I have been meaning to write this one down for awhile because it really makes me smile. Molly plays a lot with the three kids that live behind us. They are 6, 7, and 9. She worships the 9 year old girl (Ashley) who has been WONDERFUL to her as she has started Kindergarten at the same school, is definitely like a little sister to the 7 year old boy (luke) who teases her mercilessly but will then turn around and drop anyone who is mean to her, and has found a genuinely good little buddy in the 6 year old 1st grader (Sean), whom she plays with the most. Sean is seriously the sweetest little boy I think I have ever met and I really hope our son comes out just like him because he is just pure goodness.

A couple of weeks ago I had all three of them over here playing one day and I overheard the following conversation between Molly and Sean that had me biting my fist so I would not burst out laughing. I swear it was just so darn cute!

A deep deep conversation about pokemon between Sean and Molly. Another night they were at the fence talking so seriously and then looking up together at the sky. When Matt asked her what they had been talking about she said "what we want for Christmas - and then we would stare at the sky and ask Santa if he could hear us". so cute

Sean: Um, Molly?

Molly: Yeah Sean? Whats wrong?

Sean: Ummmmm, so, are you in love with me?

Molly: WHAT!? EWWWW! NO!

Sean: OH GOOD!!!

Molly: WHY did you ask that!?

Sean: Well Luke said that you are in love with me.

Molly: Oh ick – NO! Not at all! Are you in love with me?

Sean: NO! EWWWW!

Molly: Okay – good then. Don’t listen to Luke anymore okay?

At this point both of them let out a deep sigh of relief and then went right back to putting stickers in the book they were working on together

This age is so funny – they are all so obsessed with who has what parts, all bodily functions, and who is going to marry who and so I just love that she and Sean are these sweet little innocent friends who can have long conversations about what flavor of popsicle is their favorite. There is no “I want to marry him” garbage going on at all! Its just so innocent and I LOVE it!

Now, all that said, and as much as I love those kids, I will be buying locks for her bedroom window and one of those loud sirens for our back door as we approach Junior High because BOTH of those boys are quite handsome!

Sometime over last year’s long and miserable winter, I decided it would be a good learning experience to have a garden with the girls. They could help me plant the seeds and plants, tend the garden, harvest, etc.. and we could save money and eat fresh veggies all summer sans pesticides. Everybody wins!

Me by the garden just last week - Its such a jungle! (7 months along here)

Grandpa Clemm was out here in April and he built the box for us which was awesome. Having a raised box was my plan to keep rabbits hopefully out.

I know what you are thinking here: “Ummmm, Kerry? Rabbits HOP you know….”

Well aren’t you smart?

Yes they do and I have no idea why I thought 6 inches of wood plank would deter them, but they have not been too much of a pain. Of course, by the time we bought the wood, the seeds, and then the replacement plants when we killed the first round of plants we planted (fine Jamie – you were right! Watering mid day in the hot sun is NOT smart!), I am not sure how much money we ended up saving, but we learned from all our mistakes and next year the CLemm Family Farm should be running at a surplus instead of a deficit.

The good news is that we appear to be quite good at this veggie growing business! We had a constant surplus of inventory around these parts – especially cucumbers. It got to a point where I think our neighbors would see me walking towards their house and immediately retreat inside and lock all the doors in fear that I was bringing them more cucumbers. Next year I think I will plant only one cucumber vine – not 3. And I also learned that 1 Zucchini plant is MORE than enough. Especially for a house where no one even eats zucchini (the zucchini muffins are a huge hit with the girls though!). Hopefully this will open up room for my yellow squash to thrive next year because I had a disappointing turn out with it this year (only got about 5 all summer and its my absolute favorite!). I suspect those pesky cucumbers were really strangling the squashes will to live. Other plants in the garden: Pumpkins, mystery squash (turned out luckily to be some weird form of butternut squash that is quite good), bell peppers, watermelon that had to be pulled and sacrificed for the good of the rest of the garden due to space restraints, sugar peas that never once made it past the back door and into the house because we ate them right off the bush, tomatoes that are still going, and cauliflower that also had to be pulled because it was too attractive to the rabbits.

So here are some pictures of our garden – from day 1 when Molly and I hunkered down on a cold winter day to plant seeds all the way to last week when we could finally harvest the pumpkins and put them out on the front step. I am so proud of how well we did!

Planting the seeds back in April

All lined up and ready to grow in the window for the rest of the winter! Good thing Lilly eats a lot of yogurt (ps: I dare you to make fun of my Edward Cullen Sweet Tarts)

The box that Carl built for us - this was at Lilly's birthday party and the kids loved that box! It was a pirate ship, a coffin, a zoo, etc.. I almost felt bad when we filled it in because they enjoyed playing in it so much!

My little helpers planting all the plants back in May!

And planting the replacement plants (next year I will skip growing them from seed and just buy them anyways) always with my little helper by my side! Turns out she has a green thumb - thank goodness one of us does!

And somehow all that dirt and seeds (okay and some plants I had to buy to replace a few I killed) turned into this!

Our VERY FIRST harvest consisted of one pea pod at the end of June It was delicious!

One weekend's harvest! Can you believe it? On average we picked about 8 cucumbers and 3 zucchini a week!

"WHAAAAAAT? How DARE you imply I am eating the dirt! Clearly I am doing no such thing!"

And now, even though we are having a warm end of the summer (better than we had all actual summer but dont get me started), I am sad to report that it appears the plants are slowing down. We had to pull out the mystery squash and the pumpkin vines because they were dead and it would appear the cucumbers are tired and now only spitting out little deformed cucumbers. Even the zucchini have slowed down, though we are still seeing plenty of tomatoes and bell peppers and we plan to let them produce as long as they will!

Seeing all of this though, the plants dying off and the veggies coming to an end, a rather panicked Molly asked met he other day, “But momma! What will we do for vegetables all winter!??”. And being the beacon of honesty and education that I always am with my children I replied, “Well I guess we just have to pray we don’t all get scurvy!”. But then I added. “Just kidding – we will buy them at target with the rest of our groceries.”.

That backfired on me though because I then had to google scurvy and answer about 30 minutes worth of questions about it.

A few weeks ago Molly began practice for her first ever soccer team! She has taken a soccer class or two through the park district, but this is her first real AYSO team with games and I was very excited! I think I was more excited than her though. Unfortunately, the soccer season started the week after Kindergarten started and to be honest, its probably a bit too much (especially when you factor in that she also has a dance class on Thursday nights, but she completely loves that so I figure its okay). But now that we are a few weeks into it (and have experienced the glory of a goal or two), she is getting into it. She still says if she has to give up an activity though, she is keeping dance.

So anyways, the first few weeks of soccer were a little rough and I was able to take a few pictures to forever memorialize this ha ha ha. The format is as follows: Her team meets twice a week on a field next to the three other under 6 girls teams. They practice for 30 minutes and then play games against the other teams for 30 minutes. This annoys me as I had erroneously assumed the games would be on weekends when I would have Matt to help me wrangle Lilly along the sidelines but we are making do. Here are some pictures of her first practice:

Ready for our first soccer practice with our new ball and our new shin guards which Molly immediately said were itchy and asked to stay home because of.

Here is Molly on the left running inexplicably away from her team and their goal.

And here she is gabbing with her coach while her back is to all the action going on behind her.

A great shot of Molly on the far right, bending over to pant while the rest of her team scrimmages. You know - At the OTHER END OF THE FIELD. Which she would know if she did not have her back turned to what was going on again.

Ah yes. A photo to make any parent proud! Molly is getting up after I "politely suggested" that we do NOT sit down at a soccer game in the middle of the field. You may notice her team is nowhere near her again - guess where they were? yep - the other end of the field again.

So, that was a bit ugly. Also – she missed every shot when her coach would set her up 3 feet from the goal and tell her to shoot it in. I do not even know how that is possible. It defies physics, really. The only good thing is she seemed like she could seriously care less and was not embarrassed about it. She kept yelling “MOM! Is it time to go yet? I don’t like soccer!” from the middle of the field and she asked her coach if she could just do laps because she prefers to run than just stand there (totally MATT’S genes!). Things were NOT looking good for a future career in women’s soccer. I began to retabulate my plan to pay for college.

Oh but then! But then Molly found out that at the end of each practice/game, you get a snack and things started looking up!

"oh wait - we get snacks and juice each time we come? Well maybe this is not so bad afterall!"

"Pardon me Molly, but did you say snacks and juice?"

"SHOO! BE GONE! I am NOT sharing my snack with you Lilly!".

Oh – and one more funny story about this night. The girls got together and had to come up with a team name after they were given their jerseys (pink! score!). Molly very loudly and VERY excitedly suddenly yelled out, “OH I have a GREAT IDEA! Why don’t we be the BIG PINK BALLS!”. I almost died and then wanted to really die when all the little girls agreed to it. But then the coach (who was laughing very hard) gently steered them towards the team name they ended up choosing: The Pink Lions.

If you say “go pink lions!” to Lilly she will roar for you It’s quite cute.

So anyways, it has now been 3 full weeks of soccer and I am happy to report that things have really changed for the better! Molly, who seems to finally be grasping some of the actual rules of soccer and paying attention more to the games, looks forward to going now. I have done a little work with her out in the yard trying to teach her to not just let the other team take the ball but to get in there and fight for it a little and she has become quite the aggressor on the soccer field. I may have gone a bit too far though and am finding that she is throwing elbows and pushing more than she should so we are working on that.

Goal kick action shot! Look at all that power!

Then last Friday night Molly scored her first goal. After which she promptly charged down the field and scored 2 more! Then last night she scored 3 more! That seems to have been the catalyst and now she is pretty much addicted and keeps asking when we can go back. I should have known that applause and attention would be what would get this kid hooked. I could not be more thrilled! I LOVE soccer – I played my entire childhood and I just want her to give it a real chance so she can have as much fun as I did with it. Sometimes its hard to watch from the sidelines because I wish I was playing. Though in all honesty I do NOT have the patience her coaches do. I will wait to coach her team until she is a bit older and they listen better. Also – pretty much every little girl from her Kindergarten class plays either on her team or one of the others so she loves going so she can see all her friends (and I am getting to know all their moms better so its a win-win). Its really great getting to know so many kids her age from the neighborhood.

On a side note her coach came to talk to me last night and told me that he sees a lot of improvement with her in general and commented that she is VERY quick for her age. A real runner he told me! I hate to run (soccer was more about accuracy and strategy for me and I always played forward to get out of running too much), so again that runner’s stuff is ALL MATT. I can totally picture them out running together as she gets older – she loves it!

"Oh look! They gave out snacks again! This sport is great!". Oh but we are still not happily sharing with our little sister as you can plainly see from this photo. Poor Lilly lol!

Its a beautiful Sunday night, we have a coupon for Cold Stone, lets go get some ice cream girls!

Lilly is too small (and we are too cheap) to have her own ice cream yet, so Matt and I usually just give her a little of ours (Molly will only begrudgingly share one bite usually). This completely infuriates and upsets her EVERY TIME.

Awesome EVERY TIME Molly would turn to look at something (I think this time it was a big dog walking by) Lilly would just reach over and help herself to Molly's ice cream.

"oh yeah - that is goooooooooooooooood"

D'OH! BUSTED! Its okay though - she actually got away with this three or four times before Molly caught her

I have to admit I was totally watching her and the “youngest kid” in me was rooting for her the whole time

So, in the planning phase sparklers seemed like a great way to be very fancy, but in execution they ended up being terrifying (even for me while I carried the cake)

On August 22nd, my “baby” turned 5. I mean really, she has essentially been 35 pretty much since the moment she came out, but we were all still pretty excited about this milestone. Even my mom came to visit and be here for the party which was just so special and fun!!! So many cool things happen when you are 5: You go to school, you lose your first tooth (usually at some point while 5 or so I hear), you can cross the street while standing next to mommy instead of holding her hand, and you get a lot of shots. Well, I guess that last one is NOT so cool, but it IS unfortunately true. And if I thought watching those nurses pin down my little babies while they got shots was bad, it is NOTHING compared to how hard it is when they are old enough to realize what the heck is going on. I had to pin Molly’s arms down while they gave her three shots and she was SO MAD and screaming. I totally cried. It was MUCH more traumatic then when they are babies.

So, even though Molly was a total brat to the doctor at her 5 year check up because she knew the shots were coming (sometimes I wish they would do them first instead of at the end just because the anticipation is AWFUL), here are some fun stats about where she stands:

Height at birth: 22 3/4 inches
Height at age 5: 45 inches (barely – they wrote down 45 to make her happy because she insisted but really it was more like 44.5)

weight at birth: 10 lbs 9 oz.
Weight at age 5: 46 lbs

percentage of body taken up by attitude at birth: 100%
percentage of body taken up by attitude at age 5: 100%

So as you can see, we are growing VERY well. And I am happy and well aware of how blessed we are to say she is an amazing and healthy little girl.

Molly and her best girlfriends all dolled up in their fanciest ensembles!

A few more little tid bits about her development: At 5, Molly is reading quite well for her age. She has most of the words (and there are over 100 if you will allow me to be very annoying and brag just for a minute!) she knows memorized, but can also sound out simple words and she has started doing that EVERYWHERE she goes! She can also write simple sentences which amazes me. Her vocabulary is kind of awesome. For example: the other day she was talking to me about the kids in her class and she said to me, “My friend Junior is a bit unorthodox mom, but I do like him…”. My mom insists she is stronger in math than in language skills (but Grandma is a bit biased towards math since she was a math teacher). She can add, subtract, and even do small multiplication problems if she has enough fingers or objects in front of her to group. I know this list is now really getting annoying – I am really sorry because I try not to be one of those braggy/competitive moms but I am just so proud of what a smart little thing she is!! I think she is pretty neat so once a year I am allowed to boast a little!!!

Okay, gloating over Moving on…..For her party this year she asked to have a “very fancy tea party” – with girls ONLY. The only boy allowed to come was Matt, and only if he agreed to be the waiter LOL. Because he is basically the best daddy ever (and completely in love with his little girl) he agreed to this. We made very fancy invitations, shopped at thrift stores to find very fancy tea pots, and decorated the yard with very fancy things. We also painted nails, and made hair wreaths out of ribbon and garland and had a pinata. I kind of went crazy with it admittedly, but it was just so fun to really immerse myself in the girlishness for once! And I think 5 is a really really big deal! My mom commented, “I really hope I am nowhere near you when this child gets married”.

My masterpiece!

Also, again this year I am so grateful that our friends and family were so generous and thoughtful and just showered Molly with all sorts of love, gifts, and goodies. She really is just such a lucky kid – I hope someday she realizes it as much as we do! Also, since I know so many of you read this, please know my thank you cards are late, but on their way. I am really trying to insist Molly write at least part of them herself, but its going slowly!

I will leave you with some more pictures from her party:

My heart SWOONS whenever I look at this. Isn't he handsome all dressed up?

I just wanted to put in a picture of this table because these four were so coincidentally color coordinated!

The birthday girl enjoys some more trips to the sugar bowl

Emily from across the street came over to help me by painting nails!

Making fancy head wreaths!

Of course there was lots of playing on the play structure and the little hellions actually broke the roof off. My father in law will be here later this month to fix it!

Barefoot, pregnant and serving birthday cake (why yes I DID make that! thanks for asking!), Life is pretty sweet right now

"Where did all these people come from while I was napping? Oh well - at least they gave me cake..."

Molly sort of enjoys being the center of attention - have you noticed?

Pinata time!!!!

Holy toledo! No matter how fancy and well mannered they were during the party, all bets were off the minute that pinata broke. I saw elbows thrown, there were tears, my goodness!

Still partying after all the guests have gone home Silly girl!

so many things to do......

Well, I am still so behind on my posts! I still need to write about Molly’s fifth birthday, her first soccer team, her surprisingly hard adjustment to Kindergarten and Lilly’s obsession with putting things in the toilet (this morning it was her toothbrush which she then put right back in her mouth OMG HOW GROSS I WAS FREAKING OUT). But as you can see in the above pic (taken yesterday at Lilly’s playgroup), now that Molly is away at school all day Lilly and I are just so terribly busy I am just not able to find the time……

Can you believe it? Molly started Kindergarten recently. I have no idea WHY they start in the middle of August (especially considering they do not have AC in the buildings) but they do. And because the cut off date for birthdays is September 1st and Molly’s birthday is August 22nd, my baby got to head on off to Kindergarten at the ripe old age of 4. Scary isn’t it?

She was mortified about being 4 by the way – she made me tell her teacher NOT to acknowledge her birthday in ANY way because she did not want the other kids to know she was not 5 yet. And of course, because she has two teachers (one is leaving on maternity leave shortly) and I had only told one of them, right in the middle of orientation the OTHER teacher said “well look at that good 5 you are writing Molly – are you five years old?” and Molly turned beet red, looked around the room at all the kids and parents staring at her and just slowly nodded and took a big gulp of air in. I felt so bad for her!

Anyways, we had a few days prior to our first real day to get warmed up to the classroom and the teachers. We had a meet the teacher day where we got to see her room for a few minutes and say hi, and then we had an orientation day a few days later where we went for about an hour. Then the next day after that we started our regular schedule.

HA! I took this picture at orientation and she was SO mad at me. She made me promise to leave the camera home from now on.

Molly’s district only offers full day Kindergarten so her day is long – 9 am to 3:30pm! But I am pretty confident she can handle it. In fact, I had hoped she would be a little more tired than she seems to be. Other parents have reported their kids are going to be at 6:00pm or falling asleep during dinner, etc.. but not Molly. She sure is crabby as if she is tired, but every night we put her in her bed at 7:30 and she still does not go to sleep until almost 9:00. SIGH.

First day of school with our new backpack and lunchbox!

"can we just get going already!???"

We live very close to the school so bussing is not an option, though we have to take kind of a roundabout way to get there so we can go over a pedestrian bridge across the busiest street in our neighborhood. This bridge is quickly becoming the bain of my existence and its only going to get worse as I get closer to delivery. Its quite a steep hill to get up to it. I am not sure what I will do AFTER the c-section when I have no ab muscles and the darn hill is covered in ice and snow. Oh well – I am sure I will figure something out.

Molly from the top of the pedestrian bridge

On this first day, there was a lot of emotion from some parents. I saw one woman actually shaking she was crying so hard. There were a few others actually full on bawling/crying too. I mean like ugly crying. With mascara a runnin’ and everything! One lady had to be walked back home by her husband while she still cried and he had his arm around her gently rubbing her shoulder. Me? I practically SKIPPED to that darn school. For one thing, Molly and I are in dire need of a good break from each other. For another, I am truly excited for her! She is so ready to learn and I know she will love it so much. But all that said, when I leaned down to hug her goodbye, I admit I got just a bit choked up for just one moment. Then she walked over to the door and waved and there she went: On her way to growing up even faster than she already is! and I had to just leave her there and trust in her ability to get through her day without me (after I went around the corner with the other parents and stalked her through the window of course).

Miss Independent shows a bit of nerves once we get to the door!

And one more cute one I took that morning:

"HOORAY! I am off to the rest of my life!"

"Hi! I am growing up WAY to fast. Tomorrow I am leaving for college..."

I am so sad about this. I feel kind of lost in a weird kind of way. When I first moved here, it took me a couple of months to find a playgroup I liked. We all kind of met one or two of each other in other groups and ended up forming our own thing and it was pretty awesome. There are 7 moms total and we all have kids that were born around the time Molly was (a few months in either direction but 5 others start Kindergarten this year too). Some also have older kids, some have a few younger kids, etc.. We have had one or two members come and go, but for the most part have remained in the unit we have now. It quickly became more about the moms than the kids (when there are kids that do not get along we tell them too bad LOL). To say these women became a lifeline to me would be a HUGE understatement. When we moved here we knew not ONE PERSON. We have no family here and Matt works long hours and I have no help. So, there are not even words to express what “the playgroup moms” (or “the mommies” as Molly calls them) have meant to me. Seriously – I can not think of good enough words so I won’t even try.

Let’s just say they are my family/sisters and leave it at that.

So, you can imagine how hard it is for me to accept that Molly starting in school means its kind of over now. We are kind of a spread out group and I am the farthest away so adding to that the fact that Molly is the only kid with all day Kindergarten, it just means its impossible for us to see them on a regular basis anymore. Sure – we will still get together now and then (we have discussed at least one Friday evening a month at a local pizza place or something), and I am sure those of us with young ones like Lilly can still get together for playdates, and of course us moms will still meet up for regular Mom’s Night Outs, but the days of big old crazy playgroups with this set of moms is pretty much over for me and I would be lying if I said I have not had a good cry or two over it

Anyways, we had a big end of summer party last week to celebrate and it was an awesome day. We had good food, lots of good clean fun, etc… The girls were filthy which is always my mark of a good summer day, and my mom was visiting and got to come with so that was fun!

Lilly will eat her strawberry stem first. She does not care to hear you if you tell her to turn it around okay?

Badmitton anyone?

LOL - would you LOOK at that belly after lunch!?? She looks downright uncomfortable the little piggy!

Molly and buddies taking a break to get some coloring in

Pathetic much?

But by far, the highlight of the day was the water balloon fight that the kids were SO excited for all day. We made them wait a good hour or two, while they stared at the tubs and bags full of water balloons in anticipation. And the only rules were: 1) no aiming at anyone’s face, 2) no throwing any water balloon at any mommy and 3) Mommies were more than welcome to throw as many water balloons at as many kids as they pleased – and no its not fair but get over it.

I got a few of those little buggers pretty good if I do say so myself. Very therapeutic.

A little afternoon chaos

Molly gets a good launch off at an unsuspecting Dean's back

Look at little Lilly fighting her way in there for her own water balloon!

"GOT ONE! And look at those ignorant fools throwing theirs! I will show them how its done and just cuddle and rock mine!"

Molly running for her life from Lizzy after Lizzy got a BRILLIANT shot that hit her right in the chest LOL - I wish I had that on camera!

Look at that fierce face! God help whoever was on the receiving end of THAT!

And last but not least, the following trio of pictures of a very dramatically angry Molly (who was marching over to tell me that Jonathan had accidentally, but probably on purpose, ALMOST hit her in the head which COULD HAVE ALMOST made her fall in the water), made me laugh so hard, I had to include them…

OMG you guys, seriously!

you GUYS!

SERIOUSLY

Oh and what the heck - one more picture because it makes me smile. This is my mom and Lilly - and proof positive that Lilly DOES like someone besides me!

Me and my girls at our last playgroup of the summer (and probably the last of Molly's playgroup meetings ever *sniff* she has been with those kids since she was 15 months old! But I will do a separate post about that.

Hi Y’all!! I can not believe it has been so long since the last post! I think August was the most exhausting month ever! Besides being pregnant, I had the pleasure of breaking my toe, having my mom visit for a week (she cleaned out my garage God bless her!), Molly started school, turned 5 and started her first soccer team, Lilly is a holy terror who runs away from me while laughing (she also holds her diaper and goes “ewwwww” when she poops which I have to get on video because its very cute as gross as it sounds), and this little boy is literally trying to kick his way out of me as hard as he can

Life is good though – I really can’t complain.

Anyways, I thought I would make this post kind of a shmorgasboard of summer photos and an end of summer wrap up to let people know what we have been up to most of the month before School started last week. Then of course I will do separate posts for all of Molly’s big milestones! I have time now that she is gone all day and Lilly naps all afternoon to start catching up!

We continue to have issues with Lilly and her attachment “situation”. She really does well when she is on my hip or lap and playing with Molly and her friends, but does NOT seem to do so well at the playgroup that is for kids her own age where she actually has to disentangle herself from me and socialize among her peers. We ARE making progress, but she pretty much cries through every playgroup. Interestingly, when I have set up one on one time with members of her playgroup she does better. And even once I had one of the moms come over and baby sit her so I could take Molly school shopping and that went very well as well. So maybe it is the group thing? Or maybe she just hates me playing with the other kids and “ignoring” her to chat with the moms? Who knows. She better get used to sharing my attention soon though…..ugh…

Lilly and her pal Owen. Isn't he the cutest!??? This is actually a really good picture of her at playgroup.

Yeah, this is a more accurate depiction of what it is usually like.

New for Molly this summer has been an increased desire on her part to play with the neighborhood kids, and now that she is old enough and as long as some of the older kids are out there, I can let her go forth and do so which has been a lot of fun. She has become OBSESSED with having her friends from the neighborhood over and asks me every day when she can go knock on their doors (Ummmm, not at 7:30am Molly yeesh!). I swear to you she stalks the three kids that live over our back fence. They probably fear her!

Lilly also benefits from the increased kid traffic around here. They all fight over who gets to push her up and downt he sidewalk in her car and she LOVES it!

This boy especially likes to tease Molly. She hates it when he pats her on the head and calls her "junior" so of course he does it regularly. I try not to laugh. Also - this is the kid that vacuums my house whenever he comes over, so he is welcome anytime.

This is Emily. She is 10 and she is my gift from God. She comes and plays with Molly and I get hours of peace without whining. Also, she is old enough that I can let her take Molly on walks or bike around the block and its WONDERFUL!

Molly is standing next to me, but this is a shot of most of her little neighborhood friends and my point in posting this is just to say how happy I am to live in an area of the country where you can call the fire department and they will send a fire truck by to visit your neighborhood block party. They let the kids climb in there, run the sirens, try on their equiptment, etc... Isn't that cute!???

Lilly in the firetruck! Isnt she so cute? She is looking SO MUCH like Matt these days I think!

We also carved out a little time to go downtown this month – mostly to see our friends Cathy and Dave and their daughter Kiya who were in town. But we also snuck in a trip to American Girl Place (I swear I love that place even more than Molly!) while there and Matt actually agreed to DRIVE down there and pay for parking for a change after I pointed out that being six months pregnant with a broken toe (which they put a TOTALLY EMBARRASSING boot on me for because I kept re-breaking it) was not going to work with the train and a long walk!

Molly asked to buy a few things while there and we told her we already had all her birthday gifts, but she could use a portion of the birthday money we knew was coming from various relatives if she wanted. I have to admit its been kind of funny watching her little face get so mad every time a card comes with cash in it and we remind her she better fork it over because she owes it to us MWAH HA HA HA HA HA! Matt especially seems to enjoy this – I swear we are the meanest parents ever!

Molly in front of the Molly display! Look how tall she is getting!

a certain little girl REALLY loved all the strollers in the bitty baby area. Looks like we have a second little American Girl in this house (fine by me - maybe that means more trips to that store!)

Matt and I were doubled over laughing at this. I had to take a picture even though the lady working there glared at us. If you are not familiar with the American Girl brand, the dolls and their accessories are RIDICULOUSLY expensive (for our family they are a BIG BIG onec in a lifetime treat). For the bargain price of $32 (which is a $4 savings from if you buy them seperately and pay $18 EACH LOL) you can own these two pet dogs for your doll. I swear to you they are the same size and quality of the beanie toys in Happy Meals this summer and those are only $3.25 and you get nuggets a drink and fries with those! HA HA HA HA HA.

Oh - and while downtown, Lilly got her first taste of some chocolate cheesecake which she enjoyed to a gluttonous extent. Look - here she is even sharing some of it with her little doll.

And of course, other than all of that, we mostly just spent the rest of our summer doing weird, lazy, and sometimes crazy summer stuff. It went by SO FAST I can not believe its over! (Especially since it was not a WARM summer at ALL – we got jipped not that I am complaining seeing as how a hot summer would suck while pregnant).

Molly and Lilly make a pizza

SUCH a Matt Clemm expression!!!

a typical outfit that Molly wears to the park all summer

What to do when your park playgroup gets rained out? Some groups might cancel, but us mom's like eachother way too much to miss out on a chance to chat and laugh. The kids had fun so who cares?

Lilly learns what a blow dryer is all about from Grandma Mac

Random summer fun

Grandma Mac teaches my girls to use problem solving skills when in a pinch. I would have just gotten someone to help us, but super-grandma whipped a bottle of her wine out of the cart and knocked that pack of water right down for us! We laughed for days about this - she is so awesome my mom

And last but not least, this post of summer fun has been brought to you my jacked up broken toe which crunched into what felt like at least three pieces when I ran it straight into the corner of my kitchen cabinets while I was running to the basement stairs to grab Lilly who was heading towards them after Molly left the gate open. In typical mommy fashion, because my kid was still in danger, I still took about 5 steps after it happened (while running) to reach her in time. I can not promise I did not drop an f-bomb or two on the way though. Or after the fact when the cat attacked it in the middle of the night, Lilly dropped the bathroom scale on it, the neighbor kid ran it over with his bike, the lady at stride rite moved her stool right on top of it while fitting molly’s shoes, and so on and so forth. Its like a FREAKING MAGNET and that is why I ended up with the $@@$&@(#&@# boot which is BABY BLUE with HUGE velcro straps!! Oh – and did I mention it QUILTED!?? Seriously there is a real market out there for nice, sleek, plain black braces but I digress….

After this shot, various areas of my foot turned purple at various times. My doctor thinks I broke a bone higher in my foot and is very annoyed at me because I will not let them x-ray it. I am sorry but I think I would know if my foot was broken! And I don't want my baby to come out like spider man from all that radiation! (and no - them promising me they would put a heavy LEAD blanket on top of my stomach during the xray did NOT make me feel better!).

Aren’t you SO GLAD I shared that photo with you? HA HA HA. Happy end of summer y’all! Over the next week or two I will catch up with all the big events that have happened around here in the last two weeks. I am EXHAUSTED! But in a good way!

The Clemm family shoe mat feels very complete now

This weekend Lilly had a very important milestone for a woman. She went to the shoe department at Nordstrom for the first time (in itself a big deal for any girl!), and got her first pair of real big girl shoes! I love this particular milestone because its just plain fun and also because I get to spend money on cute new shoes and Matt can not complain about it because they are necessary – even if I don’t get to wear them.

In the photos that accompany this post, she looks reasonably excited and happy about all of this, but don’t be fooled. Even on a good day, Lilly does not like anyone but mommy to touch her. Or talk to her. Or look at her. Or breathe in her general vicinity. She screamed bloody murder the minute the very nice sales lady came over to take her measurement. I had to pin her down and convince that nice lady that it was okay to get a little forceful with her if she had too. And that lady was SOOOOO nice! She told me “oh this is very common!”, but I actually used to work in kid’s shoes at Nordstrom and I know she was lying. I only ever had 2 screamers the entire year I worked there.

I did NOT like that thing at all!!!"

Now, I brought Molly with us on this errand for a few reasons. Well first of all, who am I kidding? I had no choice since its not like I have people lining up to watch my kids LOL. But also, I thought she would enjoy helping me pick out the shoes. Of course Molly immediately gravitated towards every pair of small, silver, sparkly, or heeled (yes HEELED shoes – for BABIES!) that she could find, had a massive break down when I said we were getting plain ones with flexible soles that would match everything, and then sat in a chair crying about how all she wants in the world is a balloon and no one should make an “almost five year old” wait to get one until they are done shoe shopping. Good times.

Anyways, as soon as the measurement was done and Lilly calmed down because the sales lady disappeared in the back, things got calmer. Molly found a mirror to prance in front of, and Lilly just loved looking at all the shoes. She especially liked helping the Nordtrom staff “clean” the display tables by knocking every shoe down that she could reach. But then the sales lady had the NERVE to come BACK and TALK to her and try to TOUCH her and put the shoes ON her and well that just would NOT DO! I ended up having to be the one to try them all on and off of her.

"Well, all right then. Show me what you have brought but DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Interestingly, the plain white ones I had wanted that Molly called “boring and things no princess or fancy nancy would EVER wear”, made Lilly scream and cry and kick. The minute I took them out of the box she said “OH NO! NO NO NO NO NO!” and I had to hold her down to get them on. It ended up they did not fit right anyways and so we tried on some cute little pink ones and wouldn’t you just know it – she LOVED THEM. She sat perfectly still while I put them on and then happily walked around the store like a duck (I LOVE that weird walk they do when they walk for the first time in harder soled shoes LOL). She is apparently just as fancy as her sister and she has her standards. Just what we needed – another little diva around here!

"OOOOOoooooo! Look! a balloon!"

All done and with our balloons!

And to make a nice day out of it, we went and had a “ladies lunch” afterwards at the Nordstrom cafe and Lilly quite enjoyed her celebratory pizza I felt so bad because it has been forever since I have been there and forgot about cash for a tip to the person who runs your food out. I mean you pay at the register, but you should leave a dollar or two for the table service people that refill your drinks and stuff. I had no cash on me and I had to leave the very nice man who picked up the multiple sippy cups, crayons and dishes Lilly dropped with no tip at all. I feel like Karma will get me now for that. If by some miracle he reads this – I am SO SORRY!!!