Run Forrest, run!

Here comes the Eagney family across the rope bridge.

More Seuss Landing fun!

Here they are giving a Sneetch a bath. That is, of course, until the Sneetch gave them one!

You see, you can play tic-tac-toe on Mr. Joe's belly. These guys got the wrong idea and started climbing the poor guy!

We had fun at Universal today. We didn't stay long since it was starting to get crowded. The boys slept the entire ride home. That is always an indicator that some fun was had!

Today is like Friday- no school tomorrow! To top it off it is Grey's Anatomy night. How exciting!!! We are going to go to Universal with Melissa and the girls in the morning. After school today we went to the Eagney's to play outside. They have the playground and trampoline so they are the winter oasis. Tonight we went to Target to get Will and Noah's birthday party invitations. They have chosen a Superman theme for their party. When we got home they started discussing who they were and weren't going to invite to their party. It was quite funny. Will and Noah had very different ideas on who should be coming. One would say, "No, not them," and the other would say, "Yes Mommy, you've got to invite them!" No worries, we are inviting their entire class as not to have anyone feel left out. The boys are getting VERY excited about our Thanksgiving plans. Only one more week! Next week's schedule is overflowing with meetings so it should fly by.

Good news! I just took the van to the body shop and they said they could get it fixed by the time we need it! At least that worked out for us.

Well... on our way home from school today we were rear ended. Luckily everyone was fine, except for our poor van! They say things come in threes so lets just hope this is the last. Last week our pool heater broke, Saturday the pool pump broke, and today this. The boys immediately said that they thought a tornado had gotten our van. They actually looked relieved when I told them that a car had just hit us. They haven't even seen the movie Twister. Although they have been on the Twister ride. I guess that is where it was coming from! It put a damper on our afternoon plans- to say the least. I ended up on the phone with the insurance company so out went our craft plans and our dinner plans! The boys were happy to accommodate and eat chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese. They are looking forward to sharing their car accident survival story tomorrow at school. They each told Chris three times each, "Guess what, we were in a car accident today!" I think they finally got the point that Daddy knew what happened. I suppose I should have let them call some people to share their exciting story. Lesson learned!

We spent today preparing for Thanksgiving. We learned some new songs and rhymes. One of the songs is about a turkey who needs to run for his life. Ethan had his favortie Sunday dinner, "big chicken with potatoes and carrots," and Will asked, "Is this turkey?" After I said that it was chicken, he said, okay and started eating. I don't think we'll be able to convince him to eat turkey for Thanksgiving. Chris went for a jog and took the boys along on their bikes. They were all exhausted when they got home, but Chris managed to convince them to play some soccer when they got back. I made them strawberry shortcakes for dessert and Will and Noah ate fruit roll-ups instead. Unbelievable! They did fight over a bowl full of strawberries while Chris and Ethan devoured their shortcakes!

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Today we went to Universal. The weather was PERFECT and there were no crowds. We convinced all the boys to ride Spiderman. Even though they constantly tell everyone how much they love that ride, when it is time to get on there is always some reason they can't do it! We also got Noah onto Jurassic River Adventure Ride. Even though he was still a HAIR short, the lady let him on. I don't think he'll be going on it again any time soon. He was terrified the entire time! After Universal, we went to the Adidas outlet and got the boys some new shoes. They are out in the yard breaking them in before dinner!
Ethan surfs some waves in front of Quiet Flight in Citiwalk.

Chris and Will try to wake the sleeping elephant.

Noah takes a stab at waking him up also!

The boys pose with the Dr. Seuss characters.

Last night the boys' friend, Kyle, crashed in Will and Noah's room. We let Will and Noah go in our room. When I went to bed this is how they were snuggling...too cute!

I love Friday!! This week went by quick since I had Wednesday off. Next week we have off on Friday so that will be a nice, short week as well! Yesterday was a complete nightmare. I got a headache in the middle of the school day. The lady from State Farm was coming to do my blood and urine test for life insurance so I had to fast. I was too afraid to take anything for my headache in fear that it would mess up the test. Since I didn't have the lady's number with me at work I just toughed it out. I had a long conference after school and the entire time I was shaking and felt so sick. I made it home before I actually got sick thankfully! The lady was supposed to be here at 5:00 and didn't get here until 5:45!!! Ugh... So after taking some medicine and then some more medicine my headache went away. I slept great last night thanks to all of the medicine. I guess that was one benefit!
The boys have been enjoying carefully selecting their multiple Halloween treats each afternoon and night. They have begged us to take them to Universal tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be really nice, breezy and in the low 70s, so it should be fun. Tonight we are having friends over for dinner and to play games. They have a son that is Will and Noah's age so they should have fun tonight. The boys are acting crazy anticipating his arrival.
Next weekend we tried to keep our plans to a minimum since we will be preparing for our big Thanksgiving plans! Unfortunately, things always pop up so it seems it will be crammed with activities anyway. Oh well!!! I hope everyone has a good weekend. Oh, and save some of that cold weather for us in Maryland, would ya?

We had a lot of fun during our Halloween festivities. Melissa had a Halloween party on Sunday. The boys had a lot of fun bobbing for apples, playing musical chairs, and painting everybody! On Tuesday all the boys had fun activities at school. Will and Noah had the traditional Halloween parade and party at their school. They got to dress up in their costumes and got tons of Halloween loot. Our school is a bit more conservative in the Halloween area and Ethan had "Harvest Day." They rotated around through the different teachers doing all different activities. They even did some square dancing with the PE coaches. After school we started preparing for trick-or-treaters. The boys get more excited about getting everything ready for the kids than they do going trick-or-treating themselves. We couldn't even convince Ethan to go trick-or-treating. He stayed home the entire time passing out candy. Will, Noah, and I did two streets in the neighborhood with Mary and Emily. Will and Noah actually were ready to go home after one street, but Mary and I convinced them to do one more street. At that point I was already carrying their loaded candy bags! Once we all got home the boys helped Ethan pass out more candy and they played with their light sabers in the front yard. Today I had to stay home and wait for the pool repair guy. I got all of the Halloween stuff put away and got out all our Thanksgiving book, crafts, and decorations. After I picked up the boys from school we spent the rest of the afternoon reading Thanksgiving books, doing crafts, and watching Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and Charlie Brown's Mayflower Voyage.
Ethan as Anakin!

Will as the muscular Superman!

Noah as Master Yoda!

Trick-or-treating headquarters at the Schrader house! You can't get the full effect until it gets dark and the fogger and strobe light are going.

As I was reading for my class on Friday night, Noah must have come up to me 50 times in a one hour period to ask me an important question. He would say, "I've got to ask you something really, really important!" You see, I told him not to disturb me while I was working unless it was really important. Anyway, as I was reading I came across the perfect quote for Noah. "I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein. This would explain his constant barrage of questions and his necessity to take everything apart to see how it works.

Today was the Fall Fitness Frenzy at school. I volunteered to work the entire day. My first shift was at the inflatable obstacle course. Will and Noah must have gone on that thing 100 times each! Ethan helped me direct traffic. After our duty there, we moved on to selling pizza and water. Ethan could really push the water! While Ethan and I worked, Will and Noah dragged Chris all over the place to see the fire fighters, to get their faces painted, etc. Everything at the fair was free (except for the pizza and the water) so it was a great way for the kids from school to have a good time. They also gave away bicycle helmets, which sadly only few have!

Here Ethan and Will race to the top of the obstacle course.

Noah maneuvers his way to the top!

Noah takes aim at the fire.
Will gets his face painted!

Noah on one of his MANY trips down the obstacle course slide!Muscle man Noah!

The Halloween countdown begins! Tonight we made Halloween cookies and scary tombstone pancakes. Emily, Emma, Paige, and Sophia came to help us decorate the cookies and eat the pancakes. They all seemed to have a lot of fun. Melissa and I finally wised up and had the kids come in shifts to decorate the cookies so it wasn't complete chaos.

Ethan takes his cookie decorating seriously!
Noah once again uses tongue power in completing his task!

Will executes the sprinkle decorating with ease.

We were finally able to wear fall clothes to school! It was 48 degrees this morning!!! Considering just 24 hours before that it was in the 90s it felt FREEZING to us. We even had to turn the heat on at school today. Noah was quite happy to model for all of us. He digs his fall threads! Ethan was not at all thrilled with his outfit. He appreciated it when he got to school and started begging for a coat, hat, and gloves. His teacher meets his class in front of the bathrooms in the morning to get a morning bathroom break in before they start their day. (Our hallways and bathrooms are outside.) Ethan decided it was too cold to sit outside and wait for the bathroom break gig so he sat in my room and looked out the window until he saw his class coming. Then he ran out the door and met up with them just as they were walking into the classroom. He has become a true Floridian!

Today I needed to get a sugar bowl. I broke ours some time ago and have been needing to replace it. The boys volunteered to come sugar bowl shopping with me as long as it included a walk on the beach! It was the perfect night for it. It was nice and cool (low 70s) and no one was at the beach. Chris snapped a few pictures on his phone camera which explains the quality. Of course we came home with no sugar bowl! Who ever thought it would be hard to find a sugar bowl??

The boys survived their camping trip! Well, I should probably say, Chris survived the camping trip. The boys seemed to have had a great time. They talked about the moon bounce, the haunted house, the smores, the diving board, etc. They were certainly quite dirty when they got home this morning! They all took a nice nap today while I was grocery shopping. I can't believe the weekend is over already!

Here they are arriving at camp.

This is what they were most looking foward to, the bows and arrows!

Noah trying his luck at the dunk tank!

Just playing around the campsite.

Nice and dirty, and ready for bed!

It is a hot Friday in Florida! It was in the 90's today. This week has been fairly uneventful. We had Boy Scouts, PTA, and all that fun stuff. The boys have watched Over the Hedge at least four times this week. They LOVE it. The boys are going camping this weekend for Boys Scouts. I'm glad I'm not going. It's WAY too hot for that. It is also Biketoberfest. There are tons of noisy motorcycles everywhere. It's really obnoxious. I'm going to try to finish up the work for one of the classes I'm taking. My next class starts Monday so I'm hoping to finish everything up so I'm not doubled up on work. I also made reservations for the character breakfast at Universal. We are going in early December to celebrate everyone's birthday. I know they will love dining with super heroes!

Today was spent having fun outside. The boys started their morning by riding their dune buggy and motorcycle around the neighborhood. Noah brought great laughter during this adventure. Will drove first and they switched just before the first pond we pass on our walk. As soon as Noah gets in, he floors it and nearly drives the thing right into the pond! He promptly exited the driver's seat and allowed Will to take control of the wheel again. Just before we got home he gave it another try. Within a minute he said, "I'm sick of this, you drive Will!" When we got home Will begged to try out Ethan's motorcycle. He was super mad that Chris was holding him at first. He could indeed balance as promised and rode solo with Chris following CLOSE behind. Then there was Noah. He too decided to give it a try. He was going the full 12 mph and could NOT balance. Poor Chris was running full speed to keep up with him. He is such a spaz. He could only focus on the throttle and paid no attention to his steering or balance! After playing out in the yard for most of the day, we rode our bikes to the park and they played there for a while. We went on a short ride after the park and poor Will crash landed head first into the sidewalk! He was ultra cautious for the rest of the ride and it took us forever to get home!

Will in the driver's seat! This is the pond that Noah nearly drove in! Chris got the funniest video of them but it's too large to send out and I haven't figured out the whole zip thing yet!

Here is the gang headed down the street!

Noah's first motorcycle experience!

Will off on his own!

Today was a special day... Ethan finally had success on his rollerblades. He had tried them a couple times in the past and quickly got frustrated and gave up. This time he stuck it out and had success! We spent the entire day doing yard work. Chris got some sod this morning. The boys were awesome helpers. Noah wasn't thrilled about having dirty hands.

Noah showing everyone his super messy hands!

The landscapers!

Will and Noah had fun at school today. They had a visit from the fire department. The firefighters, truck, and Sparky the Dog all came to their preschool. I'm surprised they were impressed by it since their Uncle Eric gave them the best tour ever last summer! In honor of the firefighter visit and Fire Safety and Prevention Week, Noah came home and got all fire geared up. Promptly after taking this picture he axed through his castle to get to the fire!

After school Emily, Emma, Paige, and Sophia came over to help break in the fort even more. We spent the entire evening making Halloween projects. They were really into the whole craft thing after dinner. Currenty, they are eating popcorn and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Happy Birthday Anna! Well, as Anna grows older, our fort grows bigger and bigger and bigger! Today it was a Star Wars ship, a play house, a secret lair, and various other locations. One can travel far and wide with a fort!

The fort is here and it is a hit!! The boys have been dying for Monday to arrive so their fort would be delivered. Luckily, the UPS got here before we did and the box was by the front door. Just another reason to love the Cranium company! I know there are a lot of people sighing out there since I force everyone to play Cranium with me.

Here is another picture from yesterday.

We had to lecture Will about theme park germs right before we got on the ride. He was not a happy camper. He couldn't contain his smile once the ride started though!