Thumbs Up

Tonight Brent and I took part in our very first ever "parent-teacher" conference. I am thrilled to report that both boys are doing awesome in Kindergarten! I'm so proud of them. We took them out to eat afterward to celebrate. School is such a top priority in this household and I pray I can always look forward to their continued success. I'm not saying they have to be deemed geniuses or make straight A's, just that they do what they are supposed to do and do their best every time. Ok, enough bragging but I'm super-proud of them! Way to go boys!!!

So, we are ready for Halloween. It's so funny how different the boys' tastes are and costume choice is no different. Josh is more of a traditionalist - he likes scary, even gory costumes. I had to make sure he didn't pick anything too gory since they wouldn't let him wear it to the school costume parade. He landed on a costume called "Brainwashed". It consists of a black robe, a black hat that goes over his face. Then there is a rubbery brain with eyeballs that sits on top of his head. Kind of hard to describe. I'll have to take a picture. He is quite excited about it.

Zach is more of a action figure type kid. He has been Spiderman and a Power Ranger in the past but this year, he wanted to be a knight. So, he is a really cool knight costume and the other night I went to the dollar store to get him a FOAM sword to wear with it. He is also quite proud of his selection and I must say, it is pretty cool.

Lily, by no surprise, has chosen to be Aurora / Sleeping Beauty. She couldn't wear the Tinkerbell, Cinderella, Barbie Princess or any of the other dress up outfits she has. No. Once she saw the boys got new costumes all bets were off. She'll be a princess. Again. I must say, she makes a beautiful little princess! I will be shocked at the day she wants to be something different like, oh, I don't know a kitten or a cheerleader or even a witch. For now, we're all princess.

So there you have it. A scary brain guy, a knight and a princess. Last year it was a Power Ranger, a Ninja and Ariel (of course). I wonder what next year will bring!

Here's to another Halloween!

L

Bye-bye warm weather. . .

After an absolutely GORGEOUS weekend weather-wise, we are expecting FLURRIES this Thursday. Are you kidding me?? Flurries??!! It's not even November yet for gosh sake. Oh well, that darn "global warming" :-)~

We had a pretty good weekend. The boys played their second-to-last soccer game of the Fall season on Saturday. The weather was perfect for a soccer game. Saturday night we watched our beloved Mizzou Tigers get their butts beat by Texas. What can we say? Texas is awesome and a well-deserved #1 team in the country. Don't let that last comment fool you, it still stung. Ouch.

Sunday, we got up and headed to church. Then I went and had my car washed and vacuumed (serious cheerio/fruit snack/french fry/among-other-unrecognizable food items going on). Finally, I came home fed the kids and put about 4 baskets of laundry away. Man was I tired but it all had to be done!

Tonight I hit the local Party America to get last minute party supplies for the boys' big 6th birthday party this Saturday. We are having it at the bowling alley. I think it will be a lot of fun. I am expecting about 10 kids in addition to my own. Josh and Zach are really super excited. That night, we will go up to my mom's house to do the family celebration. Oh! And our last soccer game of the season is at 8:25 a.m. that day. So, needless to say we will have a exhaustingly fun day on Saturday!

I was thrown into a slight panic yesterday morning when I woke up to find most everyhting in my freezer had ice crystals on it. I figured out rather quickly that there was no cold air in the freezer or refrigerator. We quickly took the frozen stuff down to the deep freeze and the refrigerated stuff to my MIL's. Of course this happens the day AFTER I do my major grocery shopping.

The good news is, the repair guy came out today and it needed the compressor replaced. It set us back $183. I was so happy. I thought for sure we were getting bitten by bad refrigerator karma. You see, Brent and I were looking at refrigerators at Best Buy just last weekend for no apparent reason (can you tell we were kidless?). Apparently our current refrigerator found out about it and showed us who's boss.

Here's to a fun but busy week! Enjoy!

Soggy Pumpkin Patch

Well, we took full advantage of the kids early release day at school. After picking them up from school at 11:30 a.m., we headed to McD's for a healthy lunch :-). It was raining like crazy - a cold October rain. Quite miserable. Since we thought for the annual visit to the local pumpkin farm would be a wash, we rented a movie, picked up Lily and headed home.

About 1 hour into our movie, the sun popped out and all the clouds blew away and left us with a blue sky, lots of sunshine and mild temperatures. Perfect pumpkin weather! So, we all loaded in the minivan and headed to the farm.

It was so muddy! Of course, we expected this but wow. It was A LOT of mud. BUT, the weather was gorgeous and the kids were crazy excited. They did all the fun activities - mazes, swings, wagons, bike tracks and my favorite - the hay ride. I took plenty of pics that I will post later.

When it was time to go (according to mommy. If you would have asked the kids, they would have voted to stay another 2 1/2 hours), we picked out a big pumpkin to carve closer to Halloween and then each picked out a mini pumpkin. Nine dollars worth of pumpkins later, we were on our way back home.

You really can't beat the price for an entire afternoon of fun. $5 each to get in - seriously, where else can you go for $5 and have that much fun for the long?? Pretty good price and makes for some fun memories too.

Next up this weekend - soccer.

Have a great weekend!

Flying by. . .

Everyone has told me that "once your kids start school, the time just flies by". I have to say that is true. Yes, Zach and Josh have only been in school for 2 months now but I just can't believe how quickly the weeks are going, that we are almost to Halloween and Christmas is right around the corner!

I was looking at Lily the other night and it truly seems like just maybe last year she was a little baby I was having to change her and give her a bottle to. Now, she is a vibrant almost 4 1/2 year old with a broad vocabulary and sassy attitude. Unreal.

Tomorrow is an early release day at school. That means (a) Nana is uber excited that she won't have 2 energetic 6 year olds to greet her first thing in the morning not to mention feed, clothe and take to school at noon (remember, we are 1/2 days here in LS) and, (b) mommy will take 1/2 vacation to do something fun with them. That is kind of the tradition I've started with early release days. Can I call it a tradition yet being this is only the second one? Yeah, well, I'm going to anyway. :-)

Anyway, last early release day, I picked them up, we ate lunch outside at one of their favorite eateries, we swung by preschool, picked up Lily and then all four headed to the skating rink. This time, it will all start out the same except we will end up at the pumpkin patch vs. the skating rink. I'm going to take advantage of what will probably be one of the last "warm enough" days to hit the patch before Halloween. I will post pics.

Tonight is "Science Night" at school. They are going to be doing some really fun science experiments. I think the kids will enjoy it. I know I will enjoy just getting out of the house for the evening!

Until next time. . .

Welcome!

So, after many friends have started their own, I have decided to follow suit and start the Walker family blog - The Walker Family Circus.

This blog will serve as an online journal (or web log - did you know that is where the name "blog" came from? 'web log' run together but I digress). My friend Dawn made a really good point the other day that something like this will be really neat to look back on sometime in the future when our circus is not as crazy - or noisey - as it is today. Kind of like finding a long, lost diary between your matresses when you are moving out.

Anyway, welcome.

L