The coin flip

Papa is getting a big kick out of his latest way to solve "who goes first" with the twins.
It was time to go potty before their nap and Ava said "Harper first" and Harper followed with "Ava first" so Papa got out a coin and flipped it.   Ava called tails, it came up tails, Papa said "its tails, you win Ava, do you want to go first or second?  Ava threw her hands up, kicked up her little heels and yelled "whoo-hoo, I'll go first!"  We have a winner!

Home and Garden Idea Fair

Ava and Rielee are engrossed in a movie, but Harper posed

 Today Rielee came to spend the day and night with us, so we took the twins back and went over to the Clark County PUD Home and Garden Idea Fair.   They have lots of golf carts to give people rides in from the parking lot, and that was one of the highlights for Rielee,

 although she was disappointed that she couldn't drive it herself.

 There were lots of activities for kids, she tried out the generator bike and a static electricity machine,

planted a sunflower and made a garden marker for it, made a dinosaur terrarium,  made a couple of buttons, and got a wood kit to bring home and put together.  We walked through the barns and looked at the plants but didn't buy any since it was pretty crowded.  We stopped at High School in Woodland on the way home and let her pick out some flowers and a tomato plant, then went to Tsugawa's where she talked me into buying a fantail goldfish for the pond and Papa and I bought a couple of plants.

Car washing

 Ava trying to duck from the spray as Harper rinses.  They had fun helping me wash the cars and I only got soaked once.  Harper likes to rinse and when she says "move away from the car", you better move far away.

The kids had a great time outside and played with most every toy we have.  They had two tea parties, washed a bunch of rocks, played monkeys, went for a walk with Rielee while she walked Sophie and threw the ball for Sam a bunch of times.  After a much needed bath, Rielee came over with Horton Hears a Who, they ate popcorn and watched half of it before it was time for Rielee to go home for bed and the twins were tired, too.

Parker and Auna's 7th grade track

Parker and Auna had their first track meet yesterday.  They were both nervous competing along side  8th graders, but they did well.  Parker took 2nd in the 400 and also competed in the discus, and 2 relays.

Uncle got a picture of Auna long jumping since he was helping rake the pit.  She took 3rd with a jump of 11' 10", not bad for having a sore thigh.  She also took 2nd in the 100 and ran in the 4X100 relay but skipped the 400 because of her leg.

Happy birthday Luke

We went to Corvallis this weekend for Regional Volleyball.  We saw Lexi on the 16's team,

Auna on the 14's,

 and Macee and Tierney on 18's. 

Luke celebrated his 12th birthday today!



Busy Friday

Harper's photo of their birdhouses

First thing this morning the twins were putting on a show with Rielee, but then she tried to show them how to do a cartwheel and landed on the table, hurting her foot.  She recovered after a little ice and was good to go to school.  Then the twins wanted to paint birdhouses.  Laury and David came to visit while they were at it and Harper's paint mixing skills really impressed David.  

 

Then David impressed Harper and Ava by reading some books with them.

After they ate lunch, we baked cookies.  Ava ate a cookie, then finished my bowl of broccoli, then finished her other cookie.  I put some of the cookies in a baggie to send home for Luke and Lexi  and Harper said she would put them in the car.  When I went out to check on her, she had taken one of the cookies out of the baggie and put it in her snack cup to eat on the way home. 

Papa brought out his ukulele this afternoon to play with the girls, they only wanted to sing "You Are My Sunshine" over and over.  Ava did her "big finish" arm pose at the end.

Checking out the growth of the nasturtiums they planted last week, they are very anxious for flowers!

Kite flying lessons

Harper had a successful day of kite flying, she did what Rielee told her (run really fast, don't stop)

and the kite went higher and higher!

She was so happy that she could fly a kite!!

Ava's lesson didn't go as well, she kept looking back to see how the kite was doing.  She wasn't consoled with the "participation" flower Rielee gave her afterwards either, tossing it to the ground and heading for some fun on the swings instead.   When her hair reaches "zero gravity" as Papa calls it, she is swinging high enough!

Making donuts

 We bought a donut baker and tonight was the perfect time to try it out since Rielee, Ava and Harper were all spending the night.  They were so happy when I told them what we were going to make, just squealing up a storm!  They helped mix the batter and make the glaze and added sprinkles, too.  They shook some in a bag with cinnamon sugar and thought that was pretty fun.

Harper couldn't wait to try hers, Ava wanted to save her first one for her Mom, but we finally convinced her that it wouldn't be good tomorrow so she finally ate it herself.   They all thought the donuts tasted great.

Emmy's volleyball in Portland

Emmy on the left with her trademark- big messy bun hairstyle!

We got to see Emmy play some spring volleyball at the Nike campus today.  What a treat it was, both to watch Emmy, and to see the Bo Jackson Fitness Center.  Very impressive place. 

Lots of family showed up - Cathy, Bob, Tierney and Robin were there in the morning.  Emmy's Grandma Mary, Sue, Tom, Jack, Charb, Kelly, Ava, Harper, Macee, Des, and Rielee all came in the afternoon.  Emmy looked very happy to see everyone there.

The kids paid attention some of the time, you had to watch from above, so it kind of hard for them to see through the screen.  Ava and Harper were impressed with the elevator (the numbers beep!) and the locker room (they visited it 3 times), which had a huge Jacuzzi, it looked like a small pool but was actually an ice bath.

Some of Em's fans-Auna holding Harper, Auna's friend, Macee, Des with Rielee, Laury, Sue, and Mary

Homework

Harper did so well writing her name today, her best effort yet.  They were doing homework and making cards for Grandma Barb.  Following Cathy's lead, I now let the girls pick a "prize" out of my prize basket if they work really hard, it is very motivating for them.  Today Ava picked a Disney princess book out of the basket.  Later she was pretending to read it to Harper and didn't want me taking her picture so she hid behind the book and gave me the evil eye!

They also got to go down and play with Jillian and Bridget this afternoon.  Harper gave Aunt Cathy all of the teeny tiny balls she had in her pocket from yesterday.  Cathy said they played really well and stayed busy.

Umbrella walk, ukelele lesson

 As they were going down for a nap this morning, Harper and I made a "deal" that we would go for a walk with umbrellas when they got up.  She even wanted to shake hands on it, not taking any chances that it might not happen.  It wasn't raining after naptime, but they still put up their umbrellas.  We played a little hide and seek in the woods with Papa and then Harper wanted to walk over to Gabe and Des' to look for more "teeny tiny balls" - Parker's airsoft BBs that are scattered in the gravel around their garage.   Harper picks up the green ones, Ava gets the yellow or white, they bring them back, save them in a bowl, eventually they get dropped on the floor, Papa or I step on them and then throw them away after the girls leave. 

I got to hold all the "beautiful" flowers that Ava picked along the way. 

Rielee and Papa started ukulele lessons last night through Parks and Rec.  Papa took lessons a few years ago and thought it would be fun for Rielee to learn to play.  She came over tonight to practice with him.  He helped her with the G7 chord, it is a difficult one to master, but she is getting used to it. 

Weigh in

Rielee showed the girls the fairies and houses this morning.  Before long they had all the animals out, big and small, playing "mama and baby" with them.  We weighed the twins today, wondering if they were getting close to booster seat size, but not yet, Ava weighed 31.6 lbs. and Harper weighed 31. 

Rielee and fairies

Rielee spent Thursday night with us and  spent a couple of hours painting the gazebo and barn  for the future fairy garden we are putting together out by the play fort.   She also painted the girl on the bench.  After everything dried, she spent another couple of hours playing with them.  The bigger fairy is hers and the smaller ones are for the twins.  She and Papa also built a marble ramp out of legos and paper, she had lots of fun playing with that.  This morning she picked up right where she left off, and also painted some sun catchers. 

Spring break fun

 Our helpers yesterday as we spread a load of topsoil on the lawn to fill in some low spots.  We ended up with lots of little piles of soil all over the place, but boy, did they have fun.  Ava was showing me how she can dig just like I do.

Rielee got a new parrot kite, it flies really well, she has her helmet on because she showed me how she can ride her scooter and fly her kite at the same time, which made me nervous because she kept looking back at the kite, plus she flew it into a tree branch so she ran with it instead.

my blurry picture of her heading down the driveway

 

Chuck E. Cheese

Auna and I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese this morning.  We had the place all to ourselves for awhile, which was nice.  Auna went up to the top of the slide with them the first time.  Later, Ava ended up at the top all by herself and she called for Harper, saying she was scared and needed her to come up there.  Harper was on a ride but immediately jumped off and yelled to Ava that it was okay, she was coming to help her, too sweet!  It was funny when Chuck E. Cheese himself came out, he threw some tickets up in the air and they fell to the floor.  Ava and Harper just stood there, looking at him like he was nuts for making a mess like that, and they didn't pick up any of the tickets. 

This was a virtual reality type ride, the seats vibrated and it fascinated them, they rode it about 10 times, screaming and giggling whenever the seats started to shake. 

Showing off the loot they got for their 200 tickets.