I Love These Girls!

 Doesn't this picture make you want to curl up on the couch with a cup of hot coffee and have some fun on your computer?  That's what I thought at least.  But I love these girls!  They were so excited to ride to school in the rain today!  You can tell that doesn't happen very often around here.  As for Ruthie and I, we're enjoying an inside morning and I thought I would share a few (fairly) recent pictures with you, since I've been a little lax in that regard lately:)

 

First, you'd better check out these cute first day of school pictures.

Here's Josie, heading off to Kindergarten!  On the bike ride home that first day she told me fifty times if she told me once-literally- that she LOVES LOVES LOVES Kindergarten!

And Anna, all ready for first grade (which she has been absolutely loving so far, too, I might add):

Ruthie and I came with them that first day for the Opening Ceremony/Rose Ceremony.

Thank you Mema and Papa for the fun dresses, the girls love them!

 

 What better tradition to have than ice cream on the first day of school in the heat of August?

 Anna lost her first tooth!  Look at that great grin!

 We are enjoying our new house.  For those of you that I haven't kept in touch with very well lately, we moved into a house here in Boulder right before school began.  We are loving our backyard, back porch (we've had dinner out there every night), new climbing trees, and this Mama is especially enjoying the normal size kitchen with a dishwasher and having a washer/dryer!

 

Three good friends in their climbing clothes eating peaches on the back porch on a sunnier day:

 I designated some climbing clothes for them after they were destroying all their school clothes getting them covered with sap while climbing the 50 foot tall Spruce tree in our backyard.  Anybody have a remedy for sap in hair?  I've learned that the alcohol in hand sanitizer will take sap off hands beautifully (thanks Rob and Michelle!), but I've yet to find a remedy for hair. 

 

One of my favorite recent pics of these three sisters.  Classic.  A moment to remember and treasure.

 Friends over for dinner!  The Kennedy's came to celebrate our new house with us.  Little Ally and Ruthie are fast friends.

Anna, Isaac and Ruthie reading on the couch.  I'm loving this new step into reading with my big first grader.  Way to go, Anna!

 Anna found a way to climb onto the roof of our house.  Whose kid is this???  She was quite proud of herself.

 Ruthie and I love our mornings together while big sisters are at school.  I'm also loving all the space and light in this wonderful kitchen.  Put the two together and you can find Ruthie and Mommy working in the kitchen together on many a morning!

 Anna and Josie are wonderful kitchen helpers.  They're making Daddy's lunch in this photo.  Pancake sandwiches! (Daddy'O Update:  Mitch has 3 more weeks until he's done with his masters!!!  THEN we can truly celebrate!  But it still feels like a big push to get through these next 3 weeks.  Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we need extra doses of patience and grace in this house.)

 Ruthie climbing the Russian Olive tree in our backyard while I'm hanging laundry.  It's hard to find a time when at least one of these girls is not in a tree.

 Last but not least, I thought I would share our most recent family photo.  It was actually taken in June on Father's Day. 

Silliness

Silly Anna:

This is how silly Josie and silly Ruthie slept last night:

Josie fell off the bottom bunk onto Ruthie's bed and Ruthie fell off her trundle bed half onto the floor. Does that look comfortable to you? I had been thinking lately that maybe Josie and Anna could trade bunks and Josie could be on the top, but after seeing this I'm not so sure:)

And a not so silly but very beautiful picture of my Josie girl, who keeps wanting me to take a portrait picture of her lately:

Easter Girls

Beautiful smiles.

Hugs

and kisses. Lots of love.
Playing the piano:

Thank you, Mema, for beautiful Easter dresses. It's so fun to watch little girls when they feel so loved, so fancy, so special on a special day in special clothes.

Easter Twirl:

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.

Fancy Hair

Three different girls. Three unique personalities. Three definitions of fancy.

Reading "Little House in the Big Woods" to the girls again inspired Anna to ask for rag curlers in her hair.

The ultimate in fancy hair, to the eldest Clement daughter.

Josie, on the other hand, insisted on pigtails with bows in them. That, she informed us, is truly the fanciest hair.

Ruthie wanted "One bow, Mama!"I love that each definition of fancy matched the personality of the one requesting the hair style. The only problem was that people commented all day on Anna's fancy hair, and almost no one noticed how fancy Josie's was. She was a little sad. When does cultural reinforcement begin to corrupt natural personality and desire? Hold true, sweet Josie!

We love the uniqueness of each one of you, different from anyone else in the world.

Fancy Girls

Boy howdy, do I have some fancy girls! There is nothing they love more than being fancy, however that is defined in the moment in their minds. Inspired by their fancy painted nails and all the flowers they saw, they decided to put on their fancy dresses and hold bouquets of flowers 'like in a wedding', as Anna said.

Painted toenails.

Beautiful smiles!


Our friend and neighbor and constant companion of the girls. They all love playing with Nam!

Josie had her white dress on because white is a fancy color.

Ruthie won't be left out of the fun.

Ruthie, you little charmer. You bring a smile to everyone's face.

They wanted me to make sure and tell you that Nam's dress is pink, even though it looks white in these pictures.

Relaxing on the grass.

They even put flowers in Mama's hair! Aren't I cute and fancy?! Josie took my picture.

Fancy does not mean refined or sophisticated.
Even fancy girls are full of spunk and silliness!

The Engineering Awards Banquet

After three long years and lots of hard work Mitch is finally about to graduate! That is one big cause for celebration in our life!!! He's planning on attending grad school here at CU in the Fall, working towards a masters degree in Civil Engineering, but for now we're marking a milestone achieved (or, almost achieved-we still have to get through this last week of classes and then finals week before graduation next Thursday). Mitch was given an award for being the Outstanding Civil Engineering Student and we got to attend an awards banquet along with the other awardees from the other Engineering departments, other outstanding alumni of the college of Engineering who were receiving awards or have received an award in the past and donors of the college. Congratulations, Mitch! It was quite an event. Not our typical Friday evening, let me tell you.


My sisters, when they found out about the award and accompanying event, decided to send me my own award: "Mother of the Year", as nominated by the 'Two Sisters Selection Committee'. My award came with dresses to wear to this and another upcoming banquet. Thank you, sisters! It does feel like this graduation has been a joint effort, even though you were the one actually taking the classes, Mitch. I suppose any achievement in a united household will feel like that.



Here we are, the handsome couple, before the banquet:

Did I ever tell you...

...that I love things that are lots of different bright colors?

Isn't that a beautiful sight?


Sunny, warm, happy and peaceful. Flapping in the breeze.
Puts a smile on your face and a song in your heart.
Here's to hoping you can enjoy plenty of sunshine today.