Grandparent's Day

 Grandparent's Day at King's Way Christian is pretty special.  We started the morning in the girl's classroom where Ava and Harper interviewed us.  Harper couldn't believe that Papa Steve's favorite color was brown, "Seriously Papa?!  Nobody's favorite color is brown!"

Ava's eyes got so big when Papa Mike said he had 8 brothers and sisters. 

Next we went to the chapel and listened to the 5th grade band and choir perform Hallelujah, then we all sang along with them to a medley of patriotic and other songs.   

Then it was time for recess.

Ava went right to work looking for worms and found several.

Harper met up with some friends on the monkey bars.

Back to the classroom, we had cookies and water or coffee and worked together on a mosaic cross picture.  It was a very fun time with the girls.  They got to leave for the day when we left at 11, and started their spring break a day early.

 

 

Big Al's

Ava hanging up her backpack at school this morning, they keep them out in the hallway since their room is small.

Rielee has early release this week, so she got to go with us to pick up the girls.  They were thrilled to see each other, Harper even got a piggyback ride to the car.

We stopped at Big Al's after school to go bowling but the kids chose the arcade instead.  Rielee was fired up on the hoop game and won a bunch of tickets.  Then we went to Charb and Kelly's to wait for a couple hours till they got back from New Jersey.  We had been warned that the front door was hard to open, and was it ever, the key snapped in half when Harper was taking a turn trying to make it work!  Somehow Papa managed to get it to open anyway, thankfully, we had visions of heading back to the bowling alley. 

Long lost toys

 

Ava was beside herself with joy Saturday morning when Harper brought her a baby and a toy she had found under the bed.  They had been missing for years, Ava said, at least it felt like years.

This is something new, reading the paper on Sunday mornings.  Ava likes the comics, Harper was fascinated by the prices in the Safeway ad.  Cakes for $7, she thought that was a great deal.

We went to LCC this afternoon and watched one of Auna's club matches, they won easily. 

Rielee Honor Society

We went to watch as Rielee was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at Coweeman Middle School this afternoon.  It was a very nice ceremony.

She was one of 60 sixth graders and 23 seventh and eighth graders inducted.

 

Salamander, Papa Pete's

 Ava the science lover with the dead salamander they found Saturday.  She studied it carefully, said the cause of death was one "claw sized" hole in it's belly.  I told her to put it in the woods so she made it a bed and laid it to rest on a stump.  Later, I caught her moving the burial place, twice.  They went from that to digging up worms by the creek and rehoming them at the play fort. 
I found out that Ava is considered the "Worm Doctor" at school.  She has quite a following,  Harper said, several "nurses" that help her and kindergarteners, they're afraid of the worms but like to watch.  Ava told me she finds broken worms and then ties their bodies together with a piece of string or a blade of grass, then makes them beds of bark and moss.  Daddy said their teacher makes sure that Ava thoroughly washes her hands after recess.

We had dinner at Papa Pete's after Rielee's volleyball tournament.  The girls had divided up all the quarters they could find in the house, but were disappointed that half the machines they usually play were out of order.  They tried some of the racing games instead and really had fun.  Rielee was frustrated that first Harper beat her several times, then Ava did, too, even coming in 1st.

A warm day!

Group hug! (Note: Rielee got her braces yesterday!)

The cousins had a fun afternoon playing together.  They started out playing on the big swing and riding around in the Jeep, then we tried something different and Jillian and Ava went to Cathy's to play together.  Harper and Bridget rode around some more, went inside to draw and play house, then back out to the play fort and sandbox.  Rielee rode her bike around some but was a little subdued with a sore mouth.

Later, Harper suggested we have a fire pit for dinner.  Papa had already started mashed potatoes, so we had them with our hotdogs, not bad.  Papa came up with a new system for roasting marshmallows that worked great (count to 5-then rotate) so Rielee made up a song about it.  Then the fire got too hot and his system failed, all their marshmallows caught on fire!  Another song and a lot of laughs. 

Coldyn

 Sunday we went to Suquamish to visit at Jineen and Colin's house and meet Great-Grandson Coldyn.  Hayden was happy to pose for a picture with his baby brother, he's very proud of him.

Coldyn was happy guy when we got there but later was ready for a nap so Jineen put him in his sleep suit.

 

Ashli came over to visit also, so I had to get a picture of the girls with Mom. 

 

Cousin playtime

Friday - Jillian and Bridget came up to play with Ava, Harper and Rielee.  Harper and Bridget did some drawing while Rielee and Jillian played volleyball with the beach ball.  Rielee wanted to play salon and do everyone's hair, but Harper was her only customer. 

It was warm and dry enough today to get the Jeep out.  David was outside when the girls drove by and overheard Ava say to Harper "I've had my driver's license since I was a baby!" 

 Ava let Rielee straighten her hair this morning.

I couldn't believe Rielee was wearing Parker's dirty old helmet, but she was proud of it.