birthday girl and full of business

Happy Birthday Berkley!!! Today Berkley turned 5 years old AND had her very first day of preschool. She woke up at 6:30 this morning SO excited. She absolutely loves school, and she also wanted to know that she was finally 5. After we got her dressed for school, we had birthday blueberry muffins for breakfast... with a candle of course. Matt was out of town, but Beckham helped me sing Happy Birthday to Berkley. Beckham also tried to help Berkley blow out her candle. (In fact, he was a little too much help, so Berkley got to blow her candle out twice!) Berkley chose the special pink candle that "sang" Happy Birthday too!After breakfast it was time to head off to school. Berkley has to be there by 8:00 for chapel. She wanted to make sure we were NOT late, because if you are late you have to wait in the office until chapel is over. She was very serious about this! She is going to the same preschool this year, but since it is a private school and the older kids all wear uniforms... the faculty decided that the preschool children needed to wear uniforms as well. Since Berkley loves to pick out her clothes so much, at first she was not very excited about wearing a uniform. However, after shopping for her uniforms and adding a few accessories, she felt better about it. She looked so very grown up!!!Not only did she look grown up, she acted all grown up too. The minute we arrived at chapel, Berkley spotted her class and headed down the aisle to find her spot on the pew. She turned around in her seat and gave me a big wave and a smile. No hug, no tears, no sad faces to leave mommy... nope! She was all business on her first day of school. Oh how she has matured! I did manage to get a picture of her with her teacher, Mrs. Diller. Berkley was blessed to have Mrs. Diller as a teacher in the Mother's Day Out program she attended this Summer, and we are so excited to have her as a teacher this year. She is wonderful and Berkley adores her... obviously.Watching Berkley this morning and realizing how much she has indeed grown up over the years made me want to take a short journey down memory lane... especially it being her birthday.


Berkley Grace Paul
August 26, 2003Age 1 and all smiles!
When Berkley turned 2, we had a baby "pool party" in my parent's yard. Here she is enjoying her watermelon at the festivities. (And yes... she did have a swimsuit on, but she decided to wear her birthday suit instead!)Here is Berkley at her 3rd birthday party riding her bike and feeling so big!!! (Yes, her tricycle has the number 2 on it because that was a gift she got on her 2nd birthday.)Last year, when Berkley turned 4, she had a dress-up party in her playhouse. Daddy was one of the few boys there!!!
It is so fun to see how Berkley has grown, yet a little sad at the same time. She is far from being my baby girl, or even my precious toddler. She has turned into a beautiful little girl who brings so much joy to us all. Happy Birthday Berkley. I love you so very much and am so blessed to be your mommy.