Liann, Lindsey, Scott, Paty

 Scott, Paty and the kids stopped by today on their way to Silverdale.  Liann and Lindsey have grown so much.  Liann is 15 and will be a sophomore in her American school on the base where her Mom works and Lindsey is going to be 11 next month, she still goes to a Japanese school.

Lindsey just got a ukulele so Grandpa showed her some chords and how to strum and gave her some music to practice.  They watched a couple of YouTube videos of ukulele players, too.  Lindsey is a funny girl with a great sense of humor.  Liann showed me how to use Snapchat and we laughed so much playing around with it.  They are such sweethearts,  we wish they didn't live so far away.

Beach trip

Cartwheels and sand castles on the beach-we had everything but sunshine when we took Rielee, Ava and Harper to Ocean Park to spend the night at Cathy and Bob's beach house.  It was comfortable though with little wind, Papa couldn't even get our kite to fly very high.  There were lots of little jelly fish looking things on the beach and in the water so the girls didn't want to go near it.   Ava and Rielee dug a hole and buried a bunch of the ones that were near us. 

Jumping contest,

Papa got one foot off the ground anyway.

When we got to the beach house, the girls were excited to run upstairs and pick out their beds, Rielee took the Winnie the Pooh one, she loves it and said it is super comfy.  Ava wanted to sleep under a sky light but didn't get to see any stars with all the clouds in the sky.  Harper slept by the window. Ava and Harper had brought lots of their personal treasures and proceeded to arrange them all on the shelves.  They played for awhile and then we went for ice cream, had a fire pit, then went to the play ground.

 

Papa surprised Rielee when he got on the teeter totter to play with her.  She got more of a ride than she was expecting and almost flew off it.  They love this playground, it has a small turf field beside it so the girls had a contest to see who could do the most cartwheels.  Harper won with 19.

  When we got back to the house, we watched Zootopia and Cinderella (which Papa actually really liked) and then went to bed.

We played some early morning UNO games, Rielee kept winning so we played teams, Ava and I vs. Harper and Rielee.   When we left we stopped for more cotton candy ice cream for Ava and they wanted to go back to the playground one last time.

We went to Marsh's Museum where we all spent about a half an hour digging through these tiny shells since Ava wanted to fill her little bottle with pink shells, and Harper green.  Then, as we were waiting to pay, Ava spotted a pink whale tail necklace that she wanted instead and put her shells back so she could buy it. 

She loves it, along with her Grandma Barb locket.

We also rode the bumper cars, that was wild.   Ava and Harper weren't tall enough to ride by themselves so we rode with them and we spent all our time trying to run into Rielee.  Ava said I was a crazy driver.

After a ride on the carousel and a visit to the bakery for goodies, we headed for home.

Say Maybe To The Dress

Emmy looks a little tired after a couple of hours of trying on wedding dresses today.  It was a fun time watching her, seeing how she looked in all the different styles.  Although she didn't buy one, she found a contender, I think.  One thing I know for sure is that she will be a stunning bride.

Legos, playground, tubes

 Building a tower to the ceiling was a group effort and took them a long time Saturday.  They still have fun with these big Legos, but Papa has to play with them.

Ava was up and dressed by 7:30 this morning.  I had her try on some Hello Kitty sparkly shoes I'd bought her a long time ago but they were too big.  They sort of fit now so she put her pajamas back on so she'd have a matching outfit.  Then she sat out on the deck sketching a picture for Mom and Dad, it was still in the 50's so she wasn't out there very long. 

We took them to the school playground this morning, then Papa remembered the new playground behind City Hall so we went there.  They got a kick out of trying to balance and walk across these wiggly platforms.  Harper struggled at first but got the hang of it after a few tries.

New tubes for their pool made for funny pictures of their hair.

Ava and her "collections" - she was helping Papa get wood for the fire pit when she saw this piece of wood and loved it, she said she was going to start a collection of wood.  She found the rock beside the shop, it sparkles, so it's going in her rock collection.  The baby snail shell-in her shell collection.  The girl loves collections.

Pony rides and goldfish

 We were back at the fair Friday afternoon so the girls could ride the ponies.  The lady who owns them remembered the girls and couldn't believe how much they had grown.  Ava was disappointed because she was too big to ride "Dusty", her favorite pony and had to ride a different one.  Harper was happy to ride a big horse for the first time. 

 They didn't want to do anything else at the fair except play the quarter games.  Rielee spent all her money trying to win goldfish, she left with 4, and Ava and Harper both won one also.   Ava and Harper were playing the games separately and it was funny, the people working there got them mixed up.  Ava went to play one game and the guy there said "remember how you did it last time?" she says "no, I've never played this"- he said "yes, you were just here!"  I told him she had a twin, he said "boy, they are identical." 

The girls asked to put their fish in bowls for a night so they could watch them, so I said okay.  We had them on the table until Papa mentioned that Lucy might decide she wanted one...so into the pond they went.

CR Parade and Fair

 The kids had a grand time at the parade.  One float was a pirate ship and they got stuffed animals from a big, burly pirate - he had them yell "AARGH" and the loudest won.  Actually Rielee won the Dora and gave it to Harper, Ava got the dinosaur for best effort.

 Harper, Rielee, Nettie, and Ava

They got all kinds of candy, bottles of water, bouncy balls, a beach ball and 50 cents from the tooth fairy.

Then to the fair, where Harper was at first happy to see this ribbon on the bird feeder she made out of a milk carton.  But then she realized it wasn't the great big ribbon she was hoping for, and she was a little disappointed.  She and Ava had blue ribbons on all of their entries.  When Papa reminded them that they will also get some money it made them feel better.

Rielee's hot air balloon sewing project got a big ribbon,

as did her quilt.  She was really proud.

Harper wanted kettle corn and Ava a snow cone so we sat and listened to some live music.  Two songs and they were ready to go back to the games, they said they didn't like country music.

We love the quarter games and so do the kids.  This was a unique one, the "toilet paper roll toss", Harper was good at it.   They both tried several times to win a gold fish at the ping pong toss, Papa tried, too, but no luck.  When we left, Rielee was there trying, she later brought over 3 fish she had won to put in the pond.  Said  they cost her 3 or 4 dollars but she didn't care-it's her favorite game and she's won fish every year.

Lucy drama

We had some excitement on Sunday when Lucy went up a cedar tree and couldn't get down.  Ava and Harper were so worried about her.   Ava even broke down in tears at one point, fearing Lucy would fall and they would lose their cat!  We left her up there for awhile hoping she would come down on her own but she just seemed so shaky when she tried that finally Gabe went up and rescued her.

Whew, happy kitty and family!

Lucy was also very sick one day last week, she must have eaten something bad.  It really scared all of us, but thankfully the next day she started feeling better.

A reassuring touch - I've found Ava sleeping with a hand on Harper's shoulder several times lately. 

 

Movies

Looks like they were up to no good on this Jeep ride.  But when it was time to come in, Ava drove it to the shop, opened the door, parked the Jeep inside and closed the door, without being asked. 

The twins have been staying with us for a few days while Mom and Dad went to a convention.  Thursday Des and Rielee took them to see Finding Dory and they made pictures to enter in the fair.  Friday we went to garage sales and later Papa took them all to see The Secret Life of Pets, the girls loved it while Papa thought it started slow and took a nap.  It was the first time he's ever taken three kids to the show and he was  a) shocked at how much it cost and b) pleased that they were well-behaved.  Rielee spent the night and they built a fort, watched a movie in it and then slept in it, but it pretty much all collapsed by morning.

Ava practicing her writing and wearing the piggy earmuffs she got Friday at a garage sale.  She was planning on going outside to play and thought it was cold enough to wear them.

Auna watched the girls today while we went to Ben's celebration of life.  They did makeovers, manicures and played at the play fort.  The big news there was that Lucy jumped off the play fort awning and survived! 

Rielee Papa lunch, Auna & Em summer league

Lucy is growing but will still fit in Rielee's hood.

After Rielee was done with her hour of cleaning for me yesterday, she fixed lunch for herself and Papa-potato soup and a "Gingy" (ginger ale).

Emmy and Auna started summer league volleyball last night at Toutle Lake.  The Rocket team looked good and Emmy's alumni team dominated as usual.  Papa, David and Rielee helped out by keeping score.

Crazy morning play

 This morning the girls were all playing, making up dance routines, when Ava said "Rielee, pretend I'm the kids that just wants to study all the time".  So she sat and drew a stack of globes while they

worked on a long dance.  Later Ava made up her own dance to a One Direction song, including lots of flips off the furniture, it was really ambitious.

 

Becky and Bruce's wedding, fireworks

 Today was Becky and Bruce's wedding.  All of the kids were involved and Charb married them.  Ava and Harper were flower girls and they, along with buddy Jason, did a great job.  Ava and Jason had been a little nervous beforehand, but they didn't show it.

They were to walk up to the front and give Daddy a kiss, Jason did, too.

It was a beautiful wedding.

 Lexi took care of the gifts and cards and Luke was an usher.

After we got home, Des and Gabe and the kids asked if we wanted to come over to light off a few fireworks.  First they did some snakes,

and then a few bigger things.  Ava and Harper were a little hesitant at first but then got right into it.  They even cheered when Uncle Gabe lit off the cannon. 

The day was complete when Rielee got to stay the night.  They watched a movie and then all crashed, Ava and Harper's big day had worn them out and Rielee was tired from a day at the houseboat.