I am almost afraid to say that today has been a good day! Yesterday Chris decided to take all of the boys to Boy Scouts with him. It is rare that all three boys want to go. I thought I had made out and just settled into one of my big comfy reading chairs that I NEVER get to use. Well, just as I sat down the phone rang. It was Chris asking me to bring him Benedryl and his Epipen! I thought he was joking, but he wasn't! The parking lot at Boy Scouts is not paved. In Florida, that means it is sand. I guess he got bit by something on his way across the parking lot and started reacting to it. After taking some meds, his swelling went down. It seems like the drama will never end. Today we have been accident and sickness free.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO OUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR MR. DREW!!! He is such a cutie pie. We actually got to spend a little time with him last week when he came home with us from school. Will and Noah were so excited when I picked them up from school and had Drew with me!

Ethan had a great time telling everyone his injury story at school today. He was a popular man on campus and enjoyed every minute of it! With all the illness drama at our house we had totally overlooked Easter being this Sunday!! Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is the weather usually really nice, but I love all the pretty Easter colors! Chris got our decorations down late last night. We'll only have a few days to look at our decorations now, but on the bright side, the boys won't have a long wait until Easter. Melissa and I always hide hundreds (nope, not an exaggeration) of eggs for the kids to find. It has taken us several years to learn our lesson, but we have finally figured out that you cannot put any sort of chocolate in eggs hidden in Florida. They melt in the five minutes it takes the kids to find them.

Today was the first day that no one has thrown up at our house in as long as I can remember. Well, Ethan decided that a trip to the ER was the proper way to celebrate! The weather here has been beautiful. They have been playing outside for hours every day. Today everyone was feeling better so we all went outside to play. We had a long debate between swimming and playing out front with scooters and bikes, and in the end they decided to play out front. Will got golf clubs for Christmas and has only used them once. They decided that today was the day to get them out again. They were playing so nicely together. Ethan was acting as coach. He would set up the tee and ball and instruct Will on how to play. Well, on about the 5th swing, he said, "Okay Will," before moving out of the way. Since he was behind Will, Will didn't realize that Ethan hadn't moved yet. He swung and hit Ethan. Don't worry, he hit the ball as well and made a nice shot! Ethan wasn't thrilled with the amount of blood. He tried his hardest to convince me that he did not need to go to the hospital. One look at the gaping wound told me otherwise! Our kind neighbor, Gaye, agreed to watch Will and Noah and off we went. The whole trip, including the commute, took less than an hour! Luckily, our small town hospital was not busy. A numbing shot and stitches were required. Once we crossed through the doors of the ER, Ethan pulled himself together. His protesting immediately stopped and he became the model patient. The doctor commented over and over again how amazed he was by Ethan. He said that he rarely gets kids Ethan's age that remain so calm and together. He had even called in two nurses to hold him down if necessary. Well, Ethan didn't require any nurses and calmly laid there for the entire process. As a reward the nurse gave him two popsicles! Ethan recovered in no time and was out riding his scooter for our nightly walk. Of course, when he closed his eyes to go to sleep it suddenly hurt. He said, "Ouch, it hurts to close my eye!" Chris and I both just grinned and he realized that we weren't falling for it and started laughing. Nice try though, I'll give him that.

He really liked that he got blue stitches this time. Last time, with his thumb, they were black.

You'll never guess what Chris did first thing this morning; he ran out to detail his car some more!! Now, despite what he may have said below, he has a serious disorder. I caught him out there cleaning it and went in to get my camera. Of course he ran inside so I couldn't catch him. I hopped in the shower and when I got out he was nowhere to be seen. The boys said, "He's outside again cleaning his car." I grabbed my camera. If you see below he is HIDING behind the car. That big, round, bald thing that you can see through the back window would be him.

Here he is trying to throw the rag down so there would be no evidence. Ha!
Update from Chris: I never said that I didn't have OCD. I merely said that her whole photo shoot was a set-up. Besides, if it is that common to have me really cleaning my car, why have me fake it?

I went to Target today and they had some serious technical issues. I got in line right at noon and suddenly ALL of the registers went down! I had some stuff that I really wanted to get and ended up in line for an hour! Target gave me $16 worth of instant coupons to try to make up for it. So, I suppose I got paid $16 an hour to stand in line. They assure me that it was a nationwide issue and not just here in Florida. I'm not sure how that was supposed to make me feel any better about the situation though! The manager said it had something to do with the change of time being early and that today was the "real" day to change the time and it made their system loopy. I have never been so happy not to have the kids with me while shopping. Noah and Ethan helped me plant all the herbs I got. Will is still quite sick. He tried to eat some oatmeal for lunch. Apparently, his body is not quite ready for solids yet.

We just got finished watching the Kids' Choice Awards. The boys have been talking about it nonstop all week. It was actually quite funny. Here Will and Noah are snuggling. Will has only thrown up twice today! A vast improvement from yesterday! He did start a fever today as you can tell from his rosy red face. He managed to stay awake for the record breaking slime bungee jump (that was what he was most excited about seeing) and within 30 seconds of the jump ending, he was out.
Here they are with their party food. Poor Will was too sick to eat any of it.
Chris got his new car yesterday. Thanks to a severe case of Schrader OCD, he has already vacuumed and washed it. You see they detailed a BRAND new car for him before he drove it home. Well, after driving it around a bit today to show it to the boys, he immediately came home and vacuumed and washed it. Yes folks, in the dark!!! Oh, he got a Mitsubishi Endeavor.
Update from Chris: This whole photo shoot of me washing my brand new car was staged. I did wash it and vacuum it; I'm not denying that. I wasn't, however, washing it in this picture. While I was washing Jen's car, she came out with the camera and told me to stand in front of my car and pretend like I was washing it, so she can "make an OCD joke about it on the blog." Don't you all feel tricked now. You're not even getting a glimpse of our real lives. It's all staged...all of it.

While it is Friday, there is not much excitement at our house. Unless you count two parents jumping up and down with excitement that one of their five year-old twins actually made it to the bathroom to throw up rather than covering the house in it! We thought we were on the upswing last night. Noah did not throw up at all Wednesday, so it was off to school for everyone on Thursday. Well, last night he woke up throwing up AGAIN! I think that the whole twin syndrome thing must have kicked in for Will finally, because he woke up throwing up this morning and hasn't stopped since! Chris got the sick day duties today. He is not feeling well himself. Now, I'm sure Ethan will hold off until Monday morning to get sick! They are all excited about watching JT on the Kids' Choice Awards tomorrow. They really wanted to make "party food" for it, but I think that will simply consist of crackers and broth! pArTy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO "GRANDMA PAT!" Hopefully she will enjoy her house hunting weekend in NC.

HAPPY 4OTH BIRTHDAY TO ERIC AND DAN!!! When the boys were signing their cards this weekend, they did not think 40 was that old. So, your nephews at least think you have youth left in you! Also, good luck to Jennifer on her homestudy. Talk about preparing for company!

Noah only got up once last night to get sick. We were all happy to finally get some sleep. He just had some toast and gingerale for breakfast. We'll see how it goes. Ethan was quite upset that we were all staying home and he had to go to school. I told him that is what it feels like for Chris every day during the summer and if Chris threw a raging fit every morning it would make for a very long summer. He seemed to get the point because he just sucked it up and got his backpack. He did make me promise that I would not let them play the Wii without him! Since Chris is at work and the boys are not allowed to touch the Wii without him, it shouldn't be a hard promise to keep.

Noah finally fell asleep on the kitchen floor at 4:15. He came in to talk to me and was too tired to stand up. He plopped himself down on the ground and was out within a minute.
No worries, I carried him off to bed where he has been peacefully sleeping for the last 45 minutes!

Not a good day! My munchkin Noah woke me up last night at 2:00 am and said, "Mom, I threw up in my bed, on my floor, by the foosball table, in front of your door, and right here!" It was actually sort of humorous how he rambled it all off. Luckily Chris got the honorary duty of cleaning it all up. I volunteered to take care of the bedding! Well, he spent the entire night in the bathroom. I wish I could say that he slept in there, but as he didn't sleep a wink, I'll just say he camped out in there. He has spent most of today in the bathroom as well. Poor guy! I had a meeting this morning in Daytona. After my meeting, I picked up Will from school. We went to Blockbuster to get Happy Feet. We also went to the grocery store and loaded up on gingerale, Gatorade, crackers, soup, etc. Noah has tried eating and drinking. Neither one has worked out for him quite yet. They started Happy Feet when Ethan got home from school. They seem to be enjoying it.

I nearly had a heart attack today while mowing the lawn. I saw this snake skin along the fence. At first glance I thought it was an actual snake!

Some random pictures from yesterday. As you can tell, most pictures on the blog are taken with my camera which is clear from the quality!

This is our new door in the very early stages of installation!
Melissa and I took the kids to Bobbie's to keep them out of the way while Chris and Mike did their "man" work. Ethan and Emma had a blast in the pool together. The rest were too whimpy to get in at 80 degrees.
After dinner the kids watched Eragon. This time Emma spent some "quality time" with Noah. I guess she has figured out that Paige has claimed Will.
The door closer to being finished. They haven't done any of the finishing work. That is on today's agenda I guess. The boys really like that they can close the blinds to make a "movie room."

Waiting for cake. They had a Schrader-Eagney chant. The kept shouting "Schrader Eagneys" over and over and over again.
Sorry Greg, here is Melissa having her birthday cake! Since we missed her real birthday we celebrated tonight.

It was another beach day. Today was by far the nicest day so far this season. It was in the low 80s, breezy, and sunny. We stayed at the beach for over two hours. Normally the boys don't last more than 45 minutes or so.
Will made Melissa and me tons of delicious pies.
Noah was quite proud of the feather he found.
The girls worked nicely in their own little bakery.

What happens to our nearly 9 year-old Hanzie after almost 2 hours at the park with his mom followed by a 3 mile jog with his dad...

Melissa and I just got back from an hour long bike ride. So, on our way home it began to drizzle. We thought, okay, we'll get a little wet. We were riding down a long, straight street and saw the downpour headed right towards us! Needless to say, we both got soaked. The best part is that it didn't even rain at my house! We stopped by my friend Sam's house and she has the cutest little black lab puppy that she got on Friday. His name is Bentley and he is so adorable and sweet!

We have been out most of the day. I had to go to Lowe's to get hardware for our new French doors and since Super Target is right next door, of course I had to stop there as well! We got home just in time for lunch and went right out the door to go to the park. We took Emily because she has been begging to play with the boys all week. They have been sick and today was the first day that they were feeling better. They brought their swords to make their way through the mystical forest!
Will was begging me to let him climb this tree so that he could get to these...
the oranges! The park we went to today has gobs of orange trees and the boys like guessing which animals ate the half eaten oranges all over the park.
After the hike, they played on the playground forever. They had it all to themselves. Hanzie was so hot that he made me sit in the pavilion with him the entire time.

Well, the sun came out and we hit the beach! We had just enough time between lunch and nap. The water is still a chilly 65 degrees. That certainly didn't stop all the spring breakers from getting in!

Ethan tested the water and decided that is was freezing! This is him running back with his verdict.
They played in the sand for a good bit.
Noah truly wanted to go swimming! He kept saying, "Let's go in further, come on Mom!"
Future sand sculptor? Possibly.
After playing in the sand for a bit, they hit the beach playground. We made a quick stop at 7-11 for Slurpees/coffee and now the little buggers are napping. They have all been sick so they really need it!

Another day in March, another birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Today my mom turns a certain number of tens + five. Although she would be having more fun in Florida enjoying spring break with us at the beach, she is in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Okay, we haven't been to the beach yet during spring break. It has been cloudy and cool. Really, it has been quite cold this week. Honestly, sweatshirts and sweatpants in March?? What is that about??

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, "BIRTHDAY QUEEN MELISSA!" Now, Melissa is usually never "all about herself," however, in mid-March each year she becomes a bit self-obsessed. Since it is only one week a year, it is quite tolerable. At any rate, we had big plans for her this morning before she headed off to her night at Saratoga Springs in Disney World. We were planning on going to Dunkin' Donuts this morning and getting her some donuts and white hot chocolate (her new fave) and bringing it all to her. Well, those plans changed right around 2:35 am last night when Will woke up throwing up. He hasn't been feeling well since Friday with a fever and cold but seemed to be doing better. Yesterday afternoon, after the dentist, he got a really bad headache. We gave him some children's Tylenol Cold medicine and he started feeling a bit better. I don't know when the stomach thing started- I'd like to blame the fluoride treatment. At any rate, after being up for over an hour last night he finally got back to bed. We skipped visiting Melissa, as I didn't want to get her kids sick. We will make it up to her in the middle of the week when everyone is gone and we are the only ones left to spoil her!

Above is the new 5 year-old craze; at least at our house! Will and Noah are seriously addicted to this breakfast treat. They have eaten them every morning for the last week or so. I wonder how long until they are sick of them. Ethan can take them or leave them, but Will and Noah require them to start their day. Will even ate 2 sets for breakfast after being sick last night.

(If my mom or Wayne read this they will know I have completely jinxed myself. I was just telling them this weekend that I would take Will and Noah's bizarre week long fever over throwing up any day and that the boys hadn't thrown up in over a year. Well, I guess that streak starts again today- or so I hope!)

Once again, we've had a beautiful day. Since it isn't warm enough for the beach or swimming, we have been hitting the playground all weekend. Chris took them to the "wood park" yesterday and today I took them to the "Easter egg park." They have nicknames for all of the parks. The wood park is made all of wood and the Easter egg park is where they have the big Easter egg hunt every year.
I'm not sure what kind of dance was going on here!
Yesterday while we were at the store, Noah spotted all of the plants. Everyone was walking out with some and he insisted that we go check them out! I took him to the 97 cents section and let him pick some out. He wanted some yellow ones (snap dragons), some red ones (pentas), and some purple ones (lavender). I knew it was going to get fairly chilly out last night so we held out planting them until today. Noah planted and watered all of them. Then we took a tour around the yard checking on the stuff that he planted last year. He already has plans for where he wants to put some more stuff. (Oh, I don't make him wear a helmet while gardening! He was gardening between his scooter/bike rides.)