Cowabunga!

   It was a wild morning in the sandbox for the Gourde girls.  They piled up some sand so they could jump in

and they would yell "cowabunga!" 

It was cute, Harper was trying balance and walk on the side of the sandbox and Rielee was encouraging her.  Here's a YouTube link    http://youtu.be/FjITe80G9bk 

Sprinkler

Harper catching some air over a very small sprinkler spray, just the way she likes it.

Rielee doing the same...

and Ava looking cute. 

Ava wanted to run through the sprinkler so badly today, she kept asking if it was warm enough and I kept saying we would wait until the sun came out.  Finally I gave in and we went out.  Ava was so happy and she kept telling me "I told you it was warm enough, Grandma, I told you!"  They played in it for quite awhile, the sun never did come out but they still had fun. 

We need another steering wheel

We never know what to expect with Ava and Harper.  This afternoon they woke up so happy from their naps, excited to play with Auna and Rielee, telling stories to Alan, they were just hilarious.  We all went outside and they got in the play fort "boat", Ava took off for Burger King and then they had plans to go to Disneyland.  It was all fun until Harper wanted a turn driving and that set off a battle for the steering wheel and a screaming contest like we've never heard.  Well, no,  actually we've heard it lots of times, but it was pretty impressive and it went on so long that everyone bailed out of the boat and that was the end of that.  After they played on the swings for a few minutes it started raining again so we went back inside and suddenly Harper is hugging Ava and thanking her for sharing a toy, I can't recall what toy specifically, but that is how it goes with them-fighting one minute, best friends again the next. 

No more homework

 Rielee said she was stretching and Ava was swinging on the treadmill this morning, at least it got some use.

 Our poor little girls are tired of their homework.  Today they wanted to get a prize out of the prize box so we sat down to do some work.   They barely made it through one page before Harper's arm started to hurt, then Ava said her head hurt...really bad...

it is definitely time for a little summer break,
and they got to pick a prize anyway.

Princesses and Parker

 Parker is spending the weekend with us so he and I went to garage sales this morning.  We found a box of Princess dresses with shoes for the girls.  When we got home Papa had just got them out of the tub, they were really excited and got dressed in record time. 

 We also found them a doctor kit, so they took turns playing with that.  They wore their dresses all day, napped in them and wore them home.  I told Harper that she looked so cute all dressed up and she got very upset and said "Princesses aren't cute, Grandma, Princesses are beautiful!"

We took Parker out for dinner and then later he was bored so I put him to work cutting down a messy pine tree behind the house.  He had fun climbing it to put a rope on it so we could pull it over in the right place.  Papa moved the car just in case, but it fell right where he planned.

Tuesday Emmy and Auna

 One of the drawbacks of having 3 cameras floating around the house is that I sometimes forget which one I used.  That was the case on Tuesday when Em and Auna stopped by when they got back from Central (Auna had been at a volleyball camp there).  Ava and Harper were so happy to see them!

All girl birthday party

Ava painting a paper towel

We invited Jillian and Bridget up this morning for a little surprise birthday party for Rielee.  We had the decorations up when Rielee came over and she was so tickled.  After breakfast she and the twins helped decorate cupcakes (lots of sprinkles) and a cake, too.  They got busy and cleaned up the play room and helped get everything ready.

Singing happy birthday

 They played a game, pin the feathers on the parrot, the kids all liked that except Bridget didn't want to be blindfolded.  They all painted paper towels to make a butterfly also.

After the party was over, Ava, Harper and Rielee went to play at Aunt Cathy's.  In the afternoon, we watched a Chipmunk movie and they put on shows with their ribbon dancing. 

Rielee's 8th birthday

 Rielee had her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, even though she felt like she might be a little too old for it.

 Getting the coveted Chuck E. medallion!

 Posing with Chuck E., her friends and Harper, Ava was off playing a game.

This was the reason she wanted the party here, the TICKET BLASTER!  She was so excited to do this.   I never heard how many tickets she grabbed but it looked like a lot.  It was a very fun party.

playing with Macee and Alan

 I took the girls out for a walk this afternoon and we ended up visiting Macee.  She was ready for a break from her homework and came out to the play fort with us.  Ava and Harper were so thrilled to have her to play with.  Then Alan came over, oh boy, another playmate!  They had him up and down out of the play fort "boat" several times, on trips to Burger King, and he even went down the slide!   We had to laugh at Ava, she took all of our orders for ice cream, but when she got Papa's ready, he had gone inside to fix his glasses, so she ran inside with his pretend banana split and pretend spoon and delivered it to him.

It seems like just yesterday that Macee was a little girl playing in the sandbox.

In the evening, the twins went with Gabe, Des and Rielee to visit Grandpa and Ann and have pizza with them. 

Silly busy girls

I have the barest flower pots around since the first thing the girls do when they go outside is pick some flowers.  Today they put them in their hair, so cute. 

 They were outside early, playing and swinging up a storm,  pretending the play fort was a boat and driving it  to McDonalds.

Harper and Ava woke up in such good moods after their nap, they weren't even sad that Rielee was gone at basketball camp. 

Macee's graduation party

 Macee with Papa at her graduation party today,

 and with Tierney.  It was a wonderful party, lots of family and friends, great food,

and weather warm enough to open the pool.  Rielee and cousin Isaac did some crazy jumps and cannon balls for me.  The kids went from the pool to the hot tub all afternoon.  This is the last of the graduation parties for Macee, Maddie, Tierney, and Kenzie, making  their families a little sad that they won't be seeing much of each other as the girls all head off to different colleges.  It has been an incredible experience watching these girls have so much success in sports.  They are all so smart, athletic, talented, funny and pretty.  We're going to miss them all! 

Such sweet little girls

They are so sweet, these three little darlings, most of the time.  Our morning was going pretty well, they were playing, I baked cookies.  But then about 10, Ava came to get a cookie and discovered that they didn't have chocolate chips in them, she was disappointed and had a meltdown over it.  Rielee went to play with Jillian and Bridget and after Ava quit crying, she and Harper took a nap.  We woke them up at 1:30, and once again had our happy little girls back.  

Emily playdate

playing in the couch cushions, snacking on carrots

The sleepover with Rielee went pretty well.  They stayed up late watching a movie, at bedtime the twins couldn't go to sleep in their beds, even with Rielee sleeping on a cot between them.  So I had to rock them and watch a "cooking show", Rielee fell asleep fast once she was left alone.  They all slept in until 8.  Rielee went down to Cathy's to play with Jillian and Bridget right after breakfast.  Ava and Harper got to play with their friend Emily.  They all got along really well, only a couple of "but that's my toy!" incidents out of Ava and Harper, for the most part they did a good job sharing.

Shrinky Dinks/Auna's game/future blogger

 The girls made Father's Day Shrinky Dinks today and created some other gifts out of popsicle sticks.

Since the girls are all spending the night we all went to watch Auna's game in the evening.  She pitched all but one inning, did great and they won easily.

Parker with a mouth full of seeds, the girls are in the background at the picnic table playing with some other little girls.   After the game, Rielee went home for a couple of movies and they camped out on the living room floor with popcorn.

Between movies, Harper jumped up and ran in and got a pen and notepad.  She said "now, I'm gonna write down everything we did today", and started naming things off and scribbling.   She said she was going to have a blog when she grew up.

Making cookies

Today, this morning actually, was filled with a Father's Day craft project, decorating sugar cookies, and lots of ribbon dancing.  Rielee went home while the twins were napping and Harper was devastated when she woke up to find her gone. She cried and cried, we had to play hide and seek and give horsey rides to distract her.

Rielee's first day of summer vacation/piano recital

Today was officially Rielee's first day of summer vacation. She kept us busy as only she can.  The three girls did a craft, painting flowers made of egg cartons, which they all loved, and they played outside every chance they could get.  They made a "waterfall" in the sandbox which resulted in a pond. 

 Which, of course, they had to try out.

 Rielee stayed quiet in the bedroom so we could get the twins to take a nap.  When Harper woke up, she cuddled with her on the couch.

Rielee had her piano recital tonight, she played very well.  Since her family was at the Hotel Hell filming at the Monticello, having dinner, and couldn't come (unfortunately didn't realize they couldn't leave once they got in there) we took her.  Afterwards we went to COBY's for frozen yogurt, it was a fun evening.

Emmy's graduation

Em waving to family in the stands as they walked in.

 Emmy graduated from CWU today.  It was warm and got very windy by the time they received their diplomas.

She's right there in the middle of the right side.

Didn't get a picture of her receiving her diploma, but here she is walking down the ramp with it, holding on to her cap.

We went to a park afterwards and had a little party to celebrate.  I left to get the cake and this is where Uncle put the sign.  Laury laid Emmy's flowers beside it and it looked like a memorial!

She was one happy graduate.

Macee's graduation

 

Macee, Cale and Tierney graduated tonight.

Maddie, Levi, Macee, Colton smiling at their families in the stands

 

 Macee gave the closing speech, she ended it with a poem she wrote about her class.  It was very cute and she did a great job.

Tierney with Grannie and Papa

Macee and family

Rielee said "hey, I graduated today, too, from 2nd grade!"