Painting and Monopoly

Mommy taught the girls how to cook eggs, they just like the whites though.  

 Jillian gave the girls wooden animals so they painted those tonight.  They turned out very cute.

Then we played a 3 hour game of what will be this Grandma’s last game of Monopoly with these two loony tycoons-of the year, no wait, the decade.

Harper brought some of her special rules from home, like where you can just buy a hotel all by itself...”that’s the way we play it at home...”  No arguing allowed over Luke’s rules of any game!  (Don’t ever try playing Clue with them, we did once- and then the game mysteriously disappeared, never to be attempted again.)

Ava developed Baltic and Mediterranean with hotels early, which kept her going for a long time, but Harper ended up winning.

Fun night with a ton of laughs!

Christmas Eve

The kids came up to get their gifts before the party.  I took one picture-Ava with her little flamingo.

The Christmas Eve party was at Robin and Dan's house again this year.  

It was Kendyl and Toby's first time.  

 Ava with Santa

Harper

They were pleased with their LOL surprise toys.

Rielee was the only older kid to sit on Santa's lap.  

James kept us all laughing with his funny comments during the gift exchange.

With 37 gifts and what I thought was a record number of steals, it lasted awhile.

 Kalyn and Will, Auna and Emmy and if you look closely you can almost a tiny baby bump.

Ugly sweater contest winners:

Ugliest-Dan

Funniest-Robin

Most Creative-Cathy & Bob

Laury brought a Christmas edition of Family Feud,

it was really fun except somehow the guys won?

Family Christmas party

 We had a family Christmas party today, with Papa Pete's and dessert.  The kids did the cellophane ball game, the unwrapping took a very long time.

 Colin got to the end and found a Target gift card.

Katelyn really like her gifts,

 especially her new history book.

With four of our five kids together, it was a very special day.

 Nancy and Colin

Jill and Russ

 The Gourde/Staton family

Parker and Kendyl came, too, but left before we started taking pictures, so we didn't get a group picture of the Gourdes.

Christmas tree brownies

Late night decorating, also on the table are the foam crafts they finished today.

Colin wrestling

Saturday Colin had a wrestling match at Prairie H.S.. we watched some of it while helping with Emmy and Dan’s flooring.  I didn’t get a picture of Colin, this one is from his first match.  

Papa sharing a Jimmy Cagney movie with the girls today, they weren’t too impressed.

Awards, decorating

Harper got two awards today, Ava got one also but left it at school.

They kept busy decorating gingerbread houses and the tree, then visited at Rielee's for a little while.  They came back with cardboard Gabe had leftover from a project and made swords out of it.  Had a wild and crazy sword fight before bed, Harper was still feeling a little crazed when I took this picture.

Christmas tree

Sunday we went to Miller’s to get our tree.  Ava spotted the perfect one in record time.  

Harper helped Papa cut it down.

We’ll decorate it when they come up on Wednesday.

Kelso-3rd in State!

Friday 8 a.m.-Rielee being introduced before their first match against Eastside Catholic.  It was tough, but they won it in 5.

 Our unranked Kelso team had knocked off  the #3 ranked team!

Upset!

Big hug for Mom after the win!

Next up at 5:15 was Snohomish, ranked #8, and they beat them in 4!
Oh so happy, now they could finish no lower than 3rd or 4th. 
What an incredible day of volleyball!
Saturday first brought a loss to the #1 ranked team, Mt. Spokane, but they came back from it to beat Roosevelt, ranked 6th, in 5 sets.  The last game to 15 ended up an exciting battle, but they won it 19-17!  Rielee played great and served the winning point!
3rd in State!  Wow!

The players were given flowers afterwards.

Rielee was thrilled to have Charb, Kelly, Ava and Harper, and Cathy and Bob come to support her on Saturday.  We all had a fun lunch together at Mel's Diner between games.  

Rielee's cheering section (with Papa's finger over the lens)

Brownies for state

Wednesday after school Ava and Harper decorated brownies for Rielee.  She and the team all had pedicures after practice, donated by a fan, so she and Gabe and Des stopped by after that.  Rielee was so excited to leave for Yakima in the morning.

Going to State!

Kelso volleyball is going to state!  Friday night they were at Capital H.S. and lost 3-1 to Gig Harbor.  Saturday they played at Bonney Lake and beat N. Thurston in 5 and Spanaway Lake 3-1! 

Kelso hasn't been to State since 2000, when they placed 8th, and only one other time in the 80's, so this is a very big deal.  

 Rielee played her heart out and was so happy afterwards.

As were we all!

Homework, volleyball, Parker & Kendyl's new toy

Work sheets on metaphors and similes don't make for a fun afternoon.

Thankfully Rielee was able to come over later and hang out with them, we played a few games of spoons and then they listened to music.

Tuesday Kelso beat Prairie in 3 for the #1 spot to district on Friday.

Really fun game and Rielee had an incredible save that had her running into the  wall.

We got to take a look at Parker and Kendyl's fifth wheel tonight, it's really cute.  Kendall was happy to get started cleaning it.  They look forward to doing some traveling and Parker will use it when he works in Grass Valley.

Veterans Day program, Papa's birthday

Friday morning Papa went to the Veterans program at Ava and Harper's school.

He said they did a great job singing and it was a very nice program.

He took them to Big Al's where once again,

Ava blew through her money in record time.

Had to visit Menchies, too.

Friday night Gabe, Des and the kids, and Rielee's friend Kamaile, brought a coconut cream pie and card for Papa's birthday since they'd be busy Saturday.  

We drove to Olympia today with Nancy and the kids to celebrate Papa's 77th birthday along with his brother Dick's 86th.  Lots of fun there.