You may want to grab a cup of coffee & get comfortable...this is probably going to be a looooooong post as I try to catch you up on our May happenings. :-)
It's hard to believe it's the last day of May. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Christmas, yet here we are filling our days with swimming, playdates & outdoor projects around the house. As the kids get older we find ourselves wishing time would slow down a bit, but it seems to pass quicker than ever.
School ended early last week, and while the boys all love school they are excited to have some down time this summer. Thankfully they're already learning about the joys of sleeping late (well, if you consider 8:30am late).
Jacob at the end of school party: 
Cole at the same party (they refused to take a photo together or with their teacher):
Recently Jacob & Cole have starting playing games on my old laptop. They love the Disney Junior website, and it amazes me that they can already navigate to the website and remember the password to log into the computer. I grew up using computers from the time I was a toddler (thanks, Dad!!), so while we do limit their screen time every day, it thrills me to think of all the information they will be able to discover (supervised, of course!) as they grow.
Here is our big guy on his 7th birthday: 
That's right, I said 7th birthday! How did this happen??? Our adorable, happy, squishy baby boy has turned into a caring, bright, amazing big boy. He's lost almost all of his baby features over the last year or so, but I can always depend on my good friend Michele to remind me how his laugh is still that same chuckle he's had since babyhood. Thank goodness for that!!
Owen really, really, really wanted an iPod Touch for his birthday. We teased him for weeks that we were going to get him a Barbie Dreamhouse instead. Don't all good parents torment their children about their birthday gifts? We went so far as to wrap his gift in a giant box, and when he opened it he did indeed find a Barbie Dreamhouse. In the form of a picture. On his new iPod Touch.
As you can see, he wasn't amused: 
Finally, after years of not having any patio furniture (thanks to a hurricane that destroyed our last set), we've started building some. As a family of 5 with who occasionally likes to have company over, we struggled to find anything ready-made that would seat enough people that wouldn't also break the bank. Then one day I was browsing a website and inspiration struck. Poor Marshall. He ends up doing most of the work on these kinds of projects, and he won't admit it but he's really good at it. We've had to build around work, baseball & taekwondo schedules, so we're only halfway done, but it looks great so far!
A few shots from day 1 of the project: 
I'll be sure to update with photos of the completed project very soon!
Here are a few photos from their preschool Christmas program.
As usual, we spent Christmas Eve goofing off before bedtime. This year the boys decided to stay awake to listen for Santa. That made for a long night for all of us!
And a few shots from Christmas morning. As you can see, Star Wars is still all the rage with the Walters boys.
On Tuesday we celebrated their actual birthday. The day started with the kids waking up to find that our mischievous elf, Luke, had hung streamers from their bedroom door during the night. What a fun way to start the day! Per their request, they celebrated with cupcakes for a snack at school and red velvet cake at home in the evening.
Just for fun I dug out these photos from the day they were born. Goodness how things have changed in the last 5 years!
And finally, a rare photo of Lucky 2. She is getting so big and has become much more social over the past couple of months. We're planning to get her a friend pretty soon, but in the meantime she & Diego have become quite fond of each other. At least twice a day I find them sniffing each other through the slats of her cage.
Trick or Treat!!
We spent Easter in Tallulah with family:
Cole: 
Cole at the same party (they refused to take a photo together or with their teacher):
Recently Jacob & Cole have starting playing games on my old laptop. They love the Disney Junior website, and it amazes me that they can already navigate to the website and remember the password to log into the computer. I grew up using computers from the time I was a toddler (thanks, Dad!!), so while we do limit their screen time every day, it thrills me to think of all the information they will be able to discover (supervised, of course!) as they grow.
Here is our big guy on his 7th birthday: 
That's right, I said 7th birthday! How did this happen??? Our adorable, happy, squishy baby boy has turned into a caring, bright, amazing big boy. He's lost almost all of his baby features over the last year or so, but I can always depend on my good friend Michele to remind me how his laugh is still that same chuckle he's had since babyhood. Thank goodness for that!!
Finally, after years of not having any patio furniture (thanks to a hurricane that destroyed our last set), we've started building some. As a family of 5 with who occasionally likes to have company over, we struggled to find anything ready-made that would seat enough people that wouldn't also break the bank. Then one day I was browsing a website and inspiration struck. Poor Marshall. He ends up doing most of the work on these kinds of projects, and he won't admit it but he's really good at it. We've had to build around work, baseball & taekwondo schedules, so we're only halfway done, but it looks great so far!
Cole wanted to be in a shot with his big brother:
At the beginning of the year Owen set a goal for himself to not get any check marks for conduct. Students can get an A in conduct for each day even if they get a few check marks (the number varies as the year progresses), so this was a pretty ambitious goal. He was so proud to accomplish this (despite one substitute's effort to derail him by announcing that the entire class got a check mark one day), and this was his reaction when we told him we'd get him a guinea pig for his reward. He's been asking for one for months, and I LOVE the pure joy on his face here:
And here is Cole again, hamming it up for the camera. Jacob, as usual, had no interest in being photographed.
All 3 boys are playing baseball this spring, and Owen had his first game Thursday night. Unfortunately Jacob & Cole had t-ball practice at the same time, so the 3 of us raced over to the ball park to catch the very end of the game (which they won 7-6). With 3 boys participating in baseball and Taekwondo, we foresee lots of racing around in our near future!
And I'm happy to announce that, after 4 months of wiggling, Owen has lost his first top tooth! It fell out right before he went to bed last night, and remembering to look under his pillow for cash quickly turned his grumpy mood around this morning!
Here's a photo of me with Jacob & Cole from last week. My friend Michele is taking a photography workshop and she used us for practice. Even though I've already plastered this on Facebook, I'm sharing it here too because it will be fun to look back through our blog archives in a few years and stumble upon this.
I made these for a snack yesterday afternoon. The recipe is from the Super Healthy Kids blog, and they were a hit at our house! Owen asked me to put 100 of them in his lunchbox. :-)
