Makeup

Friday night makeup session-this one moved to the bathroom.  Rielee tried a dark lipstick

and she didn't like it, obviously Harper didn't either, so it came right off.  Later Rielee taught Ava to play checkers, when Rielee went home, Ava taught Harper so now that's their new fun game. 

Ava checked out a biology book this week and brought it up.  She had studied how to make fingerprints with pencil lead and scotch tape and had a ball taking everybody's fingerprints.  She also brought up a geode she got for Christmas and Papa helped her break it open.  She got lots of nice crystals, enough to share some with Harper.

Hiking

The sun came out for awhile Saturday afternoon so the girls headed out to ride their scooters.  Then we took off on a walk through the woods that turned into a hike down to the creek.  The trail was muddy, had some downed trees over it and was covered with deer poop.  The water was too high to get close to, so they threw some rocks off the bridge and we headed back.  That fun run down parts of the hill turned into a tough slog for them going back up. We had to stop and rest a couple of times, and also stopped to check out a chewed-up tree.  Ava found a treasure in a handful of cones for her collection. 

Just Harper

Harper caught Daddy's cold and had a fever, cough and sore throat so she came up for the day.  She'd perk up a little as long as the Tylenol was working and want to play so we kept her busy with Legos, Play Doh and some Netflix.  She was lonely without Ava and we missed her, too, it's very odd to just have one of them.

Winter magic

 Ava and Harper were out in the snow again this morning, right after breakfast and a couple of games of UNO.   Papa went out with them first, with his skis, and when I went out, Harper was quick to tell me that he fell down right away. "See, Grandma, he has snow on his bum!"  He fell again by the big swing, we ran down there to talk to him and then they wanted twisters on the big swing.

Full of smiles, they can stay out a long time in the cold.

Rielee came over and they did some sledding,

this way didn't work at all but they sure got a good laugh out of it.

The also went out in the woods with Papa and followed some tracks they thought were coyotes.

So much snow, so much fun

Together again Friday and having a ball in the snow.  Then, while getting dressed to go out again, Ava burned her hand on the woodstove.  She still went out, but mostly to watch.

Meanwhile, Rielee and Harper got busy building a fort.  Rielee got a bowl to form snow "bricks" and it worked great, they had been frustrated because the snow is powdery and won't roll.  After finishing it, they went out again after dark and tried to move it to the deck, but by then the bricks were frozen and wouldn't stick together.  So they had a big snow ball fight and tossed a bunch of them over their heads.

 

Ava was good as new this morning, they went back to the play fort and knocked all the snow off of it.

Ava used some of the leftovers from the fort to build a couch.

Harper made a cake in her house under the tree.

Harper wanted to try skiing when she saw Papa take off on his.  They were sure he would fall down but he didn't.

They gave each other rides and twisters on the big swing, Ava tried to catch the falling snow from the branches on her tongue.

4-wheeler sledding

We got about 7 inches of snow today.  I went out to take some pictures of it this morning and found Des pulling Rielee around on the 4-wheeler,

then they switched and Rielee gave Mom a ride.

They went to see if Auna wanted in on the fun.  Of course she did, first Des pulled them around and then Rielee gave Auna a ride.

Watching Sam catching snowballs was entertaining, he was really catching some air!

Caught them on the teeter-totter before I went inside.

More snow, no fun

Des was upset but unhurt as her car slid into the ditch this morning when she tried to turn into their driveway after taking Rielee to school.  It had snowed quite heavily this morning so there was a lot of slippery slush on the road.  She thought maybe Parker could pull it out but Gabe thought she should call a wrecker.  Fortunately, Fred is right up the road so he was here in a few minutes.  When he started to pull it out, her front end caught on a stump under the car, so Papa cut that off first. 

Parker brought his truck down and they used it as an anchor to pull the car up and over.  It still drove okay but the estimate was $4k to repair since the door was dented and it needs an alignment, new wheel and a part underneath.

More snow

Ava and Harper came up Friday morning since Harper had been sick during the night.  As soon as we got here, Ava shut the playroom door and made up the bed in a special way so Harper could rest. Fortunately, Harper recovered quickly from her tummy problems and didn't need much rest.

She felt good enough to go outside in the afternoon and check out the ice and leftover snow.  They were worried about the fish in the pond but we assured them that the fish always survive. 

Ava pretended to be a conductor with an icicle she found on the play fort.

Rielee spent the night with us also Friday night, they did the usual-a blanket fort, games and a movie, all were tired so they were asleep early.  Today once we had a little snow, they tried sledding,

and had a great time.

 Rielee is in the process of re-doing her room, she just got the black shelves.  Here she is looking down at Harper, who was coming out from under the bed (and incredulous at how clean it was under there).  The girls were happy when Rielee gave them a couple of her old kitty posters.

New Year's snow

They were happy girls when it started snowing hard this morning.  Papa took them out for a walk, then he and Harper had a snowball fight.  Ava got cold and went inside with Papa for hot chocolate while Harper and I made this little snow girl.  A fun way to start the new year.