Some random pictures from yesterday. As you can tell, most pictures on the blog are taken with my camera which is clear from the quality!

This is our new door in the very early stages of installation!
Melissa and I took the kids to Bobbie's to keep them out of the way while Chris and Mike did their "man" work. Ethan and Emma had a blast in the pool together. The rest were too whimpy to get in at 80 degrees.
After dinner the kids watched Eragon. This time Emma spent some "quality time" with Noah. I guess she has figured out that Paige has claimed Will.
The door closer to being finished. They haven't done any of the finishing work. That is on today's agenda I guess. The boys really like that they can close the blinds to make a "movie room."

Waiting for cake. They had a Schrader-Eagney chant. The kept shouting "Schrader Eagneys" over and over and over again.
Sorry Greg, here is Melissa having her birthday cake! Since we missed her real birthday we celebrated tonight.

It was another beach day. Today was by far the nicest day so far this season. It was in the low 80s, breezy, and sunny. We stayed at the beach for over two hours. Normally the boys don't last more than 45 minutes or so.
Will made Melissa and me tons of delicious pies.
Noah was quite proud of the feather he found.
The girls worked nicely in their own little bakery.

What happens to our nearly 9 year-old Hanzie after almost 2 hours at the park with his mom followed by a 3 mile jog with his dad...

Melissa and I just got back from an hour long bike ride. So, on our way home it began to drizzle. We thought, okay, we'll get a little wet. We were riding down a long, straight street and saw the downpour headed right towards us! Needless to say, we both got soaked. The best part is that it didn't even rain at my house! We stopped by my friend Sam's house and she has the cutest little black lab puppy that she got on Friday. His name is Bentley and he is so adorable and sweet!

We have been out most of the day. I had to go to Lowe's to get hardware for our new French doors and since Super Target is right next door, of course I had to stop there as well! We got home just in time for lunch and went right out the door to go to the park. We took Emily because she has been begging to play with the boys all week. They have been sick and today was the first day that they were feeling better. They brought their swords to make their way through the mystical forest!
Will was begging me to let him climb this tree so that he could get to these...
the oranges! The park we went to today has gobs of orange trees and the boys like guessing which animals ate the half eaten oranges all over the park.
After the hike, they played on the playground forever. They had it all to themselves. Hanzie was so hot that he made me sit in the pavilion with him the entire time.

Well, the sun came out and we hit the beach! We had just enough time between lunch and nap. The water is still a chilly 65 degrees. That certainly didn't stop all the spring breakers from getting in!

Ethan tested the water and decided that is was freezing! This is him running back with his verdict.
They played in the sand for a good bit.
Noah truly wanted to go swimming! He kept saying, "Let's go in further, come on Mom!"
Future sand sculptor? Possibly.
After playing in the sand for a bit, they hit the beach playground. We made a quick stop at 7-11 for Slurpees/coffee and now the little buggers are napping. They have all been sick so they really need it!

Another day in March, another birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Today my mom turns a certain number of tens + five. Although she would be having more fun in Florida enjoying spring break with us at the beach, she is in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Okay, we haven't been to the beach yet during spring break. It has been cloudy and cool. Really, it has been quite cold this week. Honestly, sweatshirts and sweatpants in March?? What is that about??

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, "BIRTHDAY QUEEN MELISSA!" Now, Melissa is usually never "all about herself," however, in mid-March each year she becomes a bit self-obsessed. Since it is only one week a year, it is quite tolerable. At any rate, we had big plans for her this morning before she headed off to her night at Saratoga Springs in Disney World. We were planning on going to Dunkin' Donuts this morning and getting her some donuts and white hot chocolate (her new fave) and bringing it all to her. Well, those plans changed right around 2:35 am last night when Will woke up throwing up. He hasn't been feeling well since Friday with a fever and cold but seemed to be doing better. Yesterday afternoon, after the dentist, he got a really bad headache. We gave him some children's Tylenol Cold medicine and he started feeling a bit better. I don't know when the stomach thing started- I'd like to blame the fluoride treatment. At any rate, after being up for over an hour last night he finally got back to bed. We skipped visiting Melissa, as I didn't want to get her kids sick. We will make it up to her in the middle of the week when everyone is gone and we are the only ones left to spoil her!

Above is the new 5 year-old craze; at least at our house! Will and Noah are seriously addicted to this breakfast treat. They have eaten them every morning for the last week or so. I wonder how long until they are sick of them. Ethan can take them or leave them, but Will and Noah require them to start their day. Will even ate 2 sets for breakfast after being sick last night.

(If my mom or Wayne read this they will know I have completely jinxed myself. I was just telling them this weekend that I would take Will and Noah's bizarre week long fever over throwing up any day and that the boys hadn't thrown up in over a year. Well, I guess that streak starts again today- or so I hope!)

Once again, we've had a beautiful day. Since it isn't warm enough for the beach or swimming, we have been hitting the playground all weekend. Chris took them to the "wood park" yesterday and today I took them to the "Easter egg park." They have nicknames for all of the parks. The wood park is made all of wood and the Easter egg park is where they have the big Easter egg hunt every year.
I'm not sure what kind of dance was going on here!
Yesterday while we were at the store, Noah spotted all of the plants. Everyone was walking out with some and he insisted that we go check them out! I took him to the 97 cents section and let him pick some out. He wanted some yellow ones (snap dragons), some red ones (pentas), and some purple ones (lavender). I knew it was going to get fairly chilly out last night so we held out planting them until today. Noah planted and watered all of them. Then we took a tour around the yard checking on the stuff that he planted last year. He already has plans for where he wants to put some more stuff. (Oh, I don't make him wear a helmet while gardening! He was gardening between his scooter/bike rides.)

The boys said that since they had the...
That they would surprise him with this...
Chris spent most of the day out shopping. To keep the boys occupied I decided that we needed a major project. The boys created a "camp-out" for Chris in the toy room. It involved a trip to the dollar store & Wal*Mart, a lengthy craft project, and of course putting it all together. The boys were quite impressed with the outcome. After decorating the room to their satisfaction, I mowed the lawn and did a bit of yard work while they rode their scooters up and down the street. It is gorgeous out today!

St. Patrick's Day party!!!! The kids had a BLAST! They are watching Shrek 2 now- he's green!

Here is the beginning of the Patrick punch! Simple recipe of green cherries, limes, lime sherbet, and gingerale! Delicious!
Noah is adding the sherbet.
Ethan adds the gingerale.
Emma made the green whipped cream!
Here they are, all ready for the green feast to begin!

Will had two big glasses of punch but didn't eat a thing. I took his temperature after dinner since he wasn't eating and acting tired and sure enough he had a nice fever! Hopefully he doesn't turn green!

Spring Break starts today! We had a nice thunderstorm last night to ring in the spring season. The pool is completely filled thanks to the downpour! This week has gone by fairly quick. The weather has been very nice so the boys have been swimming or playing outside just about every day. I finally was able to watch The Holiday on Wednesday night. I loved it! Just my kind of movie. Chris actually liked it as well so that was an added bonus. Normally he just suffers through my movies with little or no enjoyment! Although tonight is payback as we are watching the new 007 flick! Last night Melissa came over to watch Grey's Anatomy with me. What was with that ending!?! I mean come on- Izzy and George!!! Melissa and I planned a little St. Patrick's Day party for the kids tonight. They are having green punch, green waffles, green whipped cream, etc. I'll have to post some pics later tonight. Chris and Mike are going to try to go mountain biking while we party. Chris had an accident last night and completely warped his front wheel so that won't be happening unless he can get it fixed today. He is taking it to the bike shop today to have it looked at. Amazing how when a tire on his bike needs to be fixed it gets looked at right away but when something in my house breaks it takes weeks to months to get looked at. Priorities, right?

Today was fairly uneventful. The boys and I ran errands this morning while Chris mountain biked. Ethan wanted to get a few new books and of course I had to treat myself to one as well! Will and Noah got some new blankets for their beds. They also got to do one of their favorite things, go to the dollar store! That is my little secret for having them behave at the book store, Beall's home store, and Wal*Mart to get laundry detergent! It worked wonders. After shopping they came home, had lunch, at went for another swim. They were quite busy this weekend so we made them take naps today. Ethan put up a good fight, but he was the one that we had to drag out of bed because he wanted to sleep the entire day!

Yesterday afternoon Will and Noah's friend, Madelyn, had her 5th birthday party. It was at one of their favorite parks so they had a great time! Here is Will taking a whack at the cute teapot.
Chris is trying to convince Sophia and Paige to give him all of their gum. Sophia fell for it and started giving him all of her candy. Paige was on to him!
Noah and Ethan were checking out each other's stash.
Mady blows out her candles. She had a fairy party. She was dressed up like an adorable fairy! (Oh, she wasn't actually turning 10. Since her real birthday isn't until tomorrow, she decided that she would be turning 10 on her "unbirthday.")

Well, after relaxing last night in the spa with a bottle of wine and Melissa to chat with, I finally left the weeks of testing behind! After slowing waking up this morning we went for a short hike while Chris biked. There were horses there again as we pulled up so Will got his fill of horses for the weekend. We hiked to Oxbow Lookout this time. A much shorter hike and you can actually get to the water from this lookout. The kids all had fun picking up "treasures," aka green plastic pellets, along the way.


Here are Emma and Will relaxing once we got to the lookout. Paige has staked her claim on Will, so Emma better watch it.
I was smart enough to take Hanzie off of his leash before descending down this steep bank. It was a good thing I did. I asked Mike to snap some pictures of him coming down and before we knew it he was at the bottom! Good thing I wasn't holding on to him!




When we got home the boys had lunch and decided that they needed a dip in the pool to cool off after their hike. The pool, at the moment, is actually warmer than the outside air. The temp is 78 and the pool is 80. Gotta love solar heat! It still drops down to the fifties at night so the pool can't quite make it up to the 88 that I require before getting in. A few more weeks.

Not much exciting going on here! As testing coordinator at my school, I have been busy with state testing the last two weeks. Today was the last official day of testing and tomorrow is make-ups. Monday I get to drop them off and be finished with the whole thing. Ethan was actually a bit jealous since only 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders get to take the test! The weather has been gorgeous this week. After a chilly Monday, it warmed up to the low-70s for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is supposed to be closer to 80. Tonight while the boys ate dinner I rode my bike to Blockbuster to get them Hannah Montana. They have been begging for it but whenever we go it is out. Well, they were thrilled because they had it today! The boys started riding toward the park while Chris jogged along with them. I met up with them on the way. We played at the park for a bit. Ethan had a pretty nice fall off the zip line. The zip line at this park is far higher and faster than the one that they are use to and Ethan went FLYING off of it onto the ground. He wasn't sure he'd make it home on his bike after the fall but he managed. Will and Noah were really excited to get their new shams this week. Will and Noah have outgrown their adorable dinosaur bedding from Pottery Barn Kids and decided they needed a more grown up theme. We took their bunkbeds apart and got them new bedding. They chose a skateboard theme. I ordered some skateboard shames from Pottery Barn Teen. I still haven't gotten rid of their dinosaur stuff. They've had it since they were one and I'm having a hard time parting with it! So, now we need to find some stuff to decorate their room skateboard style!
Here the goofballs are last night at dinner. They were SO starved that they couldn't wait for Chris to get home to eat. I finally fed them at 4:30 because I couldn't take any more of the complaining!

Well, currently I am out numbered by children 7-1. If I could only share a quick snap shot of our living room at the moment you would probably get a good laugh. Paige is running around the foosball table with her pants around her ankles for some strange reason, Sophia is riding around on Emma's back, Emily is holding Will in some strange hold, and Ethan is supervising all the action as if it is all completely normal! Noah decided that, since all others were in one way or another currently busy, to play video games in peace in the toy room. I think I'll go make myself a cup of coffee!

The sun is finally shining in The Sunshine State! After a couple cloudy, rainy, and otherwise yucky days, we were finally able to have some outside fun. It was back to the park for us. We did our norm of hiking, playground, and pier. This time we also threw in lunch and football. We all had a nice time and it tired everyone out. The boys are still resting and Hanzie hasn't moved off his bed since we got home. We have moved into the normal Sunday chore routine. Chris is working out in the yard and washing the cars. I'm on laundry detail. I think a bike ride will be a necessity in a bit. It is so beautiful out that I can't stand being in the house!

The boys are carefully watching the kids on the playground. They were so worried that whatever equipment they wanted to use would be in use after they finished lunch that their eyes never left the playground while they ate!
Here was their big football game. Will took the term "down" quite literally. Whenever someone said "down" he dropped down to the ground!
While Ethan and Noah watched Spy Kids 3 on the couch, Will decided to watch Star Wars in our bed and quickly fell asleep. He is so much like me in that aspect! While the pool in the background looks very refreshing, it is still too cold to swim. It's killing me, I need it to get to 88 degrees!
I'm sure Chris got much better pictures with his camera. I'll let him show those off later. You see, it is not that I'm lacking photographic skills; I just lack the equipment! Ooh, now I'm really starting to sound like Chris!

You can't tell very well from the awful picture taken with my camera, but the boys all got matching Crocs today. Chris got a pair a couple of months ago and the boys have been begging to get some since! We went to the mall today to search for new bedding for Will and Noah and made the mistake of walking into Hallmark. Well, out we walked with three pairs of miniature Crocs! Of course they all HAD to have the same color as Dad. They looked so cute walking through the mall in their matching shoes. (Chris happened to be wearing his.) They have not taken them off yet today!