William

As promised, here's an update on the kids. WARNING: The happenings of 5 kids over 4 months will be lengthy...and photo heavy! I'm thankful to report the boys are doing well. William, suddenly a kid and no longer a toddler, has a vocabulary that stuns me several times per day. He loves to talk (which I'm quite proud of), but can wear me down with conversation just the same (my mom secretly loves the fact that I'm getting mine). I'm finding age three to be a bit challenging as well. After making it through the supposed "terrible twos" with no problems whatsoever, I'm discovering that we did not, in fact, dodge a bullet...it merely arrived a year later than expected. I'm amazed how I can be at the end of my rope one second, frustrated beyond belief, giving timeouts like candy, then completely enamored the next. He pushes my patience to the edge, yet fills me with joy until I nearly burst. Here's an update on William (since my last post) in pictures:

William discovered a love of the circus (much to my delight) shortly after Henry was born. We purchased our season pass halfway through the summer, but definitely got our money's worth. Here's William with "Miss Heidi," one of his favorites.

William with the Rosaires...

And with his buddy, David. David always does an awesome job of making his adoring fans feel special...last Saturday during the holiday light parade, David rode past, singing atop a wagon, and shouted out "William!" into the microphone (between verses of Have a Holly Jolly Christmas) when he spotted William waving in the crowd. 

William and Tate in the funny mirrors on closing weekend.

William, Tate, and Noah watching the calliope

Closing weekend with our good friends. Seven boys and four adults. Luckily we have brave friends.

First taste of cotton candy. Henry was only three weeks old, but we decided to take the boys to a circus festival in Mazomanie. It was a little smaller than we expected,, but William still talks about it, so I guess it was a good time. On a sidenote, William has added "Mazomanie" to his repertoire of places he's visited. Sometimes our train set makes a stop in Mazomanie, sometimes our firetrucks respond to a fire there, and sometimes we color pictures of Mazomanie. It's obviously a very exciting place.

It was a scorching hot summer, but nonetheless, we tried to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible.  This particular day ended with crying over melted ice cream, but the ferry ride was cool!

Devils Lake. We are lucky. Period.

William started Sunday School this fall. Loves it! We're currently practicing for the Christmas pageant. William is playing the part of "sheep."

Turning colder...

William and Maeve at the homecoming parade. King and Queen 2026.

Can't wait to be a T-Bird someday! (Although, the marching band is, BY FAR, his favorite thing)

In line for "Something Special From Wisconsin" at Pierce's. The second annual open house did not disappoint. William goes to Pierce's almost daily with Pa, so we had been looking forward to it for weeks.

The lovely reigning Miss America! If you remember, she was Miss Wisconsin at last year's open house! Let me tell you, though...nothing can make a mom of 5 feel frumpier than standing next to Miss America in all of her gorgeousness!

William brought along his picture from last year for her to autograph for his "scap book.".  She thought it was cool and took a picture. The two of them ended up on the front page of the Baraboo News Republic together...a banner day in the Moll household. You would've thought it made World News.

William adores the sausages and remembered them from Miller Park this summer. I'm sure they remembered him, too.

Bucky is the star of the show... the main attraction...our favorite guy.

Bucky stole the double stroller and took Charlie and Ikey for a wild ride! What a rascal!

Charlie is wondering who's back there?

Super fun!

For the record, this was an AWESOME Bucky. Here's William and Bucky singing "If You Want To Be A Badger"...

Miss Wisconsin 2012. Good luck!

Benny HATES the racing sausages. Charlie has never seen someone so tall in his life.

I have to stop this post for a second (the Bucky pictures reminded me), and tell another story from this summer. The same day as the circus festival in Mazomanie, Jason and I were feeling rather ambitious and decided to take the kids on to Madison in the afternoon for "Family Fun Day" at Camp Randall. I nursed Henry in the car (parked, of course), changed the kids into their Badger gear, and sat in a line that wrapped around the stadium, all for 2 hours of Badger fun. The place was packed (I think the news reported over 10,000 in attendance), so we got in line to see Bucky right away. The cheerleaders were there to hand out posters and take photos, so we passed some time posing with the ever-popular spirit squad. (Uncle was a Badger cheerleader back in the day, and William loves it when he tells Bucky stories, teaches him cheerleading "tricks," or Badger songs). Charlie didn't want to get back into his wagon after meeting the cheerleaders, so I decided to hold him...why create a scene, right? Famous last thought...

As we were waiting in line, Bucky strutted through the crowd (potty break?), obviously grabbing everyone's attention. As he returned to his post, ALL the kids saw him coming, parents were pointing, and Bucky, larger than life doing his animated thing, headed straight through the PACKED stadium. I suppose his big mascot head made a blind spot where he couldn't see something low to the ground...like the small orange car (Charlie's) on our choo choo wagon. With EVERYONE watching, Bucky hit our baby-train full stride and went flying. And I mean FLYING. Charlie's seat took him out at the shins, and he actually laid-out mid-air, landing on his face. I frantically tried to help him up, half checking that the kids were alright, half worried about the poor guy in the Bucky suit. Suddenly it was nothing but horror and mortification as I realized...OH MY GOSH, WE'RE THE FAMILY THAT NEARLY KILLED BUCKY. Am I surprised? Not really. At least his head never fell off.

It became a teeny bit funny on the way home as Jason and I recounted the event. The best part was, Bucky never missed a beat. I'm sure it scared him to death and hurt like heck, but he just jumped right up, brushed off his hands, put his paws to his face to show embarrassment, and, in true Bucky fashion, jaunted away. Oh my. It's amazing they let us near him after the incident. Besides THAT, Camp Randall was great! The linemen loved the triplets, William met some "real" football players, the kids crawled around in the endzone, and we even made the evening news!

Go Big Red!

Good sports

These girls were so nice...I wanted to bring them home with me! Nannies???

Benny loved the poms. Maybe he'll be a cheerleader like Uncle someday.

Notice Charlie out of his wagon...moments before the Bucky crash.

You'd never guess, right?

We're sorry, Bucky!

Ikey ready to run around the field with Paul Bunyan's axe.

Daddy with the boys.

From left: Benny with AJ Fenton (LB), Ikey with Ethan Armstrong (LB), Charlie with Chris Borland (LB), and Mike Taylor (LB). What's Charlie's problem? Doesn't he know Borland's an All-American?!? Taylor, too!

I think that's enough of an update on William. I'll have more on William's Halloween Party next week, but will close for now. Happy Thanksgiving! Updates on turkeys 1, 2, and 3 in my next post..