How Sweet It Is

There's a quote that I try to keep in the back of my mind at all times, "The days are long but the years are short."

Despite the crying, the screaming, the teething, the puking, the tantrums, and the whining (that includes me on some days), I'm truly trying to enjoy all of the moments that I can.

I was flipping through our pictures from this year and they show that we really do have a great family. Maybe it's the exhaustion talking, or maybe it's because they're all asleep. Either way, life is good.

Getting From Point A To Point B

Cole entertained himself at Ryan's soccer practice by running down a hill. This brought him such joy that he did it again...and again...and again.

Most people would start at the top and go straight to the bottom. He chose to run...roll...roll sideways...roll back up...run...

He may not take the conventional approach, but he does it all with gusto. May he never run right down the hill.

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.

Baby Steps

This has been a week of many firsts...seems like everyone decided to grow up all at once.

Ryan has declared that he's totally over the training wheels on his bike and is learning to ride a two wheeler. A few more pushes down the alley and I think he'll be crusing into the sunset.

Cole is FINALLY toilet trained I can officially say that I only have 2 kids in diapers. For that my wallet and my sanity are both thankful.

Charlie is walking! It's that cute Frankenstein hobble and it sort of happened overnight. As one of his teachers said, "I went away for a week and came back to a whole new Cha!"

And last but not least, Dean is starting to hit us with the rare but adorable half-smile. It may not take as much work as toddling across the room, but it's a cute stage just the same.

Of course I probably completely jinxed myself by writing this down. If by next week Ry is back on 4 wheels, Cole is in diapers, Charlie is crawling and Dean is frowning...send help.

Cruisin'

Tonight was Cruise Night at a car dealership near our house. Although the name implies a potential Tomkat sighting, it was actually a bunch of emergency vehicles and vintage cars displayed in a parking lot.

The highlights: A police helicopter taking off just a few feet away from us, petting the search & rescue dogs, getting handed a lollipop from the bomb squad robot.


Despite all of this excitement, my favorite part was the sweet lovin' I got from the Cha. Here's to the simple things in life.

Philadelphia Freedom

The boys headed East to Philly to take in the sights. After playing in the Schuykill sludge on Boathouse Row, they went to the Art Museum for the obligatory Rocky run up the steps.

I feel like Charlie was on a Where's Waldo tour of the city...

Next stop was the Eastern State Penitentiary. Phil told me he had to sign a waiver stating that the penitentiary wasn't liable if the boys ate any lead paint chips.

The combo of paint chips and prison cells led me to believe that perhaps this wasn't the best field trip for kids, but it seemed like they got a kick out of it anyway.



Maybe they were scared straight? Wishful thinking, I know.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Dean was just sleeping on me...his position reminded me of a picture of Charlie taken at the same time last year. There must be something about my lap that turns babies into squishy little balls of love.

Milestone Alert: First Day Of School

I calculated today that in 2015 I'll have 4 kids all in the same school (Kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade). Ry kicked it all off today with his first day of Kindergarten.

I have to give photo credit here to our neighbor. The bus was a few minutes early so we literally had to run - it all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to snap a picture.

My visions of a hearfelt good-bye were replaced with us tearing down the street screaming, "Hold the bus!!" (Okay maybe it wasn't that dramatic but I felt pretty stressed at the time).

Ry had only glowing reports about his first day. He said he liked his teacher so much that he nicknamed her "Mrs. Nice," and his favorite part was that he got all the way across the monkey bars on his own.

After school the moms organized an ice cream party for the kids. It was pretty easy to pump them for information after we sugared them up with sprinkles and whipped cream.

At the end of the day Ry put on his army costume (complete with gloves so his "hands won't get hurt in battle.") It was 95 degrees outside but I cut him slack - after all it was only his first day, and he's still got a lot to learn.

Two For Flinching

At lunch today Ry had an idea:

Ry: Let's pretend that we're eating in a restaurant.
Me: Sounds good!
Ry: Waitress, can you please get me a drink?

It takes a lot to make me flinch - he definitely got me with that one - but I gave him small kudos for at least asking nicely.

In unrelated news, here's a picture of Cha from tonight's bath with absolutely no relevance to the above story. I just thought it was a classic Charlie face, and will therefore throw it into today's blog posting.

Boom Cha! (That's what the boys call him in moments of excitement.)

A Year In The Making

What a difference a year makes. In August 2009 we had three compliant subjects on the boardwalk. Granted one of them was only a month old and the other two were bribed with Kohr Brothers, but they sat still nonetheless.

Cut to August 2010 and this was the best we could do. Not bad considering it was the end of a long day and the ice cream had already been eaten. We'll give it another whirl in 2011!

Grenade Free Zone

Team Kerper piled into the minivan for a trip to the shore and some fist pumping action. We covered the usual bases of boardwalk, ocean, pool, pizza, ice cream, and chaos.

We've been to most of the tourist traps in the area, but this time we discovered the Cape May Aviation Museum. There are a bunch of planes and helicopters that flew in different wars, and you're allowed to climb in and press all of the little buttons and levers.

Here's a helicopter that flew soldiers to the MASH hospitals in the Korean war. There's me on the stretcher - some days I feel like my Mom duties qualify me as incoming wounded.

Now Casting For The Roles Of Delivery Room Doctor And Nurse

Ry's camp had a talent show this week. Like a good stage mother, I was all set up with my video camera in a prime front row seat. Only problem - when I went to download the videos I used the wrong power cord and fried the camera (there was literally a popping sound and a puff of smoke).

In light of this setback, I'll set the scene for you myself. Ry chose to tell jokes and sing a song as his talent. I have no idea where he heard "Run Baby Run," but he busted out the acapella version accompanied by his buddy Cameron. The jokes were a little freestyle, but he did manage to bring down the house with the old classic knock knock, "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?!"

Only one more week of camp and then he starts Kindergarten. I'm sad to see him leave his daycare - he's been going there since he was one and really loves it. But he's totally pumped for his new school and I'm excited to see him movin' on up - just hoping he works on his comedy material before the first day.

So next on the to-do list is (a) Finding a new video camera and (b) Recording a re-enactment of Dean's birth. Apparently that was also on the camera...d'oh!

Photography By Ro

We hired a photographer to come to the house to take pictures of Baby Dean. The first step was rallying the team to get a group picture...I'll spare you the gory details...let's just say that chaos ensued and we ended up getting one workable shot out of it.

Check out Ro's blog for some of the best pics. She does a fantastic job and we'll definitely be using her again in the future - we'll just need to wait until the boys grow a bit more into the blessed stage of compliance. Turns out that bribing them with ice cream could only get us so far.

Dean, however, needed no bribing - he was a perfect model. (Okay that's a total lie - he was a mess so Ro had to come back. But when she returned a few days later he rocked it out. Three cheers for Dean!)

Family Field Trip

It's been 13 years since Steven and Jenn were married at Morris Arboretum. Today we went back with the kids to check out the Tree Adventure Exhibit - despite the lack of booze and dancing, it was still good times.

Some obligatory scenic shots taken around the arboretum...

A beautiful sunset to top off the fun. Thanks to the Morris fam for a great day - we definitely won't wait another 13 years to visit.