Easter

Someone's egg rolled out of bounds.

Easter was at the Dolan house this year, and what a beautiful Easter it was.  Fabulous weather, great food and lots of family to celebrate with. First we ate, then played Frisbee golf, did the egg roll and the raw egg toss.  Frisbee golf was funny when James was aiming for the 3rd target, which was on the woodshed,  his Frisbee went into the shed and landed in the back, behind all the rows of wood.  He tried to climb in and get it, but ended up just getting another Frisbee. 

Bridget, Rielee, Ava, Jillian and Harper-ready to hunt eggs

 The little girls hunted eggs in their own section of the lawn first. 

 They found lots of eggs.

They're off!

 The older cousins were split into two teams, and they hunted in the woods.  Boys versus girls, they were supposed to stay together and hold onto a towel, but it wasn't long before the boys were all hunting separately, so the girls gave up on the rules, too.  The girls won. 

Rielee and Harper checking out their baskets

A big highlight of Rielee's day was holding and feeding her newest baby cousin Torian.  He is such a cutie.

We had so much going on this year that we forgot to take a picture of all the cousins together!

First tea party

 Cheers!  A toast to Springtime! 

Ava, Harper and Rielee  had a practice egg hunt today.  I hid an equal number of eggs and each girl had her own color to find, which worked well. 

We hauled the picnic table out and the twins sat on Papa's lap on the lawn mower, while Rielee rode in the wagon, so Papa let her drive around in the field on her own for a minute.  She is actually moving in this picture, "no hands" she yelled, then told the twins to hop in the wagon and she would give them a ride.  That was the end of her driving!

Playdate with Emily

Doni brought Emily to play with the twins this morning.  They did some dancing, played with Play Doh, the horses, Lil' Ponies, babies, balls, and kitchen.  A very fun time for all.  After naps, Ava and Harper had their lunch outside.  It was a kind of a quick lunch since bugs kept making them nervous and both girls jumped up to run from them a couple of times, spilling their food on the ground.

Grandma Barb

I love these pictures of Grandma Barb and the girls that Kelly had on Facebook.

 Ava wanted to paint this afternoon and when I got the paints out, I found some wooden Easter eggs I had bought and completely forgot about.  As they were painting the eggs, I asked who they were going to give them to-"Grandma Barb" was their answer.  Then Harper got emotional, saying how she missed Grandma and wanted to go to the hospital to see her.  Ava talked about how the doctor was making her better.  I texted Kelly and she said she had planned to take them to the hospital tonight after she picked them up.  Then Grandma Barb called and both girls talked to her for a bit, that perked them right up!  They finished their eggs, painted some other pictures for Mommy, decorated a bag to take their eggs in, and were the most cooperative kids ever while getting ready to go, they were so excited!  Barb said she is feeling better and hoping to be back home soon.

All aboard!

Harper ordering food for Ava.  They pretend the play fort is a train, today it was Harper's turn to drive, she yelled "all aboard!" and drove to Burger King.  Ava ordered chicken, fries and chocolate milk.

Rielee's painted face

Rielee came over to show me how she looked after the school carnival.  She said she had a great time spending her 100 tickets, but was disappointed that she just couldn't win at the cake walk. We played some beach ball volleyball and watched  Gonzaga lose and ruin my bracket.

Hail

smelling the flowers

We had to walk a long way to find  Easter lilies this morning, first we looked down by the road on Gabe's front lot where we usually find some, but there weren't any there.  We finally found these down below the old Secret Garden.  Ava also found a daffodil to pick.

What a major hail storm we had this afternoon.  The girls had a lot of fun scooping it into their dishes.  Auna stopped by after school to say hi.  We had planned on meeting Kelly at Union and watching some of Lexi and cousin Adrianna's softball game but the weather was still bad so we took them shopping at Target until the game was over.  Ava found bunny ears and Harper wanted the green frog headband.   They also got flip flops, I tried to talk them into buying sandals instead but they didn't want them, although Ava said she wanted to buy a pair for her baby.  They were very good in the store and happy to ride in the double cart.

Nature walk

During a rain break this afternoon, Papa took the girls out for a walk.  If you look close, Ava is holding a flower.  She loves flowers, and most days she picks a few to take home to Mommy.  She even keeps a little bouquet of fresh flowers in the playroom.

Rielee the frustrated teacher

 Rielee found it was very hard on her knees to play piggy-back with the twins.

 But they sure had a good time.

When they were playing school, Rielee first read Brown Bear, Brown Bear to the girls.  At the end, it is about a teacher looking at her children.  She finished the book, closed it,  and said to the girls in her serious teacher voice, "for the most part a teacher is a mammal.  You see, we are animals."  Ava and Harper just stared at her blankly, then looked at each other, not understanding her interpretation of the book.  Rielee sighed and went on to the next book. 

Entertaining Emmy

 Emmy came over this morning just in time to see, surprise, another show!  She was trying to take a picture of them, don't know successful she was! 

 We made some cinnamon rolls for Alan and Vera, on the way over there, Ava picked some flowers for Vera.

 Harper had to take Rielee's baby along for a ride, and the cart helped to make sure the rolls got there safely.

We put together an Easter house kit this afternoon.  I got a kick out of the way they studied the picture to see where everything went.  They worked together really well on it, and even cleaned up the mess afterwards without being asked.  Wow.

Big Jason and Emmy

First Emmy and Laury came over this morning to visit.  The girls were happy to see Emmy and they put on a show.  The show continued when Emmy came back later with "Big Jason" as the girls call him ( to distinguish him from their other little friend named Jason).  They took restaurant orders and brought Jason and Emmy food and I'm not sure what they were doing when I took these pictures, but they were being pretty silly!  They really like Big Jason.

All state volleyball

 Macee, Tierney and Maddie played in an All State Volleyball game today at Fife High School. Their team easily won all 4 games and it looked like they had a great time. 

Parker rode home with us and spent the night.  He brought over his phone, which he left outside overnight, and we put it in a bag of rice in hopes of saving it.  Spent the night watching the Blazers, making cookies, and listening to music.

Rielee dances

Rielee came to spend the night. We watched a movie, The Luck of the Irish, which includes lots of music and step dancing and she danced along through the entire movie.  When it was over she was still dancing and asked me to video her.  She loves to dance!  Here is a link to YouTube:     .http://youtu.be/KYC6na9Wo8k

Wound up girls

 This was a crazy day with the girls.  It started in the morning when Uncle Alan showed up with a bag of his chocolate & peanut butter covered malted milk balls.  After eating a couple of those, they got busy playing and Harper started a hide and seek game with Alan's hat, and then both she and Ava were wound up good.  They went down for a nap easily, though, not long after Alan left.  They got to play outside in the afternoon, did some swinging and sandbox time.  In the evening, David and Laury stopped by to visit.   David, too,  got the twins wound up with some tickling games, they put on a show and were acting super silly by the time it was over.  They didn't want David to leave.  Alan stopped by again later and the fun with Harper and his hat continued (she hid it in the bookcase and in the shower)  as did the showing-off and silliness.  They finally settled down and played restaurant with us.  Bedtime was a easy,  they had completely worn themselves out.

Trying to convince David to stay.

Rielee came over to finish a beading project and Ava and Harper wanted to make something also.  Ava worked for over an hour on her project, patiently working away on it.   Harper kept changing her beads and finally asked for some help to finish hers.

Lexi softball

 Ava and Harper were happy to see Emma when we got to Lexi's game today at Union.  Ava walked her around the whole time.

 Lexi rounding third going in to score.  She had a great game, she was 3 for 4 hitting and did some great fielding, too, but Union lost 8-7 to Col. River in 8 innings. 

 Luke looked a little bored there for awhile...one more week wearing the boot, he said.

A super start to Lexi's high school softball career.



All star cousins

 Eat one, glue one-that's how you do it

We had fun tonight watching Macee, Tierney and Cale play in the All Star games at L.C.C. 



Little nurturers

 Ava and Harper spent the day playing Mom and baby, Ava was the Mom first.  She fed  baby Harper,

 got a hug of thanks from her,

and then tucked her in bed with some toys.  Later they switched and Ava got to be the baby.  These two can be so nurturing, not only to each other, but to their toys, dolls and stuffed animals.They even say goodnight to their blankets, kiss them and say "I love you blanket".  This afternoon I showed them Rick and Heather's blog with pictures of Jillian and Bridget holding their new baby brother Torian, they really studied those pictures and asked when they would get to hold him, too.

Parker's smile, twin's croquet

 I took Parker to the dentist this morning to get fitted for his retainer since he got his braces off yesterday.  I had to stop and take a picture of him, he looked so nice-and happy.

I forgot to put the croquet set away last night when Rielee was done with it and Harper spotted it.   Somehow giving 3 year old twins wooden mallets and balls seemed like a really bad idea.  Fortunately, we were getting ready to leave so they didn't get to play with them long enough for an injury to occur.  They put the set in the car so they could take them home and show cousin Mikey but then forgot all about it by the time we met Charb.   That is one game that is going into hiding for a long time.

Riels the chicken whisperer

Thursday-No twins today since Ava had a rough night and then woke up with a fever so Kelly stayed home. When Rielee got home from school, we shared a smoothie and then went outside to play in the sunshine.  First we played croquet,

 and then she showed me how to play tether ball.  Only one kid can beat her at school.

We let the chickens out while we played a little basketball.  It was funny, one chicken kept trying to get in the bark beside the driveway, she kept chasing her out, saying "how many times do you have to be told to stay out of Dad's bark?"  When we were done shooting hoops, she impressed me when she showed me how she rounds up the chickens to go back in the coop.  They went right along with her as she calmly talked to them and told them to go on in. 

It's time for a show!

Always a big finish to their dancing shows.

For the billionth time, another show!  Rielee took Ava in the playroom to dress up and  practice a routine, but when it was time to perform, Ava made a big entrance but then wouldn't do what Rielee had taught her.  Rielee kept saying "Ava, tap, tap, slide, come on Ava, tap, tap, slide" but Ava just did her own thing instead.  They love their shows.

Harper throwing the ball for Sam.

Morning legos

 After the long weekend, the twins were  ready to play this morning.  They got busy with Rielee playing legos.  Papa helped and they tried to build a tower to reach the ceiling but couldn't quite make it, it kept tumbling over.

Ava blowing out the candles on her sand birthday cake.  We all had one and they were very serious about it, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" and when I asked Harper if she made a wish, she said "of course I made wishes!"  I asked what she wished for and she said "lots of toys!" 

2nd in State

 Rielee and her friend Lindsey Logan playing on the I-Pad before the championship game.

This is my favorite picture of the tournament, the girls celebrating yesterday after beating Chelan, they were so thrilled to have the opportunity to play for the championship.  They decided that even if they lost, they would be happy that they would finish better than last year. 

It was a tough game, Brewster has a 6' junior point guard who is already being recruited by D-1 schools, and the rest of the team was good as well.  It was difficult to see the girls get beat, but what a great season they had,  26-1.  We are so proud of them.  They came out of the locker room sad but smiling,  and are back to playing club volleyball together in the morning.