411 The Walters Bunch

What you can't see is a lemur in cage to the top right that almost pooped on us! We have be busy with school and have completed 25% of our year so far. That means 75% left until next summer! We are needing a little break so went to the home school day at Sharkarosa. It is a lot of fun. it is similar to a zoo, but has informational talks scheduled throughout the day about all the animals they keep; most of which have been rescued. It is geared towards school age children. They also have a "train" that takes you through the different pastures where you get up close to several varieties of exotic animals. The weather was beautiful, but a little warm at 86. We had a great time and enjoyed the baby kangaroos and lemurs; I could have done without the close up of the cobra though. Hubby making our house look like a bomb went off. 3 Generations of my boys. Our train ride....no this was NOT one of the exotic animals! This was though. Mama and baby ...

Of the six people in our immediate family, 3 of us have a birthday with in 10 days of each other. This means that the oldest daughter and youngest son always have a combined party and I spend my birthday planning what they will we do for their birthday. We have so many treats that week that I literally can't even think of butter or sugar with out feeling sick. This year my daughter wanted a movie star theme and my son lego star wars. I call it Hollywood Legos. I made some light sabers from pool noodles, turned the front door into a Lego, and my daughter made a red carpet star walk. We took the kids to the trampoline park down the street, but were disappointed in it. They had fun, but the one we went to for their cousins birthday the month before in Keller was a lot more fun.  My kids had fun though so that was all that mattered. T in front of my Lego door and with the light saber I made AJ with her clapboard brownie cake she made. Her walk of fame.....had the guests na...

We have almost completed our 4th week of school. The kids have flowed seamlessly into the routine of school work though our extra classes start next week so we will see how well we manage time once we throw 8 different classes into the mix. We will be busy for sure! The kitchen is coming along nicely. I would really love to get an entirely new kitchen, but I am going to try to make this one last at least 5 more years (preferably 9 since that's when my house will be paid off but I doubt I can go that long).  We really want a travel trailer for all our camping trips so I think we can sacrifice our new kitchen for the trailer for the time being. I really can't wait for the luxury of NOT having to set up camp, though we will still probably tent camp occasionally since it's fun to be so close to everyone, at least short term! Yep, if the dog gets to close to the girls she is included in dress up! T really enjoyed the real life CARS characters. A with her new frie...

Even as great as this summer has been, we are still heading back to school at the beginning of August. So far, school has moved along well and the kids are flourishing under the structure of a school day. I have under taken the task of remodeling the kitchen, much to D's dismay. It is turning into quite the disruptive project and taking up a lot of time, but hopefully I will love the end results. Pintrest  has been my inspiration for many projects lately. I love Pintrest! School starts.  We have also been busy finding a new church home. It has been hard since the new church we are looking at has Saturday night services (which is great because since D changed his schedule, he had been unable to attend church with us). However, the kids and I have been going to our current churches services on Sundays in addition to the Saturday service and we are just plain exhausted. The new church we are looking at is about 10 times the size of our current church and it is taking som...

What do you do when the weather is cooler than has ever been recorded in the DFW area for July? You do something outside for sure and thank the Lord Almighty for not scorching us just yet (we all know it's coming). We decided to head to Six Flags for the day. Have you ever been to Six Flags when it didn't smell like melting asphalt and body odor? Yeah, us neither and I will tell you with the high only forecasted to be 78 we were more than willing to find out... and it was AWESOME. Best Six Flags day hands down. We ended up staying for about 9 hours instead of the usual 5 or 6. It was great to leave and not feel like we have been camping for 3 days. A found the cutest pic set up. The kids had so much fun and I really enjoyed not having to worry about them becoming overheated and dehydrated. The youngest decided he did not like any of the "big" coasters which was disappointing because he enjoyed them so much last year. My hubby talked the youngest daughter into d...

Since getting back from our vacation, we have begrudgingly adjusted to the TX summer temps. I regularly torture myself with the game "I wonder what the temperature is in South Dakota for today?". Their high is usually lower than our daily low, even though this summer has been mild by TX standards no 100's into July is a rare thing. After D retires, you can find us in Custer County SD from June-mid Sept. mid 70's is much nicer than low 100's. T takes a ninja class They broke a board with their hands. Our vegetables actually grew. The kids enjoyed VBS. This year they were detectives and had to find clues for Jesus. It was a great week. My little detective. We celebrated the 4th with my in laws in Weatherford. We had a BBQ and family from out of town join us. We had a great time firing off our fireworks!   We enjoyed the 4th!

Wow. The past three weeks we have been super busy. We celebrated my in laws 40th anniversary, went to Nebraska for an Aunt's wedding and vacationed in South Dakota. I am going to make this several posts over the next few days to cover it all.    On May 25, we went out to Weatherford to celebrate my in-laws 40th anniversary. They held it at their church and had a nice reception. I pray my husband and I will be able to celebrate our 40th anniversary and be as happy as they are. My in-laws on their wedding day... he looks just like my husband! My sister-in-law, mother in-law, and myself. My husband poses with his mom, dad, and sis. May 30 the kids celebrated the completion of their yearly gymnastics classes before summer break. The girls have completed 2 years and are becoming quite good and T has completed his first year. We take the class with other homeschoolers so it is a great way for the kids to interact with other homeschoolers. One of D's aunt'...