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!!!



County Fair

Fin started out great

Getting unsure...

...getting unhappy...

...coming unglued...

...and freaking out!!!



These 2 are best buds and are so cute together!

 

 

We went to one of the county fairs in July and had so much fun.  It was a perfectly sunny day, not too crowded, and so we spent the whole day playing, eating and going on rides!  The kids got their faces painted and looked so adorable.  Finley went on her first roller coaster ride last year at the same fair and absolutely LOVED it.  She went on it 3 or 4 times, but for some reason this year she kind of freaked out on it.  Maybe because it was the very 1st ride she went on and we didn't really "warm up" before jumping on it.  I have the same exact pictures of Oliver on this roller coaster ride freaking out just like Finley around the same age.  It's pretty funny...I should dig them out to compare.  As sad as it was to see her get upset, it makes for some pretty amusing photos to look back on when it's all over with :)  Kind of like the Santa photos where kids are crying and flipping out...those are the best pictures!  Hilarious to look back on even though it is really sad in the moment.  The kids went to Cohen's soccer game after the fair and enjoyed watching him play and score!  It was a very full, long, and exhausting day when it finally came to an end.  We will for sure do it again next summer!



Trip to the Beach



Worn out and wind burned


In July, we took a very much needed family vacation to the beach.  We had so much fun and lucked out weather wise as far as no rain.  We tried to fly kites at the beach briefly for about an hour one day, but the wind was so strong that it kept ripping the kites out of our hands so we finally bagged it.  The kids had a blast riding bikes and swimming.  Finley turned into a little fish and swam with her life jacket on all by herself.  Last summer, she would freak out if we took her out into the water and wanted nothing to do with it.  This time she swam and jumped in to Tom over and over and over again and cried every time we had to get out.  I couldn't get pictures of them swimming because my camera kept fogging up, but they also loved the hot tub!  When we got home, we set our tent up on our dock and camped out there for 2 nights.  We took turns, one night Tom slept out there with the kids and I slept in the house with Cooper since it was too cold.  The next night I slept outside with the kids and he slept inside and came down to get me when Coop needed to eat.  We had fires and roasted hot dogs and marsh mellows and had a really good time.  The kids just devoured Tom.  They swam with him nonstop and it was so fun to watch.  Tom picked me up and dumped me in the lake with all my clothes on and the kids thought it was the most hilarious thing they had ever witnessed!  So, I swam the whole rest of the afternoon with my clothes on and we had a blast.  Looking forward to doing it again.  Fun memories to make!