, too, because that is Ava kissing Harper's baby. They don't share those blankets with each other or anyone else though.
While I took Rielee to piano this afternoon, Papa took the girls back and met Charb and Kelly at Lexi's first volleyball game of the season. He said Lexi did a great job and is a really good player, and they won. Unfortunately none of the pictures he took of her turned out.

District Champions

Ava and Harper had their first soccer practice today. Ava was kind of unhappy about it.

Harper stretching, from what I saw on the video Charb sent, she was having fun, kicking the ball as well as the cones.

Parker played his first basketball games today. He was really hustling and scored 6 points in the first game, 10 in the second game. Nice to see him liking basketball again, he even said he tried to get #13 jersey so he could be like Will, his idol.
The Rockets won the District championship this afternoon, beating Montesano in 3. As usual, Macee and Tierney played great. They are so excited to go to state and try to bring home a trophy.

The 4 Juniors on the team, Maddie Seidl, Kenzi Dahl, Tierney and Macee

Baby Rie Rie

Rielee had early release today and was full of energy. She had Ava and Harper playing babies, then the next thing I know, SHE is the baby and is pretending to be asleep on the floor. Ava and Harper were loving this play, and then Rielee started to pretend-cry and they went into action. "Matter Rie Rie?" Harper asked her, then gave her a baby doll while Ava bent down to try giving her a kiss. Auna and I got a kick out of watching this exchange. After babies, they played restaurant, Ava and Rielee were the servers and took orders, Auna was the customer and Harper was the cook. Auna wasn't an easy customer either-she knows how to push Rielee's buttons, when Rielee started to give her a "menu", Auna said she didn't need one since she had been there before, Rielee was so mad, she told Auna that no, she had not been there and if she was then she must have had a different server. Too funny.

Laury's cat

We took the girls out for a couple of walks today. It was chilly so they had to walk with their hands in their pockets, which makes Papa very nervous for fear they might trip and do a face plant. The girls were happy that the scary Halloween decorations are gone and they can safely walk around the yard.

They were very curious about this cat statue in Laury's yard, Ava had to get up close to it and even gave it a little kiss. The big drama today was over Harper's little dog. It is a little brown dog from the doll house that she has carried around from time to time, she really loves it. Today she put it in her pocket when we went for a walk and must have dropped it along the way. She was devastated and she and Papa had to go back out and look for it, but couldn't find it. She cried over her lost little dog.

Super nappers

We had kind of tired girls today. They went down for naps at 11 and I think they would probably have slept all afternoon if we had not woke them up to feed them before Papa took them back. We took these pictures of them during the waking-up process. Ava

The Rockets won their first 2 games at the District Tournament in CR tonight, beating Hoquiam and Kalama, both in 3, and secured a trip to the State Tournament next week. They will play for the District Championship Saturday at 3:30.