game 1 is history.

Blogging from Melbourne.

Rachael's team tied her first game. She played the Valrico Raptors. Why we travel 200 miles to play a team that has their home fields 5 miles from us is just crazy. And our relationship with that team has some history. Not a really good history either. So a tie to us is ok, a win would have been better, but the girls did everything they could.

It is so darn hot out there. And there is a warm breeze which makes it worse. The team played so very hard and they ran with all they had. Rachael is wiped out. She is watching some Hannah Montana on TV and resting before the next game .

so excited.

This weekend we will be in Mebourne for Rachael's soccer tournament. Four days of fun in the sun, beachside with a little soccer thrown in. So excited.

I'll have lots of pictures when we get back.

Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!

celebrate.

Here they are ... Pictures from Erin's 8th Birthday.

He had a great birthday and received all the gifts he was hoping for! He told us the "we are the best mommy and daddy ever!". We love him to pieces!!

He hasn't had his birthday with his friends yet. We usually do this in September, because his birthday falls so close to the beginning of school and he doesn't really know his classmates yet. He did tell me that we would like to have a "putt putt" party like last year. Yippee, that was an easy one to pull off!

We went to Chili's for dinner. Rachael really wanted the the servers to sing Happy Birthday to him. So we did, and he instantly dove under the table as soon as the clapping started! Totally hysterical..

Here are the pics of him opening his birthday presents. He is such a ham!!


The Balloon man was at the Restaurant! The kids love that guy. Unfortunately he offered Erin a Balloon Sword not realizing that Trevor would find great uses for it. Let's just say that we all spent the night dodging blows from the balloon sword!!

happy birthday Erin.

Today is our little Erin's 8th Birthday. I can't believe he is 8 years old. I don't think there is a sweeter, more loving little boy on the face of the earth.

Here are some cute things about Erin:
* Born August 22nd, 10lbs 3 oz. Yes, he was a big baby!
* He loves soccer and he is very good at it
* He hates to lose at anything
* His favorite video game right now is Guitar Hero
* He is in the 2nd grade
* Trevor thinks that Erin is his personal wrestling mat, and Erin loves it.
* His favorite food is chicken nuggets
* He is obsessed with airplanes
* He loves the beach
* Weather concerns him. He gets worried about storms.

He really wants a Nintendo Ds Lite for his birthday and we are still waiting on his dinner / restaurant of choice. He was a little bummed that he had to go to school on his birthday. But I know he wanted to tell everyone that today is his big day!

Here is a picture of Erin at 8 years old. He was born before the digital camera phenomenon, I didn't even think to scan a picture of when he was a little one.

our tropical storm fay day.

As promised, here are the pictures from our "hurricane day". We spent much of the day outside enjoying the windy conditions. The temperature was very nice, so we took advantage of that and let the kids run wild outside.

Here is a video from the lake. You can see Trevor didn't care too much for the wind. It nearly blew him over a couple of times.

Here are some pictures of the kids playing outside:

tropical storm fay? where?

Quick update for everyone. I do have pictures from our Hurricane Day, but I forgot my card reader at home and I don't have an intern today to do my work. I know, where are the interns when you need them! I'll post the pictures tonight or tomorrow am.

Yesterday was a great day. The kids school was cancelled for Tropical Storm Fay and my office was closed for the same reason. I was supposed to "work" from home. And I did, I checked my e-mail twice.

While we are always ready for the Hurricane, we realize that Hurricane's change their path all the time. Landfall was to be right here in Tampa Bay and Tuesday morning Fay decided to come ashore near Naples, sparing our piece of Florida yet again. Having been through a couple of Hurricanes during my tenure in Florida, I am okay with keeping my air conditioning during the month of August. Call me crazy, but I don't really care for hot, sticky and buggy. The only camping I like to do is at the Hilton.

It is Quinn tradition that during Hurricane Days that turn into Non-Hurricane days we head outside. The weather is usually pretty nice during these days. It is very windy and over cast and the temperature is very comfortable. The kids played outside nearly all day, the kids rode their bikes to the park and lake, they needed to run off some energy. And the most fun thing to do on windy non-hurricane days, the throwing of the football into the wind. Go figure, Big Erin won!

And today .....back to reality .... work and school .....

1st day of school.

Yesterday was the first day of school. Tomorrow will be the 2nd day of school, as today is a Hurricane Day. Not much of a Hurricane Day, it isn't even raining yet. We are expecting rain and wind, but as of now not even a drop.

The kids had a great day at school yesterday. Kasey started her senior year, Rachael started 5th grade and Erin started 2nd grade. The lines at the schools were crazy yesterday. Rachael needs to get to school early because of her "school patrol" post needs to be manned. So we were a little rushed.

I managed to take some pictures of the kids. Rachael and Erin attend a public school, but they were mandatory uniforms. They looked to cute!

That isn't a purse, that is Rachael's trendy lunch box! She had to have it!

After walking Erin to class, Erin and I decided to swing by the post and see Rachael in action. Her post is the cafeteria, it is her civic school duty to make sure the kids obey the breakfast rules, walk to class and not run and to make sure no "hangs out" in the hallways. She said it was a complete disaster, the Kindergardner's had no idea what they were doing! LOL !

lessons learned.

It does look like we will get this storm in one way or another. It doesn't look to be terribly bad, just bad enough to close some schools, lose some electricity, need some clean-up. We aren't all that concerned with it, but nonetheless need to make some preparations.

I started thinking back to 2004 Hurricane season and all things I wished I had done before Jeanne and Francis came barreling through. Francis was a little more kind than Jeanne, Jeanne left us without electricity for 5 very miserable and hot sticky days, the kids were entertaining themselves and Little Erin fell and broke his foot, we didn't have propane because we (not really me) forgot that we were out of propane ...... oh, the memories ...

Lessons Learned:
1. Make sure there is propane for the grill.
2. Get the laundry done prior to the electricity being out.
3. Make sure the load in the dryer is dry (mildew mysteriously appears)
4. Run the dishwasher before the electricity goes out. This shouldn't need explaining.
5. Make coffee and put it in the refrigerator, it can be heated up via the grill (remember propane)
6. The freezer is your friend, freeze what you can...trust me it will eventually thaw & quickly.
7. Rain brings bugs...keep mosquito repellent and various bug spray handy.

Today our family is going to get the last of the school supplies. Because if nothing else, I think we can squeeze the first day of school in on Monday. Probably no school on Tuesday. I'm going to pick up a few more batteries, I have lots of candles and other supplies. I think I will tidy up the back lanai just in case the wind wants to blow everything around.

My office is on the bay, and it is a high rise. It will close as soon as a Hurricane Warning is posted. So, I have that to look forward to.

Other than that ... Bring it .... I could use a day off ......

go away Fay.

This evening as I was happily finishing my back-to-school supply shopping with the Rachael, Erin and Trevor, I ran into a friend of Erin's. Now this friend is in 2nd grade and here was the conversation.
Kristin: Hey Erin, who do you have for 2nd grade?
Erin: Mrs. Sheppard, who do you have?
Kristin: oh, I don't have her. But did you see the weather? we are getting a hurricane and there won't be a first day of school! (it was so cute, it sounded like she was getting a gift!)
Erin: Yahoo !!(on the top of his lungs, shrieking. squealing, jumping around with his fists in the air)

I was confused. Apparantly I have missed something big. A hurricane? No, see since 2004 we "do" hurricanes. We had enough that year.

So the little girl was kinda right. Yes, there is a storm out there. But it is a Tropical Storm, not a hurricane .... YET! But it looks to make landfall, right here in Tampa Bay on Monday / Tuesday.

So how selfish does this sound? Why does this have to happen on the first day of school. A hurricane day during the first week !! NO NO NO NO!! I'm going to throw a Mommy Tantrum!!

On the bright side. My office is in a level "A" evacuation zone. So once a warning is posted, my office is closes immediately. That's not so bad.

I have done my usually website checking. My favorite website is Hurricane Track. It is pretty straight to the point. Here is an excerpt from the site tonight:

"I will say this- the new GFDL and HWRF hurricane models are ominous. They show Fay becoming an intense hurricane in the eastern Gulf of Mexico next week. Too soon to buy in to this completely but something to definitely consider over the weekend."

I'll be watching the news alot this weekend. And buying some extra groceries and candles...

9 days and counting

9 days and counting until the first day of school. Hooray! I am so excited for school to start. The kids have had NO schedule this summer. It was a free-for-all everyday. I am ready for our family to get back on schedule.

We received the class assignments today! Rachael has Mrs. Hoflick, and Erin has Mrs. Shepard.

Rachael is jumping up and down because the rumor on the street is that Mrs. Hoflick doesn't believe in homework. If that is true, I will be the happiest Mommy in the world !!

Erin's teacher this year was Rachael's 2nd grade teacher. I absolutely adore her. She will be a great teacher for Erin and I'm looking forward to working with her!

9 days and counting ........

fall down, go boom.

Trevor is such a roughie, in a cute little boy way. He doesn't believe gently touching anything, he doesn't step over anything and he doesn't climb softly down anything. He pats very hard, he jumps with a running start and she leaps off everything possible. So getting his first black eye didn't come as a surprise to us. The only thing we were surprised about is that it took 2 years to get one.

Trevor fell on a toy at daycare. He was building a wall of toys and tried to jump over it, go figure. This is what he looked like the first night, after that it turned pretty shades of blue, green and yellow. Notice the little crumbs in the corner of his mouth, he was full of self pity that night and walked around saying "boo boo eye" the entire night. He would only stopped when I gave him chocolate graham cracker sticks.

Did you ever notice that when your child has a mark on his face, you notice a lot more people looking at you in stores?? I sure did!

kasey's birthday.

I seem to be a little late posting some well over-do pictures of Kasey's birthday! We went to dinner and she took along two of her friends. They had a good food, good friends and a good time. Erin, Erin, Trevor and I sat in the next table over, so they could talk and not have us looking over them.

Trevor really likes Kasey's friend Brittany, alot! He flirted with her the entire dinner! Cute Stuff!

For the first time in Kasey's 17 years she did not have a birthday cake with us. She left the restaurant and went back to Brittany's for a cake with the rest of her crew. We were were left with a candle-less piece of chocolate cake. Trevor sang "Happy Birthday" anyway.

Here are some pics of Kasey and her friends....