Josie swinging, finger painting

I got to watch Josie for a little while Tuesday afternoon, what a sweetie!

I tried to rock her to sleep while she watched Cocomelon on Netflix, but it put me to sleep instead.

I dropped by Laury's today at the perfect time-they were showing Josie how to finger paint with baby food.

She seemed to think the whole idea was a waste of perfectly good food though, and just ate it,

 

and looked so cute getting messy

and silly!

 

Beach trip

We left for the Ocean Park early Friday morning, unpacked at the beach house  and went right to the beach!

The girls spent their time chasing seagulls and looking for shells.

In the afternoon we went to Long Beach and they played at Fun Land, Harper did well on the fishing game, her favorite.  We also visited the bakery.

Later we were back to the beach and more digging, looking for jellyfish and those elusive sand dollars.

We were really surprised when Harper accidentally dug up a clam!

Saturday was overcast and windy.  Ava brought a jar to collect some "moon water" - she read that ocean water from a full moon has some magical powers.  The water was surprisingly clear.

It was so windy, her ball would just roll right back to her.

We went for several bike rides, to Adelaide's, the school playground, and to buy caramel corn.

Harper and Papa rode the Go-Karts in Long Beach.

We shopped a little in town, they picked out some special stones.

Sunday we went to Seaside, a very busy place, way too many people.

Harper went on the bumper cars while Ava rode the Tilt-A-Whirl - Ava was disappointed because it went  slow.

They posed for a picture for me, we went to the Aquarium but only in the gift shop. 

Ava talked Harper into going on the Tilt-A-Whirl with her, more weight made it go faster for a better ride.

They decided the Seaside Fun Land isn't as fun as the one in Long Beach, kind of hard to win tickets.

Same with the Go-Karts, the Seaside cars were newer but Harper wasn't impressed.  It didn't help that some old guy kept running into her.

We spent our last night in Astoria, had dinner at the Pig n' Pancake and came home Monday.

 

Weekend fun and work

Our weekend started with fun, delicious Friday night dinner at La Casa Tapatia in Woodland with Nancy, Colin and Katelyn.  Unfortunately, my picture didn't turn out well...darn it.

The girls helped stack firewood this weekend.  Papa offered them future summer jobs throughout their college years but they declined the offer.  

Harper took a turn running the splitter, she did great.

They spent lots of time in the pool, some of the time relaxing,

but mostly being silly - "hurry Grandma, she's heavy!"

Harper was surprised that she could actually hold Ava in the water.

After stacking firewood today, Ava asked to bake something "all by herself".  She made yummy M & M cookies, with minimum supervision.  

 

Josie time, Harper's All-Star game

Sweet little Josie came to play this morning.  First we shared some cardamom bread, then some banana.

Later,  as we were playing I gave a pot and some food from the play kitchen and she decided to check it out for herself.  

I think she was making soup.  

Harper's Camas team lost tonight to Mill City.  They played hard. Harper was walked once and had a base hit.  It was a great season for her and the team and lots of fun to watch.

Some of Harper's fans tonight-Diane and Jason, Luke and Rylee

 

Little League State, Ava's Summer Classic

Ava's Summer Classic tournament started Friday afternoon at Delta Park.  Her team won 4-0.

Saturday, Harper's team won their first game at State vs. N. Whidbey 6-4.  Harper didn't have any hits but played some great defense at 2nd base.

They lost their game vs. Federal Way today 17-2.  

Ava's team tied 1-1 on Saturday, and won today 2-0.  Ava also played some great defense.

 Becky and Bruce came to both girl's games today.

 

Tie-dye, Josie, practice

Yesterday they tried tie-dyeing, a messy project so we set up outside.

Josie came to play, they coaxed her up the slide, but she decided to go down on her tummy first.

Ava watching Harper at her practice last night.

Wearing their shirts this morning, they both liked Ava's better, Harper wanted more contrast in hers.  We had an extra shirt so she tried again and Ava made one for Papa.

Josie studying Ava's phone, we were trying to distract her to get a picture with them but it didn't work.

But we got a cute picture!

 

4th of July

We took the girls to the carnival at the lake, Ava rode the Zero Gravity ride twice, that's her on the top right.

Harper rode the flying ride.  They both went in the Haunted Castle and played a few games, winning some small stuffed animals.

More fun in the pool.

Our fireworks were small but the smoke tubes were cool-intense red, white and blue smoke for a long time.

We watched a few fireworks along the river 

then went home and they shot off the rest of theirs.

Our "Grand Finale" was kind of disappointing, mostly horizontal ground sparks-they were worried that the grass would catch on fire.