No School!

 Records day in Longview, so all three got to come play.  It surprised me when I checked on Jillian and she had Tor's cars all lined up and was working on the engine of one with a screw driver.  A little mechanical ability coming out.

 Grannie's School of Torture-Since there wasn't school.  Bridget wanted to work and earn a prize and Jillian had homework to do.  They both worked diligently.  Bridget is really doing well on her reading.  She has mastered almost all the short sounds.

 While they were doing schoolwork, Tor busied himself decorating his arms with stickers.

 

Jillian and Bridget wanted jobs so I put them to work raking limbs and loading the trailer.  When we had a full load they all rode down the hill to dump it.  After dumping the load they took turns driving the lawn tractor around.  Jillian is a good driver but Bridget makes way too sharp of turns and goes from one side of the road clear to the edge of the other side in the space of a minute.



 Then it was Tor's turn to drive and he just likes to turn the wheel regardless of where there's a road.  I kept my hand on the wheel.  The girls decided, when Tor was driving, to walk back to the house.

 I don't think Jillian has ever heard me getting really irate.  Bridget and Tor were sleeping and Jillian was on the computer.  I called this company to end my service and they weren't helpful so I got very mad before I was done.  When I hung up Jillian walked in and asked what was wrong.  I reassured her that it was me just getting mad to make a point and she was so nice she handed me the heart she had made to make me feel better.  What a sweetheart!

 

On our tractor trip they had all found rocks along the way and they wanted to paint them.  They did a great job.





Oh Boy! New Toy!

 Aunt Dianne dropped off this Play-Doh band saw and Tor, being the tool guy, had a ball cutting up the Play-Doh boards.  It was fascinating for him.

 After a long time playing with Play-Doh, Tor helped me bring up all the pet shop that had been in storage for quite awhile, so everything was fun again.  He was a little under the weather with a cold but he generally forgot about that while playing up a storm.

So when Bridget got home from Pre-school, she was all over the band saw.  But she formed the boards and made a house and got pretty creative.

Bridget in Charge

It was nice enough for Bridget and Tor to play outside.  Bridget had Tor all to herself so she was instructing him on a walk, how to draw a road, and where to take a nap (in the dog's kennel).  Surprisingly, Tor seemed to go along with most of it. Guess Bridget was taking over Jillian's role.

Daddy's B-day Party

Mommy put together a very nice party at home for Daddy's 47th birthday. There was lots of family, and lots of good food ... Mommy made tacos for dinner and congo bars for dessert. Jillian, Bridget and Tor each gave Daddy a card and gift that they had made at Grannie and Papa's house. Then, they helped open the rest of the presents. It was a relaxing and enjoyable time.

Daddy's birthday

 When it's time for Jillian to get home from school, we all sit at the top of the stairs to greet her, dogs included.  Tor and I and the dogs also do it for Bridget.  This shows them sitting nicely but if Jillian is a little late it gets into a pushing shoving match, but here they look so sweet.

It was craft time to make Daddy birthday presents.  Bridget and Jillian usually jump right in with good ideas but it surprised me this time as Tor got all involved too.  He glued on eyes and colored and used all kinds of different materials.  He had to have worked over an hour and he was very proud of what he made.  And best of all there was hardly a mess.

Snow Day

The kids were very excited to see snow in the morning. After church, Daddy went to Kalama to work, and took the girls with him (while Tor took a nap). It snowed a couple inches there, so the girls enjoyed rolling snowballs in the parking lot. When we returned home and Tor was awake, he was so happy to go outside and roll some snowballs of his own. All of the kids were outside playing in the snow until well past dark. Bridget worked especially hard on building her own snowman, using a strawberry for its nose.

New Year at the Beach

After all the go-go during Christmas, we headed to the beach cabin for some relax time over the New Year holiday.

Travel day was Tuesday afternoon, and we stopped at the Astoria pool on the way. Jillian is now diving with her head down, so she'll definitely be ready to move up a level at swim lessons this summer. We spent hardly any time in the hot tub, because it was blazing hot. Then, we went to Custard King even though it was freezing cold out, and they finally had ice cream (but only soft serve). For bedtime, the kids wore their new jammies from Grannie (see pic).

Wednesday and Thursday were very lazy days. We spent most of our time staying inside the cabin, since it was so cold outside. The kids did a little bit of bike riding, and Tor was able to pedal quite a ways on the small bike with training wheels (see pic). Our one trip to the beach was in the car as we cruised up north a ways. We found some large piles of sand that someone had dug up, and the kids had a blast running on and around them (see pic). Our pre-dinner entertainment was UNO, and everyone managed to win at least one game. Tor enjoyed slamming his opponents with skip and draw-2 cards (see pic).

We woke up on New Year Friday to no power, which meant no heat. There were some howling winds at night, and a neighbor said power would be out until 5:00 pm that day. That was too long for us to go without heat, so we packed up and headed home a day early.