Halloween

 We had 4 trick-or-treaters this year.  Rielee showed first, she was an ancient Greek goddess.  She was headed to Lexington to go out with her cousins.

Right behind her were Jillian, Bridget and Tor.  We got a kick out of them, they were so busy and found several balls and balloons to play with.  When it was time to go, Tor was pretty upset about having to leave a ball here, so Uncle got some balloons out to send with them.  Rick blew one up right away and Tor was happy again.

Wish book

 We got a Target Christmas catalog in the mail this week so I had Rielee look at it Wednesday morning and mark an "R" on anything she wanted for Christmas.  When she got done, we laughed because she had marked so many items, I told her she could have just marked one big "R" on the cover and called it good.  When the twins came up Wednesday afternoon, it was their turn and they were very serious about it.  There were a few surprises in what they wanted, besides all the dolls, kitchen and princess stuff, Harper marked a dinosaur, Incredible Hulk, and a giant Nerf gun. 

Dan's birthday

 Sunday we went to the Dolan's for pumpkin pie for Dan's birthday.  It was a short and sweet celebration since it was held during halftime of the Seahawk game.

Dan got a stick from Sam-"hope no one else got you a stick" -a take off on the funny dog card Emmy got for her birthday from Sam.  The Dolan pets always give nice birthday presents to their family.

Macee volleyball/Auna homecoming

 Gonzaga played at the U of Portland today, winning in 4. 

It was so good to see Macee, she's been away from home for a long stretch this time.

She played DS in all 4 sets and did a great job.

Rielee, Harper and later Ava, held up their little signs and cheered for Macee.

  Since we were at Macee's game, we missed seeing Auna all dressed up and looking beautiful for her first Homecoming dance tonight.  Emmy sent me this picture of her and her date Dakota Golden. 

Parker football, Auna volleyball

We watched 2 games today, Parker's at Heritage which they won easily.  He did great at his kicking, making 2 PATs and 1 close field goal, in which the ball hit the crossbar and just barely crawled over!

It was cold there, Papa put the umbrella up to block the wind to keep Rielee warm.

From there we went to King's Way Christian to watch Auna play, they started out strong and won the first set, but then struggled and ended up losing it in 4.  Auna played well though.

Free Cookies

The girls haven't played with Play Doh for a long time, but they made up for it today.  Papa let them open a new package and they had about 6 old tubs of dough.  They used it all to make tons of cookies in all shapes and sizes, pretending to bake them in their oven and microwave, then set up a stand where they gave them away.  Harper sat there singing out  "FREE COOKIES" over and over until she got some takers.   Ava got hungry for real ones so we made some M & M cookies, too.  That, with some dance parties to Taylor Swift songs mixed in made for a fun, busy afternoon.

Janelle's soccer

 We went to our first high school soccer game tonight.  Joanna let us know that Janelle's team, Kalama was playing at Castle Rock.  Janelle played goalie the first half, not much action there, CR only had one shot on goal.  The second half she played forward.  The game ended up a 0-0 tie, but was exciting at the end, with both teams trying to score. 

Joanna and Uncle Steve afterwards, it was great visiting with her, he couldn't believe we could talk through the entire game.

Janelle and Mom, darned flash messed up my picture!

Luke's championship game

Luke #6 on the kick-off team

Today Luke's team played for the championship and won it 48-8, Shahala is undefeated!

 

Papa Mike was there to watch - Charb and Kelly photo bombing,

it was a beautiful day for the game.

Had to get a cousin picture with Adrianna!

Then Ava took some pictures, one of Papa, that's family friend Jack in the background,

one of Lexi and Harper playing tic-tac-toe,

and a special one of Adrianna.  She also took some really sweet close-ups of Mom and Dad but I promised to delete those. 

It was a very fun afternoon watching football.

Lexi volleyball

We saw a fun volleyball match tonight when we went to watch Lexi play.  The Titans lost the first set to Heritage but came back and won the next 3.  They lost to Heritage earlier in the season so they were thrilled with the win.  Lexi played great with 2 aces and 12 digs.  It was also Dig Pink night and before the match, it was very special to see the team give roses to family members who are cancer survivors, Lexi gave one to her Grandma Marcella. 

Crazy cousins

 These three were wound up this afternoon, just being silly and more silly.

Not doing anything special but everything they did brought on fits of laughter.  Just what we needed to brighten up a dark, dreary day.

Logging and pumpkin patch

 FRIDAY - No school today so the twins came to stay with us.  The big news this morning from Harper was that she can pick up Ava now, the look on her face shows that it isn't easy!  Papa weighed them and Ava was 38 lbs., Harper 36.

 Parker was over at 7:30 a.m., ready to cut down the messy pine beside the play fort.  He wanted to get done by 10 to go horseback riding with Olivia.  Having Grandpa Dan's tractor to use made the job much easier and he was done by 9:30.

The twins got play at Aunt Cathy's after that and then Jillian and Bridget came up to play and have lunch with them.

 The girls were excited to find a caterpillar this afternoon, first they made it a home by the driveway and then put it in a plastic container and brought it inside for awhile.

 SATURDAY - We went to the Delemeter Valley Pumpkin Patch, first we got a long hayride down to the lower field.

 The kids got a ride in the carts to the pumpkin slingshot area.

It was fun, Ava got a good launch on this pumpkin.

 The kids posed for pictures and picked out pumpkins.  Ava got a baby pumpkin, Harper got a bigger one,  Rielee's was huge, and Auna picked a dark orange one.  We didn't do the corn maze since Auna said it was really long and Rielee didn't have much time since she had a soccer game later.  It was also raining a little.

When we got home they decorated their pumpkins with markers.

Notes

 It's so fun to find the little notes the twins leave around the house when they are here.  They're so  excited to be learning some sight words such as "I, can, love and me" and will copy sentences and words from Starfall whenever they are on it.  Harper wrote "October", then Ava wrote it, too.

Harper had a bright idea this morning.  Since they always argue over who gets to ride the new scooter, she suggested they both write their names on it and they could share it.  I wonder if that will solve the problem?

Sandbox kitchen

 Ava made me some sand, grass and rock soup today,

while Harper made a rock and sand cake.  Ava went to set up the picnic table to serve the "food" to me and spilled it so she got the hose to clean it up and managed to get sand all over herself, even in her hair.  She went in to take a shower, then they went to play at Rielee's until dinner time.   Papa picked up Auna from practice so she stayed for dinner with us.  The girls enjoyed having her here and had to have a big piece of toast with their dinner "just like Auna's". 

Bedtime

 Settling down with popcorn and a Barbie movie.  Harper is wearing the vest from a dress-up outfit I got her a garage sale today, she said it was so "warm and comfy cozy".

It's nice now since school has started, after Papa has read to the girls, they are sleepy and readily go to bed without a fuss.  I say goodnight and then Papa.  But lately, they've been having conversations with him that last a little too long.  Tonight he was telling them to stay covered up at night so they didn't get cold, pretty soon I hear them discussing camping in the woods in snow and all about frostbite...after that he has them laughing hysterically, they love it and would talk to him all night.  This is where I have to be stern Grandma and tell them all to stop and go to sleep.  

School

 

Wednesday afternoon the girls entertained themselves with a long session of "school".  Rielee was the teacher.  They did a lot of cutting and made some collage pictures.  Harper was also playing the role of Rielee's little girl.

This morning we got to Illahee a few minutes early and the girls asked if they could show us their playground.   Harper at first showed us how she could go down a  mini fireman's pole, but then remembered the high one, she went right down it and was really proud of herself.  Ava was a little hesitant, but wasn't going to be outdone by Harper, so she did it, too.  Then they both went down about 10 times each and we practically had to drag them away to get into school on time.

Their teacher let me come in for a second and snap a picture of them settling in their seats.  They love school but Ava did tell me that the days are "really long".