Photo Shoot

When Dean turned 1, my birthday present to myself was to get pictures taken of team Kerper. We met our friend Keyai at the park and turned the kids loose.

Highlights included the stroller falling over with Charlie inside (twice), beating a rainstorm, and having Ry educate us on WC artist Horace Pippin.

Here are some of the shots - THANKS KEYAI!!!!

Heroes

Today was the Veteran's Day parade in town. Ryan is way into learning about wars right now and [for the time being] wants to be a soldier when he grows up, so this was right up his alley. When the vets were marching by he kept shouting, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!!"


Cole dug up this flag and waved it while he sang, "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm freeeeeee..." We told him that he couldn't let it touch the ground and he said, "That's right, because we have to show our flag and our country respect." OMG he's actually been listening to us.

A special shout out to our cousin John who served in Iraq. Thank you to John and all of the soldiers who have fought or are currently fighting for our freedoms - you are our heroes!

Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

Last night was Trick-or-Treat and the boys took full advantage of the opportunity. Let's just say that they had to come home halfway through to drop off some candy because their bags were too heavy. Chocolate, anyone?

We were taking pictures on the porch when we realized that number four was strapped to Phil in the Baby Bjorn.


A quick costume change and the whole team was representing. At least Charlie was consistent.

Our neighbors have a pre-Trick-or-Treat party each year. Thank goodness for that, otherwise we would have heard "Can we go yet?!?!?" every 5 seconds.

Cha's favorite part was hiding in the teepee they built in the backyard...he was happily entertained playing peek-a-boo about 7,500 times.

Although I realize this blog post is very Charlie-centric, I still had to throw in this clip of him walking to the party. He toddles like a robot which totally puts him into character for his costume. (Spoiler alert: this video is extremely anti-climactic, but as his mother I reserve the right to think it's cute).

After all the parades and parties over the last few weeks, I'm going to reward myself with some peanut butter cups. Off to dive into the stash.

Catching Up

Time to pull out the old trusty "It's-been-so-busy-around-here-that-I-haven't-had-time-to-blog-so-I'm-just-consolidating-all-of-the-pictures-Phil-took-on-his-phone." That about says it all. Here we go.

Our walks into town just aren't what they used to be anymore. We had 8 little ones to keep track of so I had to do head counts every other block, thus making me feel like Maria from Sound Of Music.

This would have been a cute moment, if the bib I had shoved into my pocket didn't make it look like I had a tail.

Cole decided he didn't want to walk anymore, so this is how it all ended up.

Cole on the run...

Re-enacting a classic Ry pose from circa 2005. Charlie looks so much like his biggest bro that it's hard not to do a double-take sometimes.

Phil and Ry attempted to ride some waves, but it was a wee bit windy.

This is how we roll in our alley.

Cole stealing a quiet moment at Smith Playground. At least we have it documented that Cole can have a quiet moment.