Ava's big book/Rielee's dance party

Ava told me she loves non-fiction books because she can learn about the planets, animals and the earth.  We went to the library yesterday and she picked out this huge Jacque Cousteau book The Ocean World.   She lugged it to the car and then started looking through it on the way home.  I had to laugh when she started to complain that she couldn't feel her legs-it was too heavy!

Rielee is staying with us this weekend.  After school today she got to play at Aunt Cathy's with Jillian, Bridget and Tor.  Tonight she entertained me with a dance party and some gymnastics.  She likes to dance and lip sync, she's made 26 videos and is really good at it.   She's getting better at walking on her hands, too, she took 5 steps tonight.

First s'mores

We had hotdogs for lunch at the fire pit today and the girls tried s'mores for the first time.  They opted for Cookies and Crème instead of chocolate on them and it was pretty yummy.

There was a little too much wind stirring up the smoke but it was still fun.

Dresses and track

 Harper made this elephant today, she liked it so much she took a picture of it.

We found the girls some new dresses, they played in them all day, well, except Harper changed into her green dress, she said red just wasn't her color.

We all cracked up when Rielee put on Macee's old Romeos to go out to the play fort.

Uncle went to watch Auna's track meet, she won the 400 and the triple jump.

Wood splitting

Parker came over tonight to help Papa split up the last tree he had cut down, they were just at the end of it when I got the camera.   It was nice to visit with Parker, we don't see him much since he got his license and a job.  We heard all about his welding and chain saw classes, he loves both

 Rielee came over, too, looking for some gardening jobs. 

 

We decided she would wait until the weekend to work since she is going to be staying with us.  She posed on the way home with an early Mother's Day flower for her Mom, she painted the pot last weekend.

 

Kite and snowball fight

SATURDAY-After many attempts, this was about as high as they got the kite, there just wasn't enough wind.  Rielee did manage to park it in the trees a couple of times, which added some excitement.  They quickly moved on to having a snowball fight.

 Rielee and Ava decided to crumbled up some of the flowers and tried to make a snow angel out of them.

Harper helped me blow off the driveway afterwards while Ava and Rielee delivered some of the cookies they made to Auna and Colby.

Happy Birthday Luke

Luke turned 15 today and celebrated with dinner at Applebee's with family and friends.  He's giving a thumbs-up as he dives into his Chocolate Meltdown dessert.  Luke is such a great kid, kind, always happy and positive, and the best brother any sister could ask for-just ask them.  Lexi wasn't there tonight because she's at the FBLA state conference in Spokane, go Lexi!

Rielee's quilt

Rielee brought over the quilt she made in her sewing class to show us today.  We were impressed, it's so nice-she did a great job.  Her class got to visit  the place where it was professionally quilted and each student got to pick out the quilting pattern they wanted.  She liked the backing fabric she used, it's called "minky" and is very soft.

Fun on the big swing

Bought the girls a couple of stuffed animals at a garage sale last week and they were sure happy with them.  Ava named her horse Adeline, Harper got a Pug and called her Isabella.  They made collars, headbands and a skirt for their animals and packed them everywhere.  Ava even showed Adeline how to dig for worms.

They kept gravitating back to the big swing this weekend, Rielee and Ava love twisters but Harper just likes to go straight and high.



Lexi's Senior Prom, cousins sandbox fun, firepit

Lexi looked so beautiful for her Senior Prom.  Kelly shared pictures on FB.

Ava and Harper came home with us after Luke's game yesterday and Rielee spent the night also.  They were outside playing early and stayed out all day.  The sandbox was a big draw since I got them new shovels.  At first Rielee said she wasn't getting in there because she didn't want to dig sand out of her nails.  That didn't last long and they ended up  getting completely dirty twice, which required first an extended swim in Des' Jacuzzi and then a shower here later.  Rielee said she was taking a nap when I took this picture, she stayed that way for a long time.  

We found out this evening that roasting marshmallows with the Gourde girls is quite an experience.  We went through an entire bag and I think each of them had maybe 3, the rest were burnt, dropped or thrown off on fire.  Never a dull moment...!

Breakfast with Rielee, Luke baseball, sister picture

We love that Rielee comes over every morning for breakfast with us.  This morning she was telling me how she signed up for her electives next year, since she'll be in middle school.   She'll have art, woodshop and choir.  Then it dawned on me that middle school starts earlier and she'll most likely ride to school with Mom, so no more breakfasts at our house...oh no.  These kids are growing up too fast!

We watched Luke play some baseball in a home game vs. Westview, OR.  He got walked a couple of times, stole 2nd base and made some great catches.

Lexi was there at practice so we got to see her for a second, too.

Auna track

Auna had a home track meet today.  She tied for 2nd in the 100, took 3rd in the 200 and the triple jump, and her 4 X 400 relay team took 2nd.  It was fun watching her compete

Cupcakes and Jeep

This morning Rielee asked to make cupcakes for her family to take to Sun River tomorrow, so we found a recipe on-line and they turned out great.  She let Ava and Harper each decorate one cupcake for themselves.  Well, just decorating one wasn't enough so they asked to make a batch for their family. We used a box with theirs and Rielee's leftover frosting, and everyone was happy.  We had a good laugh while talking about what it would be like if we competed on Cupcake Wars, Rielee said for sure we would be kicked off first for being too disorganized, messy and loud.

Papa got the Jeep out for the girls today.  There was some wild and crazy driving going on.  Ava ran over Harper's foot once but fortunately that was the only injury.

Seaside, Astoria pool

 This morning we got up early and walked uptown to take the girls to a gift shop to buy a souvenir.  None of the stores were open though so we ended up on the beach since it was so mild out and no wind.  First Harper and Rielee played on the swings and Ava in the sand.

 But before long they were at the water's edge, Ava and Rielee looking for shells and Harper throwing rocks and jumping waves.  Ava kept trying to find a sand dollar but kept finding just pieces.  Pretty soon she was trying to find 2 pieces that fit together.  She thought she was close several times.  She was happy to find so many crab shells.

 They managed to get wet and messy, making for a long walk back to the hotel, especially for Ava and her shells. 

We hated to leave the hotel, wished we were staying another night.  We stayed at the Rivertide Suites in a 2 bedroom, 2 bath room.  The girls got a kick out of having the master with their own TV and a jetted tub.  On the way home, we stopped to swim at the Astoria pool.  It was so nice,  only a few people there, only bad thing was that the slide wasn't open.

Fun but short trip to the beach.

Astoria Column, Seaside

 Monday, on our way to Seaside, we stopped at the Astoria Column.  At first only Rielee and Papa were climbing it, but then Harper joined in, and when Papa showed up with little wooden airplanes to fly off of it, Ava was in, too.

 Papa said they didn't hesitate at all coming out and looking around, no fear of heights in these girls.  It was funny, Ava told me that Rielee asked Papa how he was doing on the way up, and Papa answered "painfully"- "ok".  They all said their legs were sore afterwards.

Our first stop in Seaside was the Aquarium, Harper couldn't wait to touch a starfish, last year she was afraid to.  They touched everything they could there, over and over.  They also tried to feed the seals but the seals were so full they were barely interested.

After lunch, we had a flat tire so we had to hang out at Les Schwab for an hour.  Fortunately they had cards there so we taught Ava and Harper how to play "31".

 Finally, after we checked in to the hotel, they got to swim.

Later in the evening we walked uptown and they rode the carousel and went to the arcade.  They spent the majority of their time at the Claw machine.  With help from Rielee, Ava and Harper ended up with 2 stuffed animals each and Rielee won herself one.  That meant they didn't play the other games much and had few tickets.  Ava and Harper redeemed a total of 3 each, good for a tiny Tootsie Roll, which disappointed them greatly. Rielee did better with 40 some tickets but hardly enough to buy anything good.  Hard lesson to learn, they had buyer's remorse later. 

Rielee volleyball

 Rielee had her last club volleyball tournament of the season at Mt. View H.S.  We met Charb, Kelly and the girls there, watched a couple of matches (they lost the first, won the second) and then the girls came home with us.  We get to keep them for a few days of their Spring break.  Ava and Harper had fun watching Rielee play and cheering for her team to win.

The girls got busy dressing up and then went out to draw with chalk.  Harper wanted me to take a picture of her self-portrait, even with the sun in her eyes.  I especially liked the crown she gave herself.  Both of the girls are fighting allergies so it was a somewhat subdued afternoon and evening.  They did some drawing, played Legos, took a long bath,  we colored, watched Cake Wars and went to bed early.

James baseball

Yesterday we went to watch James play in the Civil War game at R.A. Long.   The place was packed, the sun was shining but unfortunately, Mark Morris lost 4-0.  James hit a couple of singles and had some nice plays at 1st base though.