September Is...

Lots of playdates with new found friends.

Hammock time!

 Sunny and warm, relaxing, playing in the backyard.

Lots of home time after a busy summer.

 

Hiking in the mountains with friends.

Beautiful colors, glowing Aspen trees.

 



Pausing.  Smelling.  Looking. Touching.  Enjoying. 

Soaking in every moment, every little detail.

Watching for moose.

 How many pink hats would you expect to see on one hike?

 

Recording sights and sounds, thoughts and colors, animals and observations, in pictures and in words:



 And at home once more, there's always more climbing:)  Ruthie is attempting to get on the roof of the house, which, I have since found out, she can do.  I stopped her as she was starting to snake her way up onto the actual roof. 

 

The days of the girls in this house have been filled with sun and outdoor activity, friends new and old.

And I walk beside them, in and out of their play, guiding, directing, spotting, helping with new things, channeling the settling of disputes, watching, slowing down the pace as we slip into Fall so there is time in their lives to settle down, to feel grounded in place and time, to truly engage in the activity at hand and the people we are present with.  My own work weaves in and out of that barrage of activity as Warming Center work begins again, FEEDs in the park continue, the daily life of HOME settles around me in laundry, food, preserving the bounty of the late summer apples and grapes that fell into our hands, dishes, snuggles, biking back and forth to school, reading out loud, grounding the life of our home and attempting to remember to pause every now and then to make sure I am watching the changing of the season.



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. 

Pella Crossing Hike

It's Spring Break around here and we're making the most of our time off from classes.

We took a little hike today with our good friends Alex and Ruth O'Connor at Pella Crossing (north of Boulder, right outside of the town of Hygiene, a place I ride past a lot on my bike but had never stopped to explore).

We even drove past the buffalo farm on Nelson Rd. on our way there.

We have beautiful Spring weather around here, a perfect day for a hike.

When Ruthie lagged behind it was Alex who took her hand and hiked with her to help her keep up with the group:

I think this was the first hike in 6 years that I didn't even take the Ergo with me! Last year there were a few hikes that Ruthie did all on her own, but I at least always brought the Ergo backpack just in case. We've moved on to a new phase in the hiking world.

Anna and Josie along the trail:

Tally-ho and away we go! Pella Crossing is a series of 6 different ponds so we had fun exploring the waters edge and seeing what different birds were out at this time of year. Lots of Canadian Geese, robbins, hawks, herons, red-winged blackbirds, and wigeons. We'll have to come back later on in the Spring to see pelicans, killdeer, cranes, and all the smaller songbirds.

The girls thought being a train was the best way to hike:)

For your viewing enjoyment, the train in motion:





We found this huge cottonwood tree at the furthest out point on our hike and of course it had to be climbed before we could move on down the trail.

The wind came up and it got pretty blustery while Anna was in the tree. She didn't seem to mind, though. She looks pretty relaxed up there enjoy the view!

Four little girls taking in the vistas.

At Long Last...

Josie's long-awaited Tea Party!!!

Two weeks later, now that our whole family is finally healthy again after a long battle with the flu, after a second round of baking of muffins, cookies and a birthday cake, after the easiest picking up of the house ever when I asked the girls to make the house look fancy, after Josie looking through all of our wardrobes and picking out our fanciest clothes and accessories for us to wear, after re-sending out invitations... Finally we were able to have our fancy tea party for Josie's 5th birthday.

When our little guests arrived first we had fun painting nails:







Then the girls decorated the sugar cookies we had baked for the tea party with different colored/flavored frosting (strawberry, blueberry, chocolate and lemon):

And then we sat down to tea. Josie had made name cards for everyone to show them where to sit and then all three girls had helped me set the table with their tea sets. Friends had loaned us fancy serving dishes, including a three-tiered serving tray.

Josie requested banana-blueberry-chocolate chip muffins, triangle egg salad sandwiches, heart shaped peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, sugar cookies, Hershey kisses and strawberries. Mitch and I kept their little tea pots filled with tea for them to serve themselves, chamomile and peppermint with a hint of honey. We always have tea parties with either a table cloth or placemats on the table. That makes it fancier, as Josie would say, and it also immediately soaks up any inevitable spills before they run off the table and onto the floor or onto fancy dresses, as this Mommy appreciates.

There's even a little bit of sugar in the sugar pot, with a teeny-tiny spoon, and cream in the cream pot.

Triple layer lemon heart shaped cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. Mmm mmm mmm.

Josie had us sing Happy Birthday to the accompaniment of her singing card that she got from Grandpa and Nona.

Happy birthday to my special Josie Joy.

I'm glad we were finally able to celebrate you in such a fancy, Josie-style way. We wanted to show you how much we love you and your spunky spirit, your constant energy and smile, your daredevil attitude and your sweet compassionate way of interacting with those around you. Thank you for being you.

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.

Merry Christmas

Today we celebrated one of the highlights of our spiritual lives, it was Jesus' birthday! A day to give gifts on the day that we received the greatest gift of all, a day to celebrate family and friends on the day that makes possible true family and true connections between people, a day to remember our hope, a day to tell the stories that we live by to our children, a day when we celebrate what makes possible true peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

I love the smiles and the joy that go with this day.
I love watching my daughters and the contentment on their faces that comes from knowing how much they are loved, and then their excitement to spread that love they feel to those around them. Three beautiful, unselfish hearts that constantly challenge me to be the same.

The highlight of our Christmas this year was getting to participate in a feast for the homeless at the Warming Center. We live in a world marked by hardship and pain and I don't want to forget that in the midst of the joy that fills our home at this time of year. My desire is to spread that joy, to welcome people into the circle of our laughter who don't have someone to laugh with, to find moments of peace in the midst of it all, and to know and share our hope on this day of all days as we celebrate the reason for our hope. We felt blessed by the presence of so many friends sharing in the joy of our Christmas and we felt blessed to be able to give and to receive in this way. It was a beautiful place to be on Christmas day.

Anna turned 6

Another milestone marked, a pause to celebrate my special little girl. A whole day dedicated to making Anna feel special and know how much she is loved. A day to pause and reflect on the fact that another whole year has passed in our lives since Anna first joined our little family. The time really does pass so fast, and marking the passage of time helps me to pause and reflect and remember to live present and take advantage of every moment we have of childhood in this house. This is my big girl who goes off away from our family on her own everyday to kindergarten confident and secure in who she is, exploring the world around her, kindhearted and compassionate, delighting in all the little daily wonders of life, who still snuggles into my lap and grins up at me, who truly has two best friends in her younger sisters, a bond that warms this mama's heart.

We sure do love you a lot Anna.

The whole family, even Grandpa and Nona who were visiting for the day, got to come with Anna to Kindergarten for a special birthday celebration. Josie and Ruthie joined Anna for circle time and tried the motions to their songs:

Anna got to bring in one of her favorite stories, Lighthouse, for me to read and share with the class during the birthday celebration:

Her sisters picked out some special gifts for their special sister and enjoyed giving them to her. Even Ruthie kept the secret!

We gave Anna the choice of having a big party with lots of friends at home or choosing two friends and doing a fun activity for her birthday. She chose to bring her two friends, Adisyn and Olivia, and go to the local paint-your-own-pottery studio. Each of the girls decorated their own plate, which was later fired and we picked them up today. Beautiful works of original art!

After pottery time we had a fun playtime in the courtyard.

All three Clement girls playing with bubbles with Adisyn and Olivia:

More of our courtyard friends joined us for cake and ice cream. White strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting in the shape of a heart with sprinkles on top, per the birthday girls request:)

The day was made complete with dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Sombrero girl! Walking home after dinner at the end of a full day with three tired, content girls the consensus among the three of them was that "this was the best day ever!" I love those precious grins!