It's all Mommy's fault!

I was ready to tell you about our lives MONTHS ago! But without pictures, I don't think our blog would be very exciting and I can't put the pictures on here by myself. So week after week has gone by while I've kept reminding Mommy and she has mumbled something about how big her shoulders are. At last though, here I am to say Hello!  Happy Fall!!

Check out all the pictures at the links, that will tell you the full story!

Love,
"Don't accuse me of lolly-gagging, I'm clearly dilly-dallying" Cooper




Summer o' Swimming & S'mores: Summer Recap Pictures are here

As a reminder from the last time I wrote, Mommy had surgery and had to recover for a lot of weeks. So, JUNE started with Graunty paying us a visit, I finished school, spent three day-times with special aunts and uncles while waiting for PJ to finish school, and once he did, we got to start (instead of end!) summer with NANA CAMP!  Nana had a week of kid concerts, tea parties, crafts, a kid's amusement park and much more to keep us busy!

At Andy Z's Kid Concert in San Jose

We returned home to have a week of Vacation Bible School at our church, while also starting a month of swim lessons.  Porter did a great job at his "Swordfish" level and gets to go up a level next summer. I started in "Goldfish" but got to go up to "Seahorse" before the month was over!  We celebrated Nana's birthday at the end of June with a visit to see Toy Story 4 at our new theater in Woodland.

Swimming certificates

Eventually Mommy could take care of us again and so we did things close to home like make granola bars for Mama and her work friends; special activities at our library, working on our handwriting in special books Nana got us, playdates with friends at parks and any opportunities to hang out with the Villagers.

Being silly at Michael's craft store...we're not for sale!

JULY started with our annual 4th of July block party. Yea! Then their were hikes, Home Depot crafts, more library days, and on the last day of the month, a "final" trip to Fairytale Town before our membership expired.

Library time

In the middle of July though, that was BIG.  I TURNED 5!!!!  I had a Frozen-themed party at the Castle at Fairytale Town .  It was A-Mazing!  Check out my party, "Happy 5th Birthday, King Cooper!

Party time with King Cooper!

A few days after my birthday, we flew to Texas to celebrate Memaw's birthday and have some adventures there.  Besides constant treats and finding BIG insects, we got to go to a new Zoo, go to a couple of pools & play with the big cousins, bounce our way through Jump World, and go out to a lake with Uncle Lee & Aunt Katherine in their boat.  We ended the trip at Graunty's where we chased deer out of her yard and celebrated mine, Mama's and brother's birthdays before flying home. Phew! Click here for Texas pictures!

Flying home from Texas

AUGUST kept us busy with more crafts, street fun, pool time, two community plays, pre-school hair cuts (first time I had my hair shampooed!) and a visit from Unclefer & Auntie Taylor!  We took them to the Jelly Belly Factory and for a hike with Nana & Papa.

Jelly Belly with Unc & Auntie

Finally school started (I'll get back to that in a minute), and we welcomed SEPTEMBER with a long weekend visit to Uncle Peter's new cabin, where it was only right that we spend more time in a pool, a creek, a lake and with S'mores! 😏  The weekend following, we had a much belated birthday A's game for Mommy, where we were given bobblehead dolls by the staff and our first ever cotton candy!

Up a creek, in Murphy's, CA

Now, To the school year...and beyond! (click here)  School began August 21 - I'm a big Kindergartener now, can you believe it?!  And Porter is a super 2nd Grader.  I have Mrs. Silva and brother's teacher is Mrs. Gillette.  We love both of our teachers!  Mommy worked in the TK room again until Oct. 1, and she has spent lots of time at our school helping the principal and our teachers with different projects (like taking "thinking" pictures of me and my classmates).

I wonder...

September was a big month for PJ because he finally lost his first teeth! He lost the first one at school bumping into Atticus and almost didn't find it on the playground.  Then 9 days later he lost his second tooth!  His silly big teeth forgot to wait for the little ones to fall out though, so he never had a big hole in his mouth, just "shark teeth". 😁 Then Porter got a school award at the end of the month for "dreaming big", which was very fun to get to watch.

Shark-boy

By October we needed to celebrate PJ's birthday, he's 8 now.  He wanted to go to "Build-a-Bear", where he built a dog (?!) and had dinner and In-N-Out.  That was a fun afternoon, but not as much fun as my Frozen party. 😊 

Build-a-Dog Birthday

The rest of the month we were busy with soccer on Saturday mornings, choir at church on Sunday mornings and other fall festivities. Mom's went to Apple Hill on a weekday to get our fruit for canning; pumpkin patch visits, class fieldtrips, a school Fall Festival and a Halloween Parade!  We were super proud of Mama, too, when she got a special award at UC Davis for how hard she has been working for the Math Dept.  Yea Mama!

Lil' Punkins

And finally, Halloween!  Wouldn't be the same without our now annual pizza and Trick-or-Treating with the Villagers!  We're so lucky to have them as our best pals on the block.

Atti, Porter, Henry, Me, Maggie

You've got a Friend in Me...