Will & Noah are 7!

Will and Noah got to make the plans today since they are the birthday boys! They chose to have lunch at Mi Mexico and go to the beach. Here Noah waits outside of Mi Mexico.
Ethan hanging out at the beach. It was 78 degrees and perfect out today!

The birthday boys!

Shooting hoops at the beach!

The boys were quite embarrassed at Mi Mexico. They were not at all expecting this!

Noah makes a birthday basket!

Barkley Square Park!

Melissa and I took the dogs to Barkley Square Park. It is about 35 minutes away, but well worth the drive! It is a 14 acre dog park. There is a big pond in the middle. Of course, only the three labs at the dog park were swimming in it. Abby had fun swimming with Bob and Lilly. Between the three of them, there was a chocolate, yellow, and black lab.. Hanzie stuck by my side the entire time. Nothing new there. He is a complete Mamma's boy.

We took them on a walk around the perimeter of the park in an effort to get them dried off!
A view of the park. You can't even get nearly the whole thing in one shot. It is huge!

Finley and Hanzie.

The labs swim!

Thanksgiving Fun!

Thanksgiving was a major success. Dinner turned out perfect, perfect I tell ya! After dinner Melissa and I took the dogs over to play with Bosco for a bit. After that we met up with the others at the park. We played basketball for a while. I didn't come in last place, so that too was a success! We just finished our bonfire and pie eating. Now I'm drinking my coffee and preparing to watch Hancock. There was a little downfall to the day. Poor Noah started feeling sick just before dinner and threw up tons! He didn't get any Thanksgiving dinner unless you count toast and pears a proper Thanksgiving dinner! He seemed to be feeling better during the bonfire and had pumpkin pie and hot chocolate.

Enjoying a hot chocolate during the bonfire.
I'm not sure why Chris looks like he is about to attack me!

My only little man that was willing to keep me warm!

Yes, it is cold enough for a fire in Florida!

A Few More Images

Some pajama dance action.

Wishes really do come true, right?

I think they are telepathically coming up with a joint wish here.

Dancing brothers.

Even more dancing.

More present action.

Sleepover Party!!

The kids had a great time last night. Everything went smoothly for the most part. The kids played for a bit and then had pizza for dinner. After dinner we played charades. It was boys vs. girls. Girls won! After charades we took a vote for opening presents or having cake. Not a single kid voted for cake! What were they thinking?? The boys opened their presents and after playing with them for a bit we did cake and ice cream. Then came the party favorite...pajama dance party! It got so hot during the dance party that they had to go outside to the freezing air to cool off! They got most of their energy out during the dance party and settled in to watch Space Chimps. Some fell asleep during the movie, and the rest shortly after. They split up between three rooms and actually slept from 10:30 to 6:30!

Cake time!

Making a wish!

The birthday cake.

The hot hit of the party...Bakugan anything!

More Bakugan excitement.

Abby got super excited to see Baby Josiah, but after that she was a nice, calm pup for the party.

The screaming hit record levels as Bakugans were opened.

Noah runs off to protect his score from the madness surrounding him.

Space Chimps was a hit.

The Calm Before the Storm!

Will and Noah are having their birthday party sleepover tomorrow. Since we so lamely have school tomorrow, we tried to prepare tonight as much as possible. They picked a Camp Rock party. They are really into rock and it is the only rock theme you can buy! It all works out since there will be so many girls at their party. I told them that if they had a sleepover they had to invite only the staff kids (teachers' kids) so it would be all kids we knew well. They agreed, so sleepover it is! Here is the beginnings of their band set up. They are adding the neon lights, fog machine and strobe light once Chris gets them out of the garage.
Their Camp Rock table.

I'm sure this will look completely different tomorrow evening.

Dog Beach!

It warmed up enough today to make it tolerable to go to the dog beach. Abby once again went crazy trying to capture shore birds. I'm not even sure capture is the right word!

Got sand???
Here is the crew on the boardwalk headed to the beach.

To the beach at last!

What Abby has her watchful eye on!

Ethan and Noah regretted getting soaked from the spray off the jetty. They were freezing the entire walk back. Will was smart enough not to get in the spray.

Twilight!

We were finally able to see Twilight! It just made me love Edward all the more! I think Chris may be falling for him by now too ;o) It was good. Chris has finally been able to see how much better books are than the movie since he finally read a book! Maybe it will encourage him to read more. Or perhaps, knowing Chris, he'll take the opposite view and say reading the book before seeing the movie ruined the movie and never read a book again! My mom took the boys to see Bolt in a neighboring theater. It was freezing! It was so windy at the movie theater that we were three stories up and the spray from the ocean was hitting us way up there! Brrr....

After the movie and a quick trip to Toy R' Us my mom and I took Hanzie and Abby up to the dog park. Abby had a good time as usual...minus the menacing pit bull! I'm not one to hold things to a stereotype, but I can honestly say that of all the pit bulls that have ever been at the dog park, not a single one has been friendly!

Off to grocery shop for birthday parties and Thanksgiving. My babies will be 7 in less than a week! sCaRy!

Various Stuff

I picked up my mom from the airport late last night. The boys are excited that Grandma is here and woke up early to see her. Unfortunately, they have school every day while she is here, but they get the afternoons and weekends. Today when we all got home from school we headed off to the park. We were planning on going to the dog beach, but it was too cold and windy.
It has been so chilly here that Hanzie has actually let Abby cuddle with him!

On Sunday afternoon we went to Pamela's birthday party. She had it at a local park and all the kids had a blast!

Look at the size of her pizza! It was HUGE!

Pamela carefully lights the candles on her cake.

We just got around to decorating our pumpkin on Sunday afternoon! Terrible...I know! We weren't home for Halloween so it just never got done. This is our "Edward" pumpkin. Certainly not as endearing as the real Edward! Oddly enough, I walked to Melissa's last night and there are equal number of houses decorated for Halloween as there are for Christmas.

Speaking of Edward...Friday people! I'm still not sure if I can handle the midnight showing and then spring up 3 hours later at 5:30 am to walk the dogs and head out for school. All the teachers at school will be sleeping on their desks by 10 am!

The Case of the Missing Shoes

Noah has been reading Nate the Great books non-stop since starting the first grade. I think it has all gone to his head! I walked Abby and Hanzie on Monday morning. My shoes were dirty from playing in the yard with Abby the night before so I made a point to leave them by the front door when we got home from the walk because they were still pretty sandy. On Monday night, Will and Noah decided to go to soccer with Chris and Ethan. I walk the dogs a few miles each night and could not find my shoes anywhere! I ended up walking miles in my flip flops. This continued all week and it was completely puzzling to me about where the shoes could have ended up. Hanzie has a habit of taking my shoes and clothes while I'm at work to sleep with. I checked all of his hang out spots and still no shoes! Today we were getting ready for Ethan's soccer game and I told Will that I had no idea where my shoes are and it was really bugging me. He screamed, "I know, I know where they are," are ran off to get them. He came back within seconds and with them in hand. I asked him where on earth he found them and he told me that he and Noah had hid them. Why you ask...well, I often offer the kids things if they find my missing keys, sunglasses, shoes, etc. I tell them that they need to be detectives like Nate the Great and get on the case. They decided that they would hide them and when I offered something they were planning on telling me they would look for them for a Slurpee from 7-Eleven! So, my shoes have been well hidden under one of their beds all week long while they were waiting for me to put them on the case!!!

I won't mention much about Ethan's soccer game since the retelling of his games is getting quite boring and repetitive. He scored a goal today and after that had a major confidence boost and played awesome to the end!

Shuttle Endeavor Launch Special

The launch was a success and of course we were there to witness it. Ethan has a soccer game in Orlando early tomorrow so we decided to stay in New Smyrna Beach for the launch rather than going down further South where the view would be better. The view was still pretty good from where we were. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the night. Not the greatest technically, but I can only do so much without a tripod. Enjoy!


Update: Chris forgot to mention the most exciting part of last night's launch! Mike and I organized Signatures in Space at school last year to celebrate Space Day. All the kids at our school signed a poster and our names are headed to the International Space Station as I type this! When they return, we will get the poster mailed back with a photo and signatures of the crew aboard to display at school. The kids at school, including our own kids, were super excited about the whole thing!

This is no picnic!

About 6 weeks ago, Ethan got bit by a couple ants on the playground behind my classroom. It was after school and just before we were leaving for the day. He didn't even mention it to me. I noticed his face was a bit puffy and red when I looked in the rear view mirror on the drive home. I just chalked it up to getting hot playing outside. We fell into our normal routine after school. The kids put their lunch boxes and backpacks away while I fed the dogs and leashed them up for their walk. We headed out the door and the kids grabbed their scooters. We got around the corner and Ethan said he was itching tons. I looked at him and he was completely swollen and COVERED in hives! We rushed home, and thanks from the knowledge of several experiences with Chris, I loaded him up on Children's Benadryl. He was breathing fine, but his face was swollen quite a bit. I put him in the car and headed towards the emergency room. By the time we got there it had started going down and he begged not to go in. I called Katie, our awesome pediatric nurse friend, and she gave me the okay to take him home after I gave her a rundown of the situation. I called the pediatrician the next morning and took him in the following week. He referred Ethan to an ENT to see how serious his reaction to ants is and to see if he is allergic to anything else. We get to his first appointment only to be told that they cannot do any testing because it was too soon after his bite. In order to get an accurate result you have to wait six weeks. The doctor prescribed an Epi-pen and we scheduled his second appointment which was today.

Chris took him this time. They did the allergy test, and no big surprise, he had a serious reaction to the ant venom! Duh...I already told you that. They did not do any further testing. I'm not sure why we had that appointment since we already knew it was a reaction to ants. Ethan saw the ants on him and felt the bites. He was bit three times on his leg and once on his finger. The swelling remained for quite some time in the spots that he was bit. Ethan could get allergy shots to reduce his reaction. It would take anywhere from 6 months to 5 years to work. Ethan wants no part of that and prefers to just rely on the Epi-pen. The doctor was indifferent about what to do. In fact, he looked Ethan, an eight year old, right in the eye and told him that it was up to him to decide what to do! Hello...I don't know many 8 year olds that will be willing to sign themselves up for weekly shots for the next 6 months to 5 years! Chris has the same allergy and was also prescribed an Epi-pen. I'm thinking that they both need to live in a bubble. In Florida, there is really no way to avoid fire ants!

Toy Room Meltdown

Today I insisted that the boys clean the toy room. Normally their version of cleaning the toy room involves throwing toys in any container, basket, or nook in the closet that can possibly hold one more toy. I sent them in there and told them to start with the baskets on the toy shelves. I gave them directions to empty them and sort them into the correct bins. Ha! Well, they emptied them and then just threw them into random bins again! So, I emptied them all out again and told them to start over. I heard just about everything after that! They were just going to throw them all out was the first one. Once they realized I wasn't going to argue that one, they decided that they would threaten to move out! Hmmm...at that point I may have just considered their request! I told them if they couldn't organize and take care of the toys they already had that they would have to return any toys or games that they got for their birthday and Christmas and put the money in their savings accounts. That really got them. Then they just decided to cancel their birthdays and Christmas. So, yes, "Christmas is cancelled!" Grandma arrives on Monday so I told them that they had to get the room cleaned so she would have somewhere to stay. Even that didn't work! So, the entire day has been a battle. Thrown in the middle was a trip to the grocery store. They finally "cleaned" the toy room. It still does not meet my standards, however, I'm done battling them and it at least looks presentable. They are now watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. When the kids melted down on that show I was quick to remind them that my day was just like that, but with 6 year olds and an 8 year old!

Sunday at the Inlet & More Soccer News

Ethan's soccer game did not go his team's way yesterday. They played extremely hard and were actually up by 2 at the half and then lost by 1 goal for a final 2-3 game. Our players played just about as hard as they could, but it just wasn't enough!

Last night Bryce spent the night and the boys had a blast. Will, Noah, and Bryce all slept in Will's bed! Not sure why since there are actually two beds in that room and one remained empty all night! Sophia and Paige came over to play and they all got to watch iCarly Japan.

Today Melissa and I took the kids and some of the dogs to the inlet. The kids had a blast and the dogs came home exhausted so I count that as a successful mission! Not sure what they were posing as...perhaps the birds that were on the beach???
Finley, Abby, and Jazz went to the beach. Hanzie stayed home to rest his injured paws.

The kids could have spent hours playing on the jetty!

On the other hand, Abby would have nothing to do with the jetty. She was not about to get up on those rocks!

Ethan and Will wave from the distance.

Abby was just resting and pondering what she would do with one of those lovely birds if I let her go after them! She truly thinks she has a chance of getting one.