After the parade we came home and had lunch. We quickly packed up and headed to Universal for the holiday happenings there. First on the agenda was the How the Grinch Stole Christmas stage show. It was really good! We met up with my friend Debbie, her husband Chris, and their son Bryce. Because it was so crowded, only kids and one adult was allowed in the main viewing area. That meant that the Chrises had to rough it in the back!

When Mom and Dad were here we went to the Monster Horror Make-Up Show and this guy was in it. Chris and I really liked him and were excited when we saw him in the Grinch show. He was awesome in this as well! (He was the narrator.)
The Grinch and his Who-Ville dancers.
Will was worried that the Grinch was going to breath on him with his stinky breath.
After the show they were able to meet one of the Who's.

Yesterday morning we started our day at the local Christmas Parade. (Yep, another one!)
Hanzie started off staring at everything going by.
Will's favorite part, of course!
By the end, he was wiped out and asleep in the street! The poor guy got bit by something on his butt and he got a GIGANTIC bump where the bite was. I wish I had a picture of it. It looked like the had a ping pong ball under his skin!

Friday evening we went to Light Up Flagler to watch the chorus perform. They did an awesome job. Hanzie went with us and had tons of fun walking around downtown.
Noah gets his groove on while the chorus sings!
All the kids gather to see the chorus as they get started.
After Light Up Flagler, I went to see the Showdolls show. I'm always so impressed by what they put together. I'm so proud of you Sam! Melissa, Bobbie, her Aunt Stephanie, Colleen, and Anne all went as well. Good times!

It finally cooled off a bit and we got enough in the spirit to put up the Christmas tree yesterday. I stood back and let the boys do all the work as requested. I think they tired out once 1/2 of the ornaments were up so we still have a way to go. Ethan took the top 1/2 and Will and Noah worked on the bottom.
Ethan brings back memories of his MP3 player ornament.
Ethan had a field trip to see Junie B. Jones at the Peabody on Monday. He really liked the play. He reads some of the Junie B. Jones books at school but never brings those home. He got the new Beast Quest from Aunt Lori on Saturday. He had about 5-10 pages left and begged his teacher to bring it with him on the bus. She initially said no but eventually caved. Well, as you can imagine, it got left on the bus! I could have killed him. That's okay, he is pretty upset with himself because he REALLY loves that series and he lost it. He had to resort to reading Pippi Longstocking again. He was only halfway finished Pippi Longstocking when Beast Quest 2 arrived and abandoned it back to the bookshelf. Lucky for Ethan Santa has Beast Quest 3 on his stocking list!

It was design on a dime, or at least design on a dollar day! We found some wreaths and ribbon at the dollar store. I had gotten two gigantic bags of remnant flowers for 75 cents each at Wal*Mart on Friday night and the boys went to town tonight decorating their wreaths! They made the most gorgeous wreaths and they are now hanging on all the doors in their hallway.

Here Ethan and Noah sift through the many, many flowers and decorations spread all over our floor! (Even those presents, candy canes, and ornaments were in the remnant bag!)
Will picks out an ornament to glue on his wreath.
Ethan's finished product.

All the finished wreaths in the drying process. Will's is top left, Noah's top right, and Ethan's is on the bottom.

The boys had a fun birthday party on Saturday. Outside of the red tide making everyone cough, it was a gorgeous day. They played on the playground for a few minutes and once everyone arrived they started building and painting their pirate ships. While the ships dried, the kids ate and played some more. After lunch it was present time! Will and Noah loved absolutely everything they got- even the clothes! We got home from the party, unpacked the car, and then headed off to the NSB Christmas parade. Chris didn't go and had my camera in his pocket while he was out shopping in Daytona. So, no pictures of the parade, but we had a blast. Hanzie was so excited to go and watch all of the floats and people go by!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Will & Noah, Happy Birthday to you!!! Will and Noah turned the big 6 today. They were so excited that it was their birthday. They jumped out of bed and rushed to shower and get ready for school. They brought in donuts to celebrate with their class. Today all the kids at school happened to be getting cupcakes for awarding their hard work. I have a feeling that Will and Noah may believe that everyone in the whole school got cupcakes for their birthday! After school the girls came to play with them and brought gifts from Bobbie. The boys loved their robot and dinosaur. Although Noah convinced Will to trade the robot for the dinosaur! After dinner the girls came back over to sing Happy Birthday and ate cupcakes with the boys. The boys also got LED flashlights for their birthday. They LOVED that and took them on our walk with us tonight.


The boys share their birthday with several other people. Today is also their cousin Aiden's 9th birthday, Great Aunt Terri's birthday, my mom's friend Jeanie's birthday, and Jason Hartman's birthday. So, I suppose it is a day of celebrating for lots of our friends and family. They have one last celebration to look forward to. Their birthday party will be on Saturday morning.

Here are a few more pictures from the Universal day.

"What, you want some of my French toast??"
Enjoying breakfast! I think Melissa was a litte jealous because I was hitting on her man, Spiderman that is!
Mike got proof that Grandma really did ride a coaster! Sadly, I couldn't convince anyone but Will to ride the Mummy with me!

We had a fabulous time with Grandma and Pop-Pop during their visit! I think we were pretty much going non-stop their entire visit, but it was non-stop fun. They arrived Friday afternoon and we were quickly off for a stop at the beach and dinner at Mi Mexico. The beach was pretty chilly so we only stayed a second. As usual, Mi Mexico was delicious!
Saturday morning we went to see Enchanted at the Ocean Walk theaters. It was awesome! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD. After the movie we went to Santora's Buffalo Pizza & Wing Est. We got a gigantic pizza! I got a slice of cheese and it was quite tasty!
The boys went to Toys R' Us after lunch to do some birthday shopping. Ethan quickly made a decision. Will took a bit longer, and well Noah, he took forever!

Sunday morning we were up and off to Universal for our character breakfast. The boys had a blast. I was good and only ate two pieces of French toast. I'm glad that I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to copy their recipe. Spiderman talked to Will and Noah about their birthday and gave them quite a few pointers about being a super hero of his status.

The Cat in the Hat stopped by as well.

While Thing 1 and Thing 2 tried to steal food off of Ethan's plate, Spiderman was far more kind.

The boys visited with the last remaining baby dinosaur.

Lucky for the Schrader's they all survived their trip through Jurassic Park.
Grandma also survived the Spiderman ride and the Flying Unicorn Roller coaster. We were all very proud.

The boys also met a few other characters during the day.
Oops, I forgot to rotate!
After Universal we made a quick stop at Mall at Millenia for dinner. It was a very long day but tons of fun was had by all. Everyone fell asleep on the drive home. Lucky for them I kept my eyes open!

On Monday when the boys and I returned to school after our week off, Chris, Mom, and Dad went to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They saw lots of birds, a few gators, and manatees.

The shuttle was out on the launch pad so they were also able to get a peak at that before it launches next week.

Aunt Kate sent some Floam for the boys' birthday and they LOVED it! Once again I forgot to rotate the picture, but you get the idea!

Thanksgiving camping was tons of fun! We decided to eat our big, delicious feast at the Eagney's before we left because of the threat of rain. All the food was delicious and once our bellies were full we were off the Blue Spring State Park. We had awesome campsites. I define awesome as being close to both the bathrooms and the path to the springs! After arriving Melissa and I took off with the dogs and kids for a walk down to the springs. To our surprise when we got there, there was a black bear right along the boardwalk to the spring! He was so close to us it was unbelievable. I mean, I'm talking 10 feet away close! The boys all had their "Support Your Rights to Arm Bears" shirts on from Aunt Kate. I was hoping that Chris would get a picture of them in front of the bear with those shirts on but he disappointed me! Oh well! At least he got a video of the bear.

Here are our Thankful Turkeys that decorated our campsite. We each had our own turkey and wrote what we were thankful for on the back.
Here the boys are in front of the spring. We didn't see any manatees yesterday, but there were a bunch in the spring this morning when we went for a walk.

Today was cooking day. Well, sort of. We made the stuffing and pumpkin pie for tomorrow's camping feast. I called on to my Nana to stand beside me and give me guidance not to ruin the stuffing. She must of answered because it seemed to have turned out perfect! Okay, I just had a tiny taste so the true test will come tomorrow, but I have faith. I had the boys, and Emma and Paige once they arrived, pull apart all of the bread for the stuffing. My mom used me as her form of child labor for this every Thanksgiving morning so now I get to have the fun of imposing this chore on others! My sister somehow never woke up until all of that was finished in the morning. I think she rolled out of bed right around 9:00 when the parade came on. My mom and I were conveniently finished with all of the cooking chores by then.
Mmmm... nothing like the smell of sauteing celery and onions on Thanksgiving morning, or in our case Thanksgiving Eve!
Melissa and I have started a new tradition with our own children. It involves driving up to Krispy Kreme Thanksgiving Eve to get doughnuts for the morning.

The boys have been happily playing Sing It. They also watched Hairspray with Melissa. Apparently she instilled the same sort of strange excitement she has for the movie in them. They woke up and asked to watch it again today! After all the cooking today I think we need a pizza trip to the beach this evening!

Grandma Ann and Pop-Pop Wayne got Sing It for Will and Noah as part of their birthday present. It arrived today and there was no way we were waiting until November 29th to have some fun with it! Oh, and fun we had! We played for a bit after dinner but the true partying started when the girls came over. I'm talking 2 hours straight of High School Musical 1 & 2 songs using our fancy new Wii microphone! You can see the fun had through Noah's video!

Since our last post soccer season has officially ended! Ethan wrapped up his season and Saturday morning we had the soccer party at a park. I rented a pavilion at a park and Melissa and I coordinated parties for both teams at the same time. It made life easier on us to have one party to deal with rather than two. It worked out for another family that also had kids on both teams. Yesterday afternoon Melissa and I rode bikes up to Beall's which is the Florida equivalent of Kohl's. I finally got my Mammoth Crocs and they are so comfy. I also got a new pair of tennis shoes that were desperately needed!

This morning we woke up early and headed off to Universal. It was not at all busy and we were in and out of there in no time! I even got to ride my favorite roller coaster (The Hulk). After Universal we went to the brand new IKEA in Orlando that opened earlier in the week. It was absolute chaos! I must say, it was funny to hear all those people react to their first visit to IKEA. Most of the people that live around here and never heard of it, or at least had never been to one before. We also made a quick visit to the mall which is right next to IKEA. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets. The boys enjoyed sitting at the counter and watching them make the food.

Here the boys are relaxing at the entrance to Islands of Adventure.
Posin' with some reindeer!

Mr. Will on the Dr. Seuss carousel.

Sadly, I think the boys' favorite thing at Universal is the Jurassic Park playground. They love this bridge that you get to run across that is three stories off the ground!

Wishing that they really were in Margaritaville.

Sitting at the counter at Johnny Rockets.
We are looking forward to our camping trip this week as well as Grandma and Pop-Pop's arrival on Friday. Our next visit to Universal a week from today will include a character breakfast!