Berkeley's 9th Birthday

Bringing Flash Home

 "Prince Flash"

 

 The birthday girl

 Sitting at the table with the "cool, big kids"

 Coop got loads of attention from all those girls!

Berkeley turned 9 on November 2nd!  I can barely wrap my brain around that.  Seems impossible that she can be 9.  All I know is that these years are absolutely flying and before I know it she is going to be grown and walking down the aisle.  She got her birthday wish...she had been asking, begging and praying for a pet of her own for a long time and we decided that a guinea pig was a good place to start after talking to many other parents.  We pretended like we were going to church one morning, dropped the kids off at their classrooms and right before we took Berk to her class we told her we had to get back in the car real quick cause we forgot something.  So, we got back in the car and headed into town.  She asked where we were going and we said we had to pick up something to eat to take to Aunt Laura's for the football game after church.  Instead of turning into Costco, we turned into Petco and she got a shy little smile and said "this is where Grandma and Papa Moran took us the other day".  She had gone to the pet store "just to look" and fell in love with a little 3 month old guinea pig.  We told her since she has been such a great girl and loves animals so much, that she got to pick out her very own guinea pig.  So, she got the "guinea pig of her dreams" and we headed back to church to pick the kids up.  She decided to name him "Thunderbolt".  She was bursting with pride and couldn't wait to show her brother and sister.  She ended up taking him to Aunt Laura's house for the game and he got loads of attention from all the cousins!  Easton kept wanting to hold the "bunny" :) While we were at Laura's house she whispered in my ear that she changed his name to "Flash".  I smiled and thought "I wonder if this poor pig is going to go through as many name changes as 'the artist formerly known as Prince' ", but so far, the name has held.  In fact, she added a middle name, "Racer". 

She was so excited to show "Flash Racer" to all her little friends at her birthday party too!  They all took turns holding him in between dinner, presents, cake and the piñata!  She had a great birthday and can't wait for when she turns 10 so she can get her ears pierced!!!

 



Halloween 2014

We had another fun Halloween this year.  Went to our old neighborhood for trick or treating and made the rounds.  Lucked out with the weather and didn't get rained on while we were out so it was a success!  The kids got WAY too much candy, but had so much fun.  Cooper was a good sport in his costume and in the stroller.  Next year will be a bit more challenging since he probably won't be as content to sit and watch.  We'll be running after him as he runs after the big kids, I'm sure!  Finley wanted to be Rapunzel again, sans the wig, since she has her own LONG blonde locks!  The wig is "too itchy and annoying".  Berkeley decided to be a dolphin since she loves the movie Dolphin Tale and longs to swim with one someday.  Oliver was Darth Vader even though he has never seen Star Wars and really has no clue who he is :)   



Christmas Monkey

Christmas is 2 months away.  Looking forward to Cooper's 1st Christmas, but also dreading it at the same time cause he'll be 2 months older.  Why, oh why, can't we find some way to keep this beautiful baby boy tiny forever?

A New Friend

This summer the kids caught plenty of frogs, dragon flies, fish and butterflies, but they also caught another little interesting "friend".    This bumble bee must have been injured because it let them pick it up and play with it and it never tried to fly away.  They would put it down and let it crawl around and then pick it up again and trade it back and forth between one another.  They were so excited about it and that was a first for us so I had to take a picture of that one!

Fishing

Oliver got a new fishing pole for his birthday and he woke up early every morning for about a week so he could fish!  It was pretty cute watching Tom try to show him how to work it because it wasn't a "kid" fishing pole so it was a little bit more challenging for him to learn, but he got the hang of it.

1st Day of School

Berk's 1st day of 3rd grade

Oliver's 1st day of 1st grade

Fin's 1st day of PreK

Here are the pictures from the kids' 1st of school.  Everyone was excited for a new school year with the exception of Finley.  She cried randomly over the summer, wanting to go back to school because she missed her teachers.    She was excited to start school until she found out she wouldn't have the same teachers again.  I explained that she was going to love her new ones just as much as she loved her old ones and that Berkeley and Oliver both had these teachers for PreK and wanted to have them forever because they were so nice.  She was pretty quiet and pouted on the way to school, but didn't cry or anything when I left so I was thrilled.  When I picked her up she was skipping and smiling.  When I asked her how it went she said "I loved it!  I loved everything about it!  I even love my new teachers!!!"  My baby girl is growing up.  Next year will be a huge year with her riding the bus to Kindergarten.  So glad she'll have her big sister and brother there watching over her.  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy this last precious year with her at home and in PreK.

Oliver's 7th Bday

Oliver had a great 7th birthday.  He invited 7 or 8 boys over and we had originally planned to go swimming and tubing like we did last year, but we woke up to rain.  The party had been planned for 3 hours and Tom and I looked at each other with panic in our eyes wondering what on earth we were going to do with 8 boys cooped up in the house for 3 hours so I quickly let all the parents know we were going to do it for 1.5-2 hrs instead.  Turned out fine, didn't rain during the whole party so we could have gone out on the water.  We almost didn't even have enough time for playing, eating, piñata, presents and bounce house.  They did great, it was a good group of kids.  Hard to believe my boy is 7.  Each year seems to go even more quickly than the last.  Happy birthday O-Town!!!