Hodges and Gourde girls

So glad to get some visits with Josie and Hattie since Emmy has returned to work and they're with Grandma.

Josie really likes Legos now.

Hattie is so strong.  It's cute to see her on her tummy - she pushes up her chest and kicks her legs furiously trying to crawl.

Ava and Harper worked on some Christmas house kits Saturday.

Today Papa cut some tree shapes for them to stain and decorate for Mom's porch.

I got them a Marvel Lego Advent calendar and let them do it all today since we aren't sure when they'll get back up here.  Ava was so excited to get a Loki's throne but disappointed when there was no Loki included.

 

Thanksgiving

The only picture I took on Thanksgiving was this one of Sadie helping Rielee play 31.  Des and Gabe made a delicious dinner, it was quieter, just the five of us but Allissa and Parker came later for dessert.

 

Making wreaths

Steve and Nancy working on a wreath while Katelyn reads on her phone.

Des hosted a fun wreath-making party on Saturday.

Harper's face in this picture!

Sadie cooperated for a cute pic.

And cute little Hattie entertained us.

Harper was happy with her finished wreath.

The girls spent the night and worked with clay,  making some little animals and Ava made me mushroom earrings.

 

Veterans Day, ceramics

Thursday the girls invited us to their school Veteran's Day program.  Kelly got them out of class early so we could visit and look around a little before it started.  This picture is in the commons area.

Ava sitting in Kelly's chair.

My favorite part of the program was the group of ASL students signing the National Athem as the band played above.

The girls came home with us for the long weekend.  We made cookies and

Harper made a special one for Papa's birthday.

Saturday we went to The Nest in Kelso and painted ceramics.

It was lots of fun and we appreciated the kind, helpful women that work there.

Sunday we tried paint pouring again, they were happy with the results.

 

Boise visit

We visited Rielee in her dorm last week.  She's doing well at school and just started a job as a caregiver.

Friday night we all went to everyone's favorite restaurant Barbacoa. 

Rielee and Des' bananas foster was fun to watch.

Saturday Macee and Craig hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner.

It was fun to see their lovely home.

Des jokingly called this the "kid's" table.  Rielee's high school friend and dorm-mate Ruby joined us for dinner, too.

Dinner was fabulous as was Macee's apple pie.

 

Halloween, softball, soccer and Homecoming

We weren't home on Halloween but we had some darling trick-or-treaters tonight!  Hattie was voicing her discontent from being awaken from a nap.

The girls fall sports have wrapped up, Ava wasn't cleared to go back to playing and will start PT.  

She cheered her team from the bench, they finished with a 9-2-3 record.

Harper is happy slowpitch is over and looks forward to fast pitch in the Spring.  

Her team finished 4-5.

 

They went to Homecoming with their good friends, and I was reassured that the boys 

are just friends.

Fall fun

Friday night with the kiddos.  After dinner and cards, we settled down with Papa watching TV, Harper painting and Ava putting together a Wolverine lego set.  Later we watched Oblivion.  The girls were tired and went to bed early.

Ava made banana bread Saturday morning.  

They took some pictures on the property but needed more so we headed to Longview.  

First stop was the Dollar Tree, then Heavenly Donuts.

We went to the Japanese Garden at Lake Sacajawea for photos but in was closed. They did find a few interesting things to photograph in the area.  

I asked to take one photo of them and this was what I got:

 Longview was having a Harvest Festival downtown with a ton of booths.

We bought kettle corn and a planter of sedums.  

They actually cooperated for a pic at the RedHat fall photo setup.

Ava tried making mushroom spore prints.

They found many different species on mushrooms on their walk, Ava said it's like we live on a mushroom farm.