After Ainsley's school today the kiddos hurried outside for one more afternoon of fun in the snow. Today the snow was melty and made for a much better snowman... meet Sparkle...

Then back inside for the usual hot cocoa and cookies...

That's what Walker kept saying this morning when we woke up to find this...

About 5 inches in all. Kids were so excited to get their "snow gear" on... good timing too since we just bought Walker some new snowpants the day before!

Kids played outside for about an hour this morning while the parents huddled around the fireplace... sippin' coffee...(big weenies we are!)

Couple more pictures from the morning..

Walker had a field trip to a pumpkin patch today... the pumpkin in the picture is real... weighed over 400 lbs!

They had a corn maze, which was short enough so that you didn't feel claustrophobic...

They were able to feed pigs, horses, bunnies and they got to touch a Mallard duck...

The last stop was the pumpkin patch where each kid got to find and pick their own pumpkin...

Today was harvest day for the pumpkins in the garden... once we got them out of the patch and cleaned up they looked pretty good... was surprised by the size and shape of them.

Later we put them out on the front porch where Walker said, "Our pumpkins rock!"

One more cute picture of the kiddos...

Today I helped out in Ainsley's classroom and over the loudspeaker the principal yelled, "Code Red!" Her teacher then yelled "Safe Place" and then all the kids ran under the large table... her teacher locked the door... lights were turned out and all blinds were shut... not a peep was heard in the classroom.

It's one of those things that makes you glad that they practice for such a tragic event but in the mean time I got all choked up thinking about the what ifs. A far cry from when we were in school and the only drill we had was for earthquakes not for school invasions!

This week Ainsley's school has Thursday and Friday off so all the coaches decided to play games early and have practices earlier in the week as well... this always throws off our schedule but we made it to Walker's practice at 4pm and Ainsley's game at 5:30.

Here's a couple pictures of the night... Walker looking cute at his practice... Ainsley with a super kick... and on the field. She did so good tonight was "into the game". And a nice relief... Walker sitting in his chair!! He's been Mr. Icky... at Ainsley's games... resulting in Me hauling a screaming fit throwing kicking child to the car (it's a real sight!)...missing most of Ainsley's games. So we caved... instead of having him sit and watch the game we decided it was best for everyone if he brings things to do. So far so good.

So just Walker's game on Saturday... will be nice not to have our whole morning used up.

Last May Walker brought home a pot filled with a few sunflowers that he started growing at school. I had my doubts that they'd grow but we lovingly planted them... and every few days...(mostly because we forgot about them) we'd give them a drink of water.

Low and behold they did grow... well 2 out of 3 did. They were looking pretty good until we had the hail storm a week or so ago and then Mr. Squirrel came and took a big bit out of but before all of that happened I snapped a picture.

The kids have been deciding over the past few weeks about Halloween costumes. Walker started out wanting to be a school crossing guard... changed to a policeman... and finally ended up with this... Batman! After a quick fit check... hence the tag... it was a go!

Ainsley had only one costume on her mind... Hannah Montana! She was the most excited about getting blond hair!

Been busy the past few days with school activities... I signed up to volunteer in Ainsley's class on Wednesdays. The time couldn't have worked out any better. I drop her off at school... drive Walker to school... head back to Ainsley's school to help out and then back to Walker's school for pick up. It's busy but glad I can help in the class room. She's been bringing home books to read to us just about every day... love that!

Volunteered for Walker's field trip to the police station as well this week.

I learned a ton... hopefully he did too! He loved sitting on the police motorcycles... checking out the police car with the lights and sirens was also high on his list.

More soccer games and soccer pictures lined up for the weekend... got to get some yardwork thrown in there as well.

Kids had back to back soccer games this weekend...

Walker had his game first... he scored a couple goals and by half time he was getting tired... they all were. It's funny to watch them start out with so much energy and then slowly shut down, they loose interest, start chatting more and playing around. Here's the tired Bug...

Ainsley's game was next... to be honest I was nervous... this being her first game... only girl... pressure was on for sure. To make things more difficult they were short 3 players this week, so the 4 had to play the entire game... no breaks... no subbing. SO VERY PROUD OF HER! She played her little heart out... got right in there with the boys after the ball... she was tired but didn't complain and hustled the entire hour! She even scored 2 GOALS!! I think her coach was pleasantly surprised as well. It was exciting... we yelled the entire game and cheered her on with each great play. Hard to believe that she just started playing last year and how she use to wave at us down the field... would stand in the field twirling and playing with her hair... she's come so far!

Just a couple pictures... was too into the game to take very many!