Busy days

Thursday - Rielee came to stay with us for the evening and requested Mexican food for dinner. We went to El Compadre, which was really good, she wasn't thrilled about having her picture taken though.

Parker cut down the overgrown Japanese maples by the house for us Monday.  Last night he rented a jackhammer to take out the sidewalk, which the tree roots were starting to crack and lift.  Then we can have the stumps ground out and a new sidewalk poured.  It took him 3 hours but he got it all broken up.

Papa was glad to be able to use the tractor for hauling the rubble away.

Break time for a cousin dinner.  Parker said he slept really well that night.

Rielee spent the night with us, she and the girls played some cards and then settled in to watch Avatar. 

 Rielee fell asleep on the floor before 9 so the girls went to bed to read, and they were asleep by 9:30.  They finally woke Rielee up after 8, still on the floor, she was really tired! 

Today the girls wanted to make potions.  They said they were for dyeing rocks, and used different soaps, food coloring and salt.  Only one of their rocks took any color but they had fun trying. 

Silly Harper.  She and Rielee hauled the shopping cart and baby bed in from the shop to play babies with.  Later she decided to try it out for herself.

Bread lesson

Our bread machine broke and we were out of cardamom and City Sour, making it time for a bread-making lesson. 

The girls were surprised at how long you have to knead the dough, then Harper acted surprised when the bread turned out the same as it does from the bread machine.

Parker was driving by just as we got back from Papa Pete's, he happily came in to visit when we offered him leftovers.

He filled us in on his newest part-time job-working at Pollen Floral Works.  Funny that he and Auna both work for florists now.

As a reward for working hard on their school work, we took the girls to Michaels with $10 a piece to spend.  Ava bought beads and these charms for she and Harper.  We made bracelets this morning, they were so happy with them.

Grandparents Day

Our pictures were in the hallway outside of Ava and Harper's room when we got there this morning for Grandparents Day.

It was a fun morning.  First, all the kids and their Grandparents got up and introduced themselves in front of the class, marking on a map where we were born and sharing a little about ourselves.  Papa was late due to a phone call with his doctor and Papa Mike couldn't make it, so it was just the girls and I speaking, but I think we did okay.  We did a "grandparent" word search with the kids, then went to the sanctuary where the 5th grade choir and band entertained us.  After that, the 3rd graders sang a couple of songs. 

Then it was time for recess.  Ava was on the soccer field the entire time while Harper played on the equipment with some friends.

We went back to their room for snickerdoodles and water and we all took a timed multiplication test.  We finished up helping the kids do a step-by-step drawing of monsters, which turned out pretty funny.  They had to name their monsters and then share them with the class.

Harper's tooth had been hanging on by a thread all morning.  As we were getting ready to leave, she finally lost it.

She wrote this letter when we got home, on the back was a dollar for the tooth fairy.

Sunday, car washing, firepit

Our sunny Sunday started early- the girls begged to wash the car and they did a darn good job.

             

So cute, we found notes all over the house saying "THP phone number 1(360)703-5216, then we hear "we're open, but you have to use the drive-through!".  THP stands for The Happy Place restaurant, it had reasonable prices.

Rielee had a tournament in Longview so I took the girls to watch one match while Papa helped Gabe with some trim at the building.  Rielee's team had a good day, winning everything-except the championship, darn.  On the way to the school, we passed the twins favorite park so we stopped there on the way home, it has some good monkey bars.  We also stopped at Heavenly Donuts and got a few to bring to Papa, Gabe, Parker and Anders and left the rest at the Dolans.

Later it was fire pit time.  Parker came over to join us and filled us in on all his activities.

Then Rielee, the Dolans and Alan stopped by, too.  It was such a beautiful evening to visit.

The girls decided to repurpose the boards they broke at Jason's birthday party.  It was so funny, I found them in the living room trying to break Ava's board again, she had Harper holding it while she tried to kick it, the piece was narrower so it didn't work.  Then Harper tried breaking it over her knee and it snapped in half, yay, more pieces to work with.  They asked Papa to get them a few more pieces to use, too.

Kept them busy until bedtime.  Which was early, we were all asleep by 9.

Blue Lucy, Jason's party

Rielee wanted to come with us when we picked up the girls Friday.  Harper got a ride all the way to the car.

We spent the evening playing "31" and the girls did a little Zumba with me, very little.

Rielee brought her hover board over this morning.  They rode only on the flat section of the driveway.

Harper played with chalk, drawing the "longest hop scotch ever" - to 100, and somehow we ended up with a blue cat.

A grumpy blue cat.

In the afternoon we went to Jason's birthday party.  He had it at his martial arts school.  The girls weren't sure how they would like it, but they had a bouncy house set up inside so they were having fun right away.  Jason's instructor gave them a short lesson in Taekwondo, teaching them how to speak to him, bow, kick and they even got to break a board!   The looks on their faces were priceless, especially when the instructor broke his board blindfolded and doing a backflip!

 

Third grade concert

Last night we went to the Third Grade Concert at Ava and Harper's school.  They were singing "You're A Grand Old Flag" in the picture.  The concert was a mix of history and patriotic music and very cute.  The girls did a great job.

Reading, Sunday Saturday

While waiting for Mom and Dad to get home Friday night, Rielee got ready for bed with the girls and read.  At least they said they were reading, I heard a lot of laughing.  We watched "the best movie" (according to Ava and Harper) earlier-Hotel For Dogs, it was pretty cute. 

It was so nice out today.  They played at Cathy's with Jillian and Tor then came up here. 

They played mostly on the swings, taking turns throwing the ball so the swinger could kick it.