Three in a bed....

Why do we bother with individual bedrooms? They all want to hang out in William's crib anyway!

The Frontier Festival

We took the kids out to Morrison (about a half hour west, in the foothills) to check out the Frontier Festival. It was a celebration of life in the 1830s.




Ellie checking out the teepees.

Nick having his face painted with "authentic" Indian face paints. (I was told what the design means, but I forgot! Sorry!)

He seemed a little concerned during the painting process...


William was a little crabby today. He has a cold and a bad cough this weekend. So he pretty much just hung out in the backpack.

And of course for the kids, festival food. Nick with a giant bag of Kettle Corn. Which he didn't want to share as he was worried that he wouldn't have enough.

And Ellie with an enormous ear of corn almost bigger than her head.

"All done Mom!" She actually ate the entire thing.

The kids were a little hesitant about the firearms display. Too loud according to them!

We missed the burro race earlier in the day, but there were plenty of them still wandering about.

Nick wanted to climb up the rocks. Thankfully we saw the sign first!! Yikes!!

One of the snakes?!

It's days like these...

...that are going to give me gray hair!

Spent most of the day running around- drop off Nick at school, race out to the pediatrician's for Ellie's 4 year check up, race back home to feed lunch, quickly do several loads of laundry/swiffer/clean the kitchen/make beds/etc. Then back to school to pick up Nick, referee fights between big kids/help with homework/make snacks/clean up snacks/make dinner/feed dinner/baths/clean up toys/etc.... Finally it was 8pm and everyone was in bed and asleep for the night. Phew!

Just one more load of laundry and the dishwasher to start and I would finally have some peace and quiet. Luxury!

But alas, on my way downstairs from the bedtime drama what do I see?! The powder room door closed, with water running out from under it. And soggy toilet paper floating out into the hardwood floored hallway. Great.

Sure enough, the toilet had overflowed all over the brand new (well sort of brand new- new this summer anyway) tiled flooring and the filth had dripped all the way down into the basement. Water, water everywhere. On the floor, down the heating duct, IN the wastebasket, soaking into the new trim. Ugh!

So I spent my quiet evening plunging, mopping, and then on my hands and knees scrubbing bleach into the tiles, trim, and the formerly bisque grout with a toothbrush.

I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that it was one of the kids who was responsible.

There was so much toilet paper in that bowl I am completely baffled as to how this was even possible. It was literally like someone took an entire brand new roll of super puffy Charmin, and jammed it down the hole with a jackhammer wedging it in tight FIRST. Then proceed to do their business after having consumed an entire box of Fiber One cereal. Then flush. Then quickly run out of the room and slam the door behind you.

I was alternately crying and laughing while cleaning up. Isn't that a sign of insanity?!

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far. Sorry about the revolting subject matter.

But Paul had to work late tonight and I just didn't want him to think we were having fun without him!! See what you miss at home Daddy?

Make A Wish!

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.