Happy 7th Birthday Meggie!!!

Seven short years ago, Margaret was born right in the middle of the Burke family's BIRTHDAY WEEK. She celebrates her day in between 2 uncles, her Dad and her Poppa. She is the only girl among the bunch!

This year she celebrated her special day with Poppa.

She requested a "Back to the Beach- PJ party" complete with a beach ball cake.

 The cake was her own design and creation- with a little icing help from Mom.

Her party included Hula lessons for anyone brave enough to try to keep up.

 With the help of youtube- everyone was a shining success!

With her hula buddy- cousin Megan.

Margaret had been planning and dreaming about her big day for months. She was so excited to be the star for a day!

Cousin Austin did a solo hula number for us all the was unforgettable!

At the end of the night, Margaret and Megan surprised us all with a special musical performance! "Let It Go" never sounded so good!

 We love you so much Margaret Estelle. How blessed are we to have you as our little girl, born in the middle of a bunch of boys!!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Meg and Andrew get out of their school early on Fridays, so we made good use of that time this week. We made Dad's traditional yellow cake for his birthday.

Here are our chefs checking on the batter, or was it their reflection in the metal bowl?

We sang happy birthday before going out to eat with Uncle David and his family at the Lodge.

Dad with his new smoker. We all benefit from his birthday gift- yum!

Margaret's First Lost Tooth

Meg has been working on her first loose tooth for months.  She  was nervous that loosing it would be painful, so she carefully wiggled it without really pushing it along.

She proudly announced it was REALLY loose at the beginning of summer.

So at the very end of August and just days before her 7th birthday, Margaret finally lost that tooth!!

She was very excited when it popped out at bedtime.

She had been working on it one evening and decided not to pull it out. Then as we read books at bedtime, Nathans hand  shot up and hit her lip and knocked that very loose tooth right out. Margaret was shocked (and very glad it didn't hurt a bit).

Proud of her new smile.

Growing up and ready for the tooth fairy!

Back To School 2014

Tanner returned to school mid-August to start his 7th grade year.  He was more than ready to go back after a slow summer at home. 

One week later, Andrew and Margaret started their school year. This is the first time all three kids weren't at the same school.  Andrew started 4th grade and Margaret is in 1st.

All three amigos ready to go!

The bigger picture (how Nathan feels about the whole deal)!!

Poor boy didn't know quite what was happening, but knew he was not included in the fun.