Kelso student, Flying Santa, a lost tooth, and our first snow

Earlier this week Tory came home very happy and proud! Each month at BPS there are students nominated for what they call the "Kelso Student". Kelso is sort of the school's unofficial mascot. There are posters all over the school with Kelso on them as well as ideas about how to make good choices, be a good friend, and resolve conflict. Well, for the month of November, Tory was nominated for making the good choice to take a new student under her wing and help her make friends, help her with her school work, and playing with her at recess. The teachers noticed and Ms. Labbe nominated her. When they asked Tory what made her do this, she replied "I've been the new kid before and because my daddy is in the Coast Guard, I will be the new kid again someday. I would want someone to do the same for me!" Well, after the official vote by teachers/principal, Tory was November's Kelso Student! So very proud of her!



The next big milestone we've had this week is Olivia losing her first tooth! It's been sort of loose for about 3 weeks now but Saturday morning it was so loose I probably could have flicked it and made it fall out. Being Olivia, however, she wanted to do it all on her own. Wiggled and wiggled and wiggled it all day. Went to bed Saturday night disappointed that it was still in and she wasn't going to have her first visit from
the tooth fairy yet. She couldn't have been awake more than fifteen minutes Suday morning before it fell out, though! A very exciting in any little girl's life!

Also on Saturday we bundled up the kiddos and headed off to Portland Head Light for Santa's annual visit via helicopter. Otherwise known as Flying Santa. It's a tradition that's been going on since the early '20's (though I am sure it was by plane at first.) Back then the idea was to stop by lighthouses on the east coast and leave presents for the children of the lighthouse keepers. Eventually that transferred on (I'm assuming when the CG took over responsibility for the US Lighthouses) to the children of Coasties. Last year I didn't get many good pictures since the flash on my camera had recently been broken by a kid dropping the camera. This year my camera works wonderfully, but I was in such a rush to get out the door I forgot it! Thank goodness for camera cell phones, which got me these pictures, and friends who do not forget their cameras, which will get me the pictures I will post later! I was a little worried about how Chloe would do so I had the big girls help really talk Santa up. Last year Chloe freaked out if she was within 10 ft of Santa but as soon as we moved away she'd say "Santa's so nice! I really like him!". It was adorable, but I have only ever gotten one picture of her with him, when she was about 8 weeks old. I needed an updated picture! Well, the talking up went exactly as planned. When Santa got off the helicopter he headed straight to us and shook the girls' hands. They were so excited! He even said "Well, it's my favorite girls! I'm proud of how good you three have been this year!" You should have seen their eyes light up! Each of the girls gladly sat on Santa's lap and recieved their teddy bears, thanking him and answering his questions. He was a really good Santa---I just didn't realize Santa had such a thick down-east Maine accent! lol

Last but not least, this weekend we got our first sticking snow! About 5 or 6 inches of snow transformed our gray, brown, and gloomy landscape in to a winter wonderland. Honestly, I have a love/hate relationship with snow. This time of year is always exciting to have snow. In about a month and a half I'll be so over it I'll be shedding a tear for every flake I see. The girls had a great time in their inagural snowday. Snowballs flying, angels all over the yard....ah, so sweet. For now.