Big news... Ethan is student of the month at karate!! They started the student of the month program last month and Ethan was very jealous of Savannah who got the first student of the month for the Dragons. He thought he was very deserving. He was dying to go to karate tonight because he was just certain that he was going to get it since he works so hard and is such a good student. So, Chris and I were prepared for a very upset Ethan. Well, it turns out he was right and he got student of the month! He gets to wear a special red, white, and blue belt. He also will have his picture hanging in karate and he has a student of the month patch for his uniform. Of course the boys felt the need to celebrate with Domino's! No burns this time!

Will and Noah are very excited to be learning all about Thanksgiving and they made their own Indian and Pilgrim stick puppets last night. They use them to reenact the first Thanksgiving! We are going to make the Mayflower after school tomorrow.

Ethan had a Farm Party today at school. They are not allowed to have a Halloween celebration so this is how the kindergarten teachers get around it. This picture is of Ethan with his friends Christian and Spencer. Spencer, the one in the western shirt, is his best buddy at school. Will and Noah had a party at school as well. Unfortunately I couldn't be there for it, but from the loot that they brought home it appears that they had a good time!

The boys had fun trick-or-treating tonight. Everything was a bit rushed. We got home, set up the Halloween table, ate dinner, rushed off to karate, and then they jumped into their costumes. I think they had more fun passing out candy. Chris had an elaborate set up with a fogger, strobe light, black light, scary music, etc. Cody, an eighth grader from down the street, was under the Halloween table and would roll out on his skateboard when the fogger went off to scare everyone! We ended up running out of candy because the boys passed out so much to everyone and about a MILLION people that don't live in our neighborhood came here to trick-or-treat.

For those of you that know her, Christie is having a boy! I know RJ is thrilled. I'm excited for them as well.

Good night, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Beware Evil Warriors- our house is protected by Chun Kuk Do power! (This is a picture of Ethan at his Halloween karate party on Friday night.)

We ended the evening by making the cookie haunted house and bouncing in the moon bounce. Clearly Noah had a piece with black icing for dessert.

We also went to Spruce Creek Park. The boys love hiking to and climbing the bird observation tower. Not that a single bird would hang around with the amount of noise they make!

Today has been quite a busy day! We started the day by taking the boys out to watch the Annual Spooktacular Surfing Competition. The funds are used to create scholarships for DBCC. The boys were interested in it for all of 5 minutes before they starting running circles through the palm trees! As you can see from the pictures even more beach has been lost to Wilma. Apparently, six vertical feet. They are beginning the beach restoration project soon. The permits are in place and once the contractors set up the project should take 3 to 4 months. It will be nice to see the sand pumping in!

Today was a VERY long day! I had mClass training- reading assessment stuff. It was actually not that bad. The trainer kept us laughing through most of the day. He travels all around the country training and had some funny stories to share- mostly about West Virginia and Texas. He was from Colorado. Our school is a pilot school to do our literacy assessments on Palms. This will be GREAT for me since I am the one that usually has to input all the data by hand into the system. Now I'll just have to plug in the Palms and the data gets uploaded. Nice!!!

I didn't get to pick up Will and Noah until 4:15. That is the latest they have ever had to stay. The could have cared less though. They were out on the playground playing with the other kids and teachers and were in no rush to leave. Melissa started subbing at my school yesterday. She was there again today and was kind enough to bring Ethan home with her. She'll be there again tomorrow.

The boys worked hard tonight on finishing up their homework. Will was far more focused and motivated today. He actually enjoyed doing his homework.

Tomorrow we have a Halloween party at karate school. The boys are excited about that. Chris also has a soccer game this weekend. We are also making the Halloween house (similar to a gingerbread house, but think haunted gingerbread house) that Grandma Pat sent. That, along with carving the jack-o-lantern will be the culminating events to our month long Halloween celebration! I've already got everything ready for Thanksgiving. The boys are going to go through major withdrawal once the holidays are over!

When we left for school this morning it was 47 degrees. Ethan declared that it was too cold for school and that we should just stay home. I guess he is a true Floridian. It actually did feel quite chilly to us, especially since it was still super windy. I thought it was refreshing while Ethan just thought it was the worst thing ever!

When we got home the girls came over to play for a little while and then the boys went out on their moon bounce while Chris mowed the lawn. Noah came in very excited to do his homework. It's due Friday and he finished 4 of the 6 activities all at once! Will got through just one! Ethan dragged his feet on his homework as well but finally got it done. I guess his straight +s have gone to his head!

Melissa is coming over in a little while to walk. We have been walking or jogging most nights now. Chris gave me his lovely cough that he has had for a month so we just walked last night and will probably do the same tonight. Hanzie is thankful that we are not jogging!!

The storm is just about over. It's still fairly breezy. It's also nice and chilly! We were able to turn off the AC and open up all the windows for the first time since spring. The boys enjoy listening to the "spooky, Halloween wind" blowing through the windows. I'm sure they wouldn't be enjoying it if it were bed time!

Chris axed the tree that fell in our back yard. When we moved in there were about six trees in our back yard; now there are none! I'm not too upset. I'm not very fond of oaks, especially this one since it was hideous!

The weather really isn't that bad here yet. The gusts have only been up to 45 mph here and the highest gusts for us are expected to be 60 mph. The biggest threat to us are tornadoes. Chris and the boys camped out in the living room since there are no windows in there. There have been several tornadoes reported south of us in Brevard County. The threat to us increases mid-morning into early afternoon for tornadoes. It is supposed to clear out quickly around dinner time and tonight it is supposed to drop down in the 40's. To us that will feel awesome, it dropped into the upper-60's at night for the first time last week since spring. So the 40's will be quite refreshing!

Well... Will and Noah have decided on a pirate theme for their 4th birthday party. I decided that it would be a fabulous idea for each kid that comes to the party to have their own pirate digs. I went to Super Wal*Mart yesterday and raided the $1 a yard fabric. I picked out turquoise with a pink and white striped sash for the girls and gray with a maroon sash for the boys. Well, you can guess that Will and Noah both requested the colors I picked out for the girls! So, I get the fabric home and guess what, it didn't magically turn into pirate vests like I was hoping!! With much time and TONS of help from Melissa, three got made. I have a feeling that the invite list to their party is going to have to shrink!

Yesterday we went to a local Halloween Festival. They had games, face painting, and moon bounces. The boys loved going on all the moon bounce things. They liked the obstacle course the best, but the monster slide came in a close second. Notice Noah's outfit, he TRULY wanted to be festive and picked the entire outfit out on his own! (Those are ghosts on his socks.)

A true Halloween breakfast- orange, scary pancakes!

Oh my, what a day today has been! Poor Will got a terrible burn from his Domino's pizza. He dropped a piece on his lap and his leg instantly burned. There is a huge blister and it looks horrible!

After the killer pizza and a mini-art project, the kids (same 7 as last week) decorated Halloween cupcakes. They had fun putting the icing and candies on it. They almost had as much fun decorating them as they did eating them.

Aunt Lori, Uncle Dale, Alina, and Aidan sent the boys a big Halloween tin from the Popcorn Factory. The boys are super excited about all the stuff in it. They downed the cheese popcorn for snack as soon as we got home from school and opened the package! It had three types of popcorn, pretzels, peanuts, cookies, candy etc. The tin actually had a big dent in it and the the cookies were crumbled so I called the company and they are sending a new one out. They'll get twice the treats!

Chris just left for his soccer game. It is still so hot and humid. It's 7:00 and the temperature is still 82 degrees. The bad part is the humidity. Supposedly next week is supposed to be much cooler. Yeah! Melissa is coming over to watch a chick flick with me!!! Exciting Friday, eh?

Tonight Melissa had a birthday party for her mom. The boys had fun at "Grandma Bobbie's" party. Ethan enjoyed passing out the cake and ice cream!

I got a big envelope of pictures from my Aunt Karen today. They were all of our wedding. They were so funny to look at. My how we have all changed! I'm saying that on a positive note!

The weekend has once again gone by far too quickly! Ethan had a blast at his birthday party yesterday. He went all on his own.

Last night Mike and Melissa came over and we played games- Scene It and Cranium. Melissa made yummy lettuce wraps. She has the recipe from P.F. Chang's and they were so good!

Today was spent running errands and doing chores. Chris took apart both the inside and outside AC units and gave them a much needed cleaning! We also went on a bike ride. It was agonizing riding home with Ethan. He normally can ride miles without complaining but today he barely made it a half mile before the complaining started. The last 1.5 miles took FOREVER!! Chris rode ahead with Will and Noah so he could get home and finish his AC project. Ethan has spent the entire night talking about how tired his body is from the bike ride!

I talked to my sister and she went to the Fall Festival at Homestead Gardens. I was so jealous!

Today was the longest day ever! School was insanely busy this week and today was no different, worse actually! After school I had to cover afternoon parent pick-up duty for a teacher at school that was out. NOT fun!

Ethan brought his friend Emily home from school with him. After cleaning up the house a bit, the Eagney girls came over and all SEVEN kids did Halloween crafts. They made pumpkin notes, paper bag Halloween puppets, and monster puppet sticks. They all had dinner together and we went for a walk. During the walk everyone, especially Ethan, started melting down. We just finished cleaning up the house- again! Now we are watching Halloween Backyardigans and then off to bed. Chris is at his soccer game. Melissa is coming back over to watch a movie when the girls go to bed since her mom is here to babysit. Hopefully we'll be able to stay awake for it!

Oh my, all I can say is that Ethan rocks!! He was by far the best guitar player on stage. Honestley, I'm not just saying that, he really was! After the play the boys got a bunch of freebies that the school was giving away and then Ethan got to get a McDonald's milkshake to celebrate. Will and Noah were happy to get in on that one.

The pictures didn't turn out at all. That's my fault. We have a great video for anyone that comes to visit!

Um... 1 day until the school play! Ethan says he has butterfly meets the dragon in his belly. That means he's nervous!

Look, a taste of autumn (Florida style)...

SCHOOL FUNDRAISER!!!

Will and Noah's school has it's annual fundraiser going on. Anyone interested in helping out St. Paul's Preschool can purchase online; or if you live nearby I have the catalogue. If you would like to purchase online, visit www.jumbofund.com

After you order they will send you a confirmation email and at that point give you the opportunity to give the credit to St. Paul's and Will or Noah. If you need more information to give the school credit email me and I will give you any information that you need.

Countdown to the school play...2 days! I have managed NOT to go and watch any practices as not to ruin it for myself. They have a dress rehearsal tomorrow and then they do it for the kindergarteners and 1st graders in the morning at school on Thursday. The real deal is Thursday night at 6:30.

The boys continue to do their almost nightly "art projects." Yesterday they spent quite a bit of time making their Halloween pictures and notes. Grandma Pat and Grandma Ann can expect to see a big yellow envelope in a few days.

I'm looking forward to Brian Austin Green making his return to TV tomorrow!!! Woohoo!!!

Another Sunday... another park! We have gotten an INSANE amount of rain over the last few days so we had to pick a park with rubber mulch. The boys (and Eagney girls) had fun, as usual. I brought Hanzie along as well. I'm assuming he had a good time as well; as soon as we got home he crashed!

Noah is definitely better and back to his normal (aka loud and wild) self! He gave Aunt Kate an ear full of information over the phone today!

Countdown to the school play...4 days!!!

Will and Noah had a great time at their friend Liam's birthday party. Liam's mom owns Fire It Up, a pottery place. They took a walk to the fire station to see the fire truck but it was out on a call. They started painting their piggy bank fire trucks and the fire truck pulled right up to the shop so they could see it.

Chris took Ethan to play minature golf while we were out. Now I'll have to plan something special for Will and Noah next week when Ethan goes to Chuck E. Cheese's for Spencer's birthday party.

Well... today has been an interesting day. Ethan had no "school" today because it was a teacher work day. He tagged along with me and not a single other staff kid showed up. He was happy though because there was a teacher breakfast which he was fond of. He has now decided that the teacher's lounge is cool when it's filled with yummy treats! Ethan helped me organize all of the OLSAT tests for the second grade, okay, well he played Gameboy while I organized the testing materials! As soon as we finished and got back to my room, my phone rang. It was Miss Jennifer from St. Paul's to say that Noah had a fever of 103.5! I went to go get him and brought all three of them back to my classroom. They watched Muppet's Treasure Island for a bit until Chris showed up. I missed the last teacher duty day and I couldn't miss this one. I have promised to help so many teachers organize and plan for their reading groups and would have felt HORRIBLE if I missed helping them again. So the boys came home with Daddy for lunch and their nap. When I got home we went to the Eagney's for pizza and then off to Target to exchange Noah's Halloween costume- Chris mistakely grabbed the wrong one for Noah. Noah's fever is still 102.4 even after medicine! He did have enough energy to try on his new costume. We even convinced him to eat a breakfast bar before bed. He also thought tracking Grandma Ann's flight was super cool. She is flying from Bermuda to Baltimore and USA3000 (the airline) has a map showing where her flight is, the altitude it is flying at, and speed. He thought that was neat. We just put him to bed. Will and Ethan are close behind. Ethan just finished reading Will some books!!! I better go pass out hugs and kisses!

Grandma Pat sent the boys a package today in the mail. They were VERY excited about their new flashlights and went out front to play flashlight tag before bed tonight.

Here is the hair that Chris HATES! The cameraman was Noah!

Tonight the boys had a "fall" dessert; hot chocolate and candy corn. Sure, it was 90 degrees today, but the calendar says October. Noah missed out on dessert since he didn't eat his dinner. He had to have fruit cocktail. I think he'll be eating dinner tomorrow night.

I got my hair cut shoulder length yesterday. Chris clearly hates it. I said, "So, what do you think about my hair," and he just sat there staring at me without saying a word. He still hasn't made a single comment about it yet. Nice, eh???

There were crabs all over the path. This one decided to crawl up Chris' shoe so the kids got to see it up close.