The Wolves

Our neighbors have a set of dogs, one whom looks like a rottweiler and the other a German shepherd.  They are incredibly well trained and I have never heard them bark or growl.  However, they are big and they look like they could be mean if they want to.  The other problem: they only speak French.  Seriously.  Our neighbors are french and the commands they give the dogs are only in french.  When the dogs are let outside they do not have a leash or chain, but the stay in their own backyard.  Until the other night.


Mike was in the backyard playing with the three kids while I was cleaning up after dinner.  I hear Carter yelling "Mom Mom there is a wolf in our backyard!"  I went to investigate and apparently Carter had thrown a ball and it rolled into our neighbors backyard.  The dogs took this as an invitation to play and went and bite a hole in the ball, which deflated.  Then they came and sat in our backyard staring or maybe glaring at the kids while they were playing.  I felt a little uneasy about this so I called the kids inside.  Mike began cleaning up, but the dogs were following us.  Keep in mind, they were not barking or growling, they just seemed more interested in these tiny smelly little beings.  Carter and Ava were fascinated by all this, and Mike said "I'm going to go outside to see if I can get the dogs back in their yard."  


So Mike tried throwing balls, taking them to their yard and telling them to sit and a number of other doggie tricks.  I tried to distract the kids and they kept telling me "NO Mom, we want to see Dad fight the wolves!"  


Apparently Mike lost the wolf fight because they were on our back porch and barking at me running the vacuum.  Eventually their owners called for them because they went running home.  So does anyone know the command for "go home" or "get lost" in French? 

Soccer Girl

Today Ava started her soccer class.  She was beyond the moon excited about this!  She ran around the entire time with a big grin on her face, just happy to be there.  Which really, that's what it's all about.  I want my kiddos to have fun, meet some new friends and get a little exercise while they are at it.  Mission Accomplished!

Soccer Girl Shooting a Goal

Ava was so happy to be at soccer she even put up with wearing pesky shorts. This was the first time in months I have gotten her in something that wasn't a dress!

1....2.....3....SOCCER!

Carter also enjoyed his league and made a new friend.  He was excited because he was placed on the blue team!

3 is such a funny age.  She wants to be a big girl, she can do it herself, but please Mommy let me be the baby in the stroller.

Dawson has realized that his cast makes an excellent club.  Twice he has given me a big bash to the head.  It hurts my head, but he just laughs and laughs.  So if you see the baby raising his cast up like this......beware.

Ava, I was so proud of you out there running around, having a ball and smiling from ear to ear.  It makes me so happy when I see you happy.  I must say you are about the cutest little thing in your pink soccer shorts.

One man's trash

This evening we were cleaning up the playroom and I was making a pile of trash that needed to go to the can.  It included styrofoam wrapping, cardboard scraps, coloring pages stapled together in multiple spots, an empty tylenol box and scraps of string.  When I asked Carter to throw these items away he got very upset with me.  "But Mom, you are making me throw away all my equipment!  I'm a hunter Mom!"  Mike and I were rolling on the ground laughing at all his "equipment."  I swear we are not buying this kid any more toys!  Seriously just save your trash and he will love it more than anything you spend money on! 

Akron Zoo

This week I decided to take the kids to the Akron Zoo.  Funny thing, with Dawson's broken bones it is easier to keep him safe at the zoo.  He was in the stroller the entire time, and I didn't have to worry about him tripping over air and hurting himself with his cast or a myriad of other catastrophes that he skirts daily.  So here are some pictures from our little excursion.

As Daddy said "those are some crazy looking penguins."

The wingspan of a condor.  Those are some crazy ugly birds.

Dawson was allowed a short reprieve from the stroller to enjoy a ride in the train.

Also that may or may not be his sister's jacket.  It's hard finding a jacket to fit over a cast!

Hooray we got to ride on the caboose!

He also got to ride the tractor.

I'm pretty sure Ava is being a monkey?

Fishing

We took Ava fishing with her new fishing pole.

Baby Dockie fished for mud.

Look Meme, I caught some!

By the way, these pictures were from Sunday and I just got around to putting them up.  Before baby boy's broken bones.

I'm kind of confused by the fact that Mike thought he would be able to fish.  He was with two small children.  Meme and I are NOT fisherwomen.  In fact, neither of us could even cast the barbie fishing pole.

Ava refused to let the worm touch her new barbie fishing pole.  She was perfectly content to "catch" the blue plastic fish that came with the pole.

Broken Baby Bones

Oh boy, yesterday was a crazy day.  It started off at the YMCA, Carter and Ava started their swim classes together.  The kids were having a ball in the pool and I was trying to entertain Dawson in the pool viewing room.  I had packed cars, books, crayons and paper but he was not having any of that.  My little explorer decided he wanted to climb the closest mountain, which in this case was the bleachers.  I was following right behind him as he was walking back and forth on the bleachers.  He came to the end of one bleacher and I thought for sure he would stop.  Instead he decided to jump the divide and make it across a two foot gap between the two sets of bleachers.  Are you surprised to hear that this doesn't end well?  Anyways he ended up on the floor.  I scooped him up and realized after a couple of minutes of crying that he wasn't moving his one arm.  I wanted to grab the two older kids out of the pool but they were swimming, with life vests to the other end of the pool.  So as soon as they came back we left the YMCA.  AHHH!  What do I do?  We ended up at Akron Children's Hospital.  Luckily Mike was able to finish up a meeting and he met me in the ER.

He started off as sad baby.  I'm pretty sure he threw one of the biggest fits ever for the radiologist when they took the X-rays.  It was pretty crazy, I'm surprised they were able to get any X-rays at all!

Then he took a little nap on me, woke up and realized his arm felt great!  He was running around the room using his bad arm to hold angel baby, play with all the levers on the bed and cause general mayhem.  Mike and I were both pretty sure that he was fine, and as soon as they got the X-rays back we would go home with a happy healthy baby.

But instead they told us he broke his elbow in two places!

Mike took the older two kids home while I stayed with our little guy.

He also didn't like getting the cast on, but suckers make everything better!

So this is my baby with his little broken bones.  He is doing better today, although he had a couple of tough moments.  It seemed to be right around the time when he was due for another dose of tylenol.  Now it's just up to me to stop our little evil Knievel from exploring.  Just today I had to stop him from climbing on to the back of the couch, climbing onto Ava's bike and climbing onto our patio furniture.  Oh my little Dockie doodle, I'm so sorry this happened to you.  But we all survived our first broken bone.  I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later.

Extra Family Pictures

Here are some extra family pictures from Ava's birthday "photo shoot."

Mike yelled "hey, come take a Senior picture of me and the baby!"

You're welcome.

Carter boy spent a lot of time throwing rocks in the pond, wearing his bike helmet of course.  Safety First!

I had to include this picture because I just love the Cheese! face that Dawson is making.

My Wee Three

Our Family