And the first to get stitches is.......

The Perpetrator:

The Victim:

The weapon of choice: a metal spatula.

The winner of the first child to go to ER for stitches is..... Eleanor! What a surprise! (Not!) With the kids underfoot as I tried desperately to make dinner, I decided it would be a great idea to give them some cooking implements and let them play kitchen. Who knew that could be dangerous?! Nick threw a metal spatula at Ellie for reasons known only to him. Of course it hit her in the face. Of course it broke the skin. Of course it was over 1/4 inch long and needed to be closed with stitches. And wouldn't you know it? Paul had to work late that night.

It was quite the experience getting a three year old to lie still while they stitched her up right under the left eye. Can't say I blame her there, I don't know that I would be still seeing a needle coming at my eyes! The ER doc could only get one stitch in her due to all of the movement so, she went right for the center of the cut and thankfully it held the whole area together. She is healing very quickly and although I have been told it will scar, it looks really good. Phew!

This photo was actually taken the day the stitch came out and the swelling and bruising was pretty much gone by then. So here you go Holly, the injury is immortalized forever! Does one scrapbook this sort of thing?!

Happy Memorial Day

William enjoying a patriotic donut. Not a traditional Memorial Day activity, but cute none the less.
This one makes me laugh. He reminds me of a squirrel holding a nut.
Yum!

Payton is waiting for her chance at the donut.
(My other two children are MIA somewhere at a neighbor's house otherwise I would have photographed them too.)

Happy Memorial Day!

Think he takes after Daddy?!

Wearing his Detroit Tigers shirt and watching TV. Nice that he has the remote control figured out at 13 months.

William at 13 Months

Here he is at thirteen months and three days already and I still haven't managed to capture a one year photo. The boy is FAST! I have some lovely blurred pictures of him toddling or crawling away from me though if you are interested! Posing on the rocks didn't work out very well for us, they are far too tempting for a climber. He did enjoy exploring the tree. I think he was contemplating climbing it. A couple more months and he'll be swinging from the branches like the other two monkeys I'm sure! (Yes, he is eating a stick. I try not to think about it. Ellie has certainly eaten worse and lived to tell about it. )

The First Mountain Trip of the Season

It was a wonderfully warm and sunny weekend. And we finally made it into the mountains today. Yeah! We had a picnic in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Then the boys wanted to try some fly fishing. Nick caught his first fish with a fly rod!! A rainbow trout, and he waded into the water to pick it up himself! Unfortunately I was too busy chasing the baby to record the moment. Sorry Nick! Next fish for sure.A little spring time scenery for you. There is still snow up in the high country, so the water is really frigid.
Ellie did her best to catch a fish with her stick. She did manage to catch some water plants. And she was pretty happy with that.
William wore his fly fishing t-shirt in solidarity, but we didn't let him near the water. He spent the afternoon climbing all over the picnic table and trying to decide if pine needles are edible.

William we have discovered, is NOT a road trip kind of a guy. He enjoyed the climbing part and the picnic, but he was a real stinker for the rest of the trip. Shrieked in his car seat, and tantrumed in the carrier on our feeble attempt at a hike. He is going to have to get with the program, as the rest of the family is ready to explore this summer!

Eleanor the Ballerina!

Here is our little ballerina on her way to perform. They danced to My Little Sunshine on an outdoor stage at the outdoor annual festival. Two of the little girls didn't perform due to stage fright, but not our Ellie! She was a little confused in a couple of parts as her partner was missing, but she did pretty well for 3.5years old. She did a lot more singing than dancing though. Maybe we should have put her in voice lessons instead of ballet!
Here she is afterwards. "Is it over Mom?" "I want to do it again!"

I did record the dance, but blogger doesn't like the video apparently. No luck loading it here. In a moment of obvious insanity I volunteered to be a chaperone for her class at the recital. Whew! Keeping track of 8 little girls in a crowded festival is work! But I managed to ensure that they all made it back to the correct parents.

As we were leaving I did have a few strangers stop me to say that they enjoyed Eleanor's enthusiastic performance the best. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not! But she is definitely a little ham!

William the Big Boy

William has discovered Nick and Ellie's PBK armchairs. And he is pretty sure that he is big enough to have his own now! He heads straight for them and proudly climbs up. Then screams to us for a round of applause.

Nick doesn't mind William being in Ellie's chair.
Ellie does, and she will unceremoniously dump him out.
Here he is screaming for accolades. (Note: Nick is definitely not around to see William in his chair.) Good job William!!

Our Little Mermaid

Ellie has been DYING for one of these Mermaid towels for months now. She keeps seeing them in the Chasing Fireflies catalog . It had gotten to the point of me hiding the catalog when it arrived, just to spare everyone the inevitable begging and pleading.



But I think I have finally figured out how to make one myself. And Ellie couldn't be more thrilled. Here she is modeling her mermaid tail. The pose is all her idea. "This is what the girls in the magazine do Mom" she tells me. If you say so Elle!

I added in the mermaid bikini part, just so she could truly feel like Ariel.

Not to be left out, here is Nick. He wanted to be included in the pictures, but didn't want to pose.

It is a beautiful, sunny, 80 degree day today and we decided to spend the afternoon outside at the lake. The kids did great on the 1.5 mile walk. We were keeping our eyes open for ducklings, and did see a few from afar. The snow capped mountains are semi-visible in the background through the haze.


It was William's naptime and he wasn't terribly alert for the first half of our walk. If the kids hadn't stopped every 10 feet he might have fallen asleep in the stroller.



See, he did perk up at the very end!Unfortunately the weather is going to drop over 40 degrees tonight. The high for tomorrow will be 42 with mixed rain/snow showers. Fun! Great way to celebrate the 1st of May! Hopefully it will be gone by the weekend...

Look! Nick's on TV!

Nick was super excited this week to be doing the announcements for the entire school. We had to be there early today, and for once he was up and moving quickly in the morning! I think the kids did wonderfully considering they are only in Kindergarten, and they were reading some tough cue cards. Rather impressed he got the words "Pledge of Allegiance" right! They were on for about 3 minutes, this is the end section. (Didn't want to bore everyone with the entire thing, and Blogger only lets me load so much video) He is on announcements all this week. We are going to work on smiling for the camera, and holding the mic farther away from his mouth for tomorrow!

I am told that one day I will look back on this day and laugh. Today is not that day.


Here is our daughter in all her glory on Tuesday. Hair long and beautiful, if a bit "windswept".




Here is poor Ellie now. After her almost six year old brother decided it would be a wonderful idea to cut huge hunks of her hair off with a pair of baby nail scissors. I would have expected my three year old to cut her own hair, but Nick?!?! I had been warned by several people, including my Mom, that little girl's love to cut their own hair and that it was just a matter of time. No one told me that big brothers do it too! Poor girl, she misses her "princess hair". I tried to even it out as best as I could, but it is still shocks me every time I look at her.

Ellie to a "T"!

This was such a wonderful opportunity to capture our daughter's personality that I couldn't resist. Here she is running amuck outside; the little ragamuffin in her pink shorts and pink tank top, hair ragged, and carrying every pink doll and stuffed animal possible.






And wearing what every good Princess should: Sparkly party shoes.

On the wrong feet of course.

It's Not Over Until the Fat Lady Sings!

Or the Birthday Boy Cries. Whichever the case may be!

Off to the bath and straight to bed. Happy First Birthday William!

And for the Grand Finale...

I am having severe maternal guilt over the fact that I did not make him his first birthday cake. My good friends with three kids have told me to "get over it", so I'm working on it! (Thanks Holly and Liz!) Anyway, how can you go wrong with a Costco chocolate cake?! Even though they are so huge that we gave away most of it to the neighborhood kids. (It'll look better on them than on me!)




Our Birthday Boy! Yet another hat. Poor William, he hates hats....




He's not too sure what to make of this cake thing.



He got over his reticence rather quickly and enjoyed the chocolately experience. Look Aunty Mimi; another one converted to the "Dark Side"! You would be proud!

Enough of this Toddler Stuff!

William went straight for The Chopper to celebrate his coming of age. He's ready to get out there with the neighborhood kids and cruise the cul-de-sac!

(This is why I have such a hard time with the first birthday: they go overnight from my Baby to "just one of the kids"!)

Hooray! It's William's Birthday!!

The big kids found the gifts first. About ten minutes after they opened their eyes. It was very challenging to convince them to wait until Daddy was awake and we had fed everyone breakfast before opening anything!



William, like most one year olds, could care less about the gifts. He was just so excited that Ellie was letting him play in her pink kitchen without drama that he couldn't tear himself away!


The John Deere goodies from Nonie and Grande were a hit! Thank you! He loves his new key chain and the cell phone. "Electronic gadgets" are the perfect gift! Just like his Dad!



The big kiddos like them too. How long before the fighting starts....