You Little Stinker!

This is a phrase that gets said often in our house these days, with much affection towards the person at which it is directed. I must say, it fits. Ruthie is a little stinker! She makes the most of every opportunity that comes her way. She has an immediate magnetic attraction towards anything she's not supposed to get that you happen to leave where she can reach it, and has an irresistible draw towards anything she can climb onto to get to higher ground. I can't tell you how many times a day we find ourselves laughing at the youngest member of our family when we find her yet again getting into or onto something she knows she's not supposed to, looking at us with a huge grin of delight on her face.

Oops, Mama forgot to push in her chair:

The Show

'The Show' had no name and I don't remember the plot, only plenty of laughter on the part of both the audience and the actors, so in the future it will only be referred to as 'The Show'. My favorite part of The Show was when granny first appeared and Ruthie's chin dropped, her mouth hung open and her eyes stared big and round, unmoving, for quite a long time. Until I grinned at her. Then she moved, laughed, wiggled, walked over to me and wanted up immediately so she could grab this granny's spectacles and hat with both hands all at the same time and just eat them up.

The Show:

The Dance, part of said Show by the granny, red pajama clad baby, rip-scrunch eating giraffe and pink dog:

More of The Dance (do you know how hard it is to dance in size 16 men's hiking boots?):

The Dramatic Moment:

The end of The Show involved a puppet show:

The Audience:

I think The Audience fell asleep sometime during the puppet show, maybe The Audience hasn't been getting enough sleep lately(but don't worry, we had The Audience rolling in the aisles in laughter for most of The Show, which was good to see)


After The Show there was Apple Pie for dessert:
And pie crust chocolate chip cookies that the girls made:

Mmm Mmm Mmm.

And finally, a snuggly cozy time reading with Daddy'O and Raggedy Anne Doll on the couch before bed:

You Little Stinker!

Ruthie, you are a little stinker! Watch this video for a good laugh:

I love how she crawls so fast to get where she's going, then stops and looks back at her Dad and giggles.

What is making you smile today?

Little Girl Fun

Here's some pictures of fun the girls had in the last day or so.


Anna painting a canteloupe gourd we found out in the garden, dried and hollow from a winter outside. She's painting it dark purple, her favorite color:

Ruthie laughing on the blanket. How many people are in this picture?:

Three! The other two were hiding in their favorite, secret, cozy spot!:

Two girls in Daddy's vest, lots of laughs:

And last but not least, a little video of Anna jumping off the picnic table. She really wanted you to see her jumping from this spot, I think because she saw a picture of her sister jumping off the same table posted a few days ago:). I tried to convince her to show you a picture of her jumping off the playground structure yesterday which was twice as high, but she was insistent that this is what she wanted you to see. You should have seen the jig she was dancing before she jumped most times, I wonder who she learned that from?

I thought Josie might jump for you too, but then she got scared of the mower you can hear in the background and got down in a hurry. My girls do not like loud noises.

Let's Party!

Wow, what a weekend we have had. Friday night and all day Saturday is our Sabbath, our family day, the day that we don't do the things we normally consider to be our work. Mitch doesn't do any school work, I let the dishes pile up (although we went into the sabbath with a pile of dirty dishes:), don't tell!) and we do the things that we find restful and enjoyable as a family. Sometimes what we find enjoyable is not always restful and we end our Sabbath more tired than we went into it, but at least we usually come out the other end feeling more connected as a family again and feeling like we got a break from the normal stressers of our daily life.
The girls got a new Djembe drum yesterday so our Friday evening was spent making music and dancing. The Djembe is what they wanted to get with the money that various people that love them had given them for Christmas and birthdays recently. They wanted this particular one because you can wear it around your neck and play while you dance or march. I can't imagine why my little girls would want a drum that they can dance with!? Mitch even pulled out his guitar last night! It has been good to see Mitch feeling not as exhausted and overwhelmed at this point in his semester as he has in every other semester. That has been one of our biggest blessing lately. Enjoy this little video from our evening!




Anna playing the Djembe:



After such a fun evening we decided to continue the fun and ended up going to the zoo today. It was enjoyable by all (I think Ruthie enjoyed her nap). It was Josie's first time to the zoo since she was old enough not to be sleeping through it all and I think the immensity of some of the animals was a new thing for her creative mind. Anna would have stayed all day if she didn't have a little sister who was ready for a nap by 1 pm.

What post would be complete without something about little Ruthie? Here's a little video of her laughing at her crazy mama. I love how she laughs with her whole body and how she laughs in anticipation of what is coming.

Here's a fun picture of Anna cutting mushrooms helping me make dinner the other night. She was so proud!

This is the end of our Sabbath, Daddy and Anna crashed out on the couch: