4 1/2 birthday party

Ava and Harper had a 4 1/2 party at school today since they have a summer birthday.  I gave the teacher my camera to take some pictures.  They look happy in this picture but when you look closely you can see that Ava's hair is in the candle!   I think Teagan, sitting next to Ava can probably smell it by the look on his face.   It didn't burn her skin, thank goodness, but really scared her.  The teacher said she cried a lot.  Ava said some burned hair fell on her hand.

 Next picture, Ava is gone.

 Back with a cold pack but, oh, so sad...

 Perking up a little.

 And after school, she was all better and didn't say anything about it until after her nap.

Rielee this morning in her poodle skirt.  Her school is having a Sock Hop tonight.  When we dropped her off, nearly every little girl had one on and the little boys had their jeans rolled up and hair slicked back, so cute.

Bridget and Tor's visit

 

Bridget and Tor came up to visit today.   Ava and Harper were fascinated with little Tor.  They got him toys to play with and showed him theirs.  The girls got along together really well.  They played kitchen, Ponies, Barbies and with Play Doh.  Bridget even stayed to play while Grannie took Tor back home for a nap. 

Taking a break for a snack.

Seahawk cake

Here's a link to a video of the twins frosting their cake:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRPIjuAY9S0
A scratch cake yet, and miraculously it turned out pretty good.  At one point, I couldn't remember if we added the sugar,  Ava said no, Harper said yes so I added a little more just in case. Cooking with twin 4 yr. olds is always an adventure, no matter how hard I try to prepare ahead of time.

Parker basketball

 Parker's Coweeman basketball team had their first game today.  They beat Cascade by 6 points, it was a good, close game.  Parker was playing with a back injury so he couldn't stay on the floor very long, but he did well while he was out there, making a couple of baskets and several rebounds.

Auna and the twins went to the game with us.  They and Rielee kept busy coloring, making Valentine cards and snacking.  It was cute when first Ava, then Harper randomly shouted "GO PARKER!" quite loudly without even looking up to see that  he was on the bench.  It's the thought that counts.

Braiding

 No school for Kelso or Castle Rock, so the twins got to play with Auna, Rielee, and Parker when they got home from pre-school today.  Auna first braided Rielee's hair and then did Ava's.

It looked cute but didn't last long, by the time I got them out of their dresses and back into their clothes to head home, her braid was toast.

Lexi v'ball, Will basketball

 We watched Lexi's team play today in a Power League Qualifier at the Courts in Beaverton.  Lexi played great with some nice serves.

 Will's team was playing Portland CC so we went there next.  Dan, Auna and Emmy posed for me at halftime.

Will played great, he had 5 points but they lost by 12 in a very physical game.

Zipping

Ava zipped up her jacket yesterday and did it again today.  Harper decided she better try it also, and with a tiny bit of help, got hers zipped up, too.  They were proud.   They had a good day at school, taking Hokey Pokey Elmo in together for show and tell.   After school I gave them some sparkly shoes I found on clearance at Target so they played dress-up and did some dancing.  Papa bought them some smaller sheets of construction paper so they used those to make cards for Grandma Barb and Papa Mike.

Show time

"It's time for a show!"  We got two today, one when Alan was here and another when Emmy and Dan stopped by.  We've had to limit their dancing to three 1 minute turns each since they now dance to music On Demand and some of those songs are too long for them to make it through.   

Monopoly and basketball

 Harper saw the Disney Monopoly game in the closet this morning and asked if we could play, I said no, she was too little and couldn't read yet, but Rielee said she would play with them.  They stuck with it for quite awhile.  Ava was winning when they stopped to eat breakfast, then they started playing dress-up so we put it away. 

Charb and Luke came up to get the girls in the afternoon.  Parker was glad to see Luke and they spent the whole time playing basketball.  The girls got dressed up again to put on a show for Daddy.

Seahawks

The Dolans and Gabe came over to watch the game with us today.  The kids stayed busy in Papa's room watching a movie and playing on the computers and Kindle. When we would all scream after a good play, Harper would come out frowning with her arms crossed and tell us that we were being too loud and the noise was hurting her ears!

More painting

The girls had a field trip today to the library.  Friday is also show and tell day but we didn't have the girls take anything since before when they've had Friday field trips, show and tell didn't happen.  When we picked them up, of course, they were having show and tell, I thought, oh no, they didn't have anything to share,  but then I could hear Ava telling the class how her Daddy always makes them macaroni and cheese and how she loves macaroni and cheese!  When we got home they said because of the field trip they didn't get to make a craft at school and asked if they could paint, then begged to paint.  So they painted birdhouses and then a couple of pictures and were happy. 

Painting

The girls asked to paint today so we got the easel out and let them choose what paint colors they wanted.  Harper asked for silver, black and white.  First she made circles but her next painting was letters and numbers and then she painted a snowman.

 Ava said she was painting a "machine that gives milk", her next painting looked very similar and she said it was a machine that gave orange juice.

We took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.  In the past they were too busy to eat anything, so this time they had to take a bite of pizza before they could get a token, Harper actually ate 2 slices.  They played a long game of air hockey.  Ava loved it but Harper got bored and walked away. There was a little boy watching so we asked him if he wanted to play with Ava and he did.  Ava was shy at first but then got into the game and had fun with him.

Candlelight breakfast, Rielee's basketball

 Our power went out just as the girls were starting breakfast this morning.  They were scared but we got them each a flashlight and lit a candle so they could finish their oatmeal and toast.  Papa got the generator going pretty quickly so we didn't have to sit it the dark very long.

 

Rielee had her first basketball game today, she made several baskets and did well bringing the ball down the court.  She's like a mini-Macee.

Ava had been sitting on the floor watching the game but she climbed up in Macee's lap for a bit.  Rielee was winded when she finally got to sit out at the end of the game since they only had one sub.

Twins at school

 The kids have dinosaur name tags at school now, they were really excited about it.

Harper went right to the check out the rice when we got there this morning while Ava worked on a puzzle.  They really love school.

Silly X 2

Harper and Ava have "acting silly" perfected, and they just love to crack each other up.  One does something goofy, the other either laughs hysterically or tries to be even funnier. 

Number hunt

 Today after Rielee got home from school we played a Number Hunt game with the flash cards to help the twins with some of the numbers they haven't learned to recognize yet.  Rielee played along and the twins really got into it.  They took turns hiding them, and after Rielee left for piano lessons, they asked Papa and I to join in.   So funny, they both hid the numbers while we sat together and covered our eyes.  When we opened them, we had about 10 numbers spread out all on our laps and they got all excited when we found them.  Making it easy for us.

After they found their numbers, they had to go through and name them. 

Horsey ride

 Decorating cookies this afternoon, they couldn't wait until Rielee got home from school. 

 

Tried another recipe today in my quest to recreate the no-longer-sold Campbells Healthy Request Roasted Garlic Potato soup the kids all loved.  Epic fail, the twins hated it...Harper actually ran to the garbage to spit it out...and she was upset because she saw me peeling the potatoes and thought she was getting them mashed.

 Taking turns giving each other horsey rides, or were they puppies?  Can't remember, but they were laughing hysterically either way! 

the letter K

 Easy to tell what letter they are working on this week.

Alan came over with Christmas gifts for the girls today, Dreamhouse Barbies Summer and Teresa.  They're nice ones with articulated bodies and real eyelashes, which impressed the girls, but Alan said he picked them out solely by their pink and green outfits.  Ava said hers had the same name as  "Dale's Mom" (her Aunt Teresa).  They played with them the rest of the afternoon and took them home.

Ava's solo act

Ava and Harper came up this morning to spend the night.  They played dress-up and combed their own hair, which means lots of spray, slicked back with clips and bows, and found some lipstick to wear.  Then they put on a show for which Ava asked for a "side pony" in her hair.  First they both danced to 4 songs each but then Ava changed it up, she wanted to sing by herself.  It was cute, she stood in front of Papa and I and sang 3 songs, very seriously.  Then she got the keyboard and played a couple of "songs", again very seriously.  Rielee showed up after that to play and they were busy all afternoon.  They ended the day with a surprise for us-they cleaned up the playroom and made us a "feast" consisting of fruit, pretzels, cookies, toast with jam and Ginger Ale!   Rielee went home at 6 and the twins had a bath, dinner, read books and were asleep at 8:30. 

Parker's speaker box

It's been so quiet around our house this week without the twins, just awful.  I was glad to see Rielee show up this morning to have breakfast with us and hang out for awhile.  Once she got hooked up to play Wii with Auna though, she was gone.  Luckily, Parker walked in the door at the same time.  He had been working in the shop, building a speaker box and was getting ready to cover it.  He took a break to go to town with us and that was fun.  We went to the new auto parts store, Home Depot, had lunch at Panda, then stopped at Walmart. 

 All finished and it turned out great, he was proud.