First Day of School!

The boys all moved to new schools this year, and yesterday was their first day back. The day went smoothly for the most part, but it's going to take us a while to get back into a good routine with early wake-ups, breakfast, getting dressed, lunch boxes, and homework.

Owen, 4th grade, Mrs. Adkins' class:

Cole, 1st grade, Mrs. Carter's class:

Jacob, 1st grade, Mrs. Carter's class:

Jacob was obviously less than thrilled about having to go back to school.

Field Trippin'!

All 3 boys had their first field trips of the school year today!

Owen & Marshall left the house at 4am to head to the Houston Museum of Natural Science with Owen's 3rd grade class. Owen has been excited about this trip for weeks, and I can't wait to hear all about it when they get home later tonight. The buses are expected back around 10:30pm (and yes, Marshall has to work a long day tomorrow for the LSU game...such a good daddy!). Marshall has been updating me via text message, so I can already share some pictures of their adventure. It's so fun to get these photos throughout the day so I know what they're up to!

This morning I got to join Jacob & Cole's kindergarten class on their walking field trip to learn about community helpers in Zachary. We spent just over 3 hours visiting some fun places around town, and we were all exhausted by the time we made it back to school. It was a fun-filled morning!

We started out at the fire department. The kids learned about fire safety, toured the entire firehouse, and got to inspect a fire truck. Here they are watching a demonstration about all the gear firefighters have to wear.

 

Next we made our way to the police station. They gave us a wonderful tour of everything, including the holding cells, and the kids got to look at a police motorcycle & talk on the loud speaker in a police car. 

I didn't take any pictures at our last stops because it was so crowded, but we also went to Chris' Specialty Meats and Cajun Catch restaurant. The kids learned about Louisiana seafood & got a little snack of fried catfish. The boys were asking me if we could eat dinner there before we even got out the door!

Kindergarten!

Kindergarten has begun! Jacob & Cole were beyond excited to go to school this morning. When the bus came they both climbed right up & only looked back when the bus driver asked them to so I could take a picture with my phone. They are both in the same class & have Owen's kindergarten teacher, who was wonderful. We are thrilled that Jacob & Cole will have her, too!

This morning after Zumba I got a text from Owen's first grade teacher. She'd seen the boys & sent me a picture of them - they looked like they were having fun! I can't wait to hear how their day was!!

Jacob:

Cole:

Owen & Jacob wanted a picture together in their matching uniforms:

3rd Grade

Today is Owen's first day of 3rd grade! He wasn't very happy when I woke him up, but by the time the bus pulled up he was excited to go. He's in a class with a lot of his friends from last year, and he's heard good things about his teachers. It should be a great year!

Cole asked to take a picture of me & Owen:

Jacob took this one: 

Kindergarten starts Monday, and we have 2 very excited boys who are ready to go!

2nd Grade Awards Program

This morning was the 2nd grade awards program. Wow how time flies! It's been a great year, but we are all looking forward to summer break!

The program began with the classes performing short musicals (hence the black clothing instead of the usual uniforms). Owen had the not-so-coveted part of playing the finger symbols. He wasn't excited in the days leading up to the performance, but he was all smiles this morning.

We were on the 3rd row but didn't have a great view of things. Here's a quick shot I grabbed while they were singing "Circle of Life".

After the performances, it was time for the awards. Here is Owen collecting all of his on stage. :-)

And here he is after school showing them off. This year he received the Citizenship Award, PE Coach's Award, All A Honor Roll, Reading Award, AR 50 Point Club, Champion of Conduct, Meritorious Attendance. We couldn't be any prouder!!

100

Today was Owen's 100th day of school celebration. The kids were supposed to dress up like they were 100 years old for a Best Old Man & Best Old Woman costume contest. How exactly do you make a 7 year old look 100 years old without extensive makeup or a mask (and without spending a ton of money)? We did the best we could with accessories, and Owen perfected his old man impression by hunching over & saying things like "I've thrown out my back", "young-ins" and "whippersnapper". He was so excited when he got home this afternoon and had won a medal for 3rd place in the costume contest!

Another exciting part of his day was getting to lead the Pledge of Allegiance over the speaker for the entire school this morning. He reported that he did a very good job and "spoke loud and clear". Good thing he doesn't have his daddy's nerves when it comes to public speaking! :-)

Celebrating Christmas

Amazingly enough, Christmas 2011 has already come & gone. It's been a busy few weeks, and while I'm sad all the anticipation & excitement are over, we're looking forward to relaxing for the next 2 weeks before school starts back.

Here's a peek at what we've been up to.

Jacob & Cole's preschool class has a cookie decorating party.
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.

Halloween 2011

I won't lie. October almost did me in. Marshall, too, I think. Our work schedules were hectic (the busiest month all year for both of us), there were baseball games, taekwondo classes, teacher conferences, field trips, school parties, birthday parties for friends...you get the idea. It was chaos at times, but we survived and had lots of fun in the process.

State Police Troop A Day:




Jacob & Cole's school party:
Trick or Treat!!


Owen {Luke Skywalker as an x-wing fighter pilot}


Cole {Luke Skywalker from Episode IV}


Jacob {Snake Eyes from GI Joe}

Backing up a bit

Things around here have been beyond busy the past few months. We have been juggling end-of-the-year school activities, taekwondo, baseball and tee ball. Plus spring is one of my busiest times of year for business, and Marshall had a lot going on at work, too. Now that we've slowed down a bit I wanted to take time to blog some of the things we've been up to.

Here are a few photos from Jacob & Cole's preschool Easter egg hunt. They were less than enthusiastic about hunting eggs, and Jacob flat out refused to pick up any that were not the ones he picked out to bring to the hunt. Thankfully they loosened up & had some fun playing on the playground.

We spent Easter in Tallulah with family:



And since it's been a while since I've shared any sleeping photos...

Jacob:

Cole:

Lately

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!

First grade awards

Friday morning we gathered in the Northwestern Elementary cafeteria for the first grade honors program. Owen has had an amazing year with a wonderful teacher, and he's worked hard & flourished all year. Over the course of this school year he discovered a love of reading, a strong curiosity for science & math, and that just maybe girls aren't so bad after all.

His awards: Citizenship/Courtesy Award, Athletic Award, Straight A's all year, Perfect Attendance, Reading Award, Champion of Conduct Award.



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.