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!"

Was It Really THAT Warm Out?

Absolutely NOT.

These girls are crazy.

First Ruthie wanted to get naked and climb into the birdbath we have on the south side of our house. Sorry Ruthie, house rules, you can't be naked outside. At least a swim suit is in order. Of course, once one puts a swim suit on, the others follow suit. Three crazy young girls running around outside in their bathing suits and one Mama in long pants, long sleeve shirt and a lined sweatshirt who still felt chilly. Then Ruthie did try to climb in the birdbath and broke it. That's when Mama caved in and set out the pool. Hot tub, actually. That hose is hooked up to the laundry room sink and warm water is pouring out.
Sophie joined them:

Let the jumping begin!

I love Ruthie's method:) I don't think she actually cleared the side with her feet, but water is a soft landing, luckily. I love how she squinches her eyes shut in preparation.

I promise Anna didn't actually land on Sophie.

Synchronized jumping.

There you have it, the favorite chilly day hot tubbing methods of 4 little girls.

5 Year Old Birthday Princess

Half a decade old, my little Anna girl, so grown up, so confident and kind- two characteristics that can be hard to find in the same person. She knows her mind. I wasn't kidding when I told you this little girl loves to be fancy! She wanted me to put her hair in rag curlers the night before her party.
I love watching her walk when she feels beautiful. So poised and graceful (for a five year old), she holds her head high with a sparkle in her eye.
She and her daddy went on a date in the morning and returned with donuts for all of us for breakfast.

She loves her new roller skates! I love that her fancy dress doesn't ever stop her from being completely herself and doing crazy Anna things, like roller skating or climbing trees or playing in the mud.

For her birthday this year Anna wanted to invite two special friends, Nam and Sophie June, to a swim party at the rec center, and then home for games, dinner, and birthday cupcakes. A perfect choice. Our rec center has a zero entry pool where the girls can touch everywhere complete with a small and large slide and other water fountain like amenities. One of Anna's favorite places to go and safe enough for Mitch and I to watch 5 crazy girls. They had a ball. Sorry, I didn't take the camera with me. At a pool I definitely need to focus on watching the girls and making sure they are safe:)

When we got home they all dressed up like princesses and played a rousing game of hide-and-seek while Daddy fixed dinner.

Oh where, oh where has that Anna girl gone?

There she is!

The three princesses, with crowns, high-heeled shoes, fancy dresses, and bouquets of flowers.

Anna's dinner request was pesto pasta, oven fried chicken and salad. Yummy choice, Anna!

Zucchini chocolate chip chocolate cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting. Where does a five year old come up with a combination like that? But the birthday girl gets to choose, and I must say they turned out pretty darn tasty.

My spunky, feisty, social little Anna girl, growing up so fast.

Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you.

And one last picture, just for good measure, of Miss Josie Joy trying out the roller skates in her pajamas.

Courtyard Fun

Living in Family Housing with a courtyard full of kids creates quite the communal living experience for us. There are always people around to play with, talk with, fight with, eat with, share all the ups and downs of life with. No one is perfect. We are all faced with our differences and similarities daily and learn to give each other and ourselves a lot of grace.

I love that our girls are growing up in this environment. They have friends from Chile, Vietnam, Belarus, Korea, China, Canada, Libya, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and of course, the US. They learn to share, they learn to problem solve, they are color blind and oblivious to many of the differences in the people around them. They just love their friends and love all the fun they get to have with them. They are inclusive and accepting, kind, generous and full of laughter. What an example to all of us adults who often have such a hard time with the differences between us.

Yesterday we had a spontaneous painting party on our front porch:

So much joyful creativity, sharing of paints and brushes and personal space, complimenting each others pictures, enjoying each others company. I think there was as much paint on most of their bodies by the end as there was on their papers. Especially as they were reaching around each other to dip their brushes in the paint and then carrying a dripping paintbrush back to their spot, or trying to walk and stepping on each other's pictures. We dipped most of them in the laundry room sink before heading them home!



Today the impromptu fun was a pool party:

When pool space got a little tight they got creative with their real estate.

Fun times on hot days. Community living at its best.

More Inner tube Fun

I realized I had taken a few more pictures before my camera batteries conked out. Here's a few of the girls having fun with their inner tube. We went with Mitch down to the creek last Saturday. The girls can't get enough of it! It's a fun place to explore and splash around and float on the tube when the water is nice and low and lazy this time of year. It's so clear the girls can even watch the fish swim around. We're making the most of all the warm days we have left before summer is over to soak up the sun and the chill wetness of the creek.

Inner tubes are not only good for creeks, they make a great cozy spot to giggle in with your sister inside:

Our Very Own Swimming Pool

The girls have been jealous of Jack and Caroline's pool all summer and have been asking for one of their own. Now we have one! We have water days every Wednesday here during the summer where they bring out a bunch of kiddy pools for the kids to play in. This Wednesday was the last one and the Resident Managers were throwing out the pools afterwards because they were getting pretty beat up. So we brought one home!

Anna wanted you to see her jumping skills and Josie wanted you to see how she lies down in the water:Ruthie had a ball:

Josie's my one girl that actually gets cold sometimes and will be done swimming before the other two:

The girls are hoping for lots more warm days this summer now! Well, I should rephrase that. They don't care if its a warm day or not. I'm hoping that all the many days they'll be asking to get out the pool will be warm for a while now until the newness of the pool wears off. So far it's been on the chilly side and slightly rainy here. They don't care, since I've just been filling it with warmer water.

Swim Party at the Hotel

We had our own pool party at Grandpa and Nona's hotel yesterday during the hot afternoon. Josie loved floating around with Grandpa and getting tossed high up in the air to come splashing down into the water. Anna liked playing around on the stairs where she could touch and floating holding onto something. Ruthie just went wild, splashing and playing and screeching. I would say they all had a good time.

Josie floating on her life jacket. Anna floating on my life jacket.

Little Ruthie enjoyed splashing around...

And screeching at the camera.

Grandpa kept the girls in suspense with how long he would float face down in the water.