Walkers' Week

A virus made its way through our family this week - Boo, hiss. Bill is the only one who escaped, probably because he was at work all the time :-). Happily, we made it to all of our activities. We dragged, but nobody was really sick when they needed to be somewhere. But when we had a break, we crashed at home!

Kelsey all snuggled into the recliner

At a cook-out at Bill's sister's house (thanks, Lisa.)

Keegan forgot to take an extra shirt for swimming, so Aunt Lisa let her wear home this giant red shirt. She LOVES it and has been wearing it every day since :-).

How sweet is this?!?

I found this on my pillow last night and my heart practically melted. These unexpected sweet moments are so precious.

We're Off...

to see the Wizard!





All three girls learned Friday that they were cast in The Wizard of Oz. Keegan and Kelsey are dancing poppies an Caitlyn is an Ozian child. We aren't sure what an Ozian child is, but will find out soon. Of course, we're all very excited.

Caitlyn has her first rehearsal tonite and Keegan and Kelsey have theirs tomorrow.

FFF - Stuffed friends

This is a great theme for our family. None of my girls has ever had a stuffed animal that she sleeps with every night, but they have a couple of inanimate friends with great personality.

This is Agamemnon. One great thing about him is hearing everyone try to say his name :-). Agamemnon is a marionette that my mom bought in Czechoslovakia many years ago. OK, he isn't really stuffed, but I am counting him anyway. He hangs in our family room and eats waffles for breakfast every morning.

Our most famous stuffed friend is Kook, full name Kook BigHead Walker. Kook belongs to Keegan. She found him in a crane machine in a grocery store a couple of years ago. Since then he has become an integral part of the family and had many adventures. Kook traveled with us to Washington (he loved the Metro,) and had his picture made at all the tourist attractions (pre-digital, or I would post one.)

Kook has his own closet, wardrobe, and television station - KOOKTV (especially interesting since we don't have a TV :-). KOOKTV has changeable stations, with Red Fire TV being the favorite.

Kook has a real obsession with chocolate. Whenever anyone in our family says the word, "chocolate," someone will say, "Kook is running!" (running to us to eat the chocolate.) So, we call chocolate, "C," to keep Kook at home where he belongs.

Here is part of a report Caitlyn wrote about Kook...

"He used to watch Singin' in the Rain every morning about 2am, but when he heard the "Good Morning" song, he would try to wake up Keegan, so he got banned from watching it after 8:30pm. "

Kook even has an imaginary counter-part, ImaginaKook, who goes with us to places (like the water park) that Kook can't go.

My girls have had so much fun with Kook. I love to see their creativity and imaginations at work!

And finally, a few shots from an at home pet show. They had categories (my favorite was "dress like your pet",) scores, awards, and all.

15 years ago today....

Good morning

Wrestling around on Monday morning before starting the day :-)!

FFF

No theme for me this week, just a favorite photo - Bill & Keegan at bedtime

Kelsey Quote

Asking about a song that was in the show she was in this summer....

"Didn't Bailey (a little boy from the show) go on stage during "Uptown Girl?" Why did he go on stage since he can't be an uptown girl? I KNOW, he could be the downtown boy!"

Correction

As I added the girls' pictures and ages on the left, Keegan saw hers "Keegan - 7 years old," and asked if I would please change it to say "7 1/2." In the interest of accuracy, I will tell everyone that she is actually 7 years and 11 months old!

So sweet!

Today Kelsey asked if she could have 2 thank you notes. Certainly not wanting to discourage that idea, I let her pick two. She then wrote notes to Caitlyn and Keegan that said, "Thank you for being my big sister. I really like it." How precious.

(I am blocking all thoughts of previous bickering from my memory :-)

Caitlyn's camera has a waterproof case and can go underwater. Which is very cool, and also very tricky to get the shots you want as people move quickly underwaterand it is very hard to see through the camera! But we are having fun with it anyway! Here are some shots, mostly taken by Caitlyn (with 2 obvious exceptions :-).

Caitlyn and Keegan doing backwards sit-ups. I tried this and only got water up my nose :-).
Kelsey - you won't find her underwater, but she has become a great jumper :o)
Keegan underwater

Caitlyn quote

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure."

This is Caitlyn, quoting from the first chapter of Prince Caspian. She is so excited about this being our ballet this year that she has started memorizing passages from the book!

(Caitlyn's feet are in the center.)

Kelsey's Logic

Kelsey often has bad dreams and comes into our room during the night when she gets scared. A few days ago I woke up to find her there and she enthusiastically explained, "Good news! I didn't have a bad dream at all, I just came to visit!" :-)

Summer Fun

This week's FFF theme was bed heads, an adorable idea, but I didn't have any digital pictures that fit, so I decided to post end-of-summer pictures, and leftovers from the rest of the summer.

Caitlyn and Kelsey

Keegan

Kelsey loves her Daddy We have some really neat building sets that let the girls build forts which actually stay up! They personalized them with some of their own baby blankets.

This year all three of my girls have gone from being very afraid in the water to loving it! I am so glad. Kelsey hanging onto my feet :-). Today she actually went under - on purpose - yay, Kelsey!

Keegan and Caitlyn have both learned to swim in the deep end - woo, hoo! This is a HUGE accomplishment for each of them.

Keegan jumping in at 11 feet!Caitlyn

A ShowTime leftover, Keegan in her rock outfit