Four Years Young

I swear, it is so hard for me to get good pictures of my Josie girl. She is a beautiful girl with a sparkle in her eye. I love her smile and how her whole countenance lights up when she smiles. I wish you all could be as present in her life as I am to see all the things about my four year old that make her so unique that I never seem to be able to quite capture with my funky camera or my words. But I will never cease to try.

Here's my birthday girl, in all her spunky glory.

We're about to take the rag curlers out, first thing in the morning. She's showing you she's four. Quite an exciting moment in this little girl's life, finally being four. She waits for so long for her birthday to come (I know, 365 days, just like you). What I mean is, all the other members of her family have a birthday in October or November, so hers seems such a long way off.

Her Anna sister wanted to get her a gift herself this year, with her own money. We had a fun time walking all around the toy store looking at EVERYTHING in it. Anna was so excited thinking about what Josie would want. At one point in time she was talking about getting some item she saw and from the way she said it I couldn't tell if she meant getting it for herself or for Josie, so I asked her. She quickly assured me that she was only shopping for Josie that day, that she only wanted to look for things that Josie would want, not for herself. She was so focused on her little sister, on making her happy, and she was beaming with the knowledge of how excited Josie would be opening the gift that she chose for her. I felt privileged to watch my five year old, and a bit in awe of her selflessness. I have much to learn from you, my sweet Anna girl.

Here they are opening the gift Anna got for Josie:

This, my friends, is a picture I am also quite proud of. That is the dress that I made for Josie.

Quite a feat for me. I've never made anything like it and let me tell you, I learned a lot! Reading a sewing pattern is a whole other language. I kept thinking about you, Grandma Ginya, and how you made ALL the clothing your 5 little girls wore their entire childhood. How did you do it?


This is not the greatest picture, but I also wanted to show you the cape that I made Josie. She's been begging for one since Christmas, when I made one for Anna. This was a little easier, since it was my second time following that pattern. Practice makes perfect, right? As Ginya would say, material is very forgiving, it stretches. And sewing is an art, and there is no such thing as perfection in art, only creativity and uniqueness. That's what I remind myself of as I sew:)

The smile on my little girl's face makes all those late night hours of sewing so worth the effort.

I love you, Josie Joy.

In the afternoon we got out the ice cream maker and made vanilla ice cream. Mmm mmm mmm. You can't beat homemade ice cream in pure yumminess.

Putting the ice and rock salt in the bucket around the ice cream canister:

Josie cranking the handle:

We've still got some in the freezer if you want to come on over and try some!

Josie also wanted to make tie-dye shirts on her birthday. Mitch was the ring-leader of that operation. Here they are twisting up the white t-shirts and putting rubber bands around them to direct the dye into the fun pattern of each girl's choosing:


Putting on the dye:

We'll see how they come out in the end. It's hard to get the dye to take to the fabric with the intesity that we're always looking for with tie-dye. The shirts are still drying, but sometime I'll have to show you a picture of the final product.


Josie got the game Guess Who from her grandparents. It's a great one for this age! We all had fun playing a couple of rounds of the game yesterday. I even remember playing this classic game when I was their age with Grandma Ginya. The actual board has been changed a bit, but everything else is the same.

My four year old Josie Joy. My fun loving, daring little girl. May you never lose that smile on your face, may the brightness in your eyes never dim. Follow that spark inside of yourself and stay true to your own uniqueness. Your laughter brightens our days, your silliness makes our hearts lighter. The ways you care for those around you and work to give of yourself to meet their needs is an example to everyone in your life. Thank you for being you. We love you, sweet girl. This world is a better place because of your beautiful spirit.