Playing with Jillian & Bridget

 After swimming lessons today, the girls first went to Aunt Cathy's to play and then Jillian and Bridget came up to play some more.  They had a tea party in the play fort,

 played in the sand box, making a river and then a pond,

 and made a water slide.  Jillian and Ava had a ball on it, Ava kept trying to climb up the slide and would slip and fall right at the top, which cracked up Jillian. 

Out for an afternoon scooter ride. 

The highlight of their day was right after breakfast-a deer was standing right outside the slider, the girls said it was the first time they had seen a "real" deer, at least up that close.

Day 1

The first day of Ava and Harper's summer visit with us went by quickly.  They started swimming lessons at the Y, did well and loved it.  When we got home they played with

Rielee and tried out the Slip N' Slide.

 Auna was over visiting so they had a snack with her, then Rielee invited them to come for a swim in her pool.

 In the late afternoon we went to the visitor's center at Silver Lake and took them on

the wetland boardwalk trail.  The only wildlife we saw were birds but Harper was happy to see lots of blue dragonflies.  Ava had to stop and study each informational board, then she would write in her notebook about it.  Harper brought home a handful of sticks for her "collection", there's not much these two don't collect!

Painting party

Macee has been working for a company called Van Gogh and Merlot in Spokane that gives painting parties where you get an art lesson and drink wine.  So tonight she had a party for family and her high school friends Maddie and Kenzie and their Moms.  

Emmy decided we should paint a sunflower picture.  We all laughed as we struggled to make our paintings look the way we thought they should (and like the sample picture) and follow along as Macee demonstrated.  Pretty much all of us were critical of our own finished work, but thought everyone else's was good.  It was a very fun party.

Rielee's puppy

Rielee's a happy girl, she got her puppy "Roo" today.  She's a pretty mellow pup but she kept Rielee busy as she explored her new home and yard.  I helped Rielee make a cute pink w/black and white puppy-paw fabric tie blanket for Roo's kennel this morning.

Rielee's cousin party

 Rielee celebrated her 10th birthday a day early with a cousin party this morning.  First they decorated visors, a crown for Rielee, and wands.

Posing with their finished projects.

 It was too windy outside to light the candles so they came inside for that.

 Jillian getting a  hug for the nice card she made for Rielee.  Rielee got special cards from Ava and Harper also and Bridget wrote a cute story for her. 

 Then it was on to the games.  First they tried a water balloon toss but the balloons broke too easily when they caught them that we gave up on that. There was a bit of a learning curve on the balloon towel toss, the little girls kept letting go of the towel and running away, afraid they would get wet when the balloon landed.

So Auna and I joined in and they started to get the hang of it and loved it.

  

They had a "no hands" donut eating contest.  Ava had the longest time, she chased her donut around for 1 min. 27 seconds, she started to enjoy how everyone was cracking up watching her. 

The birthday girl was the winner, Harper and Emily tied for 2nd with a time of 17 seconds.

They saved some big water balloons to smash over their heads,

Harper needed help with hers. 

They also had a balloon race, bean bag toss and candy ring toss.  Jillian stayed after to swim with Rielee,  Ava and Harper joined them later.  They all agreed that it was a fun day.

Last day of kindergarten

The girls had a fun last day of school.  They played outside and got popsicles and had a little "Special K" award ceremony.  Ava got an award for being a good friend to everyone.

 Harper got the "Joyful Exuberance" award for always being so happy.

They got one last story "On Our Way to First Grade", they got copies of the book in their goody bags, too, along with bookmarks, pictures, and some leftover art supplies, glue and scissors.   Mrs. Davis also showed a brief video with pictures of them at the start of and during the year.

They were sad to leave their friends and were screaming good-bye to everyone all the way out of the parking lot as we drove off.   Both said they were going to miss school. 

Twins first play

 We had a fun weekend with the girls.  Saturday morning we were treated to a play.  Gone are the days of their simple dancing shows, this was a big step up.  They had 6 acts, with 6 costume changes and used the Ipad for music to accompany them.  They took turns announcing each act.  In the first one, Ava was a baby doctor, she performed a complete exam on her baby.  Harper was getting impatient because Ava was examining every part of baby, she was ready for her turn.  Other acts were a girl walking her dog in Paris, Anna and Elsa with a baby, and in this picture of the finale they were two girls in the fall with an apple, which had fallen out of a tree and they both took a bite of it.  So cute. 

They played a lot with bubbles this weekend, Rielee is right behind Ava here, plus Frisbee and softball, scooters and went swimming both days, too.

Garage sales=happiness, Parker's new look

 The mermaid and princess dresses we found today kept the girls happy all afternoon.

Serious conversation at bedtime tonight, earlier we had a discussion on what constitutes an appropriate Netflix show for an almost 6 year old.  They protested my "cartoons only" rule, wanting instead to watch Jessie or some other teen show, Rielee will sneak and turn those on in the morning sometimes.  So they were thinking about how unfair life can be, and their sleepy talk went like this:

 

Harper:  I just want to be a grown up.  I really want to be an adult, adults get to do everything they want.

Ava: Yeah.

Harper:  I want to be in college, college would be really good.

A: Yeah, then I could have a baby, that would be so good.

Me: Ok, enough talking, it's time to go to sleep.

 

Parker stopped by with Olivia this afternoon to show us his new look.  When the twins asked why he changed his hair, he told them he had been dyeing his hair dark since he was a baby and blonde was his real hair color.  They weren't buying that story though.

Luke-8th grade Citizen of the Year

 Tonight we went to the Shahala Middle School Eagle Achievement Awards Ceremony, where

Luke received the 8th Grade Citizen of the Year Award.  It was so special hearing the principal's remarks about him and also the quotes he read about Luke from his teachers.  We were so proud of him!

Cuties

The girls looked cute this morning, Rielee with her skirt and gladiator sandals,  Ava and Harper in  their "Frozen" summer dresses.  They were excited to wear dresses to school today, their class is having "Beach Week", which means they get to sit on their beach towels in the classroom and read and do other fun, beachy stuff.

Allergies, the pool is open

 Harper and Ava had an allergy attack Saturday evening.  They were at their cousin's wedding and there were freshly cut hay fields nearby.  They were pretty miserable Sunday morning but still wanted to come up. Kelly called the advice nurse and after some Allegra and cold packs, Harper felt well enough to go to the pool with Rielee.  Ava fell asleep on the way up and was still napping.  Harper jumped right in the still-chilly water and had fun playing with Rielee.  Ava came over when she woke up but stayed on the side.  She did get up and chase Papa with a squirt gun though.

 Rielee invited them back over in the afternoon, by then Harper's eyes had cleared up a little.

 Rielee did some trick jumps and practiced her swimming, trying to beat her time for laps.

 Ava went in this time, too! 

Harper and Ava waiting outside at Kaiser for Mom this morning.  Harper's eyes were still very red and swollen when she woke up so she went to see the doctor.  She took Lando, her puppy with her for support and was a brave girl, Mom said.  She got some eye drops and those helped a lot, she looked much better by afternoon.

Ukes and excavator

 I caught these two playing some tunes again Friday morning.  Rielee's ukulele club had an Aloha Concert Thursday.  They played 5 songs and the choir sang also, it was really nice.  It was the final concert for Mrs. Nelson, their music teacher.

I asked Parker if he would widen out the back road for me with the excavator Dad brought home from work.  He was really having fun with it. 

Wednesday

Ava made Papa happy when she offered to help him clean up some car parts yesterday.  He couldn't believe how long she stayed out there with him, scrubbing away.

Harper sat down to draw as soon as she got here since I had bought them some large sheets of paper.  Her Union "buddy" taught her how to draw an island, palm tree and a different style of sun.  She needed me to help fill in some of the water and sky while she drew the sharks.

Cousins, waking up "Avie"

We took Ava and Harper to cousin Ty's graduation party Sunday.  They were excited to see Jillian, Bridget and Tor there, they haven't seen them in quite awhile.

 They played inside while everyone was eating and visiting then outside before we left.  They had a great time and were running around like crazy, playing Pirates.  Rielee loves the zip line, Harper wanted to try it but we nixed that idea.

It's so cute, most mornings Harper is the first one up, then she tries to wake up Ava, always calling her "Avie" during the process.  Ava usually wants to sleep a few minutes more.