Lazy Days of Summer!

Hanzie is enjoying having us home more.

2nd Grade Awards

Will and Noah had their 2nd grade awards ceremony today. They are just about finished up with school. Tomorrow is Field Day and then Monday they have their class party. Tuesday is their official last day but they will be leaving early with Grandma, Aunt Lori, Alina, and Aidan to head off to Orlando for a couple of nights. (Ethan's awards are tomorrow morning.)

Here they pose with their dad. The AC in the cafeteria went offline just before the awards so it was stifling hot in there! It didn't come back on in time for lunch either. I don't know how they ate in there!
Will with Mrs. McDuffie!

Noah with Mrs. McDuffie

Noah listening to his list of awards being read by Ms. Moss.

11 dAyS!

Even better than 11 days, is that this is the last full week of school! If this week can go by quickly, we are set!

On Friday, Chris, Mike, and Melissa played in the Coaches vs. Ref soccer game at the Y. Since Chris and Mike were playing for the refs and Melissa was playing for the coaches, we knew either way we would have reason to celebrate and decided to head to dinner after the game. After some debate, we decided on Big Planet Pizza. It was really delicious and they were very accommodating to our big group.
Chris scored 2 goals during the game and helped his team to the win. I think next time Melissa might jump ship and play with the refs so she can have something to work with!

Josiah had shots on Friday and wasn't in the mood to celebrate. He hung in there as long as he could.

Saturday was a day of running errands! We did sneak in a trip to High Five during the errand running though! Melissa and I trained a bit for her triathlon. We got in the run and the bike pretty much to completion. That is where I stop. If I tried to do it with her, I'd drown in the ocean. Swimming is definitely not my thing!

Today we went to my friend Donna's daughter's high school graduation party. The party was very well done and the kids had fun playing on the dock.

Look...together Emily and Will make a moose!

The boys eating on the dock.

Pamela, Josiah, and Emily hanging on the dock.

All of the kids absolutely adore Josiah!

tAcO sHaCk!

We tried the new local Mexican restaurant, Taco Shack, last night. It was pretty good! The boys seemed to really like it as well.

16 dAyS!

16 days of school left! This has been a great school year, but I am looking forward to the start of summer vacation. I think the boys are more ready than I am! They have lots of special events and days ahead of them. Hopefully those things will make the last 3 weeks go by quickly. Last week, we had Night of the Arts at school. The music, art, and media specialist work together to display art, perform a concert, and display writing in the media center. There is a piece of art work and a writing sample on display from every single student in the school. It is quite amazing! This year 4th grade got to perform for the choral performance so Ethan was part of the entertainment. Even more exciting for Ethan last week, he got to be media specialist for the day for earning so many points in the reading program. He, and his friend Emily, were the only two in the school that earned it so they were very excited. They got to check in and out books, help with the lessons, etc. Ethan took on Thursday and Emily took on Friday. Both of them skipped lunch because they were having such a good time working in the media center! Will and Noah are excited about their Flat Stanley projects. We have hosted several Flat Stanley's and the boys have been looking forward to sending theirs off for quite some time.

This weekend we did a lot of partying! Our good friend Heather celebrated her birthday Saturday night. We had a nice evening thanks to Bobbie watching ALL SIX kids! They had a great time at her house swimming in her pool and eating dessert. Today was Katie's wedding shower and Josiah's birthday party! It was great spending (even more) time with all of our wonderful friends. Melissa, Liz, and I even squeezed in a trip to the beach this morning with the kids and a run this evening between all of the chaos. Time management at its best!

Here are the kids at Josiah's birthday party. He had a Muppet themed party and the kid are all wearing Animal shirts!
His cake was amazing! The inside looked almost as good as the outside!

It was Girl Time at Katie's bridal shower! Her bridesmaids did a fabulous job with her shower and it turned out great. Paige posed with me.

Melissa and I at the shower. Melissa is a bridesmaid and wore the colors of Katie's wedding.

Emma get made up in a toilet paper wedding dress during one of the games.

The cute cupcakes!

This is a shot of Noah's art work from Night of the Arts.

Bobcat sighting!

We're on the boat going from Disney's Port Orleans to Downtown Disney and we just spotted a bobcat in the woods.  You might be able to make it out in the very middle of the picture.  It was much more exciting in real life, I'm sure.

Ethan's Solar System Project!!

Ethan turned in his project on the Solar System today. We had to take a picture of it because it will be destroyed before the day is over. You see, the entire project is edible and the kids will be eating it! The planets are made of cake and colored icing, Saturn's rings are made from Twizzlers, and the Asteroid Belt is made from M&M's and Reese's Pieces.

It was kind of a pain to make, but in the end it was worth it. He is happy with it and I think it turned out pretty good.

Sock Hop!

The kids are at the Read Pattillo Sock Hop tonight - and having a blast I might add.  Not too many kids are dancing, but a ton are hula hooping!  Will came close to winning the contest!

Ice Cream Time!

One Year Older

I had a great birthday! I was able to sleep in until 8:00. After breakfast, Chris and I went on a run together. We have been trying to go every day. Usually the boys either bike, rollerblade, or scooter along with us. Some days they are eager to go and other days we literally have to drag them along the way! After running, I cooled off by the pool in my new chaise and read. Melissa and I then ran a few errands. Mike and Melissa hosted an awesome 80's party for my birthday. Sam, Melissa, and I got inspired when we went to see Hot Tub Time Machine and decided to go with a theme. It was both fun and funny! Sam came prepared with lots of Minute To Win It games. We also had 80's movie quotes and general 80's trivia.

Here Melissa prepares to play a Minute to Win It game.
Sam and Stephen race to create their cereal box puzzles. Point goes to the ladies!

Chris and I race through books. Again, point goes to the ladies!

Liz looking fabulously 80's!

Donna and Sam with their Minute to Win It game. Again, ladies get the point!

Chris in his double popped collar! He had his pants cuffed and Vans on to complete the look. I definitely don't think that phone existed in the 80's!

The Return to School

Despite being totally depressed about returning to school today, there were a few perks about the day. First, there was a shuttle launch at 6:21 this morning that totally made it worth it to get out of bed! It was gorgeous in the near dark of the morning. Second, today is the start of the LAST nine weeks before summer break!!!! And, I printed out the boys report cards to see all straight A's. All in all, it made today somewhat easier. After school there was a PTA board meeting. Noah was thrilled to find out that we are planning a sock hop for school. It will be their first school dance.

We had a great Easter Day. Melissa and I did our fair share of exercise so we could enjoy a guilt-free brunch! We went for a bike ride in the morning and then jogged in the afternoon after the beach. I'll have to step up the exercise plan this week. We are having dinner out with Nancy and Carol tomorrow evening. We are meeting at Flip Flops. We always have a great time when we meet up with them. The boys want to take me out for a Birthday Eve dinner on Friday night. I told them they could pick the place because of their grades. (Trying to cover two events in one evening out.) So far I have heard Pizza Hut, Applebee's, Clancy's, Big World Pizza, and Red Robin. I may have to place a vote!!! Saturday is grilled pizza night for my birthday party. I think I just gained a couple pounds thinking about it!

My mom arrives on April 19th. The boys are beyond excited to have Grandma here for two weeks. We are also planning on meeting up with a fair share of the Schrader Crew at Disney the week of April 25th. A day at Animal Kingdom is what is on the agenda.

Let the 9 week countdown begin!

Easter beach fun!

Well, we had brunch and have moved on to the beach.  It's perfect weather, but much more crowded than usual.  Oh well, it will be back to normal after Spring Break is over, so no big deal.  Gotta go play now!

Happy Easter!

We are over at the Eagney's for brunch, and I'm going to make this short because I'm starved.  Happy Easter!

Facebook Almost Killed Our Blog!

It's no mystery that Jen is much better about posting on our blog than I am. With the popularity of Facebook though (who isn't on there, right?!?), the blog has been an afterthought. I don't do much of either, but Jen loves how easy and interactive Facebook is. There are still people out there that actually read this that aren't on Facebook though, so we needed to do something.

Fear not, Facebook haters. There is a new breath of life in our blog in the form of mobile posts. Today, I set up our phones to be able to upload directly through text messages and e-mails. In fact, this and the previous two posts were done through e-mails to Blogger. I know, we are a little late to the game. Better late than never though, right? It is much easier to just send a text message or e-mail and have it post a comment to our blog automatically.

Look for more frequent posts from the both of us from here on out. Now hopefully they will be as interesting as they are frequent, LOL!

Easter egg dying fun!

Sandball fight!?!

Scuba Noah

Noah trying to run in flippers!

February (So Far)

February has truly whizzed right by! Ethan took the FCAT Writes in the beginning of the month. It is the writing portion of Florida's NCLB testing. They write essays in 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. He thinks he did quite well. I certainly have high confidence that he did an awesome job.

On Valentine's Day, we went bowling in the morning. I'm not a big fan of bowling and usually stay home when they go. Since it was Valentine's Day I went. Despite being a terrible bowler, I still had fun. While Chris was at soccer (yes, he left me on Valentine's Day to play soccer) we all made various shaped Valentine's cookies. The kids had a blast making them and decorating them. We also made heart shaped brownies and used the leftover homemade icing on those as well! We met Chris for dinner at Tijuana Flats before coming home to eat all the yummy desserts we worked so hard on!
On President's Day we went ice skating. The kids really seem to enjoy it for the first hour or so! After that, they are freezing and ready to go. They skated for 90 minutes, but the last 30 involved a lot of complaining!

Noah
Will
Ethan
The kids love seeing the blimps that come for all of the NASCAR races. They (park, dock, tether, land???) at the New Smyrna Beach Airport so we get to see them quite a lot flying around.
On Thursday night the kids participated in the Book It! Challenge. They had a pajama party and watched both last year's and this year's webcasts. We did our part to help feed Haiti!
Today Melissa and I went to watch some of the girls from school play in their tournament. Let's just say they won by a landslide! Carmella and Letrell are so fun to watch play. They are so timid at school and turn into entirely different creatures on the court! Carmella is 4 and Letrell is 40. Next year they will move onto middle school. Those two were in kindergarten when I started teaching at Read-Pattillo so they are the first wave that I have seen all the way through.
Carmella passes it to Letrell
Carmella takes it down the court. She may be small, but she is certainly fierce!
Happy girls after the game! Let me tell you, I have been there when they have lost and this is NOT how they look after a loss!!!! They beat Daytona Beach and will play Port Orange later this afternoon. We are taking the boys to ride bikes on the beach so I'll miss that game. They have already beaten Port Orange so I think they are on their way to the Disney tournament!
Speaking of Disney, we are going on Thursday. We haven't been in quite a while so the boys are super excited. They haven't missed a single day of school so we decided to let them miss a day and go on a weekday when it won't be as crowded. It is still supposed to be 10 degrees cooler than usual next week, but that should make walking around Disney comfortable. Well, at least until the sun goes down and we start to freeze.

Images Art Festival

Today we went to Images Art Festival to walk around and look at the artists' work and look at Ethan's art work that was chosen to be displayed at the festival. It was a bit chilly and very windy today. It wasn't an enjoyable stroll as we were all chilled the entire time. Melissa and I were nerds in our toasty, warm matching boots!

They have an art tent set up that is sponsored by the Atlantic Center for the Arts. The kids can go in an do different projects. Here Paige is showing her masterpiece heart.

Ethan working on his canvas.

Will decorating a fabric piece to be sent to the troops.

Ethan's art piece.

And, the artist himself...