New coats, bird house

 On a nature walk this morning, wearing the new coats they got for the start middle of school tomorrow.

Harper picked out a tree for the bird house she made, and even help hang it. 

 They also asked Papa to build them a tree fort, preferably with a zip line.  So we had them draw pictures, separately, of what this tree fort might look like.  No real surprise that their pictures were identical, and fortunately, not too elaborate, which made Papa very happy.  

Cousins, cake, painting and carving

The girls came up Saturday afternoon and were so happy to see Jillian, Bridget and Tor. 

They made cupcakes and cake after dinner,

and decorated them after a dip in the hot tub.

Sunday - Rielee came over and they painted valentine pictures.

 Trying the Dremel for making wood signs,

they liked sweeping up as the other one carved.

Harper drew a unicorn, I didn't get a picture of Ava's soccer ball.  

 

Harper and Lucy relaxing at night.

Today's Monopoly game went so much faster when we passed out all the properties first.  Ava was the winner.

 

Bikes, firepit, hot tub, painting

Charb brought the girls up Saturday after Ava's s game (a tie).  They went out to ride bikes and search for the Sasquatch again, and discovered that the Dolans were having a fire pit.  It was such a mild evening that we decided to have one, too.

They did some serious painting the rest of the evening with new acrylics and canvases Papa bought for them.

They brought up their Oculus and Rielee came over and tried it out,  it was hilarious watching her on the boxing game.  

She joined them in the hot tub and they played a "name that tune" game.  

The sound of their singing and laughing out there was something special, and I mean that in a good way.

They went right back to painting after breakfast this morning.  They've been watching painting videos on YouTube, I could see in their work that they're learning a lot of new techniques.

 

3 nights with the girls

Due to a Covid exposure scare we weren't able to have the girls up during their break.  But we got them up for Sunday-Wednesday, taking them back this afternoon.  We saved lots of boxes and cardboard so they immediately started crafting with that, Ava made herself a crown headband.

Later we played Bingo for one or two dollars a game.

Monday they were busy with school,

and made slime during their break.

After school we first went to Michaels so Ava could use a gift card.

then we drove up to see how the Toutle River looked.  

Harper bought several canvases with her Christmas money so alll evening they painted.

Tuesday school didn't start until 12:30 so we baked bread and cinnamon rolls, Ava made some tiny ones.

Papa helped Harper make a birdhouse

she was quite proud of it and plans to hang it near Fort Gourde.

They went on a "Twinvestigation"-as they called it, running all over the Dolan's canyon trail looking for 

clues to the mysterious Sasquatch "Darrell".  They believe he's tormenting them when they're in the hot tub at night by making weird sounds and splashing water on the deck.  They put some crushed leaves in their notebook, maybe he stepped on them?