Today Will and Noah went to Katelyn and Julia's birthday party. They are twin girls in their class. They had a blast and the park it was at was absolutely beautiful. There were manatees, dolphins, and pelicans playing in the river. A dolphin jumped and did a flip right in front of us! We were in nature's splash zone and actually got splashed. The dolphin was only 10 feet from us, at most!
Julia on the left and Katelyn on the right opening presents.
Will had said that he absolutely would NOT eat another princess cake! Well, he decided that it was okay to eat one since they were princess cupcakes and not a cake!
I promise, we did not molest any of the manatees while watching them!
After the party we went across the street to the beach. I tried to convince Will and Noah to take a walk with me, but they didn't want anything to do with that idea. They told me there was no way they were going on the beach because a) they did not have swimsuits on and b) they had no sand toys with them! There were GIGANTIC waves and tons of surfers out. They said they would go back this afternoon with Chris to surf! Since a surfer was bit by a shark in that same area yesterday, I don't foresee that happening today!

Time forThe Naked Brothers Band! The girls are over for a bit. After a short coloring project, they all begged to watch their favorite show. We found one "on demand" that they hadn't seen. They are all very excited!

We have made it through 3/5 of the week! This week has actually been quite nice. The weather has been comfortable and the boys have been in good spirits. Yesterday while Chris and Ethan were at Boy Scouts, I took Will and Noah for a bike ride to Melissa's to try out her new basketball hoop. There are a couple reasons why I don't like to ride with the boys without Chris. The first being that outside of our immediate subdivision there are no sidewalks and narrow streets. I spend the entire time in a panic that someone is going to get squashed by a car. Clearly that didn't happen yesterday. The second reason is that I feel overwhelming guilt for leaving Hanzie alone while we are out enjoying the fresh air! Will and Noah did very well and carefully listened to my zillion calls to stay to the side of the road and we made it home safe and sound. Today I came home from school with a massive headache that I had the entire day. The boys asked to get in the pool. I was pleased with that suggestion. Swimming is one of the few activities they can do without constant disputes. I warned them that the pool was only 80, but they still wanted to get in. Ethan and Will swam for an hour while Noah stood on the side shooting them with a water gun. Noah begged and begged to turn on the spa. Chris loves some spa time so I told him that he had to wait until tonight. So, after a bike ride to the park to throw around the boomerang, they are in the spa. You would think that I would be out there relaxing since I am finally recovering from my headache. Sadly, actually going through the trouble of putting on a swimsuit, drying off, etc sounds like a bit much for me. Not to mention, Noah pointed out that we have the biggest mountain of laundry that he has ever seen in his life. And let me tell you, the child has seen some rather large piles in the past! So, I have busied myself with that task!
Enjoying some spa time!

Like the rest of the east coast, we had some wild weather this weekend. Saturday it was 87 degrees, sunny, and breezy. We spent the entire afternoon out in the 89 degree pool! I even got in this time. It was so nice Saturday night that we decided to play Rumikub out on the pool deck with Mike and Melissa. Of course, no sooner than we had all the chips set up it started to pour! We toughed it out and played in the rain under the lanai. Sunday it stormed the entire morning. After the storms passed the sun came out and it got very windy. It actually was a very comfortable, although windy, afternoon. This morning when we got in the van to go to school it was only 47 degrees! That is unheard of this time of year. So, today we spent a good part of the day shivering. It was 71 when we got home from school and the kids went straight out back to catch lizards. They caught a few. I only let them cage them for a few minutes before I demand their release. I'd prefer that they didn't catch them at all (unless it is a catch and release rescue from inside the pool screen), but there is something about little boys and catching lizards. Noah got a bug habitat in his Easter basket so they have been catching lizards to enjoy the lovely, plastic rock terrain. It also makes the loudest bug sounds imaginable. Hopefully lizards are hard of hearing!

Oh, and Noah has convinced all the girls at school to call him Alex. They are already quite popular with the girls, and today the girls shouted, "Alex, Alex, Alex, Alex!" on our entire walk from the playground to the car.

Yesterday Sophia and Paige came home from school with us. We were all out in the hot sunshine planting our new pepper plants and the kids were all sweaty and yucky. I hooked up the sprinkler and they had a blast!

This is Sophi "getting her booty wet."
After playing in the sprinkler for an hour, they came in to watch their favorite movie. I'm sure you can guess what it is by now. When Mike came to get the girls Noah said, "Look how famous I look now!" This is his newest Alex get-up.
After dinner we headed over the the Eagney house for a camp-out. Chris and Mike set up the tents in the backyard and slept outside with the kids. Melissa and I stayed inside with the dogs. Sounds backwards, eh? I'm not sure if Chris snapped any shots last night or not since he couldn't pull himself off the trampoline. He will spend hours out there jumping on it with all the kids. The kids love it as well. They jumped well past their bedtime and then woke up at 6:45 to jump some more!

The Naked (Schrader) Brothers Band...

Here is a picture of The Naked Brothers Band. Typically, only Alex (pictured in the center with drum sticks) wears a doo-rag. Noah has decided that he wants to be just like Alex and has even requested that we call him Alex. You see, Alex invented red, white, and blue. Noah has taken his fashion advice very seriously and demands that we purchase him the clothes necessary to create this image. He even wants socks tied around his shins!

This is my proof! Will and Noah have said that if we planted their lima bean plants that they would eat all the lima beans that they grow. So, we immediately came home and planted them.
Look, no more stitches!

Here is Noah, oops, I mean Alex!

And of course, cutie pie Will.

I wear a doo-rag; you wear your hair. That's how it is, that's how it is!

No big news to report. Ethan had his stitches taken out yesterday. It obviously looks much better. The boys have two major hobbies now. Grandma Pat sent them Tony Hawk Downhill Jam for the Wii for Easter. They have been playing that quite a bit and they have all decided to become professional skateboarders. They spend every free moment practicing their moves. Tonight we went for a walk in the rain and they insisted on bringing the skateboards along. But, no worries, if their skateboarding careers don't work out for them they have back-up. They are also all ready to become members of The Naked Brothers Band. We have some serious rockers on our hands these days. I must say, I highly recommend The Naked Brothers Band Movie to anyone. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I got the Eagney girls addicted to it over the weekend! Now where ever I go I can here some Naked Brothers tunes! Even Chris belts out some tunes here and there! He was singing Motor Mouth just tonight!

I had a great birthday today despite the lousy weather and having to work. The kids at school all drew me lovely pictures and notes. Mike, Melissa, and the girls came over after school to drop off my presents and chat for a while. Then Noah requested that Chris get us Moe's for my birthday dinner. After dinner the boys "surprised" me with a Baskin' Robbins cake. It was delicious and I haven't had one in years! We took a nice walk in the rain and came home and watched, you guessed it, The Naked Brothers Movie! Hardcore wrestlers with inner feelings!!!

On your mark, get set,





go!
Will snatching up some eggs!
Noah posing mid-hunt.
Ethan looking for eggs amongst Melissa's herbs.

This year we had the Easter egg hunt at Mike and Melissa's since it was too cold to swim. The kids played on the trampoline and playground while Melissa and I hid a lot of eggs. After the hunt, we had a cook-out and watched The Naked Brothers Band. Will officially knows every line of the movie by heart now!

Yesterday after dinner the kids decorated their Easter sugar cookies. Grandma Pat bought them Easter cookie cutters long, long ago and they look forward to using them every Easter. Any excuse to drown a cookie in icing and sprinkles!

After nap yesterday, we dyed our Easter eggs. They boys eventually turned them into Star Wars characters once they dried. I'm not sure how Easter and Star Wars all fits together, but the boys thought it was really cool.

Happy Birthday to Miss Vera!!!

Since it was chilly out, Melissa and I took the dogs up to the dog park this morning. They all seemed to have a good time. Of course, we were the only ones there, but that is okay. Here is Hanzie with his stick. He will not go after balls or any other type of dog toy. He will only fetch sticks for some reason.
Boda on the other hand LOVES chasing after the balls!
Here Gibbs was trying to hide under Hanzie to get away from Loki's death grip. Okay, really, they were just play wrestling. Hanzie wasn't too thrilled to have someone brushing up against him. He is a bit of a snob in the dog world. He refuses to drink from a public water bowl or any bowl that another dog has touched for that matter. I do believe he inherits those traits from Chris!
This is a picture from earlier in the week. My battery was about to die in the camera so it is a bit fuzzy. Chris is riding on his gas powered scooter that he brought home from work recently. It was a freebie so I can't be too mad at him.

Chris is home with Will and Noah today. Only, this time, Will and Noah aren't sick and Chris is! Poor Chris was up all night. Luckily Will and Noah play very well together when Ethan is not around. Ethan has been happily waving from his classroom window and showing me all the cool Easter stuff he is making. His classroom is directly across from mine. I don't think he is too upset that Will and Noah are home with his sick dad!

Spring planting! Noah and I enjoy gardening. While we don't know anything about gardening, we do enjoy visiting various nurseries and finding things that we like and randomly planting them throughout the yard. We planted this hydrangea last July. I think it was just too hot and dry when we planted it. It never got a bloom and quickly dropped all of its leaves. I left it in the ground in hopes that it would cheer up in spring. Well, leaves popped out a couple weeks ago and this past week it finally bloomed! Noah and I were very excited. It is our after school ritual to walk around the yard checking on everything and watering on non sprinkler days! We can only turn on the sprinkler system Saturdays and Wednesdays and must hand water on the other days.
Here is our little herb garden. We planted two small sweet basil plants on the far left. We planted those in the same spot last year and they got HUGE. Steph got us addicted to her grilled pizza recipe so we had to grow our own basil. I actually ventured into the vegetables this year and planted two plum tomato plants well hidden behind the AC unit. Once again, in an effort to purchase less tomatoes for Steph's recipe. The rosemary survived all winter so we have plenty of that! We planted some peppermint and apple mint (never heard of it, but it sounded good) for iced tea and mojitos! In addition we planted some oregano for Chris and lavender to venture outside to smell. We have some Cuban basil that came back from last year. Melissa really likes that, but I'm not a big fan of it. Of course that gets huge!!! It is already the size of a small bush and it just came back.
Here is our favorite spot in the yard; the jasmine plant! It is in bloom right now and it smells fabulous. No big surprise that it is planted right next to Hanzie's poop pail! You can also smell it from the spa.

I am almost afraid to say that today has been a good day! Yesterday Chris decided to take all of the boys to Boy Scouts with him. It is rare that all three boys want to go. I thought I had made out and just settled into one of my big comfy reading chairs that I NEVER get to use. Well, just as I sat down the phone rang. It was Chris asking me to bring him Benedryl and his Epipen! I thought he was joking, but he wasn't! The parking lot at Boy Scouts is not paved. In Florida, that means it is sand. I guess he got bit by something on his way across the parking lot and started reacting to it. After taking some meds, his swelling went down. It seems like the drama will never end. Today we have been accident and sickness free.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY TO OUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR MR. DREW!!! He is such a cutie pie. We actually got to spend a little time with him last week when he came home with us from school. Will and Noah were so excited when I picked them up from school and had Drew with me!

Ethan had a great time telling everyone his injury story at school today. He was a popular man on campus and enjoyed every minute of it! With all the illness drama at our house we had totally overlooked Easter being this Sunday!! Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is the weather usually really nice, but I love all the pretty Easter colors! Chris got our decorations down late last night. We'll only have a few days to look at our decorations now, but on the bright side, the boys won't have a long wait until Easter. Melissa and I always hide hundreds (nope, not an exaggeration) of eggs for the kids to find. It has taken us several years to learn our lesson, but we have finally figured out that you cannot put any sort of chocolate in eggs hidden in Florida. They melt in the five minutes it takes the kids to find them.

Today was the first day that no one has thrown up at our house in as long as I can remember. Well, Ethan decided that a trip to the ER was the proper way to celebrate! The weather here has been beautiful. They have been playing outside for hours every day. Today everyone was feeling better so we all went outside to play. We had a long debate between swimming and playing out front with scooters and bikes, and in the end they decided to play out front. Will got golf clubs for Christmas and has only used them once. They decided that today was the day to get them out again. They were playing so nicely together. Ethan was acting as coach. He would set up the tee and ball and instruct Will on how to play. Well, on about the 5th swing, he said, "Okay Will," before moving out of the way. Since he was behind Will, Will didn't realize that Ethan hadn't moved yet. He swung and hit Ethan. Don't worry, he hit the ball as well and made a nice shot! Ethan wasn't thrilled with the amount of blood. He tried his hardest to convince me that he did not need to go to the hospital. One look at the gaping wound told me otherwise! Our kind neighbor, Gaye, agreed to watch Will and Noah and off we went. The whole trip, including the commute, took less than an hour! Luckily, our small town hospital was not busy. A numbing shot and stitches were required. Once we crossed through the doors of the ER, Ethan pulled himself together. His protesting immediately stopped and he became the model patient. The doctor commented over and over again how amazed he was by Ethan. He said that he rarely gets kids Ethan's age that remain so calm and together. He had even called in two nurses to hold him down if necessary. Well, Ethan didn't require any nurses and calmly laid there for the entire process. As a reward the nurse gave him two popsicles! Ethan recovered in no time and was out riding his scooter for our nightly walk. Of course, when he closed his eyes to go to sleep it suddenly hurt. He said, "Ouch, it hurts to close my eye!" Chris and I both just grinned and he realized that we weren't falling for it and started laughing. Nice try though, I'll give him that.

He really liked that he got blue stitches this time. Last time, with his thumb, they were black.

You'll never guess what Chris did first thing this morning; he ran out to detail his car some more!! Now, despite what he may have said below, he has a serious disorder. I caught him out there cleaning it and went in to get my camera. Of course he ran inside so I couldn't catch him. I hopped in the shower and when I got out he was nowhere to be seen. The boys said, "He's outside again cleaning his car." I grabbed my camera. If you see below he is HIDING behind the car. That big, round, bald thing that you can see through the back window would be him.

Here he is trying to throw the rag down so there would be no evidence. Ha!
Update from Chris: I never said that I didn't have OCD. I merely said that her whole photo shoot was a set-up. Besides, if it is that common to have me really cleaning my car, why have me fake it?

I went to Target today and they had some serious technical issues. I got in line right at noon and suddenly ALL of the registers went down! I had some stuff that I really wanted to get and ended up in line for an hour! Target gave me $16 worth of instant coupons to try to make up for it. So, I suppose I got paid $16 an hour to stand in line. They assure me that it was a nationwide issue and not just here in Florida. I'm not sure how that was supposed to make me feel any better about the situation though! The manager said it had something to do with the change of time being early and that today was the "real" day to change the time and it made their system loopy. I have never been so happy not to have the kids with me while shopping. Noah and Ethan helped me plant all the herbs I got. Will is still quite sick. He tried to eat some oatmeal for lunch. Apparently, his body is not quite ready for solids yet.

We just got finished watching the Kids' Choice Awards. The boys have been talking about it nonstop all week. It was actually quite funny. Here Will and Noah are snuggling. Will has only thrown up twice today! A vast improvement from yesterday! He did start a fever today as you can tell from his rosy red face. He managed to stay awake for the record breaking slime bungee jump (that was what he was most excited about seeing) and within 30 seconds of the jump ending, he was out.
Here they are with their party food. Poor Will was too sick to eat any of it.
Chris got his new car yesterday. Thanks to a severe case of Schrader OCD, he has already vacuumed and washed it. You see they detailed a BRAND new car for him before he drove it home. Well, after driving it around a bit today to show it to the boys, he immediately came home and vacuumed and washed it. Yes folks, in the dark!!! Oh, he got a Mitsubishi Endeavor.
Update from Chris: This whole photo shoot of me washing my brand new car was staged. I did wash it and vacuum it; I'm not denying that. I wasn't, however, washing it in this picture. While I was washing Jen's car, she came out with the camera and told me to stand in front of my car and pretend like I was washing it, so she can "make an OCD joke about it on the blog." Don't you all feel tricked now. You're not even getting a glimpse of our real lives. It's all staged...all of it.

While it is Friday, there is not much excitement at our house. Unless you count two parents jumping up and down with excitement that one of their five year-old twins actually made it to the bathroom to throw up rather than covering the house in it! We thought we were on the upswing last night. Noah did not throw up at all Wednesday, so it was off to school for everyone on Thursday. Well, last night he woke up throwing up AGAIN! I think that the whole twin syndrome thing must have kicked in for Will finally, because he woke up throwing up this morning and hasn't stopped since! Chris got the sick day duties today. He is not feeling well himself. Now, I'm sure Ethan will hold off until Monday morning to get sick! They are all excited about watching JT on the Kids' Choice Awards tomorrow. They really wanted to make "party food" for it, but I think that will simply consist of crackers and broth! pArTy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO "GRANDMA PAT!" Hopefully she will enjoy her house hunting weekend in NC.

HAPPY 4OTH BIRTHDAY TO ERIC AND DAN!!! When the boys were signing their cards this weekend, they did not think 40 was that old. So, your nephews at least think you have youth left in you! Also, good luck to Jennifer on her homestudy. Talk about preparing for company!

Noah only got up once last night to get sick. We were all happy to finally get some sleep. He just had some toast and gingerale for breakfast. We'll see how it goes. Ethan was quite upset that we were all staying home and he had to go to school. I told him that is what it feels like for Chris every day during the summer and if Chris threw a raging fit every morning it would make for a very long summer. He seemed to get the point because he just sucked it up and got his backpack. He did make me promise that I would not let them play the Wii without him! Since Chris is at work and the boys are not allowed to touch the Wii without him, it shouldn't be a hard promise to keep.

Noah finally fell asleep on the kitchen floor at 4:15. He came in to talk to me and was too tired to stand up. He plopped himself down on the ground and was out within a minute.
No worries, I carried him off to bed where he has been peacefully sleeping for the last 45 minutes!

Not a good day! My munchkin Noah woke me up last night at 2:00 am and said, "Mom, I threw up in my bed, on my floor, by the foosball table, in front of your door, and right here!" It was actually sort of humorous how he rambled it all off. Luckily Chris got the honorary duty of cleaning it all up. I volunteered to take care of the bedding! Well, he spent the entire night in the bathroom. I wish I could say that he slept in there, but as he didn't sleep a wink, I'll just say he camped out in there. He has spent most of today in the bathroom as well. Poor guy! I had a meeting this morning in Daytona. After my meeting, I picked up Will from school. We went to Blockbuster to get Happy Feet. We also went to the grocery store and loaded up on gingerale, Gatorade, crackers, soup, etc. Noah has tried eating and drinking. Neither one has worked out for him quite yet. They started Happy Feet when Ethan got home from school. They seem to be enjoying it.

I nearly had a heart attack today while mowing the lawn. I saw this snake skin along the fence. At first glance I thought it was an actual snake!