Another Ruthie blog post was in order. This crazy, determined girl has a new skill:

Can you believe it? I'm a bit in shock. She's had a little balance bike she likes to ride around on, but that was getting a little short for her. Her balance seemed pretty good on that so I thought we would give the pedal bike a go. I can't say I had a lot of patience to teach her, I kept getting frustrated when she would stop pedaling and tell her we were waiting until she was a bit older. But then she would get frustrated at me because she was really determined to learn and wanted me to keep helping her. She wants to keep up with the big girls. She can't get started on her own, and has a ways to go before she's just riding around the courtyard in laps on her own, but I'd say she's doing pretty good.

One more video:

I'm excited to have three kids riding their own bikes. That feels like a huge milestone as a parent! Ruthie has been wanting to ride her balance bike when we go to pick up Anna lately, and has even ridden all the way home twice, over two miles! But it's slow. I'm pretty much walking my bike behind her. And Anna and Josie get tired of riding a few feet and then waiting. Riding her own two wheeler will let Ruthie be a part of everything but will still allow us to get home in a decent amount of time. Soon, that is. She's not ready for a long bike ride yet. But soon! Good job little miss Ruthie. We're all proud of you.

I'm sold on the idea of learning to ride a two-wheel bike in the winter. Long pants and mittens means no scraped knees, no scraped hands, no tears, soft falls into the snow... By the time warm weather hits we'll be past the dangerous stages. I'd recommend it to any parent.

Climbing and Running

Ruthie and I went for a walk along the creek path this afternoon and ended up at the camel tree. You can't end up at the camel tree without climbing the camel tree.

Can you tell why we call it the camel tree?


It's a huge Cottonwood that's growing laying over on it side so it bumps up like a camel. It's branches stick straight up in the air. Perfect for a three year old to climb.

Higher than Mommy's head!

From her lookout in the crow's nest Captain Nancy Ruth of the pirate ship Amazon is watching for her sisters and Daddy to return along the creek path.

Pretty cute for a pirate, if you ask me.

Here they come! Anna, Josie and Daddy'O went out for a run.

Ruthie and I were the cheering squad.

Ever since Anna and Josie watched Uncle Chad and Daddy'O run in the Bolder Boulder last year they have wanted to run in it again this year themselves. They say they are training for it and keep talking us into taking them out for runs. They ran 1 and 3/4 miles on this run. The Bolder Boulder is a 10k, 6 miles. They've got a ways to go in their training if they truly want to do it this year, but the running has been fun and good for all of us in the meantime, whether or not they actually run in the Bolder Boulder. What do you say, Uncle Chad, are you coming out again this year to run with your nieces?

More Ice Skating Videos

We have really been enjoying the ice skating this winter, every time we go we get there when they open mid morning and end up staying until dinner time. Ruthie has been a couple of times now and this last time she was actually able to skate around a bit. I only have one video of her because most of the time I was skating next to her. She did a lot better if she wasn't holding on to me, then she would actually find her own balance instead of just depending on me. I would take her out to the middle of the ice and drop her off, telling her I had to help out Anna or Josie, and then she was fine to skate for a while on her own.

Anna and her friend Juliana (in pink) were practicing and then performing an ice skating show for the adults in attendance. Here's a couple of videos of their moves:

Josie didn't want me to take any videos of her this day so you just get to see her skating in and out of videos of the other two.

Tea Party Uncle Michael Style

I'm not sure Uncle Michael was particularly thrilled when the girls told him they wanted to have a tea party with him but when he saw the spread that the waitress brought out, he was won over. Who can resist mango, chocolate, blueberries and marshmallows? (Thanks for the marshmallows, Grace!) And little sips of tea, of course. I was a bit confused when he asked for a toothpick. He already had a fork at his place.

But can you tell what he is doing? That's right, roasting the mini marshmallows over the candle.

You sure upped the ante for tea parties around here, Michael! Look at that golden beauty.

Complete with a bit of chocolate and some graham cracker.

Come back soon, Uncle Michael! And bring your whole family next time, these girls want to roast marshmallows with Maia and Paxton!

Uncle Michael's Igloo

Uncle Michael came to Denver riding on an airplane

And then the snow came flying down and this is where he ended.

Uncle Michael thanks for comin', Uncle Michael stranded

Uncle Michael had some fun though this was unintended!

(sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle)

We did love having you, Michael, although we're sorry you didn't make it all the way to South Dakota to see your family.

The girls woke up last Friday morning to a snow day from school and Uncle Michael sleeping on the couch. When a foot and a half of snow is on the ground, what little girl wouldn't be asking to build a snow fort? I told them Uncle Michael was the expert. Which he was. Just check out this igloo! Digging out the inside:
Ruthie checking it out:

Josie crawling in:

Uncle Michael thought he was just making an igloo for some little girls to play in during the day. Little did he know that two certain 4 and 6 year olds would want to sleep in their igloo that night.

Yes, seriously, they did sleep in it. Josie made it until 3 in the morning and Anna made it all night. They had to have adult supervision of course, so Uncle Michael was recruited to sleep in it too. He tried to make a case for young 'uns wanting their mom and dad to sleep with them, but Anna and Josie really wanted their uncle. Aw shucks, who can resist that?!

No, I didn't let Ruthie sleep out there, but she sure is a cutie playing in the igloo:

It was pretty big, Mommy even came in to play for a while during the day!

The moral of this story is: don't get caught in Denver in a snowstorm unless you want to spend the night in an igloo. Or something like that.

Today Josie went outside to play in the snow and climbed up on top of the igloo. Pretty soon she was jumping up and down on top of it and yelling to me about how strong it was. The next thing I knew, she had disappeared. Not knowing if she was stuck somewhere between on top and inside, I ran outside and peaked in. A giggling Josie looked up at me and exclaimed "I made a chimney, Mom!"

More Silliness

I could do a post on silliness pretty much every day in this house.

I hope these give you a bit of a laugh:)

Josie putting tattoos all over Ruthie (pieces of wet paper):

Swimsuits in the snow?


At least Ruthie had boots on!

Some 'real' swimming in the bathtub:

This swimming would have cracked you up even more if you could have eavesdropped on more of their conversation.

Josie: "I'm doing it! My elbows aren't even touching the bottom! I'm really swimming!"

Anna: "Get out, it's my turn now! I'm 6 so I need to be first so I need to practice more. You're only 4 so it doesn't matter as much if you don't know how to swim yet, but I need to learn. That's not fair that you learned before me, Josie!"