Dear Aunt Lauren,
We love our new bowls! This week Rick made chicken pot pie from scratch. The crust was buttery and delicious and everyone couldn't wait to dig in - hence the hot pad! We have decided that every week we will try to make a new meal in them. Next week's attempt will be mini pepperoni loaves.
Love, The Slightly Zany Kelly's!
P.S. When you come to visit, please bring your little bowl!!

Sledding at the Park

We bundled up, called our friends, and a mere 40 minutes later we were ready to hit the slopes! Ok, so our slopes are really just one medium sized hill at the park, but for us - winter bliss! The hill is steep enough at the bottom that we had to carry Alannah back to the top each time. After a few times with someone she was demanding to go down all by her independent self!

Nothing like a little sledding snack!

We plowed several paths with Daddy's help and then it was "Look out belooooow!"

I even went down a few times!

Loads of fun! The morning was over too soon for the big kids even as they flopped at the bottom in exhaustion!

Snowed in!

This first pic was on Sunday - the next one is Monday morning!

As it turns out, we actually have enough snow to warrant a snow day from school! I'm not sure how the rest of the week will go since the forecast is the same - between 3-5 inches every day. We could be going to school until July at this rate!

But at least that gives me one more precious day with my guys - who are growing up alarmingly fast! Erin had her hair cut in Philly and then we had her ears peirced at the mall. Daddy hoped that she would chicken out and stay "his little girl." Unfortunately she persists with the growing up thing. Good thing we have Alannah!

Ok, I admit, I really had planned to dress them snug, boot them up, and send them outside so that I could have a quiet cup of coffee! But once they were out there, squealing and climbing around on the buried wood pile, I couldn't resist snapping a few shots. The big kids are so careful and thoughtful of Alannah. They keep her with them, they drag her around on the sled on days like today when she is bundled up like Ralphie's little brother and the snow is up to her waist.

As Erin later said "It all would have been fine if I hadn't had to come in for the bathroom." This particular outing ended with Bryan and Alannah stranded 75 yards from the house after sledding on the big log. Erin came back to the house, Alannah couldn't walk, and Bryan struggled in two feet of snow to pull her on the sled. Thank goodness I went out to burn trash and rescue them!

Christmas Day 2009

Happy Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Resinger's! We did manage to leave with Alannah's new baby (who was briefly named Cheese) and all of her things. New Mommy's are so cautious - I thought we would never make it out the door!

The next morning - sure enough Santa came!!! Erin was a little worried about which list she was on, but luckily on Christmas Eve day we recieved a letter from the North Pole filled with praise for the "Kelly Kids." Everyone breathed a small sigh of relief!

Bryan earns the Pickle Gift two years running!

Erin makes her famous cinnamon rolls for everyone's breakfast.

Santa listened to Bry's request for "overalls like Daddy's"

Even Tiny the guinea pig gets a treat in her stocking!

Calling Gramma with the report

Alannah's new babies are carefully positioned all morning to watch her open gifts.

Bryan is thrilled with actual army gear!

Alannah finishes up with the Wonder Pets - who "save the day" for the rest of the morning.

Shouts ring out - "Its a Wii!!!"

Merry Christmas Everyone from the Kelly's with Love!

Christmas Wish

I sit, wine glass in hand, sipping my favorite Christmas gift so far. (thank you teaching partner!) Family surrounds, crunching popcorn, watching A Christmas Carol. Alannah is already snuggled in with her favorite Christmas present so far - a stuffed cat she named Santa. Erin pushed their beds together so that they can be close to each other at night. She and Bryan share the couch now, him with his feet laying over her hips. They do not always share space so companionably but at moments like these, I am thankful. My babies are healthy, my family is loving, my house is warm and so is my belly :) As we approach Christmas, my heart aches for a few of my families. I wish them the solace of heart they seek.

Merry Christmas One and All!

kicking off fall

Well tomorrow will be the twelfth day of school for all of us so it is a bit late to post first day pics - but they are just so cute I'm going to anyway! Second grade and third grade for Bryan and Erin respectively has started with flying colors. Bryan's best buddy is in his class and he has already been invited to a birthday party. Erin switches classes this year for tracked math and reading so she is excited about that. They both qualified for enrichment programming this year so we are waiting to see what that will hold for them. Alannah still loves her daycare teacher. She talks about her teacher whenever anything reminds her of school or her friends. She likes to tell everyone she's "having my girlfriend over" like the big kids.

Over Labor Day we went to my Uncle Bob's in South Bend for a Higgins reunion of sorts. Not as many could come this year but we still had an excellent time camping, having cowboy coffee around the fire, and of course riding and talking trikes! Thanks Higgins Camp!

Its all over

Summer is over. Over
The kids have helped me set up my classroom. Over
We have been to Erie for new backpacks and sneakers. Over
We have had one last hoorah at Presque Isle. Over
The kids have finished their projects and received their “big prizes.” Over
Erin has a new digital camera that also takes video. Over
Oh – and Bryan chose walkie talkies. Over and out.

End to Project Season!

I officially declare an end to Kelly Project Season! Really! We have painted, dug, scraped, cut, sanded, painted, dismantled, built, hung, rehung, sweat, occasionally cursed, and stepped back to check for the last time this season! Seriously!

This is a recap of our "deliverables" as Rick likes to call anything accomplished.

We started with a revamp of our dining room and built the murphy bed and shelves.

We are really pleased with this project and it has already been useful to flip the bed up and use the room for guests or... working on other projects!

As soon as summer started, I removed sod from around my wishing well and eventually (with the help of my ever thoughtful dad) laid mulch and planted a few more perrenials to create a new sitting garden where I can watch my birds. It is also turning out to be an excellent place to drink coffee in the morning.

And finally this weekend we installed new flooring in the kitchen! This was a long time coming and I am sooo pleased with the results! We have had that stick-on-tile on the floor since we moved in. It buckled and was broken on some of the corners. The final, laughable straw was Saturday morning when we woke up and walked through the empty room to get the kick start cup of coffee. We had moved the bench out the night before to be ready for the new flooring. Just as I was taking the last step through the empty room, a twitch caught my eye by the wall. There was a little garter snake stuck to the underside of one of the broken pieces of tile! Poor guy! Rick peeled him loose and dropped him out the window! At least now it should be harder for critters to come visiting!

So this was the last of our projects for the summer. Really! (except that Erin's friend gave us a bag of books and Rick is thinking about building another shelf in the library) Well, I have to run and call the roofer about the porch. But that doesn't count as a project since we won't be doing it. Well at least not by ourselves. Hopefully.

Language Barrier

This is the second summer that our big kids have played soccer. To quote C.W. McCall "a classified advertisement caught my eye..." and I signed them up for a European Soccer Camp. Who better to teach soccer than europeans? So for one week in July they went to a morning soccer camp coached entirely by europeans. Very Exciting. As it turned out all of the coaches were from Ireland - Double Exciting. Bryan couldn't wait to meet "real Ireland people." They were on two different age groups which essentially meant that Bry was one of the oldest in his group and Erin was among the youngest in hers. I should mention at this point that "No one asked [Erin] if I wanted to do this!"

At dinner the first night of camp they both announced that their coaches spoke "Irish!" Erin was distraught because she couldn't understand a word her coach said and "had no idea what to do!" Bry took the language difficulty more in stride and in true American fashion began teaching his coach "to talk English." He endeavored to teach her to say three instead of tree, so that the little kids wouldn't be confused. I'm sure she was quite appreciative of this!

By the end of the week they had both learned a quite impressive array of new skills. Bryan fell in love with soccer (and maybe a little with his pretty coach) and Erin had grudgingly started using her new skills in her regular games. Bryan had his coach sign his shirt and Erin was glad to be going home!

Last night I took pictures at our regular games and got some good action shots! Defense!!

Girls on the sidelines

Keeper making the Save!!

Defense in Action!