Ten

Birth day:


1st Birthday:


2nd Birthday:


3rd Birthday (a few days after, actually, plus bonus Deacon):


Fourth Birthday:


Fifth Birthday (with bonus brothers):


Sixth Birthday:


Seventh Birthday:


Eighth Birthday:


Ninth Birthday:


Tenth Birthday:


Happy Birthday Ezekiel! For 10 years now you've been filling our lives with sweetness and happiness. We are so proud of you and of the young man you're becoming. We love you so much, sweet boy.

We Have Some Wild Kratts Kids Here!

For Zeke's birthday present this year we got tickets to see Wild Kratts Live! at the MPAC (Morristown Performing Arts Center). The show was Sunday (my birthday - which was a great day) and oh, man, did we have a good time! For those who have never seen the show Wild Kratts, it's a show done by 2 real life zoologist brothers (from New Jersey) who teach the kids about animals both in live action sequences and animation adventures. It's really clever and highly enjoyable and as Zeke wants to be a zoologist when he grows up, it's one of his favorite programs. He was also Chris Kratt for Halloween this past year. 

We gave Zeke the tickets on his birthday, but I think he might have been a little underwhelmed with the gift, not fully realizing what it meant. What made that harder was Josh and I had no idea what the show would actually be like, so we didn't even really know what to tell him except that we would be seeing Chris and Martin Kratt live. However, as it got closer, and as we talked up seeing Chris and Martin more and more, they all got a bit more excited.

Yes, they each have a homemade creature power suit. Yes, they all wore their homemade creature power suits to the show. And yes, their homemade creature power suits were way cooler than the factory made creature power suits they were selling in the MPAC lobby. Or so we think anyway. Once we were in our seats though, the level of excitement rose exponentially. 

Look at Deacon's face. If you can believe it, those eyes and that smile (as did the eyes and smiles of both of his brothers) got even BIGGER when this happened:

IT'S ACTUALLY CHRIS AND MARTIN KRATT!! AHHHH!! YAY!! WHOO-HOO!! And all that jazz. Zeke looked like he was going to burst into tears at any second when the Kratt brothers popped up on stage. Deacon curled himself into a ball and squeezed in next to me, probably to stop himself from literally exploding. And Finn, well, will was just so into it. He cheered and yelled and clapped and bounced in his seat and called out answers to every question the Kratt brothers asked the audience. He was so much fun to watch even some of the other parents around us got a kick out of him.

Not the best picture, but my screen was completely black so I had no idea what I was getting a picture of until we got home and I edited the brightness levels. I think it shows how enthralled with it all he was though. All 5 of us really enjoyed the show. It was a great birthday present for Zeke, and a great birthday "present" for me as I had the best time watching my boys have the best time. Not that they're reading this, but in case they ever do: 

Thank you Chris and Martin Kratt for all that you do. You guys are the best! Love, the Walter family.

And Now He's Nine

Somehow my baby turned 9 this past Saturday. To commemorate the event we took everyone bowling (just like last year). By everyone I mean the five of us, all 6 grandparents, 2 aunts, and all 7 members of the Farrell Family. See?

Here's the birthday boy after rolling the ball down the alley. Clearly he cares about what happens. 

After bowling we all (minus the Farrell Family) came back to the house for presents (thank you again to everyone for the great gifts):

and for cake (that's chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips in it, and chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles):

After everyone left we had a special birthday lasagna for the special birthday boy, followed by some showers and some Scooby-Doo.

Happy Birthday Ezekiel! We love you and we can't wait to see what this year brings for you!

Chop! Chop!

This happened Saturday:
















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Off To Work With Grandpa Bob

Last Friday, the boys had off from school so we took the opportunity to (and the beautiful day) to visit my dad and go to work with him. My dad, Grandpa Bob, owns his own tree company, which means he has lots of really cool "toys" that we went down to see in action. The boys and I met him at his office, followed him to the yard where he keeps his stuff, then all piled into his truck to drive around to different jobs and see what's what.

We saw all kinds of cool things. We saw a guy in a bucket truck cutting down branches from the tops of trees, a giant stump grinder grinding out giant stumps, chainsaws, and the like.  It was a lot of fun.

The boys' favorite parts (besides the new puppy we met at the office) was the chipper:

and the dump truck:

The chipper I get. It's super cool watching big branches get chewed up into tiny wood chips. But the dump truck? I mean, we live next to a quarry and see dump trucks every single day.  Lots of them. Every day. I guess seeing them by our house and actually sitting (and taking a 10 foot ride) in one are two different things though.

My favorite part was when Finn decided he was going to help. As we stood watching the wood chipper chip wood, Finn looked around, found a stick (small branch) that was a bit bigger than he was and started carrying it towards the machinery.

Thankfully it tripped him up before he got very far with it, so I decided that where it landed was the perfect place to make a pile of sticks and branches for my dad's workers to then pick up and put into the chipper themselves. Zeke and Finn loved this and enjoyed it. Deacon wasn't as thrilled, but he got his fun later in the dump truck.

He's so cool.

After the dump truck we were hungry so we went back to the office for lunch. Well, Zeke and I walked across the street to the deli to order lunch while my dad took the other two boys back out to check out his mini bulldozer thing. I don't remember what it's actually called, but Finn asked for a bulldozer that morning, and this was the best we could do and it was perfect.  All in all, a really good time was had by all. Thanks, Dad!

We All Got Older

Since it's been awhile that I've been diligently blogging here, we have all had a birthday come and go. I'm almost embarrassed by that. Looking back, the last birthday I posted about was Deacon's 6th birthday. I never posted how big he weighed in at his physical that year, and now I can't find my numbers anywhere. I think he was 47" tall because that put him at 1 inch too short to ride the big slides at Frog Falls last summer. As for his weight, I don't know. Moving on.

After Deacon comes Josh in the birthday order of things.  Josh shares a birthday with his mom, so the weekend before we went down to visit his parents, making a short visit to the beach.

On his actual birthday, I had PWOC. Before I left for the evening though we had a nice dinner and some cupcakes (Katherine joined us for those), a little celebration for the birthday boy.

Following Josh is Zeke, with Me being right behind. I actually did post about our birthdays here. See? I'm such a mess. What I didn't post then was Ezekiel's height/weight numbers. Those I do actually have and will post here for any future time when I may need them - assuming I can remember where I posted them, that is. So, at 8 years old, Zeke came in at 52 1/2" (85ish%) and 56lbs (50%). This means, once again, Zeke is tall and skinny just like his dad.

This brings us now to Finn, who turned FOUR in May of this year. Finn's birthday was celebrated in the usual style - family over for dinner, cake and presents (not necessarily in that order).

Finn weighed in at a lot of pounds for who still insists on being carried around almost everywhere (42lbs [90%]) and measured 42" (90%). He's a big kid. When we pick up the boys from school, most days I just look at how Finn is either as tall as or taller than quite a few of the kids in kindergarten and first grade. I get that he's trying to keep up with his brothers, but this is a bit ridiculous.

Now we come full circle back to Deacon who turned SEVEN (what?!) this summer. Another birthday, another family party (this time some friends came too - hello Davis and Aguerra families!).

This birthday was a little extra special because a new member was added to our family. I wrote a post about The Turtle Stark (what I've been referring to him as recently), but here's a pic from the day he arrived.

On Deacon's actual birthday we had cinnamon rolls in lieu of cake. Yum!

Deacon, at his most recent physical, weighed in at 56 1/2lbs (about 80%) - he now weighs more than Zeke does, and measured 49" tall (about 70%) - which means he grew 2 full inches in the past year. Sheesh.

Well, now that this is finished, I feel better. I also managed to get this done before Josh's birthday came around again. Of course, this year he'll be in Florida on his birthday, so there probably won't be a post about the amazing party we had for him. Yes, that is why there won't be a post - he will be out of town...

First Day of School

Thursday (the 4th) was the first day of school for Zeke and Deacon. Boy, were we ready for it. My boys do get along with each other pretty well, but we needed a change of pace, and school provided just the thing.

Zeke is in 3rd grade now, and his teacher is a new teacher. She's been in the school the past few years as a classroom aide, but this is her first foray into soloing it. Deacon is in 2nd grade and he has the same teacher Zeke had for 2nd grade. We are all (teacher included) pretty excited about that. The boys seem to be making the transition from summer vacation to school year pretty seamlessly. Finn and I on the other hand...well, Friday, when we had no plans for the morning sort of sat around wondering what to do with ourselves for the day. (Answer: iPads whoo! I'm only partially kidding about that.)

This is the first full week of school. I also registered all 3 boys for soccer on base which will start in 2 weeks. Next week is the kickoff for both the evening and morning PWOC studies here. All of this means I'm about to become a very busy girl again, and I'm looking forward to it. I know it's going to be a really good year all around, and I'm excited.

And that's all the news for now!

Let's DO This Thing!

It's time for school to start again! Tomorrow, September 4th, is the first day of school for the older boys and I think it's safe to say we are all ready for it. Not that it hasn't been a great summer, because it truly has been, and I'm hoping to blog about some/most/all of it in the coming weeks. 

Actually,I'm planning on getting back into the swing of blogging things as the boys get back into the swing of school things. We shall see how it goes. Today I'm doing my best to get all of my pictures from the past year(!!!) in some sort of order to make it a bit easier for me. However, looking at the myriad of pictures I have to sort through and label and what's it, it might be a 2 or 3 day job. In other words, don't be surprised if you don't hear from me again until Monday.

Until then, here's a side-by-side from last school year. The first day of school is on the left, and the last day of school is on the right. 

It never ceases to amaze me how much they quickly they grow.

The Next Generation Begins!

Last week, the 13th to the 19th of July, Zeke and Deacon spent the week at Pine Bush Bible Camp. This was super exciting for a few reasons. One, it was the first time either of them spent a night away from home without us, except for Easter two years ago when they spent one night at my mom's. Two, my cousin, Candice, and I grew up going to and then working at this camp.  It was a HUGE part of my summer, life, etc, for a good 15 years or so. Needless to say, I was super pumped to have them go. They were super pumped to go as well, and seem to have a had a really good time.

I was also super pumped my sister, Katherine, was there to come along side the boys and lift them up when they were feeling a little down, and to just be there with them. She said Zeke did really well, and had a smile on his face all the time and loved it. She also said that Deacon wasn't as excited and kind of moved slowly like a zombie through the week, but that's essentially Deacon in a nutshell.  That kids have very little pep. I think Zeke got Deacon's helping of that.  I digress...They both said they had a great time and would happily go back next summer, maybe even for 2 weeks.

This meant Finn got to have Mama (that's what he calls me) all to himself for the week.  I do mean all to himself as Josh was in Indiana almost that whole time too. He left before the boys did and didn't get home until Thursday. So, what did the wee one and I do? Umm...

Monday we had a successful trip to the library:

Tuesday Finn "helped" me cut the grass in the backyard:

Wednesday he "helped" me do some laundry:

Thursday, Finn helped me take garbage and recycling to the dumpsters:

Finn is a HUGE fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (has been for a few years now) and before each of these chores, Finn would ask himself, "Which Mouseketool will we use today?" The answers being: scissors to cut the grass, a shovel to do laundry, and a flashlight to take out the garbage.

On Friday, Josh was home, so instead of chores, "we" played on computers: 

Like father like son.

So, the whole week Finn kept asking when we would go to camp and get his brothers. He asked every single day if we could do that. Every day.  Saturday rolls around, he climbs into bed with me and asks, "Where are we going today?" When I told him was the day we could finally go to camp and get his brothers he was all, "Umm...no. I don't want to do that today." What?! Well, get them we did, and I think it's pretty safe to say they all missed each other:

Welcome home Zeke and Deacon! I'm glad you had such a wonderful time.

PS. Thanks to Erna Tremper for taking so many great pictures and posting them on Facebook while the boys were gone! The first 2 pictures are from there. 

Third Week of June Recap

What a week. World Cup Fever has swept through our house, leading to many meals being eaten in the living room in front of the tv when matches are on:

The school's annual Award Ceremony was on the 19th. Zeke and Deacon both got Reading Awards for reading 20 minutes most nights during the school year.

Way to go boys! (Sorry the pictures are super bad. Phone camera + the back row of the gymnatorium = not so great pictures.)

We also had Deacon's family birthday party this week, on the 21st, but that'll be a post on it's own, once his actual birthday happens.

And that's all the news for now. Until next week, here's a picture of Ironman drowning in the abyss that is my bag:

Halp!