Skateboard Crash

Poor Will. He busted his lip, skinned his nose, scratched/broke his glasses, and banged up his hip. Here's the story.

Today I pulled out my unicycle for the first time in months (winter is not a good time for cycling). Within an hour I got my freemount down, did several figure-eights up and down our hill, fell over as I tried going backwards, and managed to idle for six full seconds.

Then the boys came out to play. I decided to go for a distance ride, and started pedaling up the very steep hill. I turned around and spotted William. He was riding the ripstick (a kind of skateboard, but oh so much cooler) up the hill, just as fast as I was cycling. We raced to the top (I barely beat him), and then I crossed the street and continued my trek through the neighborhood.

I had gone at least half a mile and gotten my legs very sore. Then, suddenly I heard a strange noise. It wasn't a car... It sounded like plastic wheels on rocky pavement. Well, it was, and it was Will. He had ripsticked (skateboarded?) all the way, following me. I was going downhill (quite a long and tiring ordeal on a unicycle), and William shouted that he would beat me.

Well, he zoomed on down. And down. He gathered up a ton of speed, and once he was ahead of me, he tried to get off (realizing he was faster than he meant to be and that he would likely fall off).

So he veered off to the side. He said he was trying to land in the neighbor's grass, but instead he did a magnificent summersault onto a steep driveway. I think he'd hit a rock.

His face was bleeding. I handed him my unicyle, told him to sit still (of course, he didn't... he walked home), and sprinted all-out, reaching our house in record time.

He's okay-- he busted his lip (thankfully no harm to his braces), and scraped up a bunch of his skin. He is milking it now, of course. Drinking milkshakes, watching movies.... :)

At least he will have an amazing story to tell when people ask about his scraped up nose. Going full speed down a hill on a skateboard, I ask you! Unlike Ben, who broke his foot simply by walking on that old floor by the theater's bathroom two years ago...

Halloween

This Halloween was rather strange... I didn't trick or treat, and we didn't carve pumpkins. However, I did finish my Elf costume! William, Nicholas, and I all were Lord of the Rings characters!

The pictures were taken on Dad's camera, and they wound up with Grandma (since Dad is staying at Grandma and Papa's house during the week while he's commuting until we move), and she edited them and put them on facebook. Of course, these aren't all the pictures, but let's just call it a teaser, shall we? Someday I would like to do a true photoshoot. :)

Frodo, smoking the Longbottom Leaf of Hobbit fame as he stares, ponderously, into the distance. (Note that the Ring of Power is around his neck!)

< Frodo, in a very epic pose. :)Nicholas wore his Easter outfit from last year (I was the one who pointed out that the vest was quite the Hobbit style!), a cloak made by Mom, and the Ring of Power (from Ben's Lord of the Rings Risk game) around a chain.

Strider, a Ranger from the North

Elendil, king of Gondor and Arnor

Aragorn, son of Arathorn

< Aragorn, prepared to charge into battle. William saved up his money to buy a real (albeit unsharpened) sword- a replica's of Aragorn from when he was still known as the Ranger from the North (in other words, not the sword of Narsil). It is a very nice sword. William wore a "chainmaille" shirt found at Goodwill, a fake leather tunic made by Mom, jeans, Mom's boots, and a homemade cloak. He stole my Evenstar for the costume, and I also made him "The Ring of Barahir" (aka Aragorn's ring).

^The only picture of my cotume you'll get to see for awhile! I made the costume (jewelry included!) entirely by myself. Well, Mom helped me figure out the sewing pattern and she sewed the collar on. But other than that!

Okay, so Ben was just too funny. He sat there with the thing of candy, and would randomly start talking or moving. We got several screams!

Three our four people read the "Mean Ogre" sign. They read it aloud, and as they were finishing, Ben cried indignantly, "I'm not mean!"

The funniest incident was probably with a few teen girls. I didn't get to see this one, but from what he said...

The two girls walked forward and read the signs.

"Should I grab some candy?" (in a tone of surpressed horror)

"I don't know, its probably a person tricking us."

"I dunno, it doesn't look real."

"You get the candy."
"I don't want to."

"Is it real?"

"Let's throw a rock at it and see."

As you can imagine, Ben was rather concerned that they would chuck a rock at his head. Instead, they threw a bag of candy at him and then ran away without getting the bag or the candy from Ben. !!!

Marcus was originally going to be King Theoden (or at least, a king with a sword and all, us Tolkien geeks named him Theoden), but he wouldn't wear the costume. So he was a firefighter instead.

Adelynn was the most darling little pink bunny rabbit EVER!

William's Glasses

Remember that post about William's glasses? Well, almost a MONTH ago I managed to take a picture of him wearing them. Yeah, I procrastinate and forget things. But here is the picture. They look nice on him, do they not? Now he looks funny when he doesn't have them on. *Note that when I took this picture, he forgot about his glasses, but did take care not to let his braces show through his smile... (actually, this is just the way he normally smiles)

Glasses

William now has glasses! He refuses to let me take a picture of him wearing them (he declares that he hates them) but rest assured that they look very handsome on him!

William's 11th Birthday!!!

I can't believe how old William is! Well, actually, I can, because he is acts older than 11, but still! He wasn't home on his birthday (Boy Scout Camp) so we celebrated it a few days late.

That hat is tradition- he got it at Trish's wedding a year ago and will not stop wearing it!!!

Lets see.... William is big into Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (as always). His favorite colors right now are red, black, and orange, and he loves being goofy. :) I think that runs in the family...

Chocolate cake with chocolate chips, chocolate icing, double chocolate ice cream, and chocolate milk. Guess who loves chocolate?

Playing his new game- Wii Sport Resort! It's amazing!

Will in his Gryffindor scarf I crocheted for him.

Poems

Yesterday (Saturday) my volleyball team had our tournament! We lost :( We had alot of fun, though! Not much else has been going on, so I have no new pictures for you. However, I have two poems- not by me! On the way down to Springfield for the tournament, Dad issued us a "poem challenge". We had to write a poem about the sand fairies. For this to make sense to you, I had better explain what the Sand Fairies are. Awhile back, we were all outside playing in the sand and building piles and such. Since we were using dry sand, the wind would knock little bits off the edges of our castles. Dad said that that was the Sand Fairies. These fairies are too fast to see, but you can see the bits of sand that their feet knock around as they run. Adelynn spent a long time making castles for them. She was so funny! Dad told her to try and catch a sand fairy. She asked how. Dad pointed to a small bucket and told her to try to capture one in that. Aghast, Adelynn stared and said knowingly, "You can't trap it! The Fairy Queen will put a spell on you!" Nick did not know what to think. He came up to me and said, "It's just the wind blowing the sand around," and then very quietly, "Isn't it?" William played right along and built a whole little world for the fairies. After a while he got bored and decided that he needed a battle. So he made the spiders be attacking the fairies! "Attack of the spiders!"
Anyway, I am getting side tracked. The point of this post is to show the awesome poem that William came up with. Ben wrote a neat poem that he did not finish, and I made a poem that was not very good. Maybe I'll post those later. He did not use stanzas, so I am just writing this the way it was on his paper.

When the Sand Fairies Came Out To Dance
By William Rackers
On the most common of days, with the gentlest breezes, the sand fairies came out to dance! Oh, how fair and fast they danced. They danced so fast even those with the "sight" could not get more than a glimpse of them. The sand all around was flying everywhere! going, "pow tow zow tow fow now"! And I could just hear the music so wild and fast: dum dee dee dam dum dee dee dam dum dum dum dee dee dam, over the sand hills we go dee dee dum. They flew over the little sand hills: dum dam dee dee dum dee dee dee dum dam dee dee de dum. How long they danced! How long! How long! They danced through the night! The the sand fairies' King stopped and said, "My people, we have danced through the big people's sleep time. Sadly it is time to stop" "What! We dance so fast the big people can't see us! Even those with the 'sight'!" cried the crowd of fairies. "Silence," yelled the king, "They can still see the sand flying under our feet! They will wonder! And we can not dance through the day too! So dance to your beds if you want! Just go!" The crowd subsided and went. But a few started dancing to bed.

It was interesting to see the differences in each of our poems. We each expressed our own ideas of the sand fairies in our own way. Anyway, later, while I was playing my games at the tournament, Ben wrote an awesome poem. He is really big into blacksmithing at the moment, and wants to make stuff for movies when he grows up. Here is Ben's poem:

By Ben Rackers
There he stood behind the fire
Doing the trade he learned from his sire
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
So there he raised his hammar up high
And let it fall to the height of his thigh
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
Drawing it long and making it stout
Drenching it in water and taking it out
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him
Polishing it upon a great stone
And using the stone to make it hone
Forging a sword
To give to his lord
And all of the nobles beside him.

I have such a miserably hard time writing poems with rhythm and rhyme. Ben does it so beautifully. And William is so full of great creative ideas. If he would only write it down more, we would have books full of great poems and stories.

Will's Week Long Visit

William went to Grandma and Papa Archibald's house for a full week. The rest of us are all a bit jealous- he got to go out to eat every single day, visited so many places, got peace and quiet, and got to be just totally spoiled. (That same week I had drama camp- which was awesome, but I don't have any pictures of it). He missed Marcus' birthday, though. Grandma and Papa took these pictures. Will said that they did tons more things than what is shown in these pictures. He probably was not exaggerating.

Playing Ticket to Ride- Switzerland Edition

Playing pool with Papa in the pool room. It's no wonder he kept beating me when we went to go pick him up- he got a week's worth of practice!

I think that this is at Incredible Pizza

Drinking something somewhere

He ate at least half of a watermelon that week!

Clydesdales at AB

???He is shooting a car???

I am not sure what this is- William said that this is the hotel where all the rock stars go and this is a pool that is only a couple of inches deep and is red.

Eating at the Spaghetti House. William got a special drink with a special cup. For the past couple of days, he has refused to drink out of anything but his Spaghetti House cup.

They went to the Arch

They visited the AB brewery.

At the Science Center

Inside the Arch

He got to do a trampoline with bungee cords--- I am so jealous.

Go-Karts

By the way, the thing with that hat- at Trish's wedding, she gave all of the guys St. Louis Cardinals hats to wear for the funny pictures. Will's had little fires on the brim, and he loved it. He wears that thing every day (though not every day at our house because he risks getting it grabbed off his head and then he would have to chase whoever took it).

Ben and Will's Birthday

I am catching up- this is Ben and Will's birthday celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Archibald.

Wonder and astonishment

Posing

Nick inside the present's box

The boys are thrilled with their present- a ramp

Ben rides his bike over the ramp

Nick has to have his share of the fun!!!

The box.

Will was the first- and so far only- one to master the art of riding the Ripstick on the ramp. I keep getting stuck at the top...

Pictures of me on the unicycle are not very good. I can ride it half-way up the ramp- but I haven't been able to get onto the flat top of it.

This is just too cute- Marcus found Grandma's empty beer bottle and started gnawing on it.

William's 10th Birthday

Will's present. He also has a booklight now, and has been sleeping on his beanbag in his reading cubby underneath his desk. Mom and Dad made a coupon book for him- things like a family bowling night, a book he is wanting when it is released, and "a family game of Monopoly at Mom and Dad's convenience".

The birthday boy had to show off his favorite pocketknife. At least, I think it is his pocketknife. Maybe it is Ben's.

Marcus is clapping for his big brother. He was so cute! This is one of the rare in-focus pictures of Marcus- he is usually moving too fast!

An interesting view

The sweet ice cream scooper girl

William conducted the singing of "Happy Birthday"

Posing for an out of focus picture.

Lighting candles in pajamas- he was ready for the movie!

The Stamping Up bag doubles as spur-of-the-moment wrapping paper

Drinking his Mountain Dew icy while staring at his all-chocolate cake

Blowing out the candles

A small example of Will's estaticness (spelling? I just sounded it out)