Ava and Harper are 6!

 We were lucky last night and got to keep the girls overnight so we had them on their birthday morning.  Rielee came over early to fix them breakfast, a green pancake for Harper and a pink waffle for Ava.  Then they went on a Treasure Hunt.  It took them awhile to figure out the clues, but once they got the idea, they had fun.

 They were so excited by their "treasure", amazing what joy a trip to the Dollar Store can bring.

 Time for the pool, at 10 a.m., it felt a little chilly, but we all got in and played.  Harper and Rielee took turns jumping over the noodle.  I think they might be future long jumpers.

 There was Dubble Bubble in the treasure box...

 Rielee caught some air on this jump.

Back to the house, they showered and ate lunch.  Then the 6 year olds were ready for cake and presents, Alan, Vera and Auna joined us.  Very fun morning with the birthday girls!

Painting toes, the creeper

 One of the prizes for doing their homework Sunday afternoon was a nail polish set, so they shared it.  First they did their fingernails, then decided to try their toes.

 It was quite the process, with lots of "oops" moments, but they did a pretty good job overall.

This morning we went to the library, then the bakery, where Harper had a Minion cookie.  Ava was calling her the "creeper" after she saw her black tongue. 

Riels, Roo & summer league

 Rielee and I took Roo for a walk around the neighborhood this morning, she did pretty well.  Rielee was excited because one of Roo's ears was standing up when she got up to greet us, it didn't stay up very long though. 

 This evening Parker went with us to watch Auna and Emmy play summer league volleyball.  Auna is going to be setting part of the time this year, she did well at it tonight.

 Parker was happy because he was looking forward to going to Las Vegas in the morning to play basketball.

Emmy came over to say hi between matches playing with the Alumni team and to visit with the Kalama team (behind her).

Back to the fair with Rielee

Ava loved this little goat, she and Rielee spent a long time in the Petting Zoo feeding it and others and also the ducks.  Harper went in briefly then decided she would rather eat her Kettle Corn, as she was leaving, she accidently let it out and I had to chase it down and lead it back inside.  It's stronger than it looks.

They couldn't wait to ride the ponies again and they all wanted to ride the big horse, but we would have had to wait and it was hot so Ava and Harper rode the little ones again.  Ava got a double ride since the lady confused her with Harper and left her on, Ava had tried to get off, too.  The lady just laughed when we told her what she had done-she said "well, that's one of the percs of being a twin!"

 

This is how you win a goldfish, and she won another one, too.

Ava was as shocked as the rest of us when her bubble got so big!  Harper couldn't resist and popped it for her-Ava had gum all over her face, but she thought it was funny.

CR Parade and Fair

 We got such a kick out of watching the girls at the parade.  They would get so excited when someone would toss some candy their way.  Towards the end though, they were getting selective, and would pass up the candy they didn't want or give it to the kids next to them.

 They played several of the games at the fair, at a quarter a game, it's cheap fun.

 Ava had a heck of a time with the cork gun game, she couldn't pull it back fast enough to make the cork go more than a foot or so, but still got a prize.

 They were a little disappointed to just get regular blue ribbons on the crafts they entered, no big ribbons this year, but a pony ride made them forget all about it.

 Ava just loved her pony, Dusty, she said she was so soft and cuddly, she would sleep with her.

Wow, so much parade candy, they're smiling with the cards they got from a local dentist, along with a 50 cent piece.  Hope they don't need a dentist after eating all that!

GG sleepover, Papa Mike's party

 The Gourde girls had a sleepover last night, I asked them for a nice picture and this is what I got.  They had fun staying up late watching "The Croods" and slept in today.  Spent the day playing, making cupcakes, reading, and beading.

Ava and Harper playing on the hammock with Rachel, Mikey and Jason at Papa Mike's retirement party this afternoon.  The girls had each decorated a sack this morning for Papa Mike and filled it with some of their special treasures, Ava made him a bracelet, too.

  Papa Mike and 7 of 8 grandkids, Rachel isn't in the picture.

Moving up and going home

Ava and Harper with their certificates after their last swim lesson this morning. 

They had so much success this session, Harper is swimming and Ava has lost her fear and can swim on her back and go underwater completely.  It was fun to watch them gain confidence and learn to enjoy the water.  They loved Abby, their teacher, and the way she made each lesson fun.  Daddy came and watched them (they really showed off for him) and then took them home, and boy, were they ready to go. 

Jeep drivers

The little princesses are going home tomorrow but they made the most of their last evening, playing outside until bedtime and driving the Jeep around until the battery went dead. We've had such a great time with them, they keep us laughing and young at heart.

Helping Papa

 Saturday, the 4th, Papa took the girls outside to ride their scooters.  When he grabbed one of Rielee's scooters to ride with them, Ava protested. He'd never done that before, and she asked him what he was doing, he didn't know how to ride a scooter?!   He assured her he did.

Not 1 minute later, Ava came running in the house, excited and serious, but calm, saying she needed a band aid and a wet cloth, Papa had fallen and had a scrape!  She got both by herself, didn't want my help,

 met him at the door and they cleaned up the blood from a cut on his elbow.

 

Then came inside to bandage his knees.

It seems that Papa had mistaken the wheelie bar for the brake, panicked when he started picking up speed and bailed off the scooter.  Thankfully, the girls were ahead of him and didn't see him fall.

 

He took them right back outside to prove to them he was okay, although Ava was pretty nervous when he went down Rielee's driveway. 

I knew the experience had upset them but was surprised that they didn't tell Mom and Dad when they called later. When I asked why, they said they didn't want to talk about it.  They've been writing a daily journal of their summer activities and didn't want to write about it the next day either.

As Papa has been mending, they've both helped get the ice pack for his sore wrist, taking good care of Papa.

Fun in Rielee's pool

Ava showing us how she can jump in the pool.

Jillian and Bridget came to swim with Rielee, Ava and Harper today.  Tor didn't feel well and was happy to watch the fun from Grannie's lap.

Rielee did a falling backwards trick while Auna watched.

Harper has perfected her cannonball. 

Ava opted out of the group-jump in.  They had a ball playing together, the pool is so warm this summer, 89 degrees today.

4th

Happy 4th of July!

Slumber Party

 Ava and Harper had a little slumber party Friday night with their friend Emily and Rielee.  They played in the pool until they couldn't play anymore, which was about 7:00, then came in and watched a video while we fixed some dinner. 

After that they played dress up and did some drawing and made faces with the face kit Ava bought from the gift shop the other day.  They got to stay up until 10:00, and all were asleep quickly after such a busy day of swimming. 

Swimming and more swimming

All day the girls pretended that Rielee was the Mom "Chelsea", Harper was "Rosie" and Ava was "Jessica" (not Jess or Jessie either).  When we went to the library, I was their chauffeur.  In the pool, Rosie and Mom did a synchronized swim routine that was pretty impressive.  They had 4 swim sessions today - lessons, 2 trips to Rielee's pool and then back to the Y for Family Night.  They wanted to go to that so badly but found that it was crowded and not as much fun as Rielee's pool, they did like the lazy river though and attempting to drown Grandma while doing "butter butter pop".

Ava and Harper jump in now and go all the way underwater.

Mt. St. Helens

 This afternoon we took the girls to see Mt. St. Helens and visit the Forest Learning Center and Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitors Center.  They really enjoyed the movies about the eruption and were full of questions.

 The helicopter was a big hit, they all took a turn sitting in it.

 

 We had to drag them out of the Discovery Room.  There was so much to see and touch, big cones, tiny cones, all sorts of rocks to interest them and they spent a good deal of time coloring special pictures of elk.

 Harper fell and skinned her knees when we left the visitor center so she's sad in this picture and Ava was disappointed because she thought we were going to actually climb the mountain and it was so far away.