Pre Trick-or-Treat Fun!

The boys are so happy that Halloween is finally here! They started out with Halloween cinnabuns!
Kindergarten and 1st grade had a whole morning of Harvest Day stations. All the kids dress up as cowboys, cowgirls, or farmers.

Ethan used the tattoos that Aunt Lori sent for earrings!

Paige in her cowgirl get up! I don't know what happened to her hat!

Ethan's class just had all out fun all day! Here he poses with Emily and Pamela. This trio has been together in the same class for the last couple of years. They are a force to be reckoned with!

Bryce just arrived and the girls will be over in a bit. They are having their traditional Halloween pancake dinner. After dinner, we are heading over to Pamela's house to trick-or-treat with the entire crew. Should be fun!

Yes, even more soccer!

Tonight Will and Noah had another game. They lost Monday's game. I wasn't there to see it. Tonight they won, and won big! I think they said the final score was 8-0. We lost count mid game. Noah scored three and Will scored two. Ethan had practice and fell and hurt his arm. He was tired so what normally would have been a brush off turned into a major event. In the end, he pulled himself together and got back in the scrimmage. It took some convincing though!

It has been chilly here in Florida. I took full advantage of it and had all my favorite hot beverages. The morning started with Sugar Cookie hot tea, the afternoon was coffee time, and now I just made hot chocolate! It is supposed to be back in the 80s this weekend so my time is limited!

The boys are looking forward to trick-or-treating on Friday. Ethan has a game on Saturday. This game is far away as well. We are finally getting a taste of the travel involved in traveling soccer! Will and Noah's last game is next Wednesday and Ethan's season wraps up the Saturday before Thanksgiving so we are winding down!

Look, Abby has made her own costume!!!

I do believe Abby has decided to be a bag of Nutro Max for Halloween! Today after we opened her new food and poured it in the food container, Abby decided to see if she could find any bits left at the bottom of the bag. Little did she know that she wouldn't actually be able to get her head out! She was standing like this just trying to figure out what to do. I took a video which is even funnier! She certainly gave the boys and me a good laugh after school.
We took advantage of the perfect 77 degrees and headed out to the park with the dogs. Here will and Noah collected citrus from the many, many citrus trees around the park.

This is group shot take one. It is impossible to get a picture of the boys, never less adding two dogs in the mix!

Abby enjoyed watching the pelicans diving in the river when the boys played. Yes, she does indeed need to wear that Gentle Leader head harness or she will yank my arm off!

Hanzie was done after the walk around the ponds!

This bird let the boys get right next to it. When I approached with the dogs it was smart enough to get out of there!

This is take two! Not much better!

Tonight Will and Noah have a game and Ethan has practice. The weather will be perfect for soccer.

Playground and New Toy

Last night we went to the playground at the beach. The kids had a ton of fun running around and in general acting crazy in the cooler weather. The dogs have been enjoying the cooler weather as well.

Abby shows off her new favorite toy. Okay, she has lots of "favorite" toys but this is the newest. It has a loud annoying sound and she is quite pleased with herself whenever she makes that loud noise! (Her playmates have one and she always loves to play with theirs so now she has one of her own.)
Noah at the beach. (He hates his new haircut! He says it is WAY too short.)

Will was quite happy with his new cut.

Ethan looks like he is about to fall asleep!

Today Ethan finally scored his first goal of the season. He is always on defense so it is a bit difficult for him to get scoring opportunities. He was actually playing defense when he scored today. He played an awesome game all around so the goal was just an added bonus. I think his team won 8-1. We lost count, but it must have been 8-1. We were thinking it was 9-1, but the game would have been called. Chris has pictures which I'm sure he'll post one day in the not too near future! It was a perfect day for soccer. The high was in the upper 70's and it was sunny and breezy. Tuesday is supposed to be cold here! I wish it could be cold when the kids go out trick-or-treating on Friday, but we'll take what we can get!

From Goldielocks to Golden Locks

Yes, it has been a while since I last gave the boys a haircut. So long, in fact, that I was starting to confuse them for girls. Surely you have even noticed this in some of our recent postings. Look at this one, for example. I know Jen claimed that these were Halloween costumes. The shirts and the glasses are, but not the hair. You'd be amazed at what a little gel can do to tame hair like this. She was just too embarrassed to admit the truth. Even I was in denial. I'm happy to report that their hair is of normal length now and they are cute boys again. I'll post some pictures in this post later to celebrate the occasion.

This morning, before I realized it was pouring rain, I promised Will and Noah that I would take them to the skate park. Of course, we went anyway. A little rain never hurt anyone anyway, right? No horror stories here. They had a blast skating and scootering through the puddles and generally just getting soaked. I enjoyed watching them - from the comfort of the rear hatch in my SUV.

Fall Literacy Night

Tonight at school was literacy night. Mrs. Crandall and Mrs. Adams read the kids some fall stories, sang songs with them, and did a little craft project. At the end of the evening they each got a pumpkin, book, and punch. The boys had fun as did the rest of the kids.

Ethan hangs out with Nick in line.
Will, Noah, and Emma ham it up in line for their pumpkin and book.

Sophia got to pick first since they lined up by age.

Here they are outside Ethan's classroom.

Also taken outside Ethan's classroom. (His classroom is directly next to the media center.)

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day. The boys do not have school. Unfortunately, it is a teacher duty day so I do! We just got back from walking the dogs and it is so windy out. The boys took their pumpkins on a tour of the neighborhood to introduce them to all the other pumpkins and jack o' lanterns around.

Ethan has a soccer game on Sunday. It was supposed to be Saturday, got moved to Sunday, back to Saturday, and now is on Sunday again! The other team keeps changing their mind. Personally, I was hoping Ethan's coach would say, "Okay, we'll move the game to Sunday if we play on our fields!" The game is far away this time (over an hour), so it would have been nice to keep it at home. I mean, we are letting them move the day and time so they don't have to forfeit, the least they could do is move it to New Smyrna Beach!!!

Wishlist

Many people have started asking what they should get the boys for their birthdays and Christmas. I have started their wish list on the right. We too will be purchasing from this list so I will try to remember to delete our purchases as we go!

Cheetahs Take Their Prey Down

Will and Noah had their 7th game tonight and the Cheetahs did not disappoint. They won 4-0 this time. Of course, Will and Noah had a great showing as well. Will scored two goals. Noah didn't score any, but he still did great. Of course, I teach them that it is not just about scoring goals - which it isn't. Sorry for constantly posting soccer pictures on the blog, but that's pretty much our lives right now. Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays are all spent playing soccer. No complaints from me though, because I love soccer too. It keeps me young...ish.

Will splits the defense.

Not sure what Will is doing here - maybe trying to show off his juggling skills?

Noah's got some power in those skinny, little legs of his.

As you can tell from this picture, tonight was perfect. It's nights like these that make living in Florida worth it.

Here is Ethan after his practice was over. He usually practices for a couple of hours, so he is typically exhausted afterwards. I guess not too tired to ham it up for the camera though.

As a side note, one of Ethan's teammates, Nick, made me laugh so hard tonight. When we arrived at practice, he told me that he liked my sunglasses and that they made me look cool. He went on to ask if I wear them to get the ladies. It may not sound funny now, but he had me and the other parents laughing pretty hard. The kid is too funny!

Hallodork!

Noah was going through the Halloween bins and found Chris' costume. He even ran into his room to get his Chapstick out!

Will was feeling left out!

Strikers Win...Again!

When the Strikers win, they win big! The game was called just after the half because of the mercy rule. The score was 8-0 and once a team is up by 8 they call the game. I was bummed because Ethan normally plays defense, but since they were up by so much the coach moved them around and Ethan was playing up for the few minutes that they played the 2nd half. Just before Ally scored the last goal to end the game, Ethan had an awesome shot! It went right off the goalie's glove. The grass was wet this morning and so was the ball as is evident in the water flying off the ball in this picture.
The Strikers had nothing to worry about this game!
One of the few moments that Will was actually paying attention to the game.

While Ethan's team warmed up for an hour before the game started, I walked Will and Noah over to the stadium. A few of the kids from my school were either in the football game or cheering. I had been promising one student that I would make it to one of his games but they always clashed with Ethan's soccer games. Since this was the last game of the season I had to make an appearance. Will and Noah were super excited to go into the stadium. We aren't football fans so we had never been in there! They thought it was so cool and got a little bored when we headed back over to the soccer fields!

They're Back!

The boys won Wednesday night's game 5-1. Will and Noah each scored 2! Ethan had a scrimmage against the U10 team and won! He was excited about that. (He is on the U9 team.) He has a game tomorrow morning.

Twins working the field together!

Is he dancing or playing soccer? I'm confused.

Luckily, he looks bored in the goal.
Their dream is to one day play the big stadium. Okay, they never play soccer in the stadium, but perhaps by the time the boys are a bit older soccer will have gained more respect and they will get to play in there!
I couldn't be happier that it is Friday! Ethan doesn't have to be at the fields until 9:00 and it is a home game. That should mean that I get to sleep in a bit. Now just to see if Abby and Hanzie will cooperate with that idea!

Where does the time go?

The last few weeks have completely flown by! We have been busy with all sorts of activities and next week really doesn't look much better! Tonight Ethan has soccer practice from 5:30 to 7:30 and Will and Noah have a game at 6:30. We had a similar schedule on Monday. Will and Noah's team tied again, 1-1. Will made the single goal for the team. Hopefully tonight they will win by a landslide again! I will miss tonight's game. I am going to take the dogs to the dog park while everyone else is up at the fields. Tomorrow night Chris is going to play flag football after work and I have a faculty meeting followed by a PTA meeting so the dogs will only get us from 3:45 to 5:30! I can't do that to them two nights in a row!

The boys are getting really excited about Halloween. Will and Noah picked out costumes over the weekend. Will is going to be a Transformer and Noah is going to be Iron Man. They have been making project after project for Halloween. Tonight they all started writing Halloween stories. I will have to post them upon completion. So far they are quite entertaining.

The boys kept us fully entertained with hilarious statements last week. Chris and I were in tears several times. Will's story may be a bit inappropriate to share on a blog and, well, Noah was ready to get lucky last week!

I think Chris has some pictures floating around somewhere. I have none at the moment.

Is it possible?????

I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be as obnoxious as Noah, but it appears that he has met his match!

Halloween Countdown Begins!

Yesterday morning Ethan had a soccer game in Orlando. It was a fair match between the teams, but Ethan's team came out victorious with a 4-2 win! Since we were already in Orlando, we went to IKEA and the mall. The boys were excited to have lunch at Johnny Rockets. I think the adults were hoping for The Cheesecake Factory!

When we came home, we began the first of our Halloween preparations. The boys and I love to bake so you can guess that our first preparation would be holiday cupcakes!

Noah

Paige
Ethan
Emma
Sophia

Will

Today we made our first craft. We went for the simple drawing to break into the holiday craft bonanza. So, here are our Halloween drawings! Can you see any similarities?

More Soccer, More Fun

So Will and Noah won their third game of the season. The team they played unfortunately didn't stand a chance; does anyone really? Here are Will and Noah right as the game was starting. They look relaxed, one might even say bored, but they are about to bring the thunder!

Deer in headlights?

Usually soccer games are calculated based on a number of statistics, including possession time for each team. When Will plays, he has so much possession time, there is no need for statisticians. You just know.

"Hmm, where is everyone else?"

Like a seasoned veteran, Noah works the ball toward the corner.

The little man can dribble, and fast at that.

Looks like the other team brought a knife Size 2 ball to a gun Size 3 fight game. Noah is "untouchable" here.