TGIF

What a week it's been. We've had a WONDERFUL day today doing not much of anything!! We had an appointment first thing in the morning, but once that was over, we were just able to have a play day at home!! The boys and I have had so much fun playing and building with some of Jacob's birthday presents!! Oh and we painted some more too!! Poor Callie is crying in her bed right now - it's been a HARD week for her. My crazy schedule was awfully hard for her too and really threw off her naps. We've been home today, but she cried almost 30 minutes off and on before her morning nap, and is crying right now trying to go to sleep too. Big sigh. Things should slow down now that company is gone and birthday parties are over. Poor baby girl. It's been a good quiet day though. Looking forward to the weekend. Next week we head up to DC to be there for the Marine Corps Marathon. My older sister (from FL) is coming up to run it, and my younger sister (also in FL) is flying up for it as well. So we're looking forward to a long weekend (next weekend) with my family. Have a great weekend everyone!

Jacob's Birthday Party!

Don't worry - I washed Anderson's new "Paci Fairy" jersey before he went home to Heather and Mark!! We got to kidnap Anderson for the day since Heather had to work - we had a blast with him! It was just like old times!
Benjamin & Bradley (You'll see Bradley better in another picture). Erica brought Benjamin's smock with him - he was an intent painter!
Jake & Sadie (Sadie painted her pumpkin AND her leg!)
Samuel & Merideth (Sorry Merideth - I didn't mean to chop your head!)
All the painters!!!
Here's Jacob - covered from head to toe in paint!
Bradley somehow got red paint in his hair - and everytime I'd catch a glimpse of him, my heart jumped thinking it was a bloody head wound!!
Joel - his pumpkin had every color of the rainbow in it! :) Terri - has it dried yet?
Ryan & Emily - Ryan was completely spotless - not a drop of paint on him. Emily, who wasn't "allowed" to paint, somehow got paint on her??? How does that happen?
Josiah & Jacob

The BIG boys - Samuel, Jake, Bradley, and Josiah
Jacob's BLUE mouth thanks to the BLUE Batman cake!
Is he excited or what? I love this little boy!
The blue Batman cake - per Jacob's request!

What an absolute blast we had at Jacob's party on Thursday!! The boys (both of them!) were so excited about it and woke up so excited!!! Our friends came over at 11 am and we painted pumpkins outside first. (Thank heavens for Virginia fall weather that lets us still be outside!!!) It was so funny to see the differences between all the kids - some painted with one color exclusively and were very focused (Josiah!), and others used all different kinds of colors and had paint everywhere (Jacob!) It was hilarious to see how all of the kids expressed themselves differently!! We had pizza and cake afterwards (a Blue Batman cake, per Jacob's request!) and the kids had such a blast playing. Thanks to all of our friends - Jacob is so grateful for all of you, and I so appreciate your friendships!!!

A Monday at the Beach!

Monday afternoon, we headed down to the oceanfront so Jon could see the beach!! He was very impressed with the size of it (everybody always loves the "pumping sand in for expansion" story) and loved being able to see it. We packed a picnic dinner and played in the sand for a bit before the big entertainment of the evening - a family bike ride!! Josiah has been asking all summer to do this, so this was the perfect occasion!! The boys absolutely thought it was the BEST. David and Jon thought it was harder work than they had bargained for, and I was just trying not to fall out of the bike or drop Callie (oh, and pedal occasionally too). It was a beautiful evening though, and the boys all got some DQ at the end of it. (I laughed out loud when I read Mandy's blog from last weekend - they did the SAME thing!!)

Happy 3rd Birthday Anderson!

Carter (Anderson's little brother) - so squeezably cute!!!
Callie - the cutest little butterfly!!!
Back - Josiah, Jacob, Erin, Ryan, Anderson

Front - Emily, Callie

Callie and Emily - such cute girlfriends! :)
No, not watching the golfers. Looking for a lost ball that flew over the fence!

One of our best buddies, Anderson turns 3 this weekend! He and Jacob are 4 days apart and have had so much fun together!! Anderson had a costume birthday party today and we had a GREAT time!! Happy Birthday Anderson - we love you!

Meet Pete!!

Does everybody else's kids love these cut-out face things as much as mine??
Here's our newest Schrodt - Scarecrow Pete!
Can you see how big Josiah is smiling in this picture? He LOVED it!!



She was so excited I finally let her get down in the hay!!!

David gets all the credit for this one!! He saw in Friday's paper that one of the area garden centers was sponsoring a build-your-own scarecrow activity this weekend. You pay a flat fee donation that goes to our children's hospital, and that covered all the materials needed. So off we went this morning to begin our fall festivities!!! After all, I need all the help I can get in the decor department!!! We started off at the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins for Jacob's party and our carving pumpkin. (Would you believe I didn't get any pics of the kids with the pumpkins??) Then off to build a scarecrow!!! Man, did we have fun!!!

Mini-Me?

Jon and David
He was assigned to a hall in Dorm 25!!! That was my dorm freshman year -it's now an all guy dorm, and looks much nicer than when I was there!!!Freshly painted and everything!

This is Jon, one of David's nephews. David's oldest sister & her family live in Minnesota, and Jon flew down on Wednesday night so that he could go to College for a Weekend at Liberty. After spending the day with us on Thursday, David drove him over to LU and then came back home (whew!) He'll pick him back up on Sunday afternoon, and then Jon will be flying back home on Tuesday morning. My kids thought it was very cool that they have 2 cousins named Jon (my sister Kim has a 6 year old John!) Jacob started at Jon for the first 15 minutes and kept saying "Mommy, he's just like Daddy except he's Jon!" The two of them definitely do look alike - Jon has always resembled David, but you can really see it now that he's older. Jon is hoping to start at LU in January, so hopefully we'll get to see more of him!!! :) Go Flames!!

The Great Pumpkin Patch!

Notice the dirty socks in the picture? Hilarious!! They thought it was great running around in sock feet!!!
All 3 of my little pumpkins!
Callie thought she was hot stuff when I FINALLY let her get up in the moonbounce. (I had to wait until the other kids were done - or else she would have been trampled!)
Sandi & Me! (It was so nice having another grownup there to take our picture!! Thanks Jon!)
Samuel, Josiah, Jacob, and Merideth


This picture cracks me up!
We love these friends of ours!!!

On Thursday, we finally were able to catch up with our dear friends, the Wiedmaier family. We were so excited to get to go to the Pumpkin Patch together (and relieved that we were able to at least wear jeans! There's something about looking at pumpkins while wearing shorts that just doesn't line up!) The kids had a GREAT time playing on all the bounce things and the giant slide was a huge hit. Callie even tried to get in on the action. Merideth had the cutest little pigtails in - she looked like Fern from Charlotte's Web!!! David's nephew, Jon, came with us and was able to enjoy it along with us. What a fun fall day!

6 months old...really?

As I mentioned earlier, Callie's 6 month check up was on Wednesday and she passed with flying colors! Dr. Gerbus was astounded at how fast she is crawling all over the place!! Callie was pleased to have a new audience to perform for. In fact, while we were there, she pulled herself up to standing for the first time. Good grief!! Anyways, all was well, and she handled her shots very well. I'm very thankful for my healthy girl - even if she is going to be keeping me on my toes with all this activity! :)

B-2!!!

I'm not entirely sure why, but these pictures capture what the boys have been playing for the last few weeks. They keep taking all my couch cushions off in order to build their "B-2 Stealth Bomber"!! I don't quite see the parallel, but I think it's so cute!!! They'll be shouting "Go America" - it's quite a riot!

A Day at the Beach...in October?

Okay, so last Tuesday, it was in the 90s here!!! How bizarre is that? We started off the morning with the boys' first visit to their new dentist!!! Josiah had been once before over a year ago, but it did not go over so well (made the mistake of NOT going to a pediatric dentist), and then our insurance changed. Anyways, new insurance began Oct. 1 and so they were able to go to a GREAT pediatric dentist here in town. It was a roaring success - the boys were perfect patients, I was told! They went right back with the hygienist and were perfectly behaved (I wish I had recorded them saying that so I could play it over and over again on days when I get frustrated!) They were so excited about the treasures they got to pick out and their new toothbrushes (Jacob actually took his nap with it in his hand that first day - I know, gross!!).

Anyways, we went straight from the dentist to the beach for a little break from the norm. Sue & Jayne and their non-napping children had decided to take advantage of the warm weather and coerced me to join them. We had a great couple of hours enjoying the beautiful weather, calm water, and mostly happy kids!! The boys were going from adventure to adventure - finding new fabulous rocks, trying to catch crabs, and digging to China. Callie just LOVED crawling around on the sand - nothing phased her. It was very enjoyable (until my very much still napping children began to melt down!) It was a fun break though (and I got my van vacuumed out when we got home, so that's a plus!)