My daughter is on a mission

May was a really special month for our family.  Holly returned from her first year of college and got to spend 5 weeks with us just hanging out and preparing for her mission.  There were many games of badminton played in the backyard with her siblings.  Scott cut a court in our backyard grass and hung up a net so it was very official.  These girls are all better than me. :)

We took a fun trip to Seattle where we went to the top of the Space Needle.  It was a foggy morning so we couldn't see very far but we can now say we have been to the top.

We rode the monorail train to Pikes Place Market

We even got to see the gum wall there.  It was interesting. 

Holly took a quick trip back to Utah to get her visa and did some missionary shopping with her Aunt and Grandma. She found what she needed at the Sister missionary mall, Downeast basics, and Mikarose.

Here is Holly wearing one of her new dresses.  It is almost the same as her sister Megan's dress.

 Holly took my picture by our neighbor's gorgeous purple flowers.

 Holly also helped me with a project I had been wanting to do.  Replace the cheap broken border around our front yard tree with bricks.  Holly is pulling it off in this picture.

 We bought these aggregate cement bricks that can be placed in a circle.

And this is the completed project.  It took several hours but I'm happy with the result.

 Scott and I got to take Holly through the temple in preparation for her mission.  Then Holly and I went back to 4 more sessions together.

Holly hiked with her dad to the top of Rattlesnake Ridge

I helped Holly pack her missionary suitcases.  There is a lot of stuff packed into these and both weighed just under 50 pounds.

 Then finally we took her to the airport for her flight to Spain and said goodbye.  You can follow her mission adventures at http://sisterwalkerinspain.blogspot.com/

 Today I am thankful that:
*Holly made it safely to Spain.  She flew solo from Seattle to Paris without a phone.
*Holly played the piano every day for the 5 weeks she was home which was so fun to hear.  I wish my other kids enjoyed playing the piano.
*Seminary ended and school is almost over so the stress level in our house has gone down drastically.  Hurray!

A new pet

This year for her birthday Melissa asked for a pet hamster.  We made lots of trips to Petco to see their hamsters and hamster supplies.

Melissa drew a picture of what she wanted her hamsters cage to look like.

She did some research and found out everything she would need and how much it would cost.

She hung up these signs in the bathroom so we would save the empty toilet paper rolls for her to use in her hamster cage.

   

We celebrated her birthday and she got all the needed supplies.  Some of her siblings bought her stuff and we got her the rest.

She set up the cage that day and then the next day we bought the hamster.

 She brought it home from Petco in this cute red and white box.

 She placed it in the cage and it just ran around checking everything out.

 Here is the cage all set up and looking cute.  Melissa named it Minky.
                               
Here she is!  After a night with the hamster in her room we moved its cage downstairs because Minky makes a lot of noise during the night running on her wheel and drinking water.  She's been a good pet so far.

Fun at the Walker house

I thought I'd share with you a little of what we've been doing.  In March Nathan participated in his first pinewood derby.  Here is the track. It was hooked up to a computer and so it was able to record the race times precisely.

 The cub scouts got front row seats to watch the race.

 Here is Nathan with his car named dragon.  It was definitely not the fastest car, but it looked cool going down the track.

 We went to see the new Beauty and the Beast movie. Then, these two tried on Emily's costumes from when she played Belle in her school musical 5 years ago.

 Our amaryllis bloomed finally bloomed and it was big and beautiful.

 Holly had a cousin dinner with her Grandparents.  All six of these kids attend school together at BYU.  This summer one with graduate, two will head out on missions, and when they return from their missions the other three will have graduated. 

 Megan performed in another band concert.  She did great and her Grandparents came to watch.

 Melissa celebrated her 11th birthday.  Here she is with a few of her gifts.  She was very happy to get these new squishy toys.

 My flowers are blooming and so pretty.  I just love spring.

I hung Easter eggs on our tree and our neighbors blooming tree is awesome in the background.

 My daffodils look great.  I'm so glad I planted them this Fall.

Today I am thankful for so many things:
*Scott got a new job.
*Holly got to attend General Conference at the Conference center.  Very cool!
*We get to focus on Jesus this month and his atonement and resurrection.  Megan gave a great FHE lesson on it tonight.  I love when my kids teach Family Home Evening.

Ice Skating and Dragon construction

Earlier this month we had mid winter break.  Megan and Melissa asked me to take them ice skating so we invited three friends and headed to a rink in Kirkland. These girls had only been skating once before so they were beginners.  They started out clinging to the wall but were pretty good by the end of our skating session.

 Melisa and Maddie made a great team.

 Megan and her friends had fun skating together too.

 I hadn't been ice skating in 20 years but I still remembered how to do it and never fell once!

 I thought these little seals that you push were super cute.

Recently we had the blue and gold dinner for cub scouts.  Nathan got to design and make a cool cake to take there.  He found a picture of a dragon cake online and decided to make that.  He did a great job mixing up two cake mixes.

 Then dad helped us to cut up the cakes into the right size of pieces.

 Here the cake is cut and ready for frosting.

 Nathan made the icing green and then I put it on.  Nathan did all the decorating and made the wings with fruit roll-ups.

The blue and gold dinner was lego themed.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of the decorations because they were really cute.

There were camping themed lego sets displayed on every table and these fun legos were on the serving table.  Notice the cub scout and his cake!

 I thought this cub scout cake was interesting.  I did not try it.

 Today I am thankful that:
*Emily got to go with her great friend Chelsey to Hawaii over midwinter break.  She had an amazing time.

*Holly got her mission call to Spain leaving in June.  She wanted to go Spanish speaking foreign and we wanted her leave in May or June so she would be back in time for winter 2019 at BYU. I'm glad it worked out so well.

*My cousin gave me this amaryllis flower bulb and we have had a lot of fun watching it grow each day.  This is 2 weeks of growth. We are growing forget me not flowers in the blue pot beside it.