Merry Xmas - 2006

Halloween 2006

Harry Potter, Minnie Mouse and the Fireman or what Noah calls a "fighter fighter"

October Activities

October came and went so quickly that I never had a chance to update the site or pass along information. It was packed with Activities! In addition to school, Cole and Jordan play soccer every week. Jordan Dances, Noah hits the Gym and Cole joing cub scouts. One of the activities was visiting a corn maze

Here are some pictures from our October.

Noah turns 3

I wanted to make sure to update the website with some pictures from the past few months.
September was a full month with both Jordan and Noah's Birthdays.

Noah had his party at The Little Gym. All his friends showed up and had a blast. Here are some pictures of the birthday boy and friends

Jordan turns 4

Wow! Where has the time gone. Our little girl is 4 years old this week. For her party this year, Jordan wanted to have a Tea-Party. She and 11 of her friends (and brothers) did afternoon tea at Mittie's tea room. They were served Iced Tea, Lemonade and Sprite out of very nice teapots and enjoyed a lunch of Grilled cheese, PB&J and a fruit cup.


They also got to decorate cookies with their own designs before settling back for some yummy birthday cake.

Jordan said she had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again when she turns 5

Soccer Season 2006

Soccer season is here and this year Jordan gets to join in the fun. She is super excited about playing. At least we think she is, she is really excited that she has pink shin guards and cleats! Here are some pictures of here during her evaluations. After a few drills, she got the hang of it.




Cole did great during his evaluations and all 3 coaches kept asking his name to make sure they put him on their team. The season starts in 2 weeks so we'll keep you posted.

Mimi Visits

No sooner did we return from Hilton Head when we got another surprise. Mimi and Papa were coming by for the week. It was a great visit. The kids got a whole lotta grandma attention and they really enjoyed it.
Some of the highlights included going to Build-A-Bear and bringing home a special friend.
Cole made a husky, Jordan a Hello Kitty, Noah a Cookie Monster on a skateboard and Mimi got herself a new bear.

We celebrated Laura's birthday at a Japanese steakhouse, per Cole's recommendation, and she was honored, and a little embarrassed. It was fun and the kids enjoyed the Happy Birthday song - complete with Gong!!!!

The last day was spent relaxing and the girls, Mimi, Laura and Jordan spent some time at the salon getting their nails done.

End of summer

With only a week left before school starts, we decided to take a list fling to the beach. We drove down to Hilton Head Island to visit Aunt Pat for the weekend. Aside from the occasional, “are we there yet”, the ride was uneventful. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time as we got to spend a lot of time at the beach and the pool. Cole continues to improve his swimming and Noah has absolutely no fear. He even jumped in without his swimmies. Mom was right there to catch him but he didn’t seem phased by the fact he sank immediately. He held his breath and came right up.
Jordan was a little more timid diving in but she is showing potential as a sun goddess. She takes extra care in making sure her towel is set up exactly right on her chair before she lies down. Too funny

At the beach, all 3 of them are ready to surf. They have no concept of a riptide or undertow and laughed every time the waves would knock them down.

We wrapped up the weekend with a trip down to Harbor Town. While the girls went shopping, the boys climbed the 114 steps to the top of the light-house. Cole was a little tentative about how high it was be he was a champ as he raced to the top.
That evening, we saw Greg Russell, a local favorite who has been performing for 30 years. He puts on a kid friendly show and all 3 kids sat on stage singing along.

Cole and Bryce

Cole's buddy Bryce was visiting from Baltimore this summer. The weekend we moved in, Bryce's Grandparents had tickets to the Braves/Orioles Game. It was perfect timing because we were knee deep in boxes and Cole needed the break. I gave hime $20 for the night to buy some food but instead he came home around 11:00 PM with a mini Braves bat and a plaque of Jeff Franceour. He had a blast! Unfortunately for Cole, the Orioles won 7-4

Settling In

We are a few weeks into the new house and things are really falling into place. I wanted to update a few things and get some pictures online.

Over the past week, Jordan took a Dora dance camp at her new dance studio. She loved it! It was the first activity solely for her. She had no problem leaving Mom and the boys for 2 hours a day. She can't wait until the fall sessions start.



Now she walks around, posing in her new positions and saying "you go girl"





Noah loves his new room and is very excited that his bed isn't pushed against a wall anymore! He also gets to see all the action now that his windows look right out to the cul-de-sac. He can tell when the other kids are out and about.

He has started potty training now that he can wear Lightning McQueen pull ups. He love's "Cars" Big Boy undies cant be too far off.

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Moving and more

Well it has been quite sometime since I last updated the blog. A lot has happened since our vacation. For one thing, Cole graduated kindergarten in May. He won an award for academic achievement in Math and another award for highest scores in his class. We are extremely proud.
This summer we have not done a lot as we have been preparing to move but we have had some fun weekends.
We visited the Georgia Aquarium, saw the movie Cars (Noah Loves Lightning McQueen and Mater!) and the kids have been swimming quite a bit.

During the last few months we had made the decision to move. This decision was based in part due to commute times to work, family, the church, which is where Jordan and Noah start school in August, 40 miles round trip, and largely in part to get into a much better school system. After a couple months on the market, with little activity , we received 2 offers within a 24 hour period.
We scrambled to find a house that met all of our wants and we were lucky enough to find a home at the end of a cul - de - sac, with a fenced in yard. It is an older house that needs some work but that will be part of the fun process of making it a home.
It is an average type neighborhood that is nice and quiet. It does not have anywhere near the traffic the Woodmont home has. This is a much better environment for the kids to be able to run around without us parents having to micro manage everything they do. So what we sacrifice by giving up easy access to the golf, pools and activities, we gain in a decent location to everything else we do.
Ex. Old house - 13 miles round trip to Publix. New house - 4 Publix's within 3 mile radius. Cole is super excited because we are less than 2 miles to a Starbucks and a Moe's! Not to mention, Nana and Papa are within walking distance and all the kids are excited about that.

I hope to be more current with my posts once we get settled

Disney 2006

Finally! After 9 months of planning, we have finally done Disney World. It was a great vacation and the kids have not stopped talking about it 2 weeks later. As you can imagine, we couldn't sleep much since everyone was excited, so we awoke early and headed south. We arrived around 1:00 and checked into the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge. As expected from premium resort, this was a 4-stars all the way. Once we arrived, the staff handled everything for us.
Since we arrived ahead of schedule, we decided to spend the first day at MGM since it was a holiday, we wanted to avoid the possible crowds at the Magic Kingdom. In just a few short hours we hit almost everything at MGM with the highlights being The muppets 3D, Star Tours, the Indiana Jones stunt show and Fantasmic.

Day 2: It doesn't get any more convenient than waking up, walking down the path from our villa to the boat dock and taking a very relaxing boat ride, 10 minutes, directly to the front of the Magic Kingdom. It was great to see the kids eye's widen as we approached and things started to be in view, Cinderella's castle and Space Mountain specifically. We arrived at around 8:45 so we only had a short wait until the Train showed up with Mickey and the Gang to open the park. We spent the next 12 hrs in the park and there was no major ride, show, parade or movie that we did not see. Taking advice from a veteran of Disney, we took a few shortcuts to where we wanted to be and within the first hour and a half, we cruised through all of Fantasyland. Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White and saw Mickey's Philharmagic were the highlights. From there we hit Mickey's toontown, Tomorrowland and the rest of the park. The rest of the day was a blur as we saw shows, parades and Cole even rode Splash Mountain. It was a great day as we had very short wait times and it allowed us to do everything we wanted to do, including Cinderellabration for Jordan.

Cole was extremely tentative on EVERY ride, even if it didn't move however he was a trooper and went of Splash Mountain and Goofey's Barnstormer - 2 things he really wasn't sure about. He didn't totally overcome his fear of heights however he successfully tried everything.

Day 3: We started day 3 at Animal Kingdom where we saw the safari. It was a nice cool morning and all the animals were out. As we were heading towards the Dinosaur area, we noticed that Expedition Everest, although not officially open until April, was running. They had a single rider line so Dad was able to conquer Everest in less than 15 minutes. It was awesome.
We did as much as we could in the next 3 hours than decided to headed to Epcot where thanks to using the Fast Passes right, Cole got to ride Test Track twice. It was a more relaxing day as we went to Turtle Talk with Crush, saw the aquarium, and just had a good time. For Dinner we went toured the world, went from country to country and closed the park with the Illuminations Fireworks. To get back to the Villas from Epcot, we had to take the Monorail to the Contemporary and then a boat back to our place. On the boat ride back, we got to see the late night fireworks show over the Magic Kingdom. We got back around 10:30 and everyone crashed within minutes.

Day 4: Our last day in the parks Since we had a park hopper, we decided to spend the morning back at the Magic Kingdom and hit our favorites, Buzz Lightyear's Space Range Spin rocked, and the few things we missed, like the Indy Cars, Tea cups and of course Space Mountain. Yup, Cole rode Space Mountain, He was scared but he did Great!. We took the boat back to the Villas for a really nice, fun lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. That afternoon we decided to head back to MGM and see a few shows for the little ones. They got to see Beauty and the beast, Playhouse Disney and Dad got to ride the Tower of Terror. Back to the Wilderness Lodge for Dinner before heading back to the Magic Kingdom one last time. We arrived around 8, found a cozy spot on Main Street and got to see the late night parade.

On our final day, we went to Downtown Disney for a little shopping before hopping in the car for the 7 hr drive back to reality.

This was by far the best vacation we have had as a family. There were only a few things that we were unable to do. The kids got to meet all the characters, see parades, fireworks, shows and of course ride the rides. They had a blast and are already negotiating for the next trip.

First Cast

Noah became the fist Schwartz to wear a cast. He jumped off the bed and complained his foot hurt. Well 2 days later Laura decided to have it looked at. Good thing she did. He had broken 3 metatarsal bones in his foot. He is a trooper. He got to pick out the color of his cast, blue, even though Jordan kept informing the Dr. that he likes green. He will have to wear it for the next 3 weeks.


After the entire process, he told the Dr. "Me Tough!" He is! 2 days into it, he is running around like there is nothing wrong.

The Next Gretzky?

By the time Cole is old enough to read this, he is going to ask Gretzky who? I should have said the next Ilya Kovalchuk or Sidney Crosby. We'll see....
Anyway, we decided to take the kids ice skating today. Unfortunately, they did not have skates small enough for Jordan and Noah so Cole got to hit the ice alone.
The kid was a natural. As soon as he put the skates on, he was off. Here is a picture of the first time he hit the ice and the first time he "hit" the ice.

He did great and now wants to take skating lessons, play hockey and have his birthday at the Cooler.

Christmas 2005

Christmas was a whirlwind. The kids were so excited the entire week. Santa didn't know what hit him. The day was spent opening present after present after present.