Pig tails please

Harper has really surprised us the past couple of days.  At naptime, she just grabs her baby and blanket, jumps in her bed, cuddles up and falls right to sleep.   Today she slept for almost 3 hours.   Ava still wants to sit with Papa and fall asleep, then he puts her in her bed.  Both girls continue to do really well with potty training.  Harper has even gone on her own without being reminded.  Ava seems to like it when I set the stove timer to remind everybody.   Ava said something today that was so remarkable.  She found a book in the cupboard that she had not seen since last year and she was so excited, she told me "Grandma, this my favorite book when I a little baby"!  It was a book of baby Sesame Street characters at the zoo and all the animals were babies, too.   She carried that book around all day.   

Auna and Parker were over this afternoon since they were both riding to Vancouver with Papa and the girls.  Auna was going to meet her Dad and head to her last volleyball tournament in Springfield.  Parker was going to spend the night with Luke and go bowling with him and his friends for his birthday.   Parker and Auna entertained themselves by setting up accounts on Parker's and my Kindle so they could play Scrabble against each other.  About the time they had to leave,  Parker was threatening to quit and never play with Auna again since she had just used a triple word score and went ahead of him.  Rielee came and stayed with us later in the evening for a little while.  She didn't want to do anything but play volleyball with a beachball, so that's what we did.  Rielee really likes volleyball, and is already working on her jump serve. 

Charb sent me this video from his phone of Harper bowling:

Flower arranging

The girls stayed in their beds about half of the night, not too bad for their first try.  When we put them down for naps today we wondered if they would even stay in their beds, but they didn't get up once, they didn't sleep either, but they stayed in them.  Just a lot of talking going on, then I would hear them kicking in unison,  then Ava bonked her head on the side of the bed while she was squirreling around...that kind of stuff. 

Rielee had early release and she was helpful in getting them to go potty this afternoon.  She would either go first so they would follow her, or she would sit and read books to them.  They had the best afternoon yet, both stayed dry.  We even  took the potty chair out to the play fort while they played, just in case one of them needed it, and I was surprised when Harper actually used it.

Toddler beds

We found the girls toddler bed frames off Craigslist this morning and then added a couple of new mattresses.  They were so excited when we set them up and they played in them all afternoon.  Come bedtime they both tried to go to sleep in them but just couldn't quite do it and had to be rocked to sleep instead.  Hopefully, they will sleep through the night in them.

We had quite a successful morning of potty training, Ava stayed dry all morning, and Harper almost made it.  The afternoon was a different story with all the excitement of the new beds and the other cousins coming in and out.   But all in all, we had more successes than failures so it was a good day.  It was cute after naptime, Harper had gone potty but Ava didn't want to even try and was sitting in the playroom.  Harper went in and sat down beside her and said "Ava honey, you go try to potty, I did it, you try it, honey."  But Ava wasn't interested.                        

Monday part 2

 Rielee was thrilled when the Dolans invited her to go for a hike down to the creek on their new section of trail.  Parker and I went down later to check it out for ourselves and  to see how things were going.  We could hear Rielee yelling at Sam as she threw sticks for him way before we could see her.  She and Auna were both in the creek with the dog, boots full of water and having a great time.

Parker was first to go across the bridge like this( he is the picture below), like Bond, he said, and then Auna did it..  Rielee thought she could probably do it, too, if we would only let her try.

 

It was the perfect warm April night to be down by or in the water, and Auna even found me a couple of agates. 

Bug! Bee! Spider!

They were studying a lone little ant which had Harper very nervous, this was their second trip outside and they had to wear their boots to "stomp" any troublesome bugs. Harper was upset by many insects the first time out, and when we came back in the house Ava told her "a little bee landed on my arm at Luke's ball game yesterday" and she told Harper she wasn't scared of it. We talked about how to "shoo" away bugs and "stomp" them if you have to, and Ava was giving a stomping demonstration . So when we went out, they didn't want to wear their tennis shoes but went right for the boots instead.

No bugs at the big swing!

Logging adventures

Parker and Papa were up early and cut down a couple trees that were in the way of an alder that Papa has been wanting to cut down for a long time. The top of it was rotten and he was afraid it was going to break off and fall on someone.

They had a good time all morning and got the other tree rigged up with a wire hooked to Gabe's truck so they could pull it and it would land in the right spot. Since I didn't want any part of driving the truck they had to wait until David got home in the late afternoon to do it. The only problem was that the truck didn't have traction and wasn't pulling the tree and it went over on the road. Fortunately, it didn't hit a car.

We had a mad scurry to clear off the highway, Laury had come down to watch so with Parker flagging traffic and the 4 of us working, we got it cleaned off really quickly. The CR cop showed up and parked with his light on to help out.

Another interesting chapter in the story of Robinson logging.

Emmy's spring volleyball

We went to the U of Portland this morning to watch Emmy's team play spring volleyball, Parker is spending the weekend so he was with us. Auna and Laury were there, too. CWU won 2 sets vs. Central S. Idaho and split with Montana State. We left there and grabbed some lunch and then dropped off Luke's birthday card since we had missed his party last night. Luke is 11 today. We decided to head for home to cut firewood, with a quick stop at the mall so Parker could buy himself an Air Jordan bag. As soon as we got home he and Papa got busy and cut down a tree, we worked until 7:30 getting all the brush hauled to the burn pile and the wood cut and stacked. After dinner, we had to go out and play a few games of basketball, Auna and I vs. Parker. For some reason they seem to get a lot of laughs out of my style of basketball.

Cousins

Papa said it was like they came right out of the hall as 1st year apprentices, the way they were ready to help him put together the TV wall mount, except for the arguing over whose turn it was to hold the level...

but the bonus was that they could use the box for coloring, we had to find a second box, of course.

Auna and Parker were over to visit this afternoon since they have early release. Ava and Harper were so happy to see them, and then Rielee came over to play, too, oh the joyous squeals of happiness. After much wrestling, tickling, chasing, coloring, and dancing, we managed to get them to stop for a second for a picture.

We had a funny thing happen tonight with Ava. While Auna was here she had started a Caillou video on Demand for them, and Ava must have been paying attention because when the video played through, she ran over and grabbed the remote and started it again. I asked her if Auna taught her how to do that and she said "yes". I was impressed. Well, after it played through again, she tried once more to start it over but she couldn't, so Harper gave it a try and she couldn't either, so back it went to Ava, at this point I am trying to get it away from them, but Ava kept saying "I can do it myself" (I dood it myself!), she's getting very frustrated over the darn thing not working for her and is studying those buttons and pushing them over and over, and then, all of a sudden, she has rented a movie!

Oops... we waited anxiously as it started hoping it might at least be something we could watch, but no, it was sci-fi "The 11th Hour".

new Play Doh

They were such happy girls this morning when they found the Play Doh we bought last Friday when we took them back.

Harper was wearing her tiara upside down but it looked pretty cute that way. We only had them part of the day and then they went to stay with Grandma Barb and Papa Mike so I could go visit their Daddy in the hospital, he is being treated for periocarditis. Papa stayed home so he could pick up Rielee after school and take her to piano.

Pottying for donuts

Something clicked today for Ava and Harper.
Yesterday I bought some mini-donuts to use as a potty reward. They tried going potty and I gave them one, and wow, Ava loved it and asked for another one, but I told her we were going to save them for tomorrow. This morning I reminded her and they both went and tried to go potty, no success, but I gave them a donut for trying. Again, Ava asked for another one, but I told her she had to go potty first. She jumped down and said she was going potty, marched right in there and did it! So Harper followed her and did it, too! Ava stayed dry all morning and even told me on her own once that she had to go and Harper had 3 successful trips, so we were thrilled. They even forgot about the reward after awhile, they were so proud of themselves. Closer to naptime, Ava was tired and didn't want to go so I gave her a piggyback ride, she loved it and so that was the mode of transportation to the bathroom after that.

The face of a happy donut loving potty-er

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Rielee had early release today. She headed right over to Laury's to see if Sophie, Cathy's dog, was there yet since Auna was going to dogsit her this weekend. Sophie wasn't there but she threw the ball for Sam instead. Harper woke up and had lunch, then she and Rielee walked to Laury's to check out the dog situation and played with Sam again. After Ava woke up they all played outside. We made a hopscotch and the girls picked grape hyacinth by the handful to decorate it with. Rielee didn't do much hopscotching since her foot was still bothering her (she fell down while playing basketball yesterday), but she did a lot of flower picking. Cathy, Jillian and Sophie finally showed up and Rielee caught a ride over to Laury's with them. She will be a happy girl all weekend with Sophie around to play with.

Carrots

This made me laugh. While I was cooking lunch, I gave the carrots to Harper so she could pick out the Daddy, Mommy, and Baby carrots like she always does, but when I looked, she had filled up her whole bowl. Really hungry, I guess.
They both do this with every kind of food, raisins, toast, pizza slices, if it comes in different sizes there must be a Daddy, Mommy and Baby.

Rielee's chicks

Papa and the girls hauled some brush for me today and then went on a long lawn mower ride around the neighborhood. The girls were whooping and hollering like they were on a wild carnival ride when they first went fast down the hill.

Since they were spending the night, we got to take them to the Rocket softball doubleheader this afternoon. They were so good there, first playing with Rielee until she left, then entertaining themselves by jumping off the bleachers and playing with rocks.

Rielee is a very proud and happy chicken farmer, she got 4 chicks today! She has only named 1 of them and her name is "Viper". Although she told me she wanted to keep them in a box beside her bed, they are actually living in a box in the garage, with a light and covered with wire so Buttons can't get to them.

Tired Monday

The girls were tuckered out this morning, still tired from Easter. They went down easily for an early nap with a promise that they could go right outside afterwards for a snack. They were so excited to get out there, they put their boots on the wrong feet and then they kept jumping up and running around and Ava's bowl of apple ended up on the ground, twice. We got out the chalk so they could draw on the driveway, they played at the playfort and then went for a walk to the big swing. They are very nervous about bugs and bees, and are always on the lookout. Ava was picking flowers today and a bug touched her hand which sent her into hysterics for a minute, but she wasn't bitten, just scared.

A sunny Easter

18 cousins

It was a beautiful Easter day for our celebration at Cathy and Bob's house. After a delicious meal of ham and many side dishes and desserts, the kids hunted eggs.

Ava found lots of them

Rielee reaching into the tree to get one, she already found her basket, Harper, Bridget and Jillian are in the background.

Luke and Lexi made it down to the last 3 in the raw egg toss, until this happened and they were out. Luke later went on to win the egg rolling game.

The kids all had fun playing outside, Ava and Harper really liked playing with Jillian's little dog Sophie but were nervous when Mocha the big dog came around.

Chicks

Friday Ava and Harper came up to spend the night with us. The first thing Harper noticed was that we were out of food for the birds so we made a trip to the feed store. We knew the baby chicks were in and wanted to show them to the girls, too. They weren't afraid to touch them but got a little nervous when Papa was trying to catch one to hold. Papa also had to give them a "tour" of the feed store and the only thing they were interested in were the animal heads on the wall, those really got their attention!

They will be excited when Rielee gets her chickens, which might happen very soon since our chicken coop moved over to their place today.

Getting along

Rielee and Parker sat like this for the longest time this morning. Parker was playing his Sims game and Rielee found it interesting to watch him. Although they sometimes bicker, they have spent a lot of time this week playing together, mostly playing UNO and basketball. We all played a lot of UNO this week, many marathon games.
Today I supervised while they cleaned their rooms and then Parker and I headed into town while Rielee went to Cathy's to play with Jillian. When we got back, they played more UNO, Rielee took an hour long bath and Parker played Sims. Papa said he and Rielee played a couple games of Tumblin' Monkeys, too.

Aquatic center

We thought it would be fun to take the kids to the N. Clackamas Aquatic Center on this rainy Spring break day. First we stopped at Shari's to have a sit down lunch. That was something, Papa entertained the kids with a story about how his Dad spanked him for kicking a football through a window (he had tried to outrun his Dad first), and also by teaching them marching songs. Parker ordered a french dip but didn't want the dip, Rielee had pancakes, bacon, grapes and a strawberry milkshake, and to our surprise, ate it all.

Unfortunately, the aquatic center was very full. But we managed to crowd our way into the wave pool and that was awesome. It would have been even more fun if we could have rented a tube, but they were out by the time we got there.

Both Rielee and Parker went off the diving board a bunch of times. Rielee kept saying she was going to do a somersault but it ended up looking like she was running through the air. She just couldn't figure it out. She really wanted to go down one of the water slides but Parker didn't want to wait in the long line, so I took her. Fun for her, I found that I still hate water slides.

On the way home we stopped in LaCenter to get something to drink, I stayed in the car and what a surprise--the kids came out with junk food and Papa got coffee and Zingers, he said it was okay because they were on vacation.

Movie day

We just had Rielee today since Parker and Gabe went snowboarding. We decided to make it a movie day and rented Chipwrecked for our morning movie, we liked it but it would have been more enjoyable on a larger screen. In the afternoon we went to see Lorax, which Rielee really liked, but I found kind of slow in the middle (I fell asleep 3 times), the beginning and end were good though. After the movie we went to Winco and Rielee was quite a little helper with the bulk items and bagging the groceries for me. Several people commented on the great job she was doing. Then we made a stop at Petco for fish for the pond. She picked out 1 large goldfish and 4 smaller ones of various colors. It stopped raining when we got home so we quickly cleaned out the pond and refilled it so we could add the fish in the morning.

Basketball, painting, board games

A sunny Spring break Monday was a day of mostly basketball, with a little outdoor painting and board games, too. Parker, Auna and Rielee have been playing basketball at our hoop since they can lower it and slam dunk and it bends, Parker says, like the ones in the NBA. He got to sit in front row seats at last night's Blazers game so he was full of stories about that.
We played "horse" most of the day and ended with a very funny game of basketball, Rielee and I vs. Parker and Auna. Rielee kept telling me to "huddle up" for pep talks, she was frustrated that we weren't winning.
Rielee wanted to paint today so we set her easel up outside. She loves to paint but gets frustrated when she tries to paint animals and they don't look quite right. Actually, I think she enjoys getting all the paint ready and mixing the colors more than the actual painting. We had about 30 minutes of prep time for 15 minutes of painting.