Before school

The girls played Polly Pocket this morning before school.  They always squeeze as much fun as possible out of this half hour together. 

After preschool we took the twins to the Dollar Store so they could pick out gifts for their family.  Papa was worried, thinking it might be a hassle.  But he was wrong, the girls were well behaved, excited to be shopping and thoughtful about what they picked out. 

Emmy and Parker

Emmy is back home, done with volleyball and college and ready to go to work after the holidays.

Getting a picture of her and the twins was nearly impossible.  Ava was busy cooking and didn't want to stop, Harper was busy with Play Doh, a candy bribe finally brought them around, Harper cooperated first which is why she has her Skittles in the picture, and then she waved to me, so silly.  Ava held out and we thought we might just have a picture of Em and Harper, but she finally gave in.

Parker didn't have school today, the furnace was being repaired, so he came over to do yardwork for me.  He came in afterwards to visit and eat and sat down with Ava while she looked through the Macys ad for Christmas pictures.  He kept trying to tickle her and she would get aggravated and she told him that sometimes Luke bugs her, too.

Tree Farm field trip

Harper sat with Teagan

and Ava sat with Boden on the bus ride out to Ferncrest Tree Farm.

They got to pet goats and sheep and there were also reindeer, a Shetland pony, llamas and other animals to see.  It was very cold out with some snow still in spots. 

Harper petted a goat's nose through the fence, but she didn't want to go inside and mostly just wanted to go home. 

It was quite a hike to the Douglas fir section and a difficult decision for the kid's to pick out just the right tree, they went from one to another to another...Papa did the cutting for both classes' trees. 

The kids helped the teachers carry the tree to the director's pickup.  It was comical after Papa put the tree in the truck, he went to jump out over the side, except this truck was much bigger and higher than his and he landed hard, lost his balance and almost launched himself over the hillside, fortunately his fall was stopped by a tree.  I had to laugh when he came out with fir needles stuck in his hair.

The kids warmed up with donut holes and hot chocolate in the gift shop afterwards.

On the bus ride home Ava and Harper were very animated talking to the boys, Harper said they were telling jokes.  I asked what kind and she said "like what if my eyeball fell off and landed in my mouth, that would be so gross!" and they cracked up laughing. 

More snow, no school

Rielee and Kitty

A picture of Rielee and her kitten from the other day, she had brought her over to visit us.  The scratch under Rielee's eye is from Kitty, she is a rambunctious little companion.

 

Ava got up at 4:30 this morning, Harper 6:10, they were coughing some but both went back to sleep until Rielee came over at 7:30.  It was a snow day today so it was play time for the 3 cousins.  They put on a show, did some crafts which resulted in a painting "incident" where Harper suddenly couldn't find her paint pot...because it was upside down on the rug...Harper played Barbies and Ava took a bath while I steam cleaned the green paint out of the rug.   Afterwards,  Laury and Auna came over to visit and we got the donut maker out since I had promised Harper we would bake something today.  It was a busy but fun day.

Sledding

Rielee had early release today so she got to play with the twins this afternoon.  They played princesses and listened to music and danced.  Once they were tired of that, they sat with Papa and read their Look and Find Princess books.

 Rielee brought over her sleds so I pulled the girls over to her house and they went sledding down the driveway with her, pretty scary since she can't steer very well.

We were probably out for all of 15 minutes before Harper was running for the house because her hands were cold.  Ava stayed out and went for one more ride with Rielee.  We decided to keep the girls over night in case the roads are bad in the morning.

First snow

We got a little snow this morning, enough to make driving a bit too exciting for Papa as he went to get the girls.  Actually the worst driving was the freeway near Castle Rock, coming up Spirit Lake Hwy. and our driveway.  After preschool the twins headed out to play in the snow, making snow angels and throwing snow balls at each other and Papa and I.   Oh, and cleaning as much snow as they could reach off of the red car.  What fun!

Cousins

Ava, Rielee and Harper - before school yesterday