Cat In The Hat

Today was Dr. Suess day at Rielee's school. She wanted to dress up for it, so we modified Macee's old black cat costume by adding a white belly, hat, gloves and bow and she was set. She looked pretty cute as did the other kids coming in dressed as the many different Suess characters or with wacky hair.
We had a fun day with Ava and Harper. They slept in until 9:30, waking up in very good moods. During bath time, Harper noticed an owee on her ankle, for which she had to immediately end her bath and get a big band-aid. Between that and her hurt toenail, she was limping around a lot.
Papa invented a new game to play with them today, where he holds the balls up high, counts down,
then drops the ball and it bounces off their tummies.
We wondered if they would take a nap since they had slept so late, but Harper fell asleep right away. Ava laid down with Papa, he fell asleep but she never did, but she rested quietly the whole time.
They went out and helped Papa load up the wheelbarrow with firewood just before we took them back to Kelly. They love helping, but only clean wood, no dirty pieces, don't want to touch those.

Play-Doh geoducks

Harper making a "goo-ey duck", a Play-Doh game Papa made up. They play with the long tubes pretending like the geoduck might bite them, then they pick up the scissors and cut them to pieces.

Kids say the darndest things

We were sitting at the table this afternoon, the girls were playing with Play-Doh while I sewed. They got in a little tiff over a cookie cutter or something, and Harper says "fa Dod sakes, Ava!" That got my attention, it was all I could do not to laugh, but I told her it wasn't nice to say that. She looked at Ava, obviously still upset with her, looked at me and said "fa Dod sakes, Dod sakes, Dod sakes" just as fast as she could get it out.
Okay, so, done with Play-Doh, time for a snack.
I texted Kelly to share this little tidbit with her and she immediately called me, laughing. She had read the text, then said to Lexi and Luke that she wondered where Harper had heard that expression, they informed her that she had just said it this morning!
We got a good laugh out of that.

Auna basketball

Sunday we watched Macee and Tierney play the first couple of matches in their volleyball tournament, then headed over to Clatskanie to watch Auna play basketball. Auna's team took 2nd place in their tournament.

It was fun watching Auna, our future Rocket is a great rebounder and very aggressive on the court.

On to State!

Lots of happy tears and hugs for the Rockets after they beat Bellevue Christian 40-37! They are going to State! Tierney got the sportsmanship medal, too. It was a very exciting come-from-behind win!

This is how my scoring stats looked.

Phone conversation

These little phones Alan gave the girls for Christmas actually work like walkie-talkies, although Ava and Harper talk so loudly they hardly need them. Ava was in the computer room when Harper "called" her, I think Ava was trying to get Harper to come in there and watch Caillou with her.

Geometry and Measurement

Papa was giving the girls a bath and I heard him say "you see, girls, a square has 4 equal sides", so I went in to see what was going on. There he was with a notepad, drawing shapes and quizzing them. I always tease him because he takes them to the advanced math sections on Starfall, like Geometry and Measurement, and they sit and listen and watch because of the colorful, playful way it is presented and he says "you see, they like it and you never know what is sinking into their little brains".

Walking in the rain

The girls got a kick out of going outside today and walking around in the rain. First they went out to the woodshed with Papa to help him get the firewood. Then after school, they walked with Rielee through the woods to Auna's house to visit for a few minutes, and later they went out again to walk to Rielee's and say "hi" to Aunt Des, Parker and Macee. We weren't in their house for 15 seconds and they had stripped off their boots and jackets and made a beeline to Rielee's room to play. We also made dough in the bread machine for cinnamon rolls, and after dinner they each ate 2.
They are spending the night with us since Charb had to get another cast on his leg after work today.

Dancing skirts

Wearing what they call their "dancing skirts" and feeling pretty special twirling around in them! Dancing is a lot more fun when you are dizzy.

A tough loss

The Rocket boys lost to Onalaska tonight, ending their season, and it was Will's last high school game. Although they went out and played hard, it wasn't meant to be. It is so difficult to see these kids we love so much, hurting after a tough loss. We are so proud of him for all he has accomplished in his sport, always have been, always will be.

I will never forget the sound of Will's bouncing basketball. The past few years I could hear it from our yard all the time, every day, day and night. I always knew where Will was, shooting hoops, practicing hour after hour.

He loves the game and it shows. It has been so much fun watching him play, and though the season ended before he wanted, we hope to watch him playing in college in the coming years.

He always gives his all, he plays with heart, he's a team player and a good sport.

Big tree!

The girls played outside for a little while before we loaded them up to head back home. They ran around the trees playing peek-a-boo and tried to play with Charlie the cat. Ava found a ball and threw it to him, yelling "catch it!" She looked disappointed when he didn't even try.

The Rocket girls got it done tonight, beating Ilwaco which earned them a trip to Regionals! They play Rainier on Friday for 3rd or 4th place in District.

Happy Valentines Day/Will

Ava and Harper sharing a Valentines Day hug.

The Rockets had a good night, they beat Forks and will play Onalaska Thursday night for a trip to Regionals.
Will #13 taking the court.

MVP Macee

She's always been most valuable player in our eyes, but today Macee found out she was chosen Trico League MVP. She was one happy girl! The team plays Ilwaco Wednesday and must win to continue on to regionals.

Rielee didn't have piano today so she decided she wanted to learn to play Scrabble after school. She did pretty well and really enjoyed it. Auna is a good player and led in points most of the game, but I used up my letters first and with the 12 points she and Rielee had left, I won.

Bed Heads

Oh, this curly hair can be so darned cute, but the bed heads they get after their nap sure aren't! It becomes a matted, messy mess, that requires having to completely wet their hair down and spray it liberally with detangler, and then combing it out and letting it curl back into nice ringlets. A process that they don't really like much at all. But today I bribed them with cookies so they would sit

together for me and let me take their before and after pictures.

Waiting in the car for Dad

Papa loves his play time in the car with the girls, he always leaves a little early to meet Charb so they have plenty of this quality time together. He gets such a kick out of them pretending to drive and playing with all the knobs, mirrors, lights. He will tease them that every passing truck driver is "Papa Mike" or "Grandma Barb" or "Dad, Mom, Lexi or Luke". They yell and say "NO Papa, no it's not!" Their sense of humor is really getting good, and they will point out people and say the same thing.

Playing outside

We had to get outside today, even though it was drizzling a little. Papa had the house at 78 degrees and we were all lethargic and sleepy so the cool air felt good.. The girls took off for Laury's house first but she wasn't home, then they went to visit Alan & Vera but they weren't home either. They ended up at Alan's steps, chasing each other around and around and jumping off. They also did a little stump-jumping and kicked the balls around, too.
In the evening we went to watch the Rocket girls play Rainier, they got their first win in district play. Next opponent is Tenino on Sat.

Napping

The girls spent the night while Mom, Dad, Luke and Lexi went to the Blazers game. They were tired girls before bed. This morning Ava got up happy and went right to their little kitchen and started "cooking", but when Papa went in to wake up Harper so she could eat breakfast with Rielee, Harper said "no" and rolled over and went back to sleep. Then when she did get up she was out of sorts, usually it is the other way around, Harper is the happy waker and Ava wakes up slowly. I tried putting them down together for a nap today to see what they would do. I had to go in several times and tell them to stop talking, they would grin, then roll over real quick and hide their faces. Finally Papa went in and laid down between them and they all went right to sleep.
We met Barb and Mike at 4:00, and the girl's excited reaction to seeing Papa Mike was hilarious-it's like he's a rock star! So funny!
We then went to Elma to watch the Rocket boys in a district play-in game, they led the whole game until the last 10 seconds, then fell behind by 1 point, and with less than a second left, Cale inbounded to Will and he scored at the buzzer! Wow, exciting game! So proud of them!

Beans

A bag of beans kept the girls busy for about an hour this morning. It was very serious, quiet play, too, as they concentrated on filling and emptying the different containers.

Emmy's home

Emmy came home on Friday for her Dad's birthday and to go to a friend's wedding. Ava and Harper remembered her but a little shy around her.

Saturday we stopped by to see how Parker and Gabe were doing on their land clearing project for the new business. Parker was driving the tractor, wearing his new Stihl suspenders and having a great time. We went to Woodland to watch the boys basketball game, they lost to LaCenter and will have to play on the road next week.

Groundhogs Day

The best thing about having a birthday party the night before your birthday is that you can have leftover cake

as a morning snack, which Ava, Harper and I did this morning. Harper ate every bite of hers but Ava only ate the frosting. We had a great day with the girls. As we were taking them back to meet Grandma Barb and Great Grandma, Harper spotted her moon out the car window, then Ava saw her clouds, with much happy squealing. Papa got the grass to call his, and I have the trees.
On the way back from LaCenter, we stopped in Kelso to watch James' team play at Huntington. It was a close game but they lost. It was fun to see James' playing, he had a couple of nice assists.

Then we went to the CR girls game, we sat down and I glanced at the program and then Laury sat down behind me and she tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and she was pointing at something in the program and she says "did you see this?"
And this is what I read:


I was mortified, I had not noticed that in the program and I am thinking everybody in the stands was reading it and they were all going to stand up and sing to me!! Oh my gosh! They let me stew and fret for a little while and then Laury said "actually, that is the only program that has that in it..." This is how my siblings treat me, well, actually it was a payback from Cathy's 60th birthday lunch where I planned for all of us to wear t-shirts that said "Cathy is 60!" to surprise her.

That was 12 years ago.

She didn't forget it.

Then I look over at Cathy, who is sitting right next to me, and she is wearing this:

But this was mild compared to the original plan they had cooked up for me. They were all going to wear shirts with 1 letter on them, then, at halftime they were going to line up down on the court and spell out "Aunt is 60!" and then have the announcer say something also. Thankfully my nice sister Laury talked them out of that, since I would have probably been scarred for life by that much attention.

Both the girls and boys teams won beat Ilwaco, that was great.

And, all in all, it was a great 60th Groundhog's Day for me!

I love my family!

Parker is 12!

I got to share my upcoming birthday at a party with Parker tonight, he is 12 today. He is growing up so fast! He is a fun and caring guy, and has developed a great sense of humor. It was a wonderful party, lots of the family came and we both got lots of nice gifts. Cathy made up a trivia game about me and things that happened or the cost of different items in 1952 or in '68 when I was 16, that was interesting. I made up a game mostly about Parker, some of the answers he gave were questioned by Gabe and Des, especially the one where he answered that his favorite meal was "frozen pizza".

The other fun thing that happened today was how Ava mastered winking. Harper is working on it and can kind of do it but it's more of a squint. Ava was getting very frustrated with her and kept telling her "one eye, Harper, one eye!