Grandparent's Day

 Every other year, Walker celebrates Grandparents Day. I am often sad thinking about the fact that my children will only know 1 set of Grandparents, but then I feel incredibly blessed that they the pair they have our rock stars! They love their grandchildren fiercely and their grandchildren love them right back! Parents aren't involved in the celebration, so I just have the photos that Noni sent. It started with Beckett's on Thursday and Jackson's on Friday. They do a craft together and put on a special performance. Beckett sure does love his Granddaddy!

 Beckett putting on his show!

 Craft time!

 Hmmmm...which one did which?








Jackson's show. Jackson was a little nervous, because he was 1 of 4 2nd graders picked to go up front for the show. He did great! Noni recorded the whole event and it made both of us cry!

 Such a lucky kid!!

 Spring mean golf again! Jackson is taking lessons on Sunday afternoons with some buddies. Such a cute golfer!!

Getting instruction...

 Four!

 This one is playing tball and soccer and doing great in both sports! He is cranking off the pitch almost every time!

 The sweetest time with Beckett is bedtime. He always tells me how much he loves me and LOVES to cuddle! I thought this was so cute with the little heart stamp.  He melts my heart!! Bedtime is also Beckett's thinking time. He says some of the funniest things before bed! The other night, he was holding his Lego ship that he built and he said, "Mommy, how do peoples know that if peoples have germs and touch my lego, the germs get on my lego when you can't see them?" I said, "Well, you can see them under a microscope because it can see things way smaller than our eyes can." He said, "Mommy, my boat is way too big to put under a microscope!" I said, "That's right buddy. They take a swab of the boat, put the swab on a slide, and then look at the slide." He said, "Mommy, you are a genius....and very nice'" :) After that, he said, "Mommy, we are reading a book about a dinosaur that became "stinct" when someone clapped their hands. But, that is fiction. But, the dinosaurs are really stinct." I should record our bedtime conversations so that I can listen to them when he's older!!

 Jackson had to do a flat Stanley project. This is what he wrote he would do if he was flat. He sent Flat Stanley to visit his Grandparents in Kiawah!

 Our friends, the Wonders, were celebrating their 10 year wedding Anniversay. They just had a  new baby girl, and weren't really comfortable leaving her yet. I offered to help and we babysat all 4 girls while they had an adult dinner in the square. I'll tell you what! Girls are way easier than boys!!! They are so quiet!! Here they are watching Moana.

 Just like riding a bike! A girl looks good on him!!

I just couldn't believe how calm and quite 6 kids could be!

 Jackson had his first baseball tournament of the season! It was in Cumming, Georgia and he had to be there at 7:30 am that Saturday, so Jackson and Daddy headed down Friday night and stayed the night in a hotel. Jackson was so excited for this special 1 on 1 time! He played great! He went 3/5 with 1 Single with an RBI and 2 walks with RBIs. I have to tell this story though. Jackson was on first base and got into his secondary position to steal 2nd. He didn't realize that the catcher through the ball and he was picked out at first. He was so upset and started to cry in the dugout. Jackson is just like his mommy and super hard on himself. I knew this could ruin the rest of the tournament for him, so I walked over to the dugout to give him a little encouragement. When I got there, I didn't have to say a word. Several of his teammates had rallied around him and were hugging him and telling him it was okay. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen! Jackson perked right back and played great the rest of the game! I was so touched at the kindness of the children because I know not every team would have reacted the same way.

 It was a long, cold day. The had a game at 8:30 and played again at 10:30. We started off slow and lost our first 2 games. The boys looked a little rusty at first, but started to warm up. We were all in the stands trying to stay warm!

 Warming up!

 Jackson pitched in the 2nd game and did great! He struck several people out and no runs were scored on him! After the second game, we learned that we were going to have to play again at 8 pm. There was rain in the forecast, so they moved some of the Sunday games to Saturday. Well, Beckett had a tball game at Oregon Park. We all got in the car and drove to Oregon Park to cheer on Beckett!

 All ready for his game!

 Beckett did great! Made several stops and throws to first and hit the ball like a champ! Here he is waiting on second. So cute!

 After Beckett's game we headed home for a couple hours and waited to hear if we played again at 6 or 8. We played at 8, so at 6pm, we got back in the car to drive back to Cumming again. It was cold and it started to rain! Despite the adverse weather, the boys played great and won! We were ready to continue the winning streak the next day. We didn't get home until 11 pm that night and Jackson was exhausted! Well, the rain didn't stop and they ended up canceling the games for Sunday. It was a little bit of a bummer because there was no winner or loser. It was just cancelled! Oh well! We have another tournament next weekend, so we will see how that one goes!

 Noni worked really hard on taking Flat Stanley on some great adventures in South Carolina! Here is Jackson's poster presentation.

 Jackson had his art show, but we didn't get to go because Jackson was sick. I volunteered in Jackson's class this week and his teacher was nice enough to let him show me all his art. This is "Friends' inspired by Shel Silversteine.

 Art made from a book.

 Portrait with all his friends names around it.

 The homework machine.

 This crazy kid! He has had a spacer in for 2 months now and we found out that he will have his braces placed on April 12th!

 It was so nice outside, we decided to do a little art outside.

 Beckett is gearing up for the Easter bunny, so we painted an egg.

 We bought some new sidewalk chalk and had fun coloring in the eggs. Beckett has been working really hard on learning his letters and numbers. I wrote the alphabet on the driveway and we played a game where I picked up an item and he had to put it on the letter that it started with. He did really great and knows A-G! So proud of his hardwork!!

This one loves playing 1 on 1. He challenged granddaddy to a game......Jackson won.
Thank you Noni and Granddaddy for spending the week with us! We loved having you and can't wait to come to Kiawah for spring break!

Valentine's Day and Jamaica!!

 Happy Valentine's Day! This year, the boys got candy, book, and stuffed bears. Jackson's favorite chocolate is still Reese's peanut butter cups and York peppermint patties. His current favorite animal is a penguin, which is why he got a penguin book.

 Beckett's favorite chocolate is Kit Kats and Reese's Peanut butter cups. His favorite animal is still cats and alligators. Every week from the library he brings home a book on alligators or crocodiles. :)

 Jackson really doesn't play with toys per se. He is mostly outside playing some sort of sport or Nerf gun war. He does, however, still like collecting football cards, so that was his main present this year.








Beckett still loves legos and of course....Boats!!

This year for fall break we headed to beautiful Jamaica! It was an all inclusive resort at the Hyatt and we had the BEST time! It started off with getting a free upgrade to an ocean view suite!!

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Enjoying the view from our room!

Our flight was delated due to a potential rocket launch in Fort Lauderdale, so we arrived later than we had hoped. As soon as we settled, we headed out to explore the resort. They had a the National Jamaica Team goalie there and the kids were given the opportunity to score a goal on him.







Goal!! Somebody is ready for soccer this year!

The weather could not have been more perfect! 85 and sunny during the day with 0 humidity. It would get a little cool at night so you they had these firepits all around the resort. Beautiful!

 I think my kids loved the all inclusive aspect the best. Because they knew they could try something else, they all tried all sorts of new foods. We learned that Beckett likes ceviche and pineapple salsa.

 Jackson also loved the pineapple salsa and steak! They had 6 different restaurants on the property. 1 of them was a Brazilian steakhouse and Jackson loved the steak! Beckett loved the turkey.

 We booked a couple of excursions through the resort. The first one was boblsledding, ziplining, and climbing the Dunns River Falls. I would say that this trip not only taught my children to try new foods, but also taught them patience. We had to take a 2 hour bus ride to get to the falls. That was 2 hours without any digital entertainment each way! They did so great and used their imaginations to entertain themselves. Here we are on the gondola ride to the bobsledding and ziplining.

 Love these faces!

Bobsledding in Jamaica?

 Cool runnings time! You control your speed and I must say, I was a little nervous on the turns that we were going to flip off into the tiny little net they had in the corners, but we didn't!

Getting all suited up for ziplining!

 Family shot!

Beckett was up first! I was a little nervous for him!!

My little adventurer loved it! 

 So did Jackson!

Daddy getting a little crazy!

That face says it all! This was by far his favorite part!

Pro!

The other days we relaxed at the resort. I cannot describe how beautiful the water was!! I got to play beach volleyball and do a boot camp on the beach. Jackson met a friend and they played catch all day in the water and basketball at the pool. It was such a fun and relaxing trip!

This one loved the beach! It was nice because there were rocks that almost completely encased the area. The water was as calm as a bath tub and looked white because it was so clear! There were all sorts of fish and crabs so we had fun exploring!

Love this kid!!

Sweet brothers. They were so cute together and played so well with eachother!!

Exploring time!

Looking way to grown up!

May not so baby baby.

I think Jackson, Beckett and Greg played catch for hours!!

Beckett going for a deep one!

Taking a break with mommy!

The moment Beckett had been waiting for....fishing on the boat! Here is Captain Beckett!

Waiting patiently to pull in that monster trophy fish!

Family shot! Beckett technically was not old enough to go deep sea fishing, so we paid extra to have the boat to ourselves and so he could reel one in!

Still waiting......

Where are all the fish mom?

There are no fish! Like I said, this trip taught my children the value of patience. We were on that boat for 4 hours and did not get a single nibble! Beckett still enjoyed his time on the boat, but Jackson was a little bored. They again did great without a single complaint though!

The picture just doesn't due it justice! SO BEAUTIFUL!

 

What an amazing trip and so many wonderful family memories! I am already thinking about our next adventure! We are home now and full on in spring sports. Jackson is playing baseball and lacrosse. He had his first lacrosse game and did amazing! It is amazing how much he has improved since fall season. He caught every pass that was thrown to him, had 2 assists for goals, and stole the ball multiple times. He is so much more aggressive and definitely one of the best players out there. He also has his first travel ball tournament this weekend! Beckett is in tball and soccer. Beckett had his first tball game. He did great! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures because I was with Jackson at baseball and Greg was coaching. He fielded a ball and tagged a runner out at second, he got on base every at bat, and he had a slide into third to avoid a tag. Go Beckett!!