Happy 4th Birthday Eleanor!!

She opened her gifts straight out of bed this morning.

Star struck by the wonderous Barbie Diamond Castle coach. Thank you Nonie and Grande!
A Tinkerbell cake as requested!


The silly little birthday girl at 12:22pm. Taken at exactly four years to the minute after she was born.

Happy Birthday little Princess! We love you! Hard to believe it's been 4 years...

The First Day of Pre-K!!

Elle started Pre-K today! Hard to believe our little girl is ready for 4 year old preschool!

She has Mrs. McDonald this year, the same teacher that Nick had for Pre-K two years ago. Ellie did awesome on her first morning! She was up early and ready to roll. The weather didn't cooperate though, so we had a last minute wardrobe scramble to find something long sleeved and warmer. She walked right into her classroom and found her name and her coat hook straight away. *sniff, sniff* I didn't even get a "goodbye", she was too busy playing with her classmates to notice that we left. Which I suppose is good- at least for the teacher's sake! And if you can't tell by the last picture, Ellie is super proud of herself and can't wait to get to school!



**Update: School went well! Yippee! She had a wonderful first day and announced she feels like a four year old now. And she is very excited to share her birthday next week with the class, especially since she will be the Superstar Leader/Helper on that day =o) She spelled her name correctly on her projects and there was no crying, no missing Mom, no potty accidents, no time outs, and both teacher and Elle were all smiles at pick up time. Whew!

We just bought one of those fun Kelty baby backpacks with the intent of going on a family hike in the mountains this weekend. William loved catching a ride on Daddy's back. He had a huge smile on his face while "test driving" the different models at REI. So the plan was to go up into Rocky Mountain Park on Sunday and do some walking. But as they say, best laid plans... It was in the 90s and sunny down here at home, but by the time we hit Estes Park it was rainy, windy, and in the 50s. We definitely did not plan well for those kinds of temps. Paul thought maybe it was sunny over the Continental Divide so we headed up and over the mountains in search of better weather.

Here we are up at the top, approximately 14, 000 feet or about 2 miles up.

Nick and Ellie didn't seem to notice the first time we made this trip two summers ago. But this time both of them were a little nervous about the height. They kept saying "be careful driving Dad".

One brief sunny interlude. Quick kids, enjoy the sun now!


Poor William who is not a fan of the car seat, only made it out of the car for about 15 minutes in between the rain showers. He found a very valuable stick and was enjoying his short taste of freedom.

Pretty much it looked like this on both sides of the Continental Divide all day. So no hiking for us this weekend. And by the afternoon it had degenerated into a full on lightning storm so we headed for home.


'Tis the season... for the Elk. It's mating season up here in the Rockies. We spotted quite a few today. (I know Paul was secretly eyeing those huge racks. With visions of mounting them on a wall running through his head...)

Does this look like the face of a little girl who is missing her Big Brother now that he is at school all day?

Miss Eleanor is LOVING the only child status this week. William usually goes down for a very long nap at about 9am and then she is has Mommy all to herself for hours! We are having lots of girl fun around here: painting nails, doing hair, planning her wardrobe, watching Cinderella and other girl movies, trying on Mom's shoes, playing with Mom's makeup and so on and so forth.
Have to run: it's time to color princesses now!

Does this look like the face of a child who is glad to go back to school?!
(Too bad you can't see Mommy's smiling face. I personally am giddy with excitement!)

Nick is off to the first grade today at Eagleview Elementary. His teacher this year is Miss Jill, and we hear via the grapevine that she is awesome. Yeah! I am forecasting a good year. There are three friends from Kindergarten in his class, he has a new backpack, a new and first ever lunch box (bag actually), and we hear that there are two recesses and a snack time for the first graders. Woo Hoo! Have a good day Nick! See you at 2:30pm....

Paul called me from work about an hour after drop off to see if I was sitting back with a pitcher of margaritas and enjoying the quiet. I did have to remind him that we do have two other small children at home. No rest for the weary.... yet. But do feel free to check in here once I get Will off to school, in about 4 years. I'll keep that suggestion in mind....

Miscellaneous Weekend Photos

Learning New Tricks

Nick received a Scooby Doo video game at his birthday party this year. He enjoys playing it occasionally. It's not incredibly well used..... by him. William however, is a whole other story! He is obsessed with this game. Initially he was content to sit in his little chair with the joystick in hand, no actual video game on the TV. However, he has discovered that deceit. And now he is not happy unless the game is actually on and he is playing it. I can't believe a 16month old has sufficient eye hand coordination to drive the Mystery Machine, but he does. Go figure.

Here are the boys over the weekend, Nick giving William pointers on how to maximize his score.



A sweet moment between the two boys. Few and far between these days!

I remember being warned once by a coworker that when you have your second child, your first born has to grow up too fast. After a few years of experience in this arena, I've decided that's backwards. It's your second, or in this case third child, who grows up too fast! Nick was first exposed to video games on his sixth birthday, yet here is little William only 16 months and already proficient.

The Effects of Watching the Olympics...

We've been enjoying watching the Summer Olympics this week. Go USA!! There was one unforeseen effect from the Opening Ceremonies however. Ellie was fascinated by the little girl singing (or lip syncing as it turns out) the Chinese National Anthem. She was thrilled to learn that children can actually sing for an audience on a stage! Who knew?! This is now her goal in life. She wants us to teach her the Chinese National Anthem, let her wear a beautiful dress, and find her an audience STAT.

So here is her performance. Complete with interruptions and imitations from her big brother. (And we have suggested that the United States National Anthem is a more suitable alternative.)

SuperBaby!

William playing dress up with the big kids. He's pretty proud of himself!

The Kids First Camping "Trip"

We were strongly encouraging our children to try the zucchini at dinner tonight. Going camping was the incentive. It worked, they both were dying to sleep in a tent! Paul took them "camping" in the backyard tonight. There was a couple of hours of non-stop jibber-jabbering, some crying from Ellie about it being dark, and then blessed silence.


Of course, being camera obsessed I had to sneak up on them to snap a photo.


Sorry, bad shot of Ellie. It really was pitch dark and the Night Shot setting on my camera doesn't give me a preview- other than a black LCD screen. It's pretty much guesstimate where your target is and shoot.

Once asleep, the kids probably would have made it all night. But Paul only lasted until midnight. Then we carried the sleepy kiddos back to bed. Both were a little confused the next morning as to how they ended up in the house and where the tent had gone.

Any Child Psychologists out there?!

So as many of you know, Eleanor has an imaginary friend named "Dirty Baby". She's not so much an imaginary friend as a personified doll. The name was her choosing, not ours. Paul and I always refer to her as Typhoid Mary for obvious reasons, see the second photo.

Elle loves this "doll". I can't stress that enough. She drags her around everywhere, or she would if we didn't set some limits for Dirty Baby. No bathtubs, no swimming pools, she doesn't go to school or day camp, she doesn't go on playdates with REAL friends. But other than that they are inseparable.

We are naturally disgusted by this revolting, flattened, filthy creature. And yes, she does get washed, frequently. In fact, this photo is 24 hours after a thorough bleaching. She really doesn't get clean anymore. I know it's natural and normal for preschoolers to have these imaginary relationships. Every study I have read states that these children are usually very bright and (obviously) extremely creative. And that there is no reason to be concerned about this phase of life. That's what Paul and I have been reassuring ourselves with for the last 2 years of this phase.



But I have to say that lately, Dirty Baby seems to be getting into an enormous amount of trouble. She spills drinks, and colors on the walls, breaks toys, jumps on the bed, has potty accidents, fights with Nick, takes toys away from William, plays with my makeup, and leaves the taps running, and so on and so forth. I am starting to get a little frustrated with this imaginary friend. And I'm not so sure how to discipline her. And the kicker came tonight, when our daughter enlightened us that Dirty Baby is in fact an ex-con. Great. My three year olds' best, imaginary friend has done time in the big house. Three whole minutes in there. (Isn't that about how long Nicole Richie did in jail?) For stealing crayons I'm told.

Where does she get this stuff?! And as I have said before, how do you respond to that!! Ban her from playing with the imaginary friend who is quite clearly a bad influence?!


So this comparison dawned on me tonight as I ponder how to handle the situation. Anyone out there remember the movie Drop Dead Fred (1991)?! I think we have a Fred in our house!!


Oy Vay!! Honestly, I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry!

Sick Baby (oops, toddler)

Poor William has had a fever and a rash for a couple of days. He's pretty miserable, not even his usual water high jinx were not enough to bring a smile to his face. He's about 8 days out from his MMR vaccine and I'm wondering if that is the cause of this malady. The timing is certainly right for it. That cause would be fine by me- one less virus to spread amongst the rest of the kids!

William Tries His First Popsicle

I have offered William frozen desserts before, but in the past he has hated to touch anything cold. Apparently he has outgrown that reticence, as evidenced by his after dinner treat tonight! I was handing out popsicles to the big kids, and he held out his little hand for one too. He did really well actually, I was very impressed. He ate almost the entire Bomb Pop before he dropped it in the grass and the dog had her way with the remainder.

William at 15 months

Will had his 15 month check up yesterday and is doing great. He weighed in at only 17 pounds 2 ounces, but the fact that he had actually put on some weight since his one year appointment is apparently good. I wasn't so thrilled as we still cannot turn his car seat around until we hit that magic 20 pound mark, but at least someone is happy about it! Developmentally he is right on track, not quite as verbal as his siblings, but still slightly ahead of the norm.

He managed to charm the entire office while waiting for his turn to see Dr. Barbe. Running around the nurses' station and front desk in search of his audience, flirting with the ladies. He was waving and blowing kisses to everyone. And he tried really hard to rearrange the contents of all of the cupboards in reach. I did have two staff members offer to take him home with them; I said I just might take them up on that offer the next time he's up in the wee hours of the morn!

We did do a whole slew of blood tests just to rule out any medical causes for his slow weight gain. But even the Dr. admitted that they will more than likely come back completely normal. And then we can all relax, and admit that he's just going to be a little guy. Just like our other little guy, and our petite princess!

I just couldn't resist a few shots of William in his "euro-baby" swim suit. He He He...

Surfing in the Paddling Pool

Since there aren't any waves in the paddling pool, surfing can be best accomplished by having your sibling pull you through the water in a wagon.