Cereal!!!!

Well, another milestone day for Miss Callie!! She had her first rice cereal tonight...and loved every bite of it!!! She ate it like she's been eating it all her life! The boys thought it was a RIOT that she could eat cereal, and Jacob LOVED feeding her!! I think it's hilarious that she's my smallest baby, yet is starting cereal earlier than either of the boys did!! She had been sleeping 10-12 hours at night for several months now and had started waking up around 4 -5 am in the last few weeks. She'd get herself back to sleep, but I knew that was a sign!! I half expected her to spit it out with her tongue, but she ate it like a champ. My little girl is growing up - she'll probably love food like the rest of the family! :)

Sunday at Busch Gardens

Late last week, we realized that summer was quickly coming to an end. This week is David's last week before heading back to school - it really is amazing how quickly the summer has gone by. We called my Mom on Saturday and asked if she wanted to meet us at Busch Gardens on Sunday afternoon for a day with the Schrodt clan! (Courtney, in response to your question, yes we had season tickets this year. They had a special in the spring for VA residents where you could get a "Fun pass" and pay for 1 day and the pass was good through Sept. 3). Mom was up for a quick "grandchildren fix" and met us at the park at 3 pm. It worked out great - the kids were able to take their naps, the weather was beautiful and cooled down even more as the afternoon went on. We had a blast! I loved being able to spend the day with my Mom - it was almost like if she lived here in town!

This was the boys running over to meet Tutu when they saw her at the entrance.

Tutu, Josiah, David, and Jacob in the teacups!!

David and Callie in the skyride (the buckets are one of Josiah's favorite). It's one of the few rides that Callie gets to do! :)

What a great ending to a great day! Callie fell asleep in Tutu's arms while we watched the "Kinetix" light and "extreme athleticism" show. Very cool - some neat acrobatics, lights, rock band, trampoline guys, jugglers - it was amazing!

Birthday Parties & Baseball Games

Saturday night was our last softball game of the season. The fun had to come to an end eventually!! Our men did great, the kids had a blast playing in the dirt each week, and we ladies enjoyed catching up a bit as well (in between cheering for the husbands and keeping tabs on the kids of course).

We were able to celebrate our friend Greyson's 6th birthday at Potts and Paints on Saturday morning. The boys had a blast painting their first pottery creation and loved all of the fire truck paraphenalia (Mr. Mann, Greyson's dad is our favorite fire fighter!) David and I were getting a kick out of how intent the table full of 12 little boys was - they were all so focused on their creations. It was a blast!!

Jacob Meets Gorilla Glue!

Okay, so I'll start off by saying that YES - I moved Josiah as soon as I saw him asleep that way (well, actually after I died laughing and went to show David and got my camera!) I KNOW he fell asleep about 2 minutes after he went to bed at 7 pm, so I really think it was some random dream or he woke up after a few hours or something. But YES, I moved him.

Okay, on to Jacob today. Both boys needed naps today, so I put Josiah in his bed and put Jacob in my room. Thought he would conk right out, and Callie was down for her nap, so I told David what was happening and went off to the gym for my workout. I didn't want to go to the gym and have to leave Callie in childcare with her having shots today. Anyways, I came home and went into my room to take a shower and discovered Jacob! He was standing on the toilet seat in our bathroom, painting his face with my mascara!!! (It gets worse). I looked on my bed (where he was supposed to be sleeping) and find David's and my glasses (mine were mangled) and with some kind of substance on it. At first I thought it was Aloe Vera, because that was on the counter in my bathroom. I take Jacob straight to the bathtub and as I'm trying to get him clean, David comes back in says "It's not Aloe - it's WAY too sticky". So I ask Jacob what he got into and he says "Glue!" Sure enough, he found the Gorilla Glue somewhere in our room and had it all over our glasses, his hands and feet. Thankfully, he didn't swallow any or get any in his hair or eyes. What a mess!! David LOVED his glasses and has only had them about a year (I needed new ones anyways), but neither of us were very happy! And of course he didn't take a nap.

We headed to the pool later (Jacob slept during the 7 minute care ride!) and enjoyed a brief break from the heat. Jacob's already asleep and Josiah is on his way! What a day!!!

Shots aren't fun for anyone!!

Well, Callie turned 4 months last week, and had her well-baby check up today. Everything is great, Dr. Gerbus was so proud of Callie and how great she is doing with nursing and sleeping and all her tricks in between! She's now 2 feet tall and is 12 lbs. 4 oz. She is looking to be a tall, slender girl!! Such a riot - such a difference from my chunky monkey boys when they were this age. She didn't care for the shots one bit (horrible screams that I NEVER hear come out of her), the boys had a terrible look on their face watching her cry like that, and of course the Mom NEVER likes it. But we made it and she's sound asleep now!!! It's another hot, humid day today, so we're hoping to make it to the pool later this afternoon and get her legs moving to help with the soreness!!

Sleeping Soundly?

So this is what I found when I went to check on the boys before going to bed last night!! I was pulling the covers up over Jacob and then stood up to check on Josiah when I found this!!! He had (for some reason) moved over to the side of his bunk bed and fallen asleep like that - with his head smashed up against the rails!! It was the funniest thing! I wonder if he was dreaming and wanted to look out of his bed for something?

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream!!!

Here's what was going to be dinner for the boys...


Do they look excited or what?


Mixing in our freshly, picked-by-hand strawberries!


Stirring it all up....


Yahoo - the finished project!!! (Right after this picture, Josiah declared he wanted a lick and stuck his tongue right in the bowl!)


So when David has an idea in his head, there is no stopping him!! Even with obstacles that come in his way, he sticks with it!! Today was a great example of that. He told me this afternoon that, after nap time, he wanted to make some homemade ice cream with the boys. We have several bags of strawberries in our freezer from when we went picking in the spring, so he was in the mood for some strawberry ice cream. The adventure began with him setting out for the store with the boys to get a few ingredients - we needed some more rock salt and some whipping cream. He came home with the rock salt and 2 of the biggest tubs of Cool Whip I've ever seen!!! I told him that "whipping cream" is NOT the same as "whipped cream". Poor guy!! He said "You should have told me before I left! Most women assume their husbands are idiots and would spell that out for them! Not me - I assume he knows what he's doing and most of the time, he does! Anyways, I told him I'd run up and return the Cool Whip and get the whipping cream while he started everything else. I threw a frozen pizza in the oven before I left and off I go. When I came home, he started on the rest of the recipe and I asked him where the pizza was. He gave me this blank stare and I opened the oven door and found it - the blackest pizza I've ever seen!! I asked him if he heard the timer (which he did, because he turned it off) and he said he thought it was just the oven finishing preheating. Hilarious! Anyways, the boys finished their ice cream project (the ice cream maker is a lot LOUDER than I remember) and the end result is delicious!!!! The boys were thrilled to get to stay up a bit later than normal to taste their creation!!! Talk about entertainment for the evening! :)

Saturdays...and Multitasking

It was a lovely Schrodt family Saturday today! It started off great for me - I got to get my haircut!! Always a lovely, relaxing hour for me without any children! I had to reschedule it from when David was out of town, so I'd been looking forward to it! When I got home, David and the boys took a trip to the dump and then finished "recovering" the lawn. It was sorely in need of "real" mowing and edging (of which I did NOT do while David was gone - duh!). They did a great job getting it back in tip-top shape!! Hopefully we've redeemed ourselves in the eyes of our neighbors. I was able to finish up cooking for one of my clients while the kids took naps and then we headed to the Y for a swim!! The other real reason is that they had a "Survivor Luau" tonight and so they fed us fried chicken and BBQ! What a great way to end a Saturday! David even got volunteered to play in a game (which of course his team won!), so it doesn't get any better!!! The only bummer of the day is that our softball game is at 9:00 pm tonight, so David didn't get to play again because he has another gig tonight at 10 pm. Playoffs next week though!!! Go team!

Okay, so now just a side note on the multitasking part. Has anyone else ever nursed a baby, helped a 2 year old wipe his bottom, and killed a fly with a flyswatter before? All simultaneously of course? I impressed even myself - and Callie never stopped nursing!! Hilarious. I've done it all now!

Callie sitting up?

So I was downloading pictures tonight to be able to update my blog, and lo and behold - here's this random picture! I did NOT take it - David must have - and I THINK he was trying to catch a picture of Callie trying to sit up? Her expression is hilarious - made me totally laugh out loud! Poor baby girl!

Friday Already?

What a great week it's been! Sorry I haven't posted this week - I was recovering from my two weeks of constant blogging while David was gone!! We have enjoyed a wonderful week of family time this week. The boys were just hanging all over David for the first two days - I didn't really get to have him to myself until Sunday night! Nothing monumental this week - just a lot of really fun family stuff. We went to Kangaroo Jacs (David's first exposure), lots of time at the pool, a day at Busch Gardens, and lots of silly time in the backyard with water guns and popsicles. It's been fabulous. I am so thankful for the husband that God has blessed me with, and for the three precious children that He has entrusted to my care for this season. David's back to work today, but what a fabulous week it's been!!!