All in a Days Work

Our day included lots of jumping by Josie:Crafting:Bike riding in the warm sun:Rocking in the rocking chair, (Ruthie's discovered what rocking chairs are for besides climbing on to reach other things):

Painting:Head stands:Baby dolls had to be cared for: More bike riding by Mitch (notice the new size 51 biking shoes!):

And me? What did I do? I was definitely a participant in every one of the above activities, but I also got to make Pot Roast for dinner, Apple Crisp for dessert, had my own bike ride with the three girls to go pick up our milk, and I even had time to just sit on the warm porch before dinner. Just sit? When was the last time that happened? I couldn't tell you, but I sure enjoyed it.

Nothing is Safe Anymore

Ruthie has figured out how to climb. I walked into the kitchen this morning and she had climbed up on one of the girls' chairs and gotten a tomato off the counter top. Since her Mama is not exceptionally tall, nor are her sisters yet, this is a problem. There is often a stool or chair of some sort in our kitchen. If I put their chairs in the middle of the living room Ruthie will climb on them and flip them over. If I put them up against something then she will keep right on climbing onto whatever the chair is up against, or can at least reach whatever I am trying to keep out of her reach on top of whatever the chair is up against. We're in for it now, little Ruthie! I can't take my eyes off you for a second!

A Crafting Party

Anna loves to craft. She can spend hours at a time with her glue and scissors and paper and yarn and other art supplies just creating. The things she creates are not necessarily things you can hang on the wall nor do they have any utilitarian use to them at all, which is why she has a treasure box. It gives her someplace to put her treasures that she has crafted or other special things she has been given: Here are some more of her creations that she made today, hanging on our art line:So this year for Anna's birthday we decided to have a crafting party. In our home we value making things that we can use that will last out of the materials we have around us. Our crafting party was centered around each child making a 'treasure bag' and then filling it with treasures that they created. I whipped up a bunch of cloth bags, one for each child attending, and sewed a patch on it where they could write their name ('Anna's Treasures' or 'Josie's Treasures'...). Each bag was unique, made of a different material out of my fabric stash, all different sizes. The kids got to choose their bag and then Mitch sewed handles on them of whatever color ribbon they chose. Here are some of the bags on the end of the table, a colorful assortment:

On another table we had set out all the craft supplies we could find. We have been gathering fall treasures for a while now: pine cones, fall leaves, acorns, feathers, sticks... We added those to our other basic craft supplies of paper, felt, ribbon, string, scissors, glue, tape, pipe cleaners, buttons, needles and thread, yarn, crayons, markers, colored pencils and whatever else we had on hand. As each family arrived their child got to choose their bag and then just craft.Each child was unique in their approach to crafting. Some picked up their scissors and just started cutting. Some looked for different objects in their favorite color and then decided what to do with them. Some had a definite idea of what they wanted to make first, found the supplies they needed to make that and set to work.Mitch was the expert seamster attaching handles to each bag as the kids were ready:I loved watching all the kids creating. Each treasure was unique. There was no wrong way of doing it. Their finished products were so colorful and creative! Owls made out of pine cones, felt nests, acorn hats strung together, leaf rubs, leaves glued onto paper, coloring, large creations out of whatever could be found that could be tied or glued on next...Tristin and Sophie gluing fall leaves onto paper:Here are Anna and Josie's finished bags, now empty of treasures that they came home and put into their treasure boxes:

Of course we also had yummy chocolate cupcakes and ice cream! What birthday party would be complete without that?
Happy Birthday Anna! I hope you had a fun party, a party that was uniquely you, surrounded by people that love you who came to celebrate you and join you in doing what you love to do.

Anna's Quilt

I finished it! At 1:30 in the morning on her birthday. She loved it. The look on her face when she saw it and the look on her face when she snuggles up in it were worth every late night I spent finishing it. After she opened it and looked it all over (she liked all the dark purple, in case you were wondering) she promptly said "I want to make a fort out of it!" Which she did. Then she and Josie played under it while we got the rest of breakfast ready (cinnamon rolls and strawberries with whip cream, as requested by the birthday girl).
The quilt:
I've only made baby quilts and lap quilts before, never anything quite this big. It will fit on a full or twin size bed. It's rewarding to get to see my finished quilt around since it was gifted within the family! Happy Birthday, Anna. I hope you enjoy your quilt for many years to come. Know that it was made with a lot of love for one special girl. When you wrap it around yourself think of it as a little hug from your mama who loves you.

The Year of the Purple

According to the Chinese this is actually the year of the ox, but I swear in our house it is the year of the purple, the dark purple, to be exact, according to Anna. Maybe the dark purple ox? I'm liking it, though. Purple is a good color if you're going to have an obsession. (It could be far worse, it could be the year of the light pink!) The rest of us in the house who don't feel so strongly about our own favorite colors, or lack of favorite color, tend to defer to Anna's favorite color since she is so passionate about it. Dark purple is beginning to show up with greater and greater frequency in all parts of the house and in all of our wardrobes but Anna's clothing, or at least the clothing that she wears, is purple, all shades of purple but especially dark purple.


Even this counts as purple:More dark purple (and Ruthie's shirt has a lot of purple on it, which is why it got chosen):In case you were wondering, yes, these are outfits from consecutive days, dark purple, dark purple, dark purple and more dark purple!

Anna Makes the Ice Cream

It was for her birthday party, so she cranked it out: The best homemade ice cream around! (And the only homemade ice cream around that I know of. If you know of any more let me know and I'll come over and try some so I can see if your recipe is any good.)Since you can't have a ten month old crawling around with that contraption in motion little miss Ruthie got to sit in her chair and Josie was in charge of keeping her happy. I would say she did a good job, judging from this picture:

That is one of Josie's favorite jobs, one that she does all on her own all the time. If Ruthie's fussing she takes it upon herself to bring her a toy or give her another bite of food. If we're going somewhere Josie often wants to pack a bag of toys to bring for Ruthie. She is one caring big sister, always thinking of the needs of her little sister.

First Snow

That's right, we've already had our first snow of the season. Not more than 2 or 3 inches but then it lasted for quite a few days which is unusual for around here. Normally it gets sunny by ten o'clock the next morning and anywhere the sun hits it starts melting. We've actually had a couple of overcast days in a row that kept the temperatures down enough that the snow stayed on the ground the whole weekend for us to enjoy. Poor Hashim, being from Saudi Arabia doesn't exactly accustom you to 19 degrees. He was a trooper though and was going to ride his bike home in the snow until Grandpa Bill and Nona Judy talked him into letting them drive him home:

Birthday Hike

Last Saturday we went for a hike up Green Mountain, my birthday hike. Our friends Jeremy and Patty were here visiting and went with us. Beautiful day, great company enjoying the stillness of the Fall mountains. Patty:

Jeremy spotted Anna while she climbed up this rock:

Here's the successful climbers again:

Josie showing you some of her 'treasures' that she found:

More Fall treasures:
Hiking along talking:

I had the camera the whole time and was having fun taking pictures. I really was there too, even if this is the only picture I have to prove it:

Anna climbing some more boulders:

Josie attempting to get where her victorious sister is:

Does it smell like vanilla, Anna? A beautiful Ponderosa Pine:

Josie was quite impressive hiking. She rode in the Ergo backpack the first part of the hike but then when the going got steep she wanted down and hiked all the rest of the way up to the top. Here she is hiking along with her Daddy'O:

Anna hiking:
At the top we got to witness the end of a ladybug migration. There were more ladybugs than I had ever seen in one place before, although I have heard this is nothing compared to when the weather was still warmer a month ago. They were in all the crevices of the rocks and literally covering the branches of the trees on top of Green Mountain. Josie is showing you:

Great hike. I loved being out in the mountains. We can see the top of Green Mountain from our front door, but it is a whole different experience being out on the mountain. We live in a city and although we live along the creek, which is quite a green corridor right through the heart of Boulder with plenty of foxes, raccoons, deer, lots of birds and other wildlife, we can still always hear the cars, sirens, voices and other human made sounds. I loved stopping along the way hiking and just listening to the sound of the wind in the tops of the pine trees, a few birds, and hearing nothing else. I also liked getting to spend a whole day with Jeremy and Patty and Mitch and feel grounded in good friendship again.

A Puddle Stomping Day

It's a gray, overcast, rain coming down, put on your puddle stomping boots and run outside to play sort of a day!

Anna and Josie had fun and got soaking wet, as you can imagine. Ruthie had more fun playing with the umbrella handle and touching wet leaves.

We even followed the rain puddles and the trail of fall leaves all the way down to the creek, which was pretty high, the water swirling rapidly downstream. Not the lazy clarity of warm late summer water. At the creek autumn has definitely arrived, the water is chilly and dark and splashed with the color of brilliant fall leaves. The girls had fun throwing sticks in the water, watching them float upstream caught in an eddy for a moment, then getting caught by the current, spun around and whisked away.

They were chilled to the bone by the time I talked them into coming back inside so of course we had to make some hot foamy milk.

Josie took a turn frothing:

And then Anna:
And the results, with a dash of cinnamon, were delicious and warmed us all up right down to our toes!
Even little Ruthie tried a lick:

And liked it!
What could be better?
I hope your day is filled with fall, both the outside fun and the inside times of cozy comfort. Throw a stick in a creek and watch it float upstream, and then continue to watch as it gets caught, swirls around and around and floats away out of sight downstream. Somehow in that space of watching and stillness there is room to hear things that we forget to listen for in the chaos of our everyday lives.