August Highlights

Here is a taste of the Walker Family happenings this past month...

Como zoo...great place to go for half a day...close by, not so big, has rides too!

Our annual neighborhood party...we love our street...we have amazing neighbors!  Adeline is having a bit of fun!  Riley came along so that was an added bonus for Adeline.

Patrick and Clara with our neighbor Cole and his daughter Paige (the two girls are about 3 months apart in age).

sleepover!

We survived a terrible summer storm...all this happened very quickly and with amazing force...and Patrick was out of town!!  This was what was left on our deck...

The furniture and the grill flew across the deck and landed on the lawn.  Fortunately nothing too terrible happened.  Our screens had to be replaced, a little siding and roof damage, a new grill was needed, lost 3 smaller trees...thankful for God's provision, knowing it could've been so much worse!

the kids checking out the damage from the storm the next morning

Patrick putting the kids to work, cleaning the deck...they love this!

Addie started soccer!

coaches Dave & Chris (such great coaches!)

Grandpa and Grandpa from Iowa came up for a visit.  We spent an afternoon down in Stillwater.  It is a quaint little town on the river.  It has great eateries, and we found a great park!

grandpa & his little Clara

grandma with the kids

We enjoyed a weekend with Auntie Leah at the Otterlei cabin!  It's a beautiful place, and Leah was the hostess with the mostess, as always!

Charlie's first time on a tube

"Mommy, check out my curls..."

9 months old - Clara splashing around at Cascade Bay

Mia & Hye Young were here for Labor Day weekend.  We did a lot of playing!

We went to the Children's Museum.

July Highlights

This month Miss Clara started to crawl (just before 8 months old).  She "army" crawled for quite some time but eventually mastered the more "typical" crawl.  She gets herself around and keeps up pretty well with her brother and sister.  Clara continues to be mellow and easy going...we think the most mellow out of the three kids.  Patrick flew over the fourth of July holiday, but the kids and I made it to the local parade down the street from us.  We played outside daily - went to parks nearby, had lots of picnics, swam at the local pool as well as splashed around in the inflatable pool on our deck.  We enjoyed a weekend at Grandpa lowell's cabin in northern MN.  Ever since Patrick and I have been married, we say we will get to the cabin "a lot more this summer."  We have had terrible follow through on that.  But we do get up there once or twice each summer and when we do, we love it!  We are blessed to have such a beautiful place to enjoy and relax.  Toward the end of the month, the girls and I (once again leaving Charlie behind....poor little guy!)  enjoyed a few days with my dear friend Deb in Chicago.

I used to kind of mock moms who dressed their kids alike...but look at me, I'm doing the same thing! So if the girls have matching pjs, I just chalk it up to cuteness and sisters bonding...???

Clara met our long time good friend Todd (amazing singer at our wedding) for the first time.  He now lives out of state so it was good to catch up with him!

These two....they can make each other laugh so easily.  Love that.

Breakfast is great with a Mickey Mouse pancake and Dora!

enjoying the park with friends

two beauties!

Nothing like great lemonade and sweet goodies to bond girls (young and old) together.  Thanks Herveys for your hospitality!

enjoying a beautiful summer day at the Arboretum

takin it easy in the carseat

June Highlights

Patrick assembled a playset for the kids to use in our backyard.  We do have many parks close to us, but this is great to have right out the back door.  It's the perfect size because even Charlie can use all the features of this without any help.  For mommy (me), that was key!  When Patrick opened these boxes, there were hundreds of pieces of wood and oodles and oodles of screws.  This seemed a bit daunting of a task (to me anyway).  But within a day or so, it took shape.  Patrick did a great job!  And Adeline pretty much watched daddy screw each and every screw....a daddy's girl for sure!

 Good job Daddy!

and an added bonus is having rubber mulch in the play area...softer and cleaner!

The girls and I flew out to NYC to visit my sister in law and niece for the weekend.  My brother was gone on a business trip so it was just a girls' weekend!  Charlie stayed back with Patrick (until he had to fly) for a part of the weekend and then stayed a couple of nights with our good friends, the Ammermanns.  This was the first time I had been away from Charlie over night.  I felt bad about leaving him behind, but I knew traveling alone with 3 kids (ages 4, 2 and 6 months old) would be a bit of a challenge.

 Charlie sportin' his new bike helmet.  He really isn't riding a bike per say this summer, but he wanted to ride in the bike trailer with daddy.  He's kind of looking serious here about the whole thing...

 Addie and Charlie are getting some good use out of the new playset, and mommy is liking just opening the back door and letting them loose!

 sisters...4 yrs apart in age...

 Happy Father's Day to the best daddy we know!

 What are you doing in there Charlie?!

 Over 6 months old and getting ready to crawl... Adeline crawled at 7 months, Charlie crawled at almost 10 months....we will see when Miss Clara crawls.

  At grandpa's wedding