Spring Break day 1

We had Auna and Rielee along with the twins today and Parker also in the morning.  He stayed busy organizing Papa's shop.  The girls did two crafts, making paper plate bird nest pictures, and then they dressed paper dolls. 

Rielee and I had cut out clothes for the dolls yesterday so the girls got to pick out and decorate whatever outfit they wanted.  Harper's are on the bottom, Ava is the 2nd row, Rielee's is the 3rd and Auna's is on top.  She was a sport and played along, too. They were very serious and creative and it kept them busy for over an hour.

Thankfully, it was a nice enough day for everyone to play outside, too.  They all went on an "exploring" walk in the morning, running all over the property.  In the afternoon they decorated the driveway with chalk, blew bubbles, and played "fashion show" Barbies.  

Norma

Norma stopped by for a visit Friday.  It was great to see her.  She is on her way to Hawaii, leaving Sunday with her old boyfriend Joel (from high school in Castle Rock) and his parents.  She filled us in on all she has been doing since we last saw her - studying political science,  working part-time teaching English to Italian children and traveling to Berlin to visit Alina, a fellow CR exchange student from Poland.  She is going to Haiti in the summer for a month to teach English and was very excited about that trip.  It is something her mom had done before the earthquake there and she will stay in the same mission.  Norma drug Parker out of the house to go on their "traditional" walk to the creek to talk, something Parker was dreading because it is pretty muddy down there.  Oh, and Norma also told us how she was detained and interrogated when she arrived in Portland.  Apparently, her visa wasn't updated when she was visited New York last year and didn't show her leaving the country.  She said they questioned her extensively and she was getting very nervous not knowing what was going on!  "They thought I was a terrorist!" she said.

Rielee's Earth Day Program

before the program started, she had a big wave for the twins

This afternoon we took the girls and went to Rielee's Earth Day program.  The 2nd and 3rd grades participated, singing and giving speeches about taking care of the earth and recycling.  Rielee was one of the speakers and did a great job.  We also thought, of course, that she was one of the best

 singers, if not the best, very animated through every song.

Afterwards, Parker wanted a picture with Ava and Harper, they weren't so thrilled at having to stand still-they had been very busy exploring the hallway near Rielee's room.  They were good during the program, but disappointed that they couldn't see Rielee very well, they had to stand on their chairs to see her at all since we were sitting in the last row.  After awhile, Ava sat down and played on the Kindle but Harper watched the whole thing. 

Rainy walk

Papa took the girls out for a walk in the woods this afternoon and they found some Easter lilies near Alan's big trees.  When they started to pose,  Harper noticed a bug on her lily and screamed and threw it down, Ava immediately took care of the bug by stomping on the flower, which of course upset Harper even more.  Papa helped her find another one though, and they brought their flowers back and put them in a vase.  We left it on the porch just in case there were any more bugs hiding.

Rocks and Jeep

 Playing with alphabet rocks before school this morning.

 Rielee wanted me to take a picture of her heart.

 We got the Jeep out for Rielee this weekend so the girls got to drive it today.  First they drove over to visit Alan and Vera. They checked out Vera's flower pots, ran around the house a little and were off to drive some more.  It's funny, Harper is still nervous about driving but Ava is confident.  They were kind of tired and couldn't get along so they lost their Jeep privileges and had to come in and take a nap.

Harper napping with Rielee's Baby.  I later asked her what happened to Baby and she explained that Baby was running on the driveway with her hands in her pockets when she tripped and fell down on her face (which happens to be a scenario that Papa is always warning the girls about).  After naptime they got to play outside with Rielee since Daddy was picking them up later than normal.  They played in the sandbox, had a tea party, and rolled down the hill in the grass at Rielee's.  A fun day.

Rielee visits preschool

Since she had the day off from school today, Rielee finally got to see Ava and Harper's preschool.  The girls showed her their fish tank and their parakeet "Sunshine", Rielee said she was impressed by how large their room is.

 They had a busy afternoon playing "princess explorers" which meant they followed Rielee all over the place looking for adventures - at one point they had Rielee's cat going into the culvert, then they got scared and brought her in the house to dry her off. 

Back outside and playing on the big swing, Harper was really looking chic!  Once it got a little chilly, we rented the movie "Frozen", they really loved it, especially the kiss at the end.   Then we had a fire pit and roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. 

Painting

Ava-"I love my this painting!"

The girls wanted to paint this morning.  Since it was the first day of Spring, they painted pictures of flowers and trees.  They painted one for Mom, Dad, Lexi and Luke. 

After a nap and lunch, it quit raining so we could go out and find some Easter lilies (trilliums) to pick. 

They were excited to find lots of them so we took a bouquet to Laury along with a loaf of cardamom bread we made for Will, who is home for spring break.

They're back!

playing Mom and baby

Ava and Harper were full of stories today about their trip to Disneyland.  Seems they liked Splash Mountain the best and got "soaking wet"!  They also liked the Dumbo ride and seeing the Princesses.  Ava told me about the tiny bathroom on the airplane, and both were cute describing how the plane took off and seeing the clouds out the window.

Rielee's school work

Rielee was cleaning out her binder this morning and noticed she had a mistake on this paper...when I saw what she had written, I thought it was funny, Papa, not so much.

Jillian and Rielee

I took Rielee and Jillian to see "Nut Job" at the Theatre Pub this afternoon.  They had pizza there and were both so well behaved.  Afterwards I had to run into Joann's for a couple of things so they each got a crown.  When we took Jillian home, Rielee didn't want to leave, she was having too much fun playing with the girl's toys.  I was having fun playing ball with Tor.

Lawn mower ride

The girls wanted to wear their "dress up" clothes (tutus) outside yesterday, which looked really cute with their rubber boots on, too.  After playing with chalk and bubbles, they heard Papa on the mower and took off running to find him and get a ride.  They rode over to see the chickens and Ava tripped and fell down, skinning the palm of her hand on the gravel.  That stopped all playing for her for a couple of hours while she recovered with her hand wrapped up in her blanket.  Then all of a sudden she declared that it was all better and they headed out to play again. 
Early in the evening they were both in the playroom when they came out to see me in the kitchen, I knew they were tired, overly tired, but they looked so serious.   Ava said "we're sick", Harper agreed.  I asked what was wrong with them, Harper looked at Ava, who suddenly started coughing, "we have a cough" she said,  Harper said "yeah, we have the allergies, we need some medicine, we're don't feel good" and she coughed a little, too.   So I gave them each one dropper of Tylenol and they felt better.  Probably didn't need it, but I didn't think it would hurt them. They were in bed asleep by 8 and slept until I woke them up at 7 this morning. 

Batting and Mr. Bean

 Papa got the girls bats and balls so they had batting practice today.  They each hit a few before they were off to do other things.  It was a beautiful afternoon, when Rielee got home from school they all played outside and then had their first tea party of the year. 

Later she introduced them to Mr. Bean, they got a kick out of that and giggled their way through several episodes.

Gargling

Harper trying to teach Ava to gargle, so funny, they kept walking around like this, we were afraid they would walk into the wall.

Walks and surprises

 Harper was kind of nervous walking through the "forest" as she calls it, so Ava grabbed her hand and pulled her along with her.  We went out on 2 walks today.  The first one they headed down to play in the water, Harper kept calling it "the watering hole" for some reason, which sounded so funny.

Rielee came over later and she and the girls wanted to call and invite Emmy and Dan over for a surprise.  They busily set up the table in the playroom with food: toast with butter or jelly, pretzels, bananas and water bottles.  They made signs and Rielee fixed the girls hair and had them put on jewelry and sunglasses.  When Em and Dan arrived, Rielee introduced Ava and Harper, but since she had to go home in 15 minutes, they had to skip putting on a show and go right to serving the meal.  Emmy played some music on her phone so the girls could dance a little and Dan chair-danced which made everyone laugh.

Will basketball playoffs

The Lakers lost their first round game vs. Pierce CC this morning.  Will played in the first half and made a 3 but didn't get in during the second since their other outside shooter, Anthony Heintzman from Toutle, was hot and hit 7 three pointers.   That's their coach walking to the left,  he looks exactly like Paul Shaffer, the band leader on David Letterman.