Preschool graduation 2012

Jacob & Cole are officially done with preschool! They won't let us call them kindergarteners just yet, but August 9th will be here before we know it.

Here they are as we were leaving for their graduation program. Jacob obviously wasn't in the best of moods. 

 These were a cute surprise when we arrived.

Jacob & Cole were in the back row for the program so I didn't get any great shots of them on stage. They were both singing their little hearts out, though!

This is Cole getting his diploma. 

And Jacob getting his diploma. 

Owen & Juliet. 

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!!

The Temple

Late last night I walked into the playroom to feed the guinea pigs, and I discovered this scene. Jacob & Cole had been in there playing before bed, and apparently they built an alphabet block version of the Jedi Temple. The star fighters were parked, and the Jedi, along with some clone troopers, were tucked in for the night.

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.

Birthday fun!

Last weekend was Jacob & Cole's 5th birthday party! This was their first "friend party" and they chose to have it at the martial arts school. It was so much fun!! They played taekwondo games, broke boards, and burned lots of energy with their friends. There were several kids there who do not take taekwondo, but it was really fun for everyone.


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!


Moving on (before I need to break out the tissues)...

Owen walked in the door after school a couple of weeks ago with this mustache on. His teacher gave them to all the kids to go along with a book they're reading in class. I think the mustache really suits him! ;-)

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.

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}

Mike the Tiny Tiger

Meet Mike the Tiny Tiger. Jacob & Cole's Taekwondo class is the Tiny Tigers, and Mike is a new incentive for kids to do well in class. Each week the "best" student is chosen to take Mike home and watch over him until the following week. Sure enough, Jacob & Cole quickly figured out that only one of them would need to do well enough to be chosen in order for them both to have a weekend with Mike. One of the many perks of being a twin I suppose!

Jacob was chosen last week, which means that Mike joined our family for a few days. The kids had a blast with him. He ate a hearty breakfast of "imaginary meat oatmeal", watched Owen's baseball practice, took a little tour of the LSU campus, did arts & crafts, and made a new friend (the boys put a white belt on one of our teddy bears so Mike wouldn't be lonely). Now he is back at the martial arts school, and the boys are already looking forward to getting him back soon.

Breaking boards for a good cause

Here are some snapshots from a taekwondo board break-a-thon the boys participated in last month. They helped raise money for a local scholarship fund by committing to break a certain number of boards. Needless to say, they LOVED it!

(And because I know some of you will ask, yes, that's real wood they're breaking!)

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.

Baseball

We've been spending lots of time at the ball park lately. Here are a few highlights from last night's games.