Alan's 80th, mellow Lucy

We celebrated Alan's 80th birthday Tuesday night with a party at Cathy and Bob's.  Cathy shared some interesting stories about she and Alan's high school years in a trivia quiz that had us all laughing.  

Harper is convinced that Lucy is finally mellowing out.  The past few times they've come up, Lucy has been waiting for them on the porch and then lets them pet her.  This morning she waited by their door for them to get up, and then sat near them as they were getting ready for school. 

Fish & snails, volleyball

Saturday we went to the pet store so Rielee could pick out her own goldfish, Ava and Harper got a couple more, too.  They also picked out 3 snails, well, actually somehow Papa picked out Harper's.  They named them Shelly, Gary and Matilda.  Pretty exciting stuff, watching snails.

Rielee had a tournament in Kelso Sunday, we met Charb there so the girls could watch her play before heading home.

Lunch Ikea

Saturday we had lunch at Applebee's with Kelly and Nancy and the kiddos.

Afterwards, we decided to go to Ikea and when we got there, we ran into 

Nancy and the kids-great shopping minds think alike obviously, so we all toured the store together.

It was fun hearing what rooms and colors Katelyn liked as we wandered around.

At one point, Colin sat down in a chair and Nancy gave him a couple of stuffed animals out of the bin behind him,  he was a good sport and stayed there long enough for Grandpa to get a picture.

Pizza

Camas schools had a 4 day President's weekend so the girls got to come up and stay with us.  We had lunch at Papa Pete's, went to the library and then to the Vault for ice cream.  Ava found a paperback soccer book there.  The rest of the day they stayed busy playing cards, painting rocks, and sorting through all the old Barbie stuff, donating about half of it.  Not quite ready to give it all up though.

Valentine's Day

The girls were so sweet this morning.  Ava jumped out of bed, ran to get the rose petals she made last night and sprinkled them around for our Valentine breakfast.  Ava wanted a pink heart pancake and tried to get me to surprise Harper with pink oatmeal but I knew she wouldn't eat it, and I was right-she said she wouldn't have.  They were very excited to go to school..

Rielee sick, Parker moves in

Poor Rielee, she stayed home from school today with a sore throat.  She watched a movie and then we binge-watched Tidying Up the rest of the day.

Parker's counter top was installed today and his cable was connected so he's finally moving in.  He is one happy guy.

Snow!

We woke up to about 3" of snow Saturday morning, not nearly the amount the girls were hoping for but they still had fun.  It was wet snow, perfect for building Susie the snow girl and snow dogs.

Harper made a snow chair, she said it was so comfy she could sleep there overnight, with snow to eat and a snow dog to protect her

Rielee went to visit a friend for the day but came back in the evening.  The girls tried sledding down Rielee's driveway and in the field.  Ava had some good runs but Harper went to jump on the sled and it flew out from under her and she landed hard on her bottom.  Then Ava wanted to sled down one of our trails-I gave her a pull with the rope and she came flying right at me so I let go of the rope to jump out of the way and she flew into a bush.  She wanted to try again and got the same results.  End of sledding for the day.

Cousins after dinner.

The girls were up early this morning, saw the new snow we got overnight and were out playing in it by 8:30.

It was powdery snow and perfect for sledding.  They had some wild rides down the lawn, over the shop driveway and down the trail.  The sled didn't survive the morning..  

Parker's bathroom

Parker and Dad were finishing the bathroom tonight,  it's getting very close to move-in time.

Lucy

Since my pictures of the kids didn't turn out this weekend, here's Lucy hanging out watching for birds.  She never catches any, though, maybe she's a vegetarian.

Parker's 19th birthday

Parker celebrated his 19th birthday tonight.  He showed us Rielee's gift to him-a coupon book with coupons for a meal, a trip to BK, bathroom cleaning, an hour of work in the shop, floor mopping, and more,  he'll definitely be redeeming all of those!