Halloween

 Rielee and her friend Wyatt trick-or-treated me early, I had to call Parker and tell him to come over so I could give him his treat before going to Macee's match.  It went to 5 sets against Kalama, but they won it.

Kelly sent us this picture of Harper as Tinker Bell and Ava as Sleeping Beauty.  They were so excited all day to go trick-or-treating!

Pumpkin cookies

After playing with Rielee this afternoon and hearing how she was making cookies to take to her Halloween party tomorrow, Harper and Ava decided they wanted to make cookies, too.   That worked out well since they were staying over and we needed something to do after dinner.  Ava said she wanted to make "orange" cookies like they decorated at home the other night.  I was very pleased with the way they took turns adding ingredients and stirring. 

Harper put every bit of her frosting on her first cookie, it was about an inch thick.  They thought Papa's cookie was weird since he frosted it half orange and half green.  When we were finished, we took some over to the Dolan's and to Alan and Vera.  They liked the delivering part since we took the red car without carseats in the back and I drove kind of  hurky jerky so they had a hard time staying in the seat, lots of squealing going on back there.

Doodler, umbrellas

 Harper's doodles, whenever she is on the computer, any paper left on the desk is covered with her drawings.

"We've got umbrellas, we've got umbrellas!"

Now we can take them for walks rain or shine. 

League champions

 The Rockets are Trico League Champions after beating King's Way Christian today in 3. 

Kenzi, Macee, Tierney and Maddie, best friends. They have so much fun together, it is a joy to watch them play.

Playing with Bridget/new stuff

Ava and Bridget, playing with a Dora Play-Doh set while also watching Dora at Cathy's house this morning.  Harper mostly played with the other toys and Jillian was at preschool. 

A couple of new things the twins started this week:

-They put on "shows" which consist of getting out their little keyboard and dancing around and posing to songs.  It's very cute, sometimes they dance together, and sometimes separately, then Ava says she is a "little Mama" (when she has her princess dress on and her hair up on her head), often they dance with their stuffed animals or babies.  They take a deep bow at the end when they're finished.   We must sit in our chairs and watch, and not get up before they are completely wound down, Papa tried leaving the room once before they were done and they were irate.  Very serious about the audience paying attention! 

-Hide and seek, they love this game.  At first they always stayed together, hiding and seeking.  But today, they hid separately, and wanted to seek with one of us.  Big, big screams when they are found or find you, too. 

 Cathy brought Jillian and Bridget up to play this morning.  We had baked cupcakes before they got here so they could all frost them together.  They had fun and did a good job.  Alan showed up just as they were finishing up, so he got to sample one.   Harper ate hers as soon as she was done decorating them.

Play Doh kept them busy for a long time, too.

Treehouse, crowns and Senior night

Harper checking out the Spooky treehouse we made this morning.  They had so much fun decorating it.

Ava's fascination with crowns, princess dresses and her little doggie continues, today the doggie needed a crown.  She packs that little dog everywhere.

Tonight was Senior night for Macee and Tierney.  It was an emotional night but Macee was happy, she's ready to move on.  The Rockets could still play at home for district if they win Saturday.  They beat Ilwaco in 3 tonight.

 

Tonight was Senior night for Macee and Tierney.  No tears from Macee, she is happy to be a Senior and ready to move on.   They could still play their district games at home if they beat King's Way on Saturday. They beat Ilwaco tonight in 3.

Called for hail

Rielee on the way to score one of her 2 goals

 Rielee had back-to-back soccer games today.  At the first one, we kept watching the big dark clouds getting closer and closer.  First it started to sprinkle a little, and then it started to hail, and hail really hard.

They finally called the game, the poor girls were yelling that it hurt, they were so wet.  Everyone went to the dugouts to wait it out, but it didn't quit.  We had umbrellas so we ran to the car, and it hailed all the way there, plus there was lightening and thunder.  My hands were so cold I couldn't get the keys out of my pocket.  Parker sat his cup of cocoa on the roof of the car and it slid right off in the ice.   We got home and put Rielee in the tub to warm up,  then thankfully, her coach called to say they called the second game, too. 

Friday fun day

 We had five kids eating breakfast this morning, but it was easy since they asked for old-fashioned oatmeal and toast.  Ava and Harper were thrilled to have the kids here before school.  Once the kids left, they were into everything, first they wanted to paint, then we made cupcakes, then we played a game of Tumbling Monkeys and they did really well, except Harper only wanted the dice to roll green.  So she rolled until she got green.  Then they got out puzzles, and had a good time putting them together, with some help. 

When Rielee got home from school, Ava and her baby were wearing crowns again,  so she wanted one, too.   Once Rielee was dressed up, Harper decided to get in on the action and asked for a green crown.  Then they had a dance party which got very rambunctious.  Ava and Harper took their dresses and crowns with them when they left so they could show them to Grandma Barb.  Rielee is spending the night with us and Parker spent the night with a friend, Mom, Dad are with Macee for her visit at Gonzaga.

Lexi's volleyball

Harper and Ava watching Lexi

Tonight we went to watch Lexi's team play Battle Ground at Union.  Lexi played great and they won 2-1.   The Titan freshman are having a great season and are undefeated. 

Princess Ava

Harper surprised Alan yesterday, he had been taking video and pictures of the girls when Harper asked for the camera, at first she was taking pictures of Ava but then she turned the camera on him! 

Ava has been living in this princess dress all week and even wore it home today.  This afternoon she came to me and said her baby didn't have a crown, so we made one for her.  Ava thought it was cute and decided she needed one, too.

No celery or scary monsters

Harper actually tried a different food today, celery that I had cut up for a stew.  She was excited because it was green, but unfortunately, that wasn't enough to make her like it.   She made me laugh this afternoon,  Ava was making a picture of a ghost and Harper was making a picture of a Frankenstein monster and when she was almost finished with it, she decided it was a "Mommy monster" and added earrings to it, she said the monster was going to a tea party! 

The hard hat

 Parker and Rielee stopped by today on their way back from the creek, they had set a trap for crawdads but only caught 3.  It made me happy to see that Parker was wearing his Great-Grandpa (Harold) Qualset's old Weyerhaeuser hard hat.  Not that it was protecting his head from much on the 4-wheeler, well, maybe a falling limb, but because of the memories it brought back. 

Years ago, Harold worked at Camp Baker with Parker's Great-Grandpa Piercy.  Parker is a lot like his Great-Grandpas.

 It was an all Princess dance morning at our house.  No school so Rielee was over early to stay with us.  She kept the twins very busy, then she went down to Cathy's to play with Jillian and Bridget.   While she was gone,  Ava and Harper decided they wanted to paint pictures. 

They each churned out about 10, painting like mad, adding colors until their pictures were mostly all brownish.  After a bath they got to play at Rielee's house for an hour, then they all came back here for the evening.  Rielee had them playing pretend trick-or-treat for the longest time, passing out play food for the candy, they laughed hysterically at the thought of getting an egg, bread or pizza for a treat. 

Play time with Jillian and Bridget

 Jillian and Bridget came to play with Ava and Harper this morning.  They all played with the pony castle first, then moved on to nearly every other toy in the house.   They all got along quite well with only one scream when Bridget tried to play with Harper's babies, but once those were put away, everything was fine again. 

 Harper brought out this toy, I don't know what it's called but they all got such a kick out of it. 

 Harper borrowed my camera and she and Jillian took pictures of each other and lots of the toys.  The look on Harper's face shows just  how much fun she was having.

Monster Mash, Parker's last game

 Rielee was excited this morning to see how the girls would react to the spooky "Monster Mash" singers since they were afraid of them last year.  To her surprise, they weren't the least bit scared and even touched them.  (The girls had changed into princess dresses right after breakfast.) 

We went to Washougal in the afternoon to watch Parker play in the last game of the season.  He played great, with one play where he stripped the ball, causing a fumble, and  he also intercepted a pass, which I kind of got a picture of-

 

 but I got so excited, that the next picture of him running with the ball, well, not so good-

 

 

 They won the game 33-6.

Parker and his buddies, Luke, Nathan and Tony

Witch masks

Ava and Harper with the little wood witch masks they painted today.  They were very proud of them.

Luke's game

Luke heading in the locker room at half-time

 We went to Battleground to watch Luke's game this morning.  He played great defense and recovered an on-side kick and his team won easily.  Ava and Harper were good during the game, playing and snacking the entire time.   Harper was actually much happier than she appears in this picture.

 

 

 



Soccer, volleyball, gymnastics

 

Rielee playing goalie

We went to watch Rielee's soccer game at 9 a.m., except I had the wrong time and it didn't start until 2. We went to the R.A.Long tournament instead and then I came back to watch her play later.  She played well but was very upset with herself because she didn't score a goal.  She had 2 assists but that wasn't as fun to her as scoring herself.

 

The Rockets won the tournament, beating Kelso, Ft. Vancouver, Napavine, Evergreen, R.A.Long, and Kalama.  Afterwards, they all ran out of the gym in a rush to get ready for the homecoming dance.



 

Ava and Harper started gymnastics today,  Kelly took this picture and said Harper did really well and Ava held back.  Can't wait to watch one of their classes.

Little painters

After breakfast and the big kids left for school, Harper asked if they could paint birdhouses for their Grandma Barb.  They worked on them for a half an hour, they are serious little painters and really careful that they try to get everything covered with paint.  Then they went right into the tub for clean-up.

One thing leads to another

Twins are funny, things can be going along just great and then all of a sudden, chaos breaks out.  Our trip over to feed the chickens and check for eggs was like that.  The girls were excited to get the eggs, but then oops, Harper accidently broke one, no biggy, they had 3 others, they love the chickens and feeding them. But while washing their hands with the hose, they managed to get their feet and flip-flops wet and first Harper, then Ava, got upset when they got gravel inside them, and start hopping around and freaking out.  I tried to calm them down and rinse them off, but then Harper remembered that she has a sore on her foot, and that, in turn, reminded Ava that she has a sore toe.  Now both are crying and neither one can walk, "no walk!" and they want to be carried.  We didn't want to do that and were discussing the options with them, or lack thereof, when Ava and I noticed Rielee's wagon beside the garage and... all was well.  Happy girls again, just like that. 

Busy Sunday

It was a busy day with the kids. Parker had us all up very early because he was going fishing with Grandpa.  After he left, Auna came over and had breakfast with us and hung out with Rielee.  I made some cookie dough to bake later and then went outside to work.  When Parker got home from fishing (no luck there), he and Papa went to Prospectors and Winco.  Rielee made us a picnic lunch and set it up on the front lawn, then she helped me do some watering.  She brought a cookbook home from school Friday and wanted to try one of the recipes, so she made these pretzel sticks with a mini-marshallow stuck on the end and then dipped in white chocolate and covered with sprinkles.  Auna helped her with them and Rielee thought they were quite tasty.  Uncle Alan stopped over to visit and he agreed that they were good.  Then they made "fall leaves" sugar cookies.  Rielee wanted to make brown frosting so she dumped in all the food colors and it came out an awful dark, yucky color, but she wouldn't admit that it was bad until she frosted a cookie and it didn't look very appetizing, then she wanted to make red leaves instead.  After dinner, Papa watched football and the kids and I went outside,  I did some more pruning and they played until it got dark.