Weekend painting and contests

Activities this weekend were making wood signs with an inspirational word or phrase for the year.  

Ava's finished sign, Harper decided she needs a paint pen to finish hers.

Then it was on to cake baking and a decorating contest, again with the inspirational phrase,

Harper made us laugh with her humorous take on it.  Alan helped judge, we took him over some cake and heard all about his toe surgery.

The girls often have photo contests in the car on the way up here.  Yesterday they did it outside when it was beautifully sunny,  I liked both Harper's shadow pic and Ava's mushroom.

Oh, how we love our time with these two goofballs!

 

Ava soccer, Josie

Ava with a throw-in during her 8th grade game today vs. Cascade M.S.  They played great and won 4-0.  

We had a fun Monday play date with Josie.  She's so loving and so funny.  She made us laugh when we were playing Play Doh-Uncle would try to trick her and make a weird shape and tell her it was an elephant or another animal, she'd just give him a dubious look and and say "that's not right" and take his Play Doh. 
 

Soccer, Josie, Rielee, Ghosted

Ava played her last indoor soccer game on Sunday.  It was tied until the last minute, they lost 5-6.  Now she's on the 8th grade Skyridge team.

When we got home Josie came over to play.  The girls got such a kick out of her constant chatter, which Harper thought sometimes sounded a little like Spanish.  But you can understand a lot of she has to say.

They wanted to learn how to make banana bread and were happy with the results.

I asked for a "Spring" picture, this is what I got from Harper.

Morning wrestling.

Rielee came over to visit, we heard about the Reno Pole Vault Summit she went to over the weekend.  

She didn't get a PR but matched her previous one, and was happy with that since she was using a new pole for the first time.

Playing Ghosted,  a very fun game.

 

New Year's Eve

We were happy to get the girls up for New Year's Eve.  We started the day with a trip to Longview, going to Red Hat, the Broadway Gallery and Michaels.

Josie came over to play for a little while so Mom could go with Auntie Auna to check out the progress on their house.

Josie was so entertaining, fixing many meals for the girls.

And giving her special spontaneous hugs.

Ava wanted to go for a walk in the canyon as it was getting dark, it was very dark and spooky down there.

Our midnight fireworks consisted of the Exploding Reindeer Poop Harper won in the cellophane ball game.

A spectacular start to the new year!

 

Christmas

We had our usual fun biscuits and gravy Christmas breakfast with the kids.

Gabe made prime rib for dinner.  Des and the girls made ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted carrots, macaroni and cheese, brussel sprouts, salad, and rolls.  It was all delicious.  (Their addition is a work in progress, note the vent pipe in the background.)  We had pie and ice cream and then played a marathon game of "31".

Since they didn't make it up on Christmas Eve, we had a nice day-after-Christmas lunch with Nancy, Katelyn and Colin at Olive Garden. 

Christmas Eve

Robin and Dan hosted another fun Christmas Eve celebration.  Ava's popcorn covered sweater won "most creative" ugly sweater.  Mik won the Ugliest and Robin's was voted the funniest.

Robin had her trivia game and also a bingo game during the gift exchange, which had 36 gifts and took a long while to finish.  

Two of my favorite guys.

The kids had a wild time with the cellophane ball game.

It was so sweet when Josie greeted Santa with a hug.

Harper and Ava endured Santa's teasing about possible boyfriends.

They liked their Santa gifts.

At Cathy's urging the girls reenacted a song they performed on Christmas Eve 2006.

They weren't thrilled to do it but it was very funny, especially when Mik added his special touch at the end.

Even baby Kennedy wore a Christmas sweater.

 

Alissa and Parker

We had a fun time Saturday night celebrating at Alissa and Parker's reception at the Hotel Monticello.

Denice made their cake and cupcakes.

Rielee and Macee gave toasts.

And the happy couple thanked everyone for coming.

The girls got me into the photo booth.

Ava and Harper requested the "Cha Cha Slide" and they all danced to it.