Lemonade anybody?

On Sunday, the boys and their friend Emily from down the street decided that they wanted to have a lemonade stand to earn money for Mother's Day presents. With such a good intent, who was I to deny them of this lucrative, uh I mean noble, opportunity.

After we set everything up, Emily had to go get ice cream with her grandmother, so that left them alone to do the selling. We are not inherently the best sales people out there, but the boys did a great job yelling "lemonade" whenever someone was remotely close to us.

I tried to teach them that the most important thing about setting up a business is, "location, location, location," and we unfortunately do not have that on our street. There is little to no traffic coming through our way. It was a lesson hard learned. All in all, I think they made a few dollars. They were thrilled though, which is all that counts.

Here they are squinting into the bright sun.

Before I took the time and made them this awesome sign, I made them submit a business plan to me. I wanted to be sure that they were in it for the long haul. And they were! They lasted a couple of hours, which is a couple of hours longer than I anticipated.

Here are Ethan and Noah deep into selling mode.

Okay, I just took a dog quiz and this is what I found to be the best breed for me... cRaZy!

Wow, You're a Labrador Retriever!
Labrador Retriever
The Caretaker
Your family is what makes you tick, and you never "flea" from an opportunity to hang out with the whole gang. A family picnic complete with hot dogs, deviled eggs and a refreshing swim in the lake is hard for you to stray from. Your sparky temperament and dogged intelligence mean you are not only a blast to hang out with, but great to work with as well. Your close pals appreciate your patience and forgiveness, knowing you'd rather let sleeping dogs lie than dwell on the mishaps of the past. Your dashing good looks may one day lead to a modelling career, if only you can tame the unfortunate clumsiness that sometimes causes you to go flailing from the catwalk. Learn more »
FAMOUS LABRADOR RETRIEVERS: Bill Cosby, Jackie Onassis, Dr. Phil, David Beckham
LIKELY PROFESSIONS: Doctor, Sales Executive, Teacher

This week has been jammed packed as usual. Monday was soccer practice and Math Night at school. I was very disappointed with Orlando Science Center's math night materials. We did a science night with them last year that was really neat. The math was totally lame. Without a doubt, the teachers could have put together much better math games. I signed up to volunteer and since it was pouring rain, and I wanted to boys to go to bed on time, I had them stay home with Chris. Well, they didn't miss a thing! Wednesday was another round of soccer practice. My new portable hammock arrived Thursday. I love it! I can set it up in the yard and read while the boys and dogs play, and then fold it up and put it in a bag to have all the space back. While I was out testing my new hammock on Thursday night the boys were playing football. Noah was not amused at Abby's attempts at a sack and got quite upset when she took the ball from him while he was playing quarterback. He finally had enough and said, "Abby Labby Fiona Yoyo Schrader, you need to stop!" I nearly cried after he said it. You see, Will gave Abby the middle name Fiona. Now, since Fiona is an ogre, it does sort of fit her. Then Ethan gave her the nickname Abby Labby since she is a lab. Chris and I both call her Abby Yoyo after Abiyoyo in the children's book. Apparently Noah wasn't too sure which one to use and went with all three!

May 2nd is Space Day for those of you that are not aware. Lockheed Martin sponsors a program called Signatures in Space. Mike works for Lockheed and gave me the information to sign up. Since I love to take on more than I can handle, I signed our school up. All the kids in the school sign a poster sent by Lockheed. Once it is signed we send it back and Lockheed scans all of the posters on a disc. The 500 schools that are selected each year all get put on a disc and the disc goes up on a shuttle. Our disc will go to the Hubble in October or whenever that mission finally goes up. (Don't worry Greg, we sneaked your name on the poster.) They then send the poster back with a picture and signature of the crew that took it up so that it can be displayed. So, it was my job to organize the signing of the poster. Since we live so close the the Kennedy Space Center we had two guest speakers come to talk to the kids. Mr. Collins gave an awesome presentation to the 4th and 5th graders on the booster recovery. He has been recovering things at sea for NASA for the last 27 years. That same team is trained to rescue astronauts if necessary and various other jobs.
Then, Mr. Womack from NASA came during the 3rd grade presentation and brought lots of cool stuff to show the kids. He brought REAL space suits. That helmet I'm holding is crazy heavy! The suit that Mr. Womack is holding weighs 35 pounds. These are the suits that they wear during launch.
Mike and I put a presentation together for the other grades. Their favorite part was learning about the space toilet! All in all, it was worth the extra effort of planning the day. The kids all loved it and were very interested in space. They asked great questions and seemed to learn a lot from the day!

The boys had their 5th soccer games of the season today. Will had an awesome penalty kick goal to score the only goal of the game. He came off the field after and said to me, "Do you know why that looked easy? Because it was easy for me!" Once again, kids say the darnedest things! After the game everyone went to see Iron Man. Everyone knows that the only movies that I watch fall into the drama or romantic comedy categories, so I volunteered to stay home with the puppies. I had to go to the grocery store and had to jail the poor puppies. Since I only have one crate they had to be crated together. Luckily Abby's crate is quite roomy and they could both stretch out. We still have a divider in there so she doesn't even have full use of the crate yet. Not the most beautiful designer touch to the home, but at least she will have plenty of room in there!

Looks like a few Jackasses, or are they Mules?

Yep, they're Mules, as confirmed here. Well, the big one may be a jackass. That is still unconfirmed by me at this point, though.

Anyway, if you read the link above, you will know that the boys are wearing Camelbak Mini-Mules. I use a Mule for all of my outdoor adventures and the boys have wanted their own for a while now. A few weeks ago, I bet them that that they couldn't go two weeks without video games and their computer. I didn't figure they would win, but they did, hence the Camelbaks.

I hid in this tree while the kids were walking around a small loop by themselves.

And this is the part where I made a loud noise, jumped out of the tree, and scared at least one of the six kids. (Notice how high Ethan jumped!!)

As usual, we have barely been home this weekend. Friday after school we headed to the dog park. Although it may surprise you, the kids like going just as much as the dogs. They play in the empty "little dog" section and build all sorts of sculptures with the sticks, palm leaves, and shells.
Hanzie in Finley watch the girls play.
Abby always has fun with Daisy. Although Daisy is much smaller, she is actually 5 weeks older than Abby and eats more than her. I think Abby Yo Yo is the perfect name for her. In case you have never read the book Abiyoyo, you really should. It is one of my favorite children's books. It is about a big, oafy giant named Abiyoyo, so needless to say, Abby has now been coined Abby Yo Yo since she too shows many tendencies of a big, oafy giant!
Friday night we went to Paige's soccer game. Since Will told Pop-Pop Wayne that Paige was Noah's girlfriend, Noah has decided that Paige can no longer be his girlfriend and he is not going to be marrying her. He does not want to hear Pop-Pop's teasing and thought that was the easiest solution!

Saturday morning the boys had their soccer games. This time Noah scored. Both teams won so I suppose it was a good day! The boys spent HOURS in the pool Saturday. It was rather perfect out. While the outside temperature was in the low 80s, the pool was 90! We also went for a short hike. We tried out some new trails and they were pretty non-existent. Today it is cleaning, yard work, pool, and possibly the dog beach. We'll sit what we can squeeze in. Chris has soccer tonight so perhaps we'll go to the dog beach while he plays.

Tonight while we were playing in the backyard Chris came out and snapped a few pictures of my furry guys. Here Abby tries to sneak a kiss from Hanzie.
She took great interest in Chris' camera but thankfully didn't charge it!
Watching the boys play football.
What you lookin' at?

Um, something is seriously missing from this picture!
I think Abby is beginning to look like Hanzie!

Okay, as Jen mentioned in the previous post, I "volunteered" for the Relay for Life Mr. Relay event. As promised, here are a couple of pictures. Go ahead, laugh it up. I just keep telling myself that it was for a good cause. That makes me feel like less of an idiot. Okay, well not really. Anyway, enjoy...

Where to begin, where to begin?? Friday was quite a busy day. At school it was spirit day and the theme was pajama day. So, of course I wore my pajamas to school. I also had a meeting at another school just north of Daytona Beach. I walked into the office at the other school to sign in and they looked at me like I was crazy. I said, "What, you don't have casual Friday here?" Sadly, they believed me. I decided to fill them in that it was actually spirit day at my school. Ethan nearly refused to go to class. I guess all the kids in his class missed the reminder announcement on Thursday because they were on the playground. He was the only one in his entire class to wear his! I went in with him to show them all my pajamas and he was then fine with it! Friday after school we had kid/dog playtime at Melissa's house. We got pizza for dinner and after I headed straight out to Relay for Life with Abby and everyone else went to watch Paige's soccer game. After the game they all met me up at the park. Chris had agreed back in October to do Mr. Relay. We were told that involved him walking a lap in drag. Well... we were misinformed. Even Friday night, our team's leader told him that he just had to walk a lap. He took the boys home to put them to bed and get his outfit together and I stayed to walk a few more laps. I flew home so he could get back to the Relay by 10:00. He showed up just in time and they put him in line. They went up to him in line and asked him what his talent was going to be. Um, what talent??? Apparently it was a "beauty contest." So, up on stage Chris went in front of TONS of people. Amazingly enough, he came in third place! Next year, with so much time to prepare, we expect him to take first! At some point I'll have some pictures to post.

The kids had team pictures on Saturday morning. For some reason their soccer pictures were taken inside the gym!?! Chris and Mike snapped a few outside. Here is their serious look.

And then the goofball look.

Ethan's team had pictures as well. They are not nearly as organized a team so no pictures of that.

After soccer, the boys, along with the Eagney's, went to Turtle Day. They started off at the marine science center for a look at how the turtle was cared for there.

They then moved to the beach where Old Boots, the 175 lb turtle, would be released.


Go, Old Boots, go!

Today Will, Noah, and I headed out early to get to the skate park before the teenagers got there with their smoking and cursing. Will and Noah skated for an hour. They decided to bring their skateboards and scooters. Normally they only skateboard for a few minutes. This time they spent nearly the entire hour on the skateboards. I was a nervous wreck. Noah had quite a few crashes out there. He was doing even the steepest drop ins. Ugh... I could barely stomach it! After their morning at the park they spent the rest of the day playing outside and went for a couple of swims. The pool was up to 87 degrees so it was warmer than the outside temperature. It made for good swimming. Even Abby went for a dip. We are trying to teach her to go to the stairs in case she ever falls in. She needs a few more practices I think!

Abby weighs 26.6 lbs! We just got back from the vet and she is a very healthy baby girl.

Here are more pictures of our hike than you could have ever wished for...

This is us at the beginning of the trail.
Three goofballs!
These bugs were in huge swarms along the ground on the path. They have very bizarre mannerisms.
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It's off to Bluff Point we go.

So cute! Notice the pink leash? Chris finally fixed Abby up with a proper pink leash for a girl! I was making her use Hanzie's old blue one!
A view from Bluff's Point.

A boy and his puppy... what is left to say???

This is at Oxbow Lookout. There is a fairly sizable embankment down to the river. Abby was not so sure about going down it. Hanzie and I were waiting at the top in case she changed her mind and ran back up.
Since she just stopped in her tracks near the top, I let Hanzie go to show her how it is properly done. He went down a googillion miles per hour!
She finally begins to make her way down.

By the time she gets down Hanzie has already gone for a nice long swim.
Then it is back up!

This weekend we did a lot of catching up on house projects. Saturday morning the boys had their soccer games and all of them scored a goal! Woohoo!!! The rest of the day was a blur of cleaning, fixing, and organizing! Sunday was quite chilly here. It was only 63 so we decided to go for a nice hike. Since heat wasn't a factor we got 4 miles in! Abby and Hanzie were even still pulling at the end. Normally they tucker out after two miles or so. The best part was that there wasn't a single complaint from the boys and after 3 miles they actually asked to continue on! Chris has some pictures from the hike but they are not yet converted.

Today when we got home we went to the park. The boys rode their bikes and the dogs and I followed along. Since everyone had soccer practice this afternoon, Melissa brought Finley over to play. They started in the house and then worked their way outside. I can't tell you how funny it is to watch them play together. Hanzie actually showed a lot of interest in getting in on the action today and the puppies were more than happy to oblige. His interest didn't last long, but he sure is coming to like the idea of having someone like him around.

Here is Abby after she chased down the ball. She had been playing for quite a while at this point and was too tired to bring it back to me!
Tomorrow Abby goes to the vet. I'm anxious to see how much she weighs. She was 17 lbs when we brought her home. Here are the little munchkins playing...

Yesterday was my birthday and I had a pretty good day. I wasn't at school because I had a testing meeting all day in Daytona Beach. After my meeting I met Melissa and the boys at Melissa's house. The kids played, the dogs played, and we relaxed. When we got home I fed the boys dinner and headed off for my one birthday request; a walk at the dog beach. The kids had fun running up the beach and the beach was completely empty which is unusual. The weather was perfect to add to the enjoyment. After the beach Chris went to get me Mi Mexico for take-out. Mike and Melissa were able to come over and eat dinner with us thanks to Bobbie's kindness. I ended my birthday evening with a White Russian.

My walk on the beach...
The kids making their "7 mile" track in the sand.
What is that you say, dogs are not allowed to play??? Up until recently, dogs were allowed all the way up to the jetty. Now these lovely signs are as far as they can go. Lame!
The two lovebirds resting before we head back.

I'm hot, I'm tired, and I have a HUGE tongue!
Noah has spotted this gopher turtle on our last two walks at the dog beach. They were surprised that a turtle could actually make it 2o feet in one week ;o)

After their trip to the beach these two were out!

Since I wasn't at school yesterday, my friends from school had a birthday lunch for me today. It was very nice and it made my birthday even more enjoyable since I got to stretch it out for another day. After school we went to the dog park. The kids got creative in the sand...

Tonight Hanzie and Abby had a little one on one bone chewing session.

Not much to report- ooh, except the report cards! The school week has been, well, going! The boys all got their report cards and continued to earn amazing grades. We are grateful that school is so motivating for them thus far. Working with struggling students every day, really makes me thankful that the boys all do well and most without any extra help! Ethan earned straight A's again. Will and Noah do not yet get letter grades but did terrific in all areas.

The dogs continue to adjust to their new lives. Hanzie is beginning to actually show some interest in playing with Abby. He runs up to her with a toy in his mouth to get her to chase him. So far, that is the only game he'll play with her. He loves it when she chases him all through the house. Chris could do without that action since they bark at each other during their chase sessions! Melissa has been totally awesome and has been coming to the house to pick up Abby for play dates with Finley while we are at school. Today Melissa had to work so I ran home at lunch to let her out. Of course that meant that I didn't eat any lunch! Oh well!