You Don't Work, You Don't Eat

If I had a nickle for every time I heard "you don't work, you don't eat" growing up, I'd never have to work cause I'd already be rich.  This expression was not only said constantly in the Walker home, but it was backed up with lots of farm work.  Not wanting our kids to miss out on all of the life lessons that a farm can provide, Hannah and I are eager for our kids to participate whenever a farm-work opportunity presents itself.  This past Saturday morning, for example, the kids helped dig potatoes.  The kids have helped with this chore for the past couple of years, and they are getting better at it.  There is still a little whining- mostly about bugs and heat- but they are learning that those things don't matter when there's work to be done.  Once we got out to the field, we realized that the squash, cucumbers, and onions were also ready- so we gathered those too.  The reward for the hard labor was a delicious lunch cooked by Gigi (using the fresh potatoes to make fries), and a chance to get to play in the irrigation gun.  The irrigation gun is always a favorite.

Not Our Cat

 About three weeks ago, this cat showed up on our carport.  She had a collar with the name "Purr" on it, but no address for her owner.  We ignored her for several days.  We didn't want to feed her because we were scared that she wouldn't leave if we did.  She didn't leave, though, and she was so thin.  We decided to just give her a little food until we could find out who her owner was.  This was a good plan, and it worked for about four days.  The next thing we knew, Purr was carrying her five kittens (that we didn't even know she had) up to our house.  This gave us even more motivation to find her owner.  The kids, however, could not have been more pleased with this turn of events.  Olivia is absolutely in love.  Hopefully, there will be a happy pet/owner reunion in the near future.

Blast Off to Summer

 The end of the school year is always packed with activities.  There was one day toward the end where the kids had "beach day" at school- complete with water slides, and then that night we had the "Blast Off" event at church.  "Blast" is the name of the children's Wednesday night program, and on the last meeting of the year there is a night of fun.  This year the organizers went all out.  Not only where there bouncy houses and bouncy slides, but there were also lots of carnival-type games.  Our favorite clowns, Slim and Doc Smiley, made an appearance and gave the kids temporary tattoos.  It was loads of fun.

Softball / T-ball

Mr. Murray, Kelly, and Daddy manning the fence

This has been an incredibly busy softball / t-ball season.  If you look at the picture above, you can probably see why.  That's right- four kids, four different jerseys.  I don't know how it happened that none of the kids were on the same team, but that's how it worked out.  So, we ended up spending A LOT of time at the ball field.  And, since the kids' games were often at the same time, we also spent a lot of time standing between two different fields watching two (or even three) games simultaneously.  

Olivia and Ava both moved up to "real" softball this year.  This means that they hit off a pitching machine, could strike out, and had winners and losers.  This also meant that practice was serious business.  I was so impressed by the progress that the girls made during the season.  I think they'll do even better next year since they'll be use to the new format.  Let's just hope they are on the same team.  

Olivia's team weas the runner-up in their league (Ava's team won the championship).  They were excited to receive the second place team trophy and individual trophies.

Owen and Claire were still in the t-ball division this year.  There is much less pressure here.  Since this is Owen's fourth year playing, he knew what to do- and so his coach put him at first base.  He liked playing this position.  

 Owen's teammates were presented with participation trophies following their final game.  Now that the season is over, I don't know what we are going to do with all of our free time (ha ha).  Julianna will be old enough to play next year, so we better start resting now.  It may be even busier next spring.

Olivia's Honors Day

We attended Olivia's Honors Day this past week.  Both she and Owen have been blessed with excellent teachers this year, and they have  had a lot of academic success.  Olivia received awards for having all A's, perfect attendance, highest AR points in her classroom, and three awards for scoring the highest in her class on the system reading, language arts, and mathematics exams.  We are so proud of our girl and how hard she has worked this year.  Let's hope she keeps it up.

Here is Olivia with her most excellent teacher, Mrs. Pearson.

Spring Flower Pictures.

The flowers are in bloom.  That means it's picture time.  We didn't have much luck with the pictures this year.  Owen was whining the whole time because the tall grass was "itchy".  These are about the best shots that I could get. Still, the flowers are beautiful.  I always enjoy the few weeks out of the year when we get to enjoy them. 

Into the Woods

My school's spring musical was "Into the Woods".  The chorus director told me that this would be a good show to take the kids to, so I did.  I invited Hannah and the girls to go with us, but Hannah had a cake order to do that night.  The girls weren't busy, though, so I took them with us.  It was a fun evening.  The play was good and the kids all enjoyed it.  They especially liked the songs "Into the Woods" and "Agony" (which I heard pieces of all the way home).  Here is a picture of the kids before leaving to go to the performance.

Owen's Kindergarten Graduation

Owen's Kindergarten graduation was held last Friday.  Owen was so excited about this event.  Brian, me, Gigi, and Papa all arrived early so that we could get a good seat. When Owen's class entered the auditorium, we were already there. We could see him scanning the crowd looking for us.  When he saw us, he gave a huge smile and waved.  The program began soon thereafter.  As their names were called, the students walked across the stage to receive their diploma. After the diplomas were all presented, the students sang the song "Kindergarten Days" (sung to the tune of "Summer Nights" from Grease).  It was so cute!  I put a video of the performance on YouTube.  Here is the link

 The kids were allowed to check out after Graduation.  Before leaving, we took a picture of Owen with his classmates.

 We also got a picture of Owen with his teachers- Mrs. Corbitt, Mrs. Guess, and Mrs. Barnes.

 Mrs. Guess had cupcakes for the kids.  Owen was sure to snag one of these before he left.

 This has been a really good year for Owen.  Hopefully first grade will go as well as Kindergarten did.

A Colorful Race

 Our town held a color run this year as part of the spring festival.  If you're not familiar with the "color run" concept, basically everyone wears a white t-shirt and gets hit with color bombs (usually colored corn starch) as they run.  By the end of the run participants are colorful.  The kids participated in the fun run while I completed the 5k.  

 Here's everyone at the 1-mile start line.  Look how clean everyone looks.

 ...And here's the first dose of color.

 Owen ran through the color cloud to begin his race.

 Olivia must have done a good job of avoiding the color bombs because she did not have that much color on her at the end of her run.

 Owen, on the other hand, looked like he had run into every single color bomb along the route.

 I got hit pretty badly too- and mostly by my own children who kept sneaking color packets and hitting me with them.

The kids lent a hand throwing color at the finish line.  I think that hitting other runners with color was their favorite part.  We definitely had fun at this race, and I was so happy to see a decent turn out.  Hopefully, the city will continue to sponsor this event.