Someone has been spray painting with a mask on that may NOT have covered the face entirely...

Walker went to school last Friday with a stomach that hurt... and while I thought it was from being overly hungry (since we had to eat early the night before) or because the size 10 pants were making their last wearing before I found size 12 over the weekend.  Regardless I send him out the door... along with myself and Ainsley... 30 minutes into school the Secretary appears at my office... Walker threw up! I brought him home... got him dropped off onto the care of Daddy (who doesn't handle throw up well... but took it like a champ) and heading back for the rest of my day.

I got a "Yea!" when I walked in from work and took over... curling up to  Bug who has drove me bonkers the past week with his, "I know attitude!" but having him curl up with his Mama and say, "Thanks for taking care of me!"  made all that exasperating behavior vanish.  He rallied Saturday to sell popcorn at Albertsons and was feeling like his ol' self Sunday morning.  Round 2 started shortly after 9am Sunday... lucky me!  Round 3 started Monday morning at 6am and lucky Ainsley was the winner!  Monday afternoon this was us...

The last healthy McFarland had never washed and hand sanitized so much in his life as he has this past week.  Just when we said if he could make it through Wednesday he might be okay... round number 4 hit in the wee hours Wednesday morning.

Oh my I haven't felt this sick for awhile... everyone at work said it was my initiation to public school.  Looking for flu shots soon!

Last Spring, Walker saved up and bought a Titanic model with his own money and there were many nights that looked like this...

School ended and then he lost interest when he discovered Minecraft.  Summer happened and another year of school started. The first story in their reading book was about the Titanic and he got a renewed interest.  Especially when the librarian told him that when he finished the model he could bring it to the library and display it in the glass cases.

Last weekend he worked really hard painting it just right...

And while he wanted to paint every little thing, we decided on just the "big areas" for his first model painting.  I didn't know if he'd have the patience to sit and paint and wait and paint.  But he did and Sunday night it was finished...

Monday morning off to school we went all smiles to show his class and put it in the display case.  I love how the librarian put it right by all the ship books...

Right now football...

and selling popcorn for Scouts is consuming our lives...

It's all good... busy... but good!

Ainsley had her open house this week...

Thankfully the only problem at middle school involves her locker... she has one of those "tricky" lockers that seems to work one time but not any other times.  The first couple weeks were oh so frustrating for her... it wouldn't open... she'd get frustrated... start to freak out... and the bell would ring... making more pressure... then finding a teacher to use the key on it.  We had many evenings discussing possible solutions... working on breathing moments to let her "get control" of the situation with out getting stressed and so on.

It's been Locker Woes from day one with the problem opening it and having a Locker "buddy" that doesn't share the same love of color coding and organizing as she does!  So she could not wait for us to come and see what she was doing wrong...

And of course first try it opened right up... she closed it and did it again... it stuck and so we figured it out that when you are pulling up on latch it moves the lock combo and doesn't work.  As long as she puts the combo back to the last number it should open... The inside, oh my mess... the bottom was worse... locker buddy's wrappers, left over bags that supplies came in etc.  Any guesses as to which area is her's?..

We were able to meet all her teachers which was nice to put a face with the name.  Her favorite class by far is ceramics. She got to show us her current project... a vase.  Her's is the one with the two handles in the back of the art locker... super cute!

Walker's had football practice for the past two weeks... every single day.  And finally this week was their first game...

They are the grizzlies this year... and boy was he bummed that he didn't get to pick out his jersey number this year... it was just luck of the draw. He was the only kid to have his name on it though...(the coach's business sponsored the team and they are in the business of headstones)

He's been playing middle linebacker or the cornerback position again this year...(he's the one standing on the right hand side in the blue shirt.)

It was a rough first game for all involved.. At what age does competitiveness drive outweigh the negatives?? I'm hoping it takes over soon... there is only so much positive attitude I can have before I (get the worse parent of the year award by) saying, "Suck it up... if your feet hurt well run harder!"  "Other team is physically holding you??...well move around, what if it was your sister holding you... I don't think we'd have a problem?"  Oh man here's to hoping that next weeks game will be better... I don't know if sports will be his thing after this year but he so needs the constant activity.

We have found a toy that our "Destructo Dog" might be able to make last for more than a week...

That would be a toy made for horses... yep you read that correctly horses!  It totally tires her out which is good since she's been cooped up way more than the summer now that "real life" has resumed.

So far it's holding up... just look at all those teeth marks!  It's pretty funny to see her carry it around by the handle throughout the yard. I'm afraid to just let her have it by herself in the backyard... just in case it does start to deteriorate but after 30 minutes she's dog tired!

A new Jeep is in the house... or more like in the driveway...

With my new job being... oh 200 steps away,  it came time to say good bye to the Honda... it just made no sense to us to keep an expensive car only for our weekly grocery trips.  We knew we needed to get something else and so an extended cab Jeep idea was born.  It was a crazy few weeks trying to find and negotiate a trade, a price, financing and getting an out of state vehicle.  But in the end the Jeep Gods smiled down on us and we have a new to us car in the driveway... making for one HAPPY husband!

We had our first Family Jeep ride last weekend... kiddos were super excited for road trip snacks... and large windows to look outside! Originally the plan was to have a picnic and take Ms. Willow but pouring rain made it just a quick ride.

There is Jeep project talk galore and even a few have been started and finished...

All in all a good car for us right now!

Walker had his first ever Raingutter Regatta at scouts...

The original plan was to work on it Labor Day weekend... luckily I checked the calendar on Tuesday and saw that I had the dates wrong... it was THIS Thursday!!  So it was just a quick build... no extra decorating but it was just like he wanted.

He and Daddy talked strategy until Daddy was told, "I've got it!!"  Hmm... who was most excited??

The race began... arms behind back... and blow...

It was 4 times down one gutter and 4 times down the other...

Times were added up and the winners were announced...

Little Bug got FIRST PLACE... man was he stunned and excited.  Fun Times!

School for the kiddos is moving right along...

The first day was a bit boring for both with the rules and regulations taking up majority of the the day.  By the second day Ainsley was finding all of her classes and quickly decided her Art class is her favorite... surprise... surprise.

Ainsley was issued both a locker and locker buddy... both will take some getting use to.  The locker has to have a "trick" to get it to open and locker buddy turned out to be someone who wasn't as thrilled as Ainsley was to organize and color code everything... HAH!

She has gotten use to coming and going on the bus... makes for a long day leaving at 8am and getting home at 4pm... I'm still trying to figure out how to listen to their days, get them a snack and still get dinner all in before Football in the evenings.  Once piano and homework start it will be an interesting juggle.

Little Bug had a rough start the first day but after realizing how awesome his teacher is he actually is  happily out the door to school in the mornings... phew!

Really ready for the weekend to catch up on menu planning... grocery shopping... and laundry... fun fun!