Well, we have some sad children on our hands. Thanks to Ernesto, school has been cancelled for tomorrow. Oh dear! Sophia is ready to single handedly fight off the storm with her sword.

Will decided that he wanted to be a pirate during lunch today.

Exciting news...Noah can ride a bike on his own! We are partially at fault for his previous lack of interest in bike riding. Since he was always so happy and content riding his scooter, we never really pushed the bike thing. Not to mention, we only had two bikes that Ethan and Will were always riding. Well, since they have been riding bikes so much lately, he decided that he didn't want to be the only boy on a scooter anymore. Noah, being as self confident as he is, yelled, "Daddy- LET GO!!!" the second he got on the bike. After Chris convinced him that he might need some help getting started, he truly started concentrating. By the end of the block he was riding on his own! He is still a little erratic stopping. This is not at all surprising, after all, he didn't get the nickname Twitchy for no reason. In case you haven't seen Hoodwinked, you really need to. You will see why we call him Twitchy. You are probably wondering who was kind enough to give up their bike for Noah's use. Well, NO ONE was. Chris had to get a new bike for Will today. He REALLY needed a bigger one anyway.

Will's new ride...

Here Ethan is watching his brothers get settled onto their new bikes.

Clearly, the trick to learning how to ride your bike in 1/2 a block is all in the tongue.

Here Noah is cruising on his own. Notice that his tongue is still playing a crucial role in his success.

Well, the last week has whizzed by. It was full of meetings, errands, etc. Chris signed Ethan up for Cub Scouts on Thursday. He is very excited for that to start up. He continues to love the 1st grade and has gotten all sorts of special awards that he proudly shows off to us. Will and Noah are happy. They received their first homework of the year and are eager to be "big boys" like Ethan. Chris has been taking the boys on longer bike rides. They have been riding to Blockbuster and back which is just about 3.5 miles. Chris has been jogging while they ride bikes or scooters.

I have been trying to figure out the best interventions for the kids that I am working with this year. Some have some extreme needs. So far, so good. On Friday night Melissa and I took Katie out for her birthday dinner. Sure, we were a month late, but better late than never. On Saturday I went to my friend Sam's shower. It had a tea party theme. It was absolutely adorable and her cousins did a fantastic job putting it together. After the shower I picked up Melissa and we went to get our hair cut. We look totally different- kidding!

This week we have no major plans. Hopefully we will be watching another shuttle launch in the near future.

Does this look like the face of a sad dog that was recently viciously assaulted? Well it is! Don't believe anything Melissa says about the progress of her Dog Whisperer techniques on Boda. She (Boda, not Melissa) attacked my baby tonight. I must add that it was no way provoked. Hanzie may need therapy! He has a cut under his eye and a slash on his face. On to other news... Friday night I just crashed. I was so tired and I was trying to watch You've Got Mail. After being rudely interrupted by Chris' compulsive steam cleaning, I went to bed. Yesterday morning we picked up Ethan's friend Spencer at 10:00 a.m. Right around 2:30 they started BEGGING for him to spend the night. We caved pretty quickly to the four pleading boys and Spencer spent the night. He is very well behaved and it's nice for Ethan to play with a boy occasionally. The girls came over around dinner time and they all swam together for a bit. Then they all had pasta for dinner and watched the new Shaggy Dog. The adults got Mi Mexico take-out for dinner. It was very good! After we played Rummikub and Mike had his first win. Today we just swam and hung out at the house. Chris took the boys to the skatepark for a bit. Chris and Noah rode scooters and Ethan and Will rode their bikes. Somehow just 40 miles away, they received over 5" of rain today. Ask me how much we got, NONE!!! It has not rained for the longest time and has been a nice, toasty 95 without the heat index calculated in every single day! Hopefully this week will be a bit cooler!

Today was another successful school day. The boys all seemed happy at 2:30 so that is a good sign. I have been giving diagnostic tests to students new to our school. On a portion of the test I give them a word and they tell me what it means. I wish I could videotape some of their responses! You would be amazed by what they come up with. Ethan had Emily come home from school today. Will and Noah get a bit frustrated with the two of them. When they aren't trying to boss W & N around, they won't let them play. It's a good thing they have each other! After dinner and of course their snickerdoodle dessert (we made them yesterday after school) the boys jumped in the pool. They take turns with my raft and change it into a ton of different Universal rides. Today it was the Jurassic Park ride, the Popeye ride, the Jaws ride, and the Back to the Future ride.

Here is Ethan planning out their next adventure.

Here is Noah with his water gun. He likes to fill it up the day before and let it heat up in the sun all day so it's super hot when he squirts people. He takes evil to a whole new level.

Will was having fun posing for the camera.

The boys have had an easy transition into the new year. Ethan absolutely adores his new teacher. This school year has been a breeze with him, especially comparing it to our start last year! Will and Noah don't talk much about school but haven't complained either so I guess that is a good sign. Even Hanzie seems to be doing fine with being alone all day again. Once everyone gets used to waking up so early we'll be set! Ethan has already been setting up play dates. His friend Spencer begs to come home with us every day. We are trying to set up something for the weekend for them.

On Sunday we went to Universal. The boys were very excited that barely anyone was there. They have been dying to get on a bunch of rides at the Universal Studios park all summer but it was always too crowded. I refuse to wait 45-75 minutes to ride something. We got there just as they opened on Sunday and we did the entire park in less than 2 hours! After they rode everything they wanted to get on we ate the lunch we packed and headed home for Will & Noah's ice cream/meet the teacher party. We got home at 1:15, they jumped in the shower with Chris, and were out the door to meet the teacher at 1:50.

Hopefully this week will go as smoothly as the first two days have. They seem to be into the groove already. The pool certainly helps relax them after school. Good thing we have until November for that!

Today was a somewhat relaxing day after an insane week. We just hung out by the pool for most of the day. We had a nice dinner and even better dessert. Chris is having a camp out with the boys as I write this. Chris had to work this morning because he took off on Tuesday to stay home with the boys. Melissa SO KINDLY watched the boys on Wednesday and Thursday. The boys spent the entire day at school with me on Friday. So, the first week back is officially over for me and will just begin on Monday for the boys. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Universal for a couple hours. Will and Noah have their little back to school ice cream party tomorrow at 2:00 so we will have to make it home in time for that.

The boys are all enjoying their yummy strawberry shortcake dessert. That happens to be Noah's absolute favorite dessert. He ate every single bite without talking. Now that is a mini miracle!
Here are Chris and the boys in the toy room watching Mee-Shee for their camp out. They are really roughing it on the pull-out. Hopefully they will fall asleep shortly so they will be ready for Universal in the morning.
This box kept the boys busy for most of the day. This was their Ninja hide-out. Ethan was explaining to me all of his special Ninja senses and also told me how much harder it was to be a Ninja than a mom. How could I argue, oh that's right, I found a way! I explained to him that it was far more difficult to care for a high maintenance Ninja.

Well, the first day back was rather disappointing. Long story, but tomorrow should be better. Ethan is excited. His classroom door is directly across the sidewalk from mine. Talk about a short commute to class!!!

I had to share this picture with you. We read a ton of books tonight. After reading this one about dinosaurs, Noah shared his wisdom. There was a picture of a dinosaur fossil at the end and he said, "Yep, that's why we can't have a dinosaur for a pet, they're all stinked up!" He apparenty gets extinct confused with stinked!