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All About The Murphys

This is a story about a large family of 8 children and all the incredible adventures they experienced.

They were the Murphy family, and they lived in a large yellow house on a very nice street in a small town in Connecticut.

In the Spring and Summer, they swam in lakes, participated in all different types of sports, and played outside in their backyard.

In the Fall they jumped into piles of beautifully colored autumn leaves, and had several fun and scary Halloween adventures.

In the cold of Winter they baked cookies, made snowmen and igloos, had snowball fights, and went sledding.

The children in this family were all different ages, and they each had different types of personalities, as you shall soon see. But they all loved each other, and their parents loved each and every one of them.

Their mother stayed at home to take care of the childen, and their father, Dr. Murphy, worked as a Pediatric Physician. (You would pronounce that Pee-dee-AT-rick Fuh-SIS-shun)

That means the kid's Dad was a medical doctor, who specialized in taking care of children. In addition to having his own 8 children, Dr. Murphy was also the Pediatrician for almost every other child in town. (Pee-dee-uh-TRISH-un, is another name for Pediatric Physician)

Now you might think this would be quite exhausting for him (I certainly do!) but Dr. Murphy loved all children and he had a special way with them. So, as a result of all this, almost every child in town either knew the Murphy children or they were good friends with them. This made it quite easy for the Murphy kids to spread their wings and develop their own hobbies and different interests. Individuality was highly encouraged in the Murphy family.

The names of these 8 children (from big to small) were Ethan, Chloe (you pronounce that KLO-wee), Matthew, Emma, Nicholas, Molly, Hailey and Josh, and here is a little bit of information about each one of them.

Ethan was 12 years old, with brown hair and brown eyes and he was the eldest (that means the oldest) son in the Murphy family. His father said he was a “natural born leader”, and Ethan had helped to take care of all the younger children in the family ever since anyone could remember. Ethan was in Boy Scouts, he played Soccer, and he had recently become a Junior Summer Camp Counselor. Every child in the family looked up to Ethan for guidance and instruction on just about everything.

Chloe (you pronounce her name KLO-wee) was 11 years old and she was the eldest daughter. Chloe was kind, and helpful. She was also a pretty girl, who had long blond hair and blue eyes. Chloe was a theatrical type of person, and she was very involved in ballet and theatre. Her younger sisters and all of her friends aspired to be just like her.

Matthew was 10. He was very brave, and did almost everything his older brother Ethan did. Matthew had short brown hair and hazel colored eyes (hazel means brownish-green) and he was one of the most popular boys in his school. Matthew's best friend’s name was Justin, and the two of them did almost everything together. Matthew was also active in Boy Scouts and Soccer, but the real story about Matthew’s amazing personality will not become clear until later, when you read the story about him.

Emma was 9 years old, sweet, and very popular with all of her many friends. She had long brown hair and brown eyes, and she was what parents would call “Cute-as-a-Button”. Emma was horse crazy and she had recently won several blue ribbons riding ponies in horse show competitions. Being well-liked and riding ponies with all her friends was very important to Emma.

Nicholas, who was 8, was very independent, and he always did things just a bit differently than everyone else. Nicholas had brown hair and brown eyes, and his dream was to someday become a Black Belt Karate teacher. He had recently earned a very well deserved Blue Belt. Nicholas was what his parents called “Precocious” (pre-co-shus), although none of the other children really understood what that meant. (Precocious usually means that a child is especially clever, or just really good at something in a way you'd only expect to see from grown-ups. Examples? If a two-year old could play the drums as well as the most famous drummer in the whole wide world, or if a ten year old had already graduated from high school, you could describe those kids as being precocious.)

Anyway...Molly was 7, and she dreamed of one day becoming a famous singer on TV or Broadway. She sang beautifully and could hold a tune longer and better than anyone else in her family. She was another theatrical type of person, and she idolized her older sister Chloe. Molly had long brown hair and big brown eyes, and she and her best friend Olivia were inseparable.

Hailey was the littlest girl. At only 6 years old she was a blond, blue eyed beauty, just as pretty as a picture. Hailey loved animals, and her favorite color was pink. Hailey had decided that she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and become a doctor, but instead of people, Hailey wanted to become a Veterinarian (Vet-trin-air-ee-an) and take care of animals. In the meantime, she enjoyed dressing her kitten Clover up in pink doll clothes and pushing her around in a doll stroller. Clover was a very good-natured (calm and friendly) kitten who displayed an amazing amount of patience. (Cats generally consider being dressed up in doll clothes and rolled around in a baby carriage, to be somewhat undignified.)

Josh was the youngest, and had recently begun attending Kindergarten. He was only 5 years old, hated school already, and so far did not have a career goal in mind.

He did, however, enjoy ghost hunting, wearing different types of soldier outfits, playing with his new puppy Pepper, and most of all, squirting his older brothers and sisters with loaded water pistols, as often as he could. More shall be said about this later on.

Anyway, since some of the children I know have asked to know more about the Murphy family, now you know too, and this is how it all begins......

  All About The Murphys by Susan Knight
Copyright 2012 - All Rights Reserved

Vocabulary:

Aspired - (ass-PIRED rhymes with fired) To Aspire means to desire very strongly to reach a certain goal. Chloe's younger sisters and her friends aspired (they wanted very much) to be just like Chloe. You could aspire to get an A on a test. You could aspire to be a Starship Captain when you grow up.

Autumn - (Aww-TUM) Autumn, one of the four seasons, is another name for Fall. The four seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring are the times of the year during which we experience different types, and different temperatures of weather. You might hear the phrase "Autumn leaves". Right before it's time for all of the leaves to fall off the trees and the weather is about to get really, really cold, the leaves on the trees turn the most wonderful colors.

Exhausting - (ex-awe-sting) Really, really tiring. If you ran around the block as fast as you could three whole times without stopping, when you got back home you might be so tired you would say, "Wow....that was exhausting!. I am so tired I am totally exhausted." (ex-awe-sted)

Independent - (in-dee-PEN-dent) To do something without help from anybody else. If you said somebody was independent, you would mean that they like doing things without paying much attention to anybody else or without taking directions from anybody else. If your teacher gave you an assignment and told you to work independently, (in-dee-PEN-dent-lee) that would mean the teacher wanted you to do that work all by yourself without asking anybody else for help. Being independent is good, but asking for help from the teacher or from your parents when you need it is smart, because by asking for help and paying close attention, you can learn how to become independent.

Participated - (par-TISS-uh-pated) Took part in some activity. If you put on a costume and went out with friends to get candy at the neighbors houses on Halloween, you participated in Trick or Treating.

Precocious - (pree-CO-shus) A child who shows unusually early development or displays maturity (acts more like a grown-up in some things). Especially smart or talented or clever for his age. In many ways, 8 year old Nicholas was very precocious.

Would you like to read adventures about the Murphy kids and their friends?
They're listed in order right here:

About the Author: Susan Knight holds a B.S. from The University of Connecticut and an M.S. from Western Connecticut State University. After working in the Clinical Research field for many years, she recently left the corporate world to open her own Pet Care business. She also does volunteer work for a local animal shelter and in her spare time enjoys writing humorous short stories for adults as well as fun short stories for children. She lives in Danbury, Connecticut with her two cats, Oreo and Mystic. You may contact Susan Knight at: KnightSue28@yahoo.com
This author has more wonderful stories online. Find them listed next to her name in the Author section.

Interim Illustrations: Courtesy of Bedtime Story

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