We went back to the park in Port Orange today to walk on the boardwalk and climb the observation tower. It was the perfect distance for the kids and a lot of it was through the woods.
Ethan brought his friend Emily along and they held hands almost the entire way to the observation tower. It was so funny.

Chris and Mike had a late soccer game tonight so the kids couldn't go this time. Melissa and I decided to have a pre-Halloween Halloween party for the kids tonight. We started off by decorating the house for Halloween. After we moved onto dinner and crafts. The kids enjoyed decorating their pumpkins and Sophia was quite thrilled with dumping the baskets of crayons out over and over and over again! She also gave herself green witch lips with the green marker.

We take our crafts seriously!
We have enough crafts and Halloween treats planned out to last us the entire month of October.

We did a little science experiment to figure out which ghost would spin. The ghosts' arms were bent in different ways and they had to guess which one would spin. Emma predicted the right one because, "it looked like a helicopter." Everyone else quickly changed their prediction once she pointed that out! We ended the night with a walk around the neighborhood with our spinning ghosts and we watched the Halloween Backyardigans.

Harry Potter popcorn party!!!

Well... now Ethan isn't feeling well! He was very congested after school today so when we came home I gave him some cold medicine. He promptly fell asleep on the couch so we skipped karate today. After dinner the boys danced to their motion cd and played soccer in the living room. Noah sang the ABC song about 1,000 times in a row. They were very excited because they taught Hanzie how to jump through a hoop! They just finished their hot chocolate. Chris actually made it from cocoa. Now vitamins, medicine, teeth brushing, mouth rinse, books, and finally bed!!!

Chris and I are ready for Lost!! See you in the next life brother!!!

Exciting news for the Schrader boys...they got their first school friend birthday party invitations today! Ethan's friend is having his party at Chuck E. Cheese on October 15th and Will and Noah's friend is having his birthday at Fire It Up (a paint your own pottery place) on October 8th. Of course this means more gift buying for us, but the boys are very excited.

My eyes are feeling much better today! Ethan was happy to have me back at school today.

The boys had fun on their Star Wars slip and slide yesterday. I stayed home today and finally went to the doctor. It turns out that I have a viral infection in both my eyes.

We went to Spruce Creek Park this afternoon. It is a 2,000 acre park in Port Orange. The kids had fun playing on the playground and we went for a little hike in the woods. There is a boardwalk and an observation tower but it closed before we got there today. We plan to go back soon to check that out.

I am not certain how we will ever manage sporting events with all three boys AND Chris. I'm having a hard time just keeping up with Ethan and Chris. We had an hour and a half after school to walk Hanzie, change everyone, eat dinner, and do the dishes before we had to leave for karate. After karate we had to go directly to soccer after a quick stop to pick up Melissa and Paige. The kids seemed to have fun at soccer so I suppose it was worth it.

Mike and Chris enjoyed their first game, and win, of the season. Chris actually scored 5 goals! Not bad considering he is one of the oldest people on the team. I do recall the days that he was the youngest!!!

Reading teacher, to karate mom, to soccer wife... At least I had Melissa to keep me company at the end of the day.

After Noah professed his love to Paige in the car on the way to soccer (he really did), they gazed at stars together.

We may not have changing leaves, but you can't beat palm trees surrounding the fields! Paige and Will posed with one.

Ethan is finally officially a Dragon, although the youngest one! He was excited beyond belief last night when he got his belt. I am still amazed at his bravery. There were at least 100 people there last night watching the belt ceremony. Not to mention, just being in the class with 7th graders would make me nervous. It didn't even phase him though. Since we live in a small community, we have the advantage of community involvement. A few of the teachers from the school came out to see Ethan get his belt! Just in case you were wondering... he did a hammer fist to break his board.

We finally started Noah on the antibiotic and cough suppressant yesterday. His cough continued to get worse. Hopefully this will help him out. His cough is still bad today.

Will has "lost his voice." He actually thinks it's funny when he tries to talk and it comes out sounding so weird! He is very emotional and temperamental because he isn't feeling well. Overall though he is taking it much better than Noah!

Ethan had his first "spat" at school. Ashlee apparently told him that she didn't want to be his friend anymore and that upset him greatly. I tried to explain that that's what little girls do and it only gets worse but he doesn't seem to believe me. He will in the years to come!! Since I eat lunch with them every day in the cafeteria and Ashlee and Ethan always sit next to me, I think we got everything worked out. At least for today!!!

It has rained non-stop here all week. While we needed the rain it's gotten quite depressing at this point! Luckily it is supposed to clear a little tomorrow and that is Chris' first soccer game. Ethan has his belt graduation ceremony at 5:00 and if we can get through that and make it to Chris' game at 7:00 the boys will go. They are dying to go and cheer their daddy on.

Well... for the last week our house has been a walking commercial for Day-Quil. Between the three boys and myself we have hit every symptom on the list! Poor Noah has been hit the hardest as usual. He had a fever for 4 or 5 days in a row. After not sleeping all night on Sunday because Noah's coughing and Will's belly ache, Chris stayed home with the boys on Monday and took them to the doctor. She prescribed a cough suppressant and antibiotic for Noah. We didn't fill either one yet since she thought he may get better on his own. His fever is now gone but he still has the cough. Will is beginning to get worse as well. Hopefully by the weekend we will all be back to normal. In the mean time she said no swimming for five days. Lucky for Noah that means he has the go ahead for Saturday!

The boys have actually kept themselves quite busy over the weekend and while they were home yesterday. Noah has played with Ethan's pirate ship NON-STOP for days now. Will has done nothing but play with his cars and Ethan keeps himself busy with school work or playing school. He has been enjoying his play practices but says he is still nervous about the big day. We have until October 13th to prepare him for it. He goes for his belt on Friday.

Chris' soccer season got delayed a week because the fields were not prepared. His first game is this Friday if all goes well. If Ethan gets done with his belt ceremony on Friday on time and Chris' game isn't too late, I'm going to take them to the game as well.

I have signed up for another ESOL course. Once again, it will be paid for by the district so I couldn't pass it up. It was torture last time and I'm sure it will once again. Luckily it will be over by the holidays so I can truly enjoy my 2.5 week vacation! I can't wait!!!

This week has been so hectic and it is only Tuesday!! School has been very busy with testing, which I am of course in charge of. We missed a day last week for the tropical storm so we had to play catch up.

Ethan had his first school play practice yesterday. He was unsure if he wanted to do it or not so the teacher in charge told him to come and see what it was all about and then he could make up his mind. Once he found out that his friends Andy and Mandy were also in the play he decided that he wanted to do it. He has practice again tomorrow. He came home last night singing his songs over and over again. Ethan has also been moved up to the karate class with the older kids. He is now doing karate with 7 to 12 year olds. I was a bit nervous for him but he is enjoying it. It is a lot harder and they have to memorize difficult forms but he seems to be up for the challenge. Chris and I were impressed yesterday because he was really holding his own with the older kids. He goes for his new belt next week so he is quite excited about that. He is only two belts away from a black belt. So, if all goes well, in January he will be an official Chun Kuk Do black belt.

Will and Noah are still feeling out school. One of the teachers came up to me yesterday and said that Will is suddenly very quiet in class. He is normally shy but he had been okay at school. Hopefully it is just a phase. They had their school pictures taken on Friday so I am anxious to see them. I think Chris picked them up this morning when he dropped them off. Noah decided not to be a karate spectator yesterday and went to Melissa's to play. Apparently they had a nice tea party and Noah dressed up as a pirate. I'm still not sure how that all goes together but I suppose he was trying to preserve his manhood while having a tea party with the girls!

Chris is supposed to be starting soccer on Friday. There is some confusion as to when his first game is. Hopefully he will figure it all out. He is really looking forward to playing again. He hasn't played for several years.

I hope all is well with everyone!

The boys wore their matching pajamas tonight. They became some sort of wild gang when we put them on.

We had a good weekend. The weather was once again sunny and breezy just in time for the weekend. Yesterday we went swimming and did our grocery shopping. Today we went to two different parks. The boys are into playing soccer so they kicked the ball around after they played on the playground for a bit.

I am exhausted even though technically I should be rested up from the weekend. How does that happen??? We were excited to get an update from Aunt Kate. It was nice to hear from her and find out all the wonderful things she is doing to help the animals in Louisiana.

Off to plan for next week and grade some papers.

Ethan has asked me to post a picture of his new bed that got delivered yesterday. Here it is...

There was no school today thanks to Ophelia. Well, kids had no school but teachers were supposed to go. Obviously, I had to call in. I probably would have anyway because Ethan had a low grade fever both yesterday and today. He seems to be back to normal now. We spent the day in the moon bounce and baking a cake. We also went to Blockbuster and picked up some movies. The boys watched Mulan 2 today. There was really no reason to cancel school, it was just as windy and rainy yesterday.

I also included a picture of our new van. We bought a Dodge Grand Caravan SXT on Monday. We all love it. Our van was 8 years old and had nearly 100,000 miles on it so we thought it was time. Since it was a 2005 and had all the incentives, employee pricing, and interest rate deals we got an awesome deal. It has everything you can imagine in it. I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of the heated seats :o) The boys are most impressed by the 6 changer DVD player and all of the power doors and cool buttons.

Will and Noah have picture day at school tomorrow. Hopefully they do it first thing in the morning before they do their norm and cover themselves in paint! Thank goodness it washes out so nicely. Ethan has show and tell so we'll have to do a bit of thinking tonight.

Off for a walk in the newly upgraded Hurricane Ophelia. I just hope it doesn't turn around and really hit us as currently forecasted.

We went to the beach this morning with Melissa, her brother and sister-in-law, and her mom and Dick. It got a bit busy towards the end but the weather was perfect. There has been the nicest breeze all weekend. Chris played in the ocean with the boys for a long time until he became shark bait. He got a nice, big slice in his toe and was bleeding tons. We thought it best that he stay OUT of the water after that! Karen, Melissa's sister-in-law, kept the kids quite busy with her sandcastle building skills so we actually got to relax a bit!! Too bad Karen has to live so far away!!!

Today was a relatively "boring" day. Chris and I spent the day cleaning and the boys spent the day messing everything up! They did go swimming. Ethan finally tried out his new swim flippers. He went across the pool so much faster that he slammed his head into the wall. When he popped up he said, "I thought I had a long time before I made it to the wall!" He seems thrilled with his new swimming speed! Will and Noah insisted on bouncing. They bounced for a while before it started to storm. It's storming now and hopefully it will be over soon. We promised the boys that they could swim in the dark with the pool light on. They haven't done it since spring.

It has been VERY hot and stormy the last few days. We are all looking forward to the long weekend. It is supposed to storm less so we are planning on a couple trips to the beach. Ethan got asked to be in the school play in October. It has something to do with exercise and nutrition. Two kids from each classroom get a role. I guess it helps when your mom teaches at the school :o) Will and Noah are still enjoying school. Will begged to stay longer when I went to pick him up today. We went for a walk at 6:30 and Hanzie is still panting from being hot!!! Ugh... I can't wait until November!!!

Ethan was playing teacher. He had fun teaching Will and Noah how to spell "sat."

The boys did their "homework" tonight. Ethan really does have homework every night but we have to make up homework for Will and Noah each night, otherwise they feel left out.

The boys took a nice snooze together this weekend!

The boys got a new pool toy today. They seem to like it. Ethan went to his new friend's house to play today. It took some covincing but he finally went and then didn't want to come home. Will and Noah did a craft project while Ethan was gone so they were content.