Our last day in Maryland was spent hanging out with Grandma, Pop-Pop, Aunt Kate, Uncle Bill, Gavin, and Evan. Pop-Pop made an awesome dinner and we spent a little time at the park. Leigha is apparently sunning herself on Aunt Kate's lap. Gavin, well Chris told him to make a funny face and he did!

And finally there was sleep!

The kids had a dance party just before bed! Even Pop-Pop got in on that one!

Evan deciding which one of the cakes he wants to sample!

Also celebrating birthdays were Eric and Dan, Vera (her 1st), and Grandma. Apparently Grandma was trying to "skip" her birthday by not having a cake. It won't work, but I think I like that idea myself! Here are the cakes.

My delicious birthday cake! I must add that unlike Melissa, I am NOT actually 30 yet.

Steph keeping me company while I was on waffle duty!

Aidan having a snack.

Asa and Vera hanging out!

Isabelle arriving to the party!

Leigha blowing bubbles.

Aiden outside playing. I'm not sure what game they had going on here!

Noah having breakfast on his first morning in Maryland. He fell in love with Cracklin' Oat Bran while he was there.

We are back from our Maryland/Pennsylvania trip. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins and hanging out in the mountains. I will post a few of the many pictures Chris took. It may take me a couple days, but they will eventually show up!

Well, we made here! The boys have been having an AWESOME time with all of their cousins! I got my Baja Fresh for lunch today, so as you can see we are all happy. I did just spend some time on the exercise equipment to put a small dent in all my "Maryland binge" guilt. Tomorrow we head off to the mountains. It is nice and crisp here. I'm sure it will be even colder in the mountains. The boys don't seem to mind it.

I never got a chance to post these last night, so here you go. I didn't get to watch much of Will, Noah, and Emma's practice since I had to stay with Ethan on his field. Ethan was very excited and scored a goal during their team scrimmage.

The boys went over Eagney's house this afternoon to jump on their new trampoline. They had tons of fun. They are very excited for tomorrow to arrive. Noah still has a fever. He already had an appointment tomorrow to recheck his ears so that worked out well!

Tonight is the boys' first soccer practice. They are very excited! Since the day is finally here, they have moved on to asking, "When is our first real game?" Last night Chris took them to the skate park to ride around on their scooters. If they create a sports competition that includes swimming, soccer, and scootering our boys may just stand a chance! I'll post pictures later tonight of the big practice.

Another day of warmth and swimming! The boys swam for an hour when we got home from school today. I know they shouldn't be swimming with their ears, but it's so hard to say no to them. I'm going to have to go out and get them some sort of ear plugs to wear while they swim. While the bikers left town yesterday (http://www.news-journalonline.com/special/bikeweeks/2006/index.htm) the spring breakers arrived. It should all be over when we get home from spring break and traffic should be back to normal. The boys will have to prepare themselves for the cold. I'm sure they'll be a bit confused on Friday! Ethan, Will, and Noah are looking forward to their first soccer practice on Wednesday. I'm hoping Chris will take them to shoot hoops tomorrow while Melissa and I work out. They really like that. Nothing very exciting going on- except the fact that I drove the tests to the county warehouse today and did a little dance on my way out! I still have to go back on Thursday to deliver the materials that aren't scored, but there is no pressure involved in that! Ah...

Fun weekend! On Friday night we went to the Eagney's for a pizza party. After the pizza party we went to Grandma Bobbie's to try out her new spa. The kids all had a blast. Yesterday morning we went to the beach. We went early and it was still a bit cloudy and chilly for me! Melissa somehow managed to get burned through the clouds. No chance for me getting burned since I was wrapped in a towel the entire time shivering! Last night the kids had a sleepover with Emma and Paige. They all watched Yours, Mine, Ours. They seemed to like it. The adults watched Just Friends which was really funny. Melissa brought over donuts for the kids today when she came to pick up Em and Paige. We went to Target and Super Wal*Mart with the boys. As usual, it was not a fun trip. After the boys took a nap we heated up the spa. They stayed in the spa for about 20 minutes and then dove into the pool. Today was the official first day of swim season at our house. They haven't been in since last fall. They had a blast and just ate a HUGE dinner. After swimming is about the only time we don't have to fight Noah to eat!

It's a warm, sunny, breezy, FRIDAY!!! We have another child in the house with an ear infection. Ethan had a fever for a couple days and was complaining that he had a headache and that his neck and back hurt. I just assumed he had the same flu that everyone else got and just kept giving him Motrin. Well, yesterday he was fever free so we didn't give him any. Halfway through the school day his teacher called to tell me that he was in the clinic saying his stomach hurt. He came back to my room and lied down for 15 minutes and said that he was ready to go back to class. When I saw him at the end of the day he burst into tears and said that his ear was killing him! I immediately called the doctor but they couldn't see him until the morning. Chris took him at 8:00 this morning and he has ANOTHER ear infection in his left ear. I really don't get it. They haven't been swimming or anything. So he is on another round of antibiotics and she also put him on Flonase. I guess we'll be traveling with a cooler to transport all of their meds. It is supposed to be in the upper-80's all weekend so we are definitely going to the beach tomorrow. Last night Chris took the boys to the YMCA to shoot hoops and kick around the soccer ball in the gym. They LOVED it. I also have to give props to Chris for staying up until 2:00 am cleaning our house. I try my best from 3:00 to 5:30 but between arranging snacks, doing dishes, cooking dinner, and breaking up disputes I rarely get much done. By the time the boys go to bed I'm done and ready for bed myself. It was a wonderful treat to see the house so gleaming this morning.

Well, we are inching our way closer to the weekend! Today Emily came home from school with us. They actually played quite nicely today. Emma, Paige, and Sophia joined in the fun for a bit as well. They had some sort of fort party in Will and Noah's room. They advertised it with a "party" sign taped on the door. Emily stayed for dinner and then the boys walked her home with Chris. The boys did Tae Bo with me tonight. It was quite funny watching them. Will was the only one that stuck with it for any amount of time. Before bed we finished up Night of the Ninjas. We only have one more Magic Tree House book before we need to stock up again.

Not much thrilling news to report. Will got beat up by a girl at school today. Okay, not really, but she did split his lip! All reports were that she did it on purpose and Will was innocent! Apparently, she wanted a toy Will was playing with and Will wasn't ready to give it to her. He was very proud and said that he didn't hit her back. I promised the boys we could make chocolate chip cookies when we got home from school. Of course we get home and I realize that we are out of sugar. I have NEVER run out of sugar. We all loaded back in the van and went to the store to get some. We also picked up the new Harry Potter at Blockbuster for Chris while we were out. The boys are all watching it now- I'm sure they'll all be in our bed tonight from being scared of the movie!! Melissa and I went to the gym this afternoon. I worked off the guilt of making cookies- I didn't even eat one! Off to read to the little Gremlins before bed!!!

We went to the "Easter Egg Park" today. The boys have given a nickname to the load of parks in our area. This one got it's name because it is where they hold the annual Easter Egg Hunt. The kids had a blast once we got there. Our normal 3 minute drive turned into a 10 minute drive thanks to all the motorcycles! We had to drive past 20,000 motorcycles on the way. Okay Greg, I might be exaggerating that number thanks to the mix of my strawberry daquiris last night and the early hour we went to the park, it may have only been 15,000!

The duck encounter! These are the mutant ducks native to Florida. Lucky for Will they are very friendly and tolerant of little boys. Melissa was going to call social services on us for allowing Will to pet the duck. She is quite afraid of the killer ducks!

Happy Noah!

Emma and Will... Sort of looks like a newspaper engagement photo!

Ethan the tree climber!

Um, not sure what is going on here! Perhaps Will is being attacked by the tree.

Paige in her trendy sweater!

The kids checking out the gigantic, scary spider that they found. Paige first refused to go check it out but caved from peer pressure.

Sophia wondering..."Is it nap time or snack time??"

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! Chris had a coach's meeting today (he is going to coach Will and Noah's soccer team) so we met him halfway for dinner. We got pizza and met at one of the boys' favorite parks. We drove past about 10,000 motorcycles on our way to the park which is only 10 miles away!! Today was the first day of Bike Week. Here are some pics from the park. Noah was the photographer in one of the photos, can you guess which one??

To give you an idea of how nice the weather has been here this week, on my way to work this morning, I saw more kids on their bikes headed to the beach with surfboards than I saw headed to school!

Our new bed FINALLY came today. I really like it so I suppose it was worth the wait!

Noah is doing much better! He is back to his normal self. Hopefully this will be the last round of treatments for him. Today after school the boys decided to do art projects and also created their own drum set. It was quite a noisy afternoon. Melissa and I went to the gym for the first time tonight. We are slowly learning the ropes. Chris just left to go.

Katie's new ride! Are you jealous Chris???

Noah has ANOTHER ear infection! Last night he came in our room and was tossing and turning. I asked him what was wrong and he said his ear hurt. I gave him Motrin and he went to sleep. This morning he said he felt fine so we took him to school. By afternoon, his fever started and school called. I took him straight to the doctor, and sure enough, it's an ear infection. She put him on antibiotics for 20 days this time and if it doesn't go away and stay away, she is going to put a tube in his left ear. Hopefully it won't come to that. All he wanted to do was go to sleep and we were at the doctor during nap time. After the doctor we had to pick up Ethan from school and drop off Noah's prescriptions. He didn't get to sleep until 2:40. He is still asleep now. Poor guy!

On a happier note, my bed will finally be in this week!!

Today was chore day- always thrilling! Oh wait, never thrilling, that's right. I went to Target and Super Wal*Mart this morning. I truly hate grocery shopping. Chris worked on the pool while I was gone. We have been neglecting it recently. Earlier in the week it reached 81 degrees and the boys couldn't get in because it was so icky. It's all clean now and ready for another warm stretch! I personally don't get in until it reaches 88 degrees, so I think I'll have to wait until April.

Chris gave the boys much needed haircuts after dinner. The boys all arrived at Chris' Barbershop with money in hand. They all asked for haircuts that would make them look like their favorite Power Ranger. So, you may get Noah confused with Yellow Ranger, Will confused with Black Ranger, and Ethan confused with Red Ranger. Noah was doing his cRaZy dance all around the house. He wanted me to take a picture of him doing it for everyone to see. That explains the picture of Noah.

Thankfully the week is over and I rather forget most of it! I'm just happy it's the weekend. Today was super cloudy and it is supposed to storm tonight and tomorrow. To be sure the boys got some run time in, we went to a park in Daytona. The boys really liked it. They have frisbee golf there so there are lots of water traps with cool old bridges going over them onto little islands. Plus they had a huge dinosaur to climb there which was an added bonus. The boys ran around on the bridges and playground equipment pretending to be on a Mystic Forces Power Rangers mission. After, we tried to get the boys some soccer shoes for their season that starts in a couple weeks, but of course we couldn't find all the sizes we needed. We held off getting any because we didn't want one of them to come home empty handed. I think Chris is going to try to find them online. After they BEGGED to go to their favorite "dinner place." Thanks to Pop-Pop Wayne it's Bob Evans. They were very happy eating lunch there and Will and Noah crashed on the way home.

Okay, I'm finally breaking down and going to the doctor. Today is the first day that I am fever free, but my chest feels terrible. I took the boys to Blockbuster and Publix and I wasn't sure I'd be breathing by the time we got home! I just hope Chris can make it home before it is time for my appointment. It wouldn't be much fun dragging the boys to the doctor with me at nap time!