Quote of the Day

From Maggie: "Mom, can I have a piece of gum? My mouth is bored."

We can't have that now can we. Of course I gave the girl a piece of gum!

Finally

After what has seemed like YEARS of anticipation, Lily has finally lost her first tooth. For the longest time we had to check her mouth regularly for loose teeth. Finally, a few months ago, we found one. It seems to take the Kelley girls a long time to go from loose to actually coming out. She took it out herself and it was an interesting cross between horror (lots of blood) and sheer excitement and joy. The tooth fairy was punctual this go around and she was up early to collect her loot from under her pillow.

And, of course, Eloise told me this morning, "Mom, I want to take my toofs out." Oh, brother!

Hats

Maggie and Lily are turning into quite the knitters. Maggie completed her hat before Christmas and even won a prize in the local yarn shop's hat contest. A couple months ago Lily had started a hat and Maggie had started a second one for Eloise and then they kind of forgot about them. One afternoon this week, they sat down with Ama Theresa and finished them in no time. I'm really impressed at what a good job they do. Here they are showing off their skills. In case you're wondering, Eloise does have her own needles and yarn, but her "knitting" as this point consists of stabbing and tangling the ball of yarn. :)

99 Bottles of Beer

I know, I know, its about time I updated this thing. Does anybody even check it anymore? All my free computer time is spent on Facebook these days, but I will try and be better about updating this as I know most of the people who check it are not on Facebook.

The first bottles of Seven Brides beer were cased up and should be picked up today by the distributor and then out to the grocery stores. It is all very exciting. To start with they are bottling four kinds - Lil's Pils, Emily's Ember, Oatmeal Ellie and LPA (Lauren's Pale Ale). We took a picture of Lily sitting among her cases.

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween we had the Wicked Witch of the West, Glinda the Good Witch and that unicorn from the Wizard of Oz. What? You don't remember the unicorn. Hmm?!

First Day of School

Here are pictures of my first and second graders on their first day of school. Maggie was very excited and ready to start the new year. Lily wasn't so sure. She was very nervous that morning and I wasn't sure she would make it through the whole day. Happy to say that today she told me she loved first grade and her teacher was the nicest ever! Here's looking forward to a good year.

Bye Bye Summer

Or should I say good riddance! No, really, it was a good summer. I am just way past ready for the girls to go back to school. We have 5 days left. Hopefully they will survive each other and their parents until then.

The summer started out with Maggie participating in her first ever Missoula Children's Theatre production. This year they did "The Princess and the Pea". Maggie was a dust bunny. They are all still singing the songs, even Eloise.

Over the summer the girls have also learned how to knit. Ama Theresa taught them and it is something they really enjoy. It is a good downtime activity. I even got a lesson and I am going to attempt to make a hat. Maggie has already started hers, and she is much better at it than I am. She goes for speed, Lily is more the perfectionist. Typical.

We did soccer again this summer. Maggie and Lily were on the same team. Its one of my favorite things to watch my girls play sports. This fall I am planning on signing Maggie (and maybe Lily) up for basketball. :-)


One other new thing we started this summer was family bike rides. Maggie and Lily are both good riders and we have a contraption that we strap Eloise into on the back of Josiah's bike. Its really fun and we all love riding around town, however, we always have a large hill to come up on the way home. Thats no fun for anybody, except maybe Eloise.

Did I mention 5 days until school starts. Check back for first day of school pictures.