Ten Little Monkeys

jumping all over the gym! Liam has been taking gymnastics this year and decided he wanted to have his birthday party there. How I wish I had a trampoline that extended from one end of the family room to the other with a huge pit of foam blocks at the end. No wonder he considers gymnastics his own personal Utopia! We had rainbow cupcakes, lots of exercise, friends and presents galore. What more can a four year old ask for?

Birthday Bash

April is home to many birthdays in the family so we decided to have one big birthday exztravaganza for Grampy, Liam, Eamon, Ryan, David and Erin. Liam chose to have a robot theme this year. He is very into designing and building and putting things together. And spending hour after hour out in the yard digging up mud and fashioning it into a myriad of complicated creations. He is definitely going to be an architect one day! Eamon wouldn't spend a moment of the party INSIDE without crying and screaming so his pictures are a little fewer and further bewtween! He lives a life of jealousy and rage because he doesn't like his tricycle anymore and desperately wants a big bike like his brothers.... if only his legs were long enough to reach the pedals... next year! Erin was nice enough to push him around on Liam's bike which he commandeered in his usual tyrannical manner. All-in-all, the party was a great success though we are determined NOT to do pinatas anymore because the darn things NEVER work! Liam didn't QUITE understand musical chairs and spent a fair amount of time laying under a table crying afterwards, but it was HIS party and he COULD cry if he wanted to....

Recycled Robots



In an attempt to continue getting caught up here, I found these photos of the robots the kids made to decorate for the big combined April birthday party this year. In the spirit of Green Living that's so popular these days, I started out using a bunch of recycled boxes and cans. However, I soon realized we needed to pad our supplies with a quick trip to Home Depot where we picked up "a couple odds and ends". Eighty dollars and many electrical parts later, the kids were in heaven and spent the day with some of their cousins designing outlet mouths and valve dials. So much for teaching the kids about "free recylable projects".

Not Quite Three Wolves...

But rhino and alligator tee shirts are still pretty bad-ass.

Our Little Trooper

One of the reasons we've been so far behind here on the blog is our little guy Eamon was diagnosed with Type I diabetes about a month ago. After four full days in the hospital and a whole lot more time adjusting to our "new normal" as they kept calling it, we're finally starting to get back in the swing of things around here. He's been doing really well and is the shining star of his Pediatric Diabetes Center. We are known there solely as "Eamon's parents" because he out-shines us with his crazy little personality. He is such a cute little guy and has never complained once about all the needle sticks or injections he gets on a daily basis. In fact, he has already mastered putting the gluose strip in his monitor and takes great pride in being the one to choose which finger gets stuck 8ish times a day. Even his insulin injections are no big deal for him... he often says "Oww..." in this cute little voice, but only when he sees us coming with the needle! He doesn't flinch at all for his shots and we just can't say enough about what a great kid he is and how happy-go-lucky he has remained through all of this. We just love to watch him storm around the yard with his brothers playing Light Saber (we caved and bought them all "Light Savers" as they call them since all three of the boys have just been so unbelievably great about the turmoil that's gone on here). He still plays with all of his heart and soul and we love to watch him act like a "normal" two year old.

Here's a photo of him in the hospital. Despite how pathetic it is, he did look awfully cute in his little johnny. It was certainly helped along by his fancy red shoes that he found in the playroom there. Everyone in the pediatric unit was so good to us and they all, of course, fell in love with the little guy. He was quite famous by the end for driving his red car like a bat out of hell up and down the halls at all hours of the day and night! We're just happy he is doing so well and couldn't ask for him to be dealing any better with it all.

If I just click my heels together three times, I can go home....
(And it worked, we were released that very afternoon!)

The Return of Leah

His cousins never tire of dressing him up. And Liam never tires of playing along. He is quite a sweet little girl. Funny for the guy who is the most rough and tumble and physically dominant of all of our boys. He'll be Linebacker Leah someday.

NoodleNoggin&Bean

These photos are just a smattering of those we took on an outing last month with the boys' friends Chad and Olivia. We spent the day at an indoor play area with something for everyone.... though of course none of them could be convinced to stay in the same room as their brothers for very long. (If you click on the collage, you can see the photos in all of their gigantic glory)

From top to bottom:
Colin found paydirt in the mother of all Lego rooms; Eamon spent most of the day in this car; Engineer Liam finds an escape hatch from his train; Liam fishing "just like Grampy"; Colin and Chad blast off for space; Liam shows us some serious twinkle-toes; four boys and four million balls; Eamon rock-n-rolls; Liam loved the ball tubes; Eamon climbing a slide; this is not the first time we've caught Eamon stashing bills; the big boys play hoops; bouncing baby boy; two teeter-totters; so much fun!; Cowboy Eamon gets serious for his showdown at the OK Corral.