Birthday Weekend for the Twins

There is a definite theme this birthday and holiday season...Star Wars! They went through a phase a few years ago and had the toddler version of all of this and now they are on to the big kid version (aka more expensive version)! Here they are with their various birthday ships. Will and Noah went to Toys R' Us this morning and purchased the Millennium Falcon. This thing is huge and full of glorious details for the boys to explore.
We went to the movies at 1:00 to see Old Dogs. We all thought it was really funny. Mike, Melissa, Paige, and Pamela all joined us. We are also excited to see the sequel of Alvin and the Chipmunks this Christmas!
After Toys R' Us, we went to the breakfast buffet at a local restaurant on the river. The food was not impressive, but the outside set up was cute.


The restaurant's name is "Dolphin View" but it should have been "Pelican View."
On Saturday, Ethan had SGA duties. There was a little holiday kick off festival on Canal Street. The SGA kids had a secret Santa shop. Ethan worked the craft table and helped all the little kids make their crafts.
Here they are decorating the bags to package up the gifts purchased at their shop. It quickly got warm. We started in jackets and scarves and were down to t-shirts in no time!
On Friday we spent some time at the beach. I had stayed up far too late at the midnight Toys R' Us sale, so I was able to sit and veg out while they played!



Off to eat some birthday cupcakes! I can't believe it is bedtime already and our vacation is over. Only 3 weeks until our 2 week Christmas vacation. Woohoo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving Day recap! We started with the traditional Thanksgiving Krispy Kreme doughnut breakfast!After breakfast it was a walk along the river with the dogs. It is a bit too far of a trek for Hanzie so he stayed home. We walked up to the "sand park" and met the kids there. The dogs enjoyed the walk. It was still cloudy and humid early this morning.

Abby, Finley, and Jazz resting at the park before the return trip home.
Noah taking a break from skipping shells.
Will refusing to take a break.
After the walk and park time, it was directly home for coffee and the parade!
Noah took over 100 pictures of the parade on TV. I'm not exaggerating! Here Will and I are trying to watch the parade despite Noah constantly standing in front of the television!
We turned the oven on and then headed to the beach for a walk. By late morning, the sun was shining, the temps were in the low-70's, and the humidity was gone. It was an absolutely gorgeous day!
Will collecting shells.
Leano Beano
It is hard to believe that the boys will be as tall as me soon. Ethan's foot is already bigger than mine! Crazy. Noah took my glasses!
The boys walking.

Thankfully, they didn't have to make any rescues!
Ethan was an awesome helper today. He peeled all of the potatoes and helped every step of the way with making dinner.
The table the boys made.
After dinner it was time for another walk and park time. This time I brought Hanzie. Chris and the boys drove up and I met up with them again. Hanzie did catch a ride home.

The boys are now asking for dessert! Chris just left to go see New Moon. Tonight Melissa, Sam, and I plan on a midnight trip to Toys R' Us.

We have had a great day even though it started a little rocky. The boys have had a Beta fish for two years and he died today. Noah had just said how thankful he was for his pets! The boys buried him in the front yard. He lived in a space themed fish tank so his name was Rover as in Mars Rover.

So, it has been a while!

Pamela kindly pointed out that it has been some time since I have updated the blog. With soccer, school, 3 boys, dogs, and biking there is very little time left in the day. The days are over before I even know it. Not to mention, everyone knows I'm not a late night person! In my defense, my husband is a late night person and still has not managed to update the blog! With that said, not much thrilling news to report. Since the last update, Chris was in a motorcycle accident and broke his elbow. He also had various other scratches, bruises, and sprains. His elbow is still bothering him weeks later and I think his wrist may be bugging him even more than his elbow. The sling he was supposed to wear for 4 to 6 weeks lasted about a week. The no soccer for 4 to 6 weeks lasted less than a week! That could explain some of his problems. I am just thankful that it was not any more serious than it was. I'm still in disbelief that people actually ride those things and that in Florida many do it without a helmet as it is not a law here! Crazy. Chris did have a helmet on, thankfully!

Noah's broken collar bone healed nicely. He also did not follow the no soccer for 4 to 6 weeks rule. I think he lasted 2 weeks! Soccer wrapped up for the season on Saturday. Will and Noah's team was undefeated. Ethan's team did not have that same sort of record. His team was at a major disadvantage though. His age group goes from 4th to 6th grade and Chris' entire team was 4th grade. Others were entirely 6th grade and it showed. They were twice their size. They actually did amazingly, all things considered.

The boys are looking forward to their birthdays. Will and Noah don't have much longer to wait! Ethan still has a month to go but already has the countdown clock ticking. They are also looking forward to Grandma and Pop-Pop's visit. They are coming for a long weekend in December. All the boys have community choral performances during their visit so they are excited to have family there to watch them!

The holiday events kick off in full force next week. I'm sure we will have lots of photos to post in the near future.