Nick's 10th Birthday

On Saturday we had a big party for Nick and all his friends. We went to our friends' home. I have posted about their place before, the one with the tunnels and pool.

First they had a nerf gun war in the upstairs playroom and tunnels. I made orange and black tunics out of felt for the boys and matching flags for each team. Then they played war and capture the flag. They used the velcro tipped darts which stuch to the felt tunics when they got "shot". They had so much fun with that! They played upstairs for about an hour and would have kept playing if I didn't go up and say, "who is ready to go swimming?"

The all got their swim gear on and went swimming in the indoor pool for about another hour. That was also a lot of fun! While the boys were doing the nerf war Nathan, Tatiana and Ben were playing in the pool, then the boys joined them and the craziness started!

After swimming we had pizza for lunch and Oreo ice cream cake! Yummy!

All this excitement sure wore out little Andrew. What a fun party! Happy Birthday Nick!!!

Nathan gets recognized!

Nathan was publicly recognized for his volunteer service providing free dental work for children from low income families in the Lebenon area. Every year he does "Give Kids a Smile" day at his office. This year he was able to provide about $5,600 worth of free dental care in the one day. We all went with him to the Lebenon School District Board meeting where he received this certificate. It was nice to see him recognized for his service he has been doing year after year. We are so proud of you Honey!

Our little baker is at it again...

Tatiana LOVES to be in the kitchen baking yummy treats for everyone. That girl is going to make us all fat! Seriously though, she is really good at it. This time she found a recipe for "cupcake cones" and wanted to make some. I told her I was busy at the moment but that she could get out all the supplies and ingredients and I would help her in a little bit. Well before I knew it she was standing in the kitchen doorway stirring batter and in a sweet little voice asked me, "does this look good enough?" Meaning if it was stirred good enough. I was shocked to see that she went on without me and did the whole thing! She cracked the two eggs, did all the measurements and everything on her own. PLUS these were made from scratch, not a box mix (the frosting was from a can though). PLUS she cleaned up the kitchen! PLUS they tasted great! I was worried that she may have accidentally switched tablespoons and teaspoons or something, but she did it all correctly and they were so yummy! She made over 30 cones so we shared some with neighbors. They all loved them! Good work little baker!

Big brother approves! I quickly took this picture to show the inside (she wanted to add red food coloring to make it pink) before he devoured it.

How do you spend movie night?

Every weekend, usually Friday night, we have family movie night. It is a fun tradition that our family has enjoyed. But this past week the two youngest Tolmans must have been pretty wiped out because this is how they spend thier time during movie night. Shhhh!

Nathan's ski trip

Nathan chaperoned the boys scouts on a snow trip. They had a lot of fun. This was Nathan's first time on skis and he did relatively well! He did hit a tree. But Bruce, the other chaperon and avid skier did say that he caught on quick and did really well. Good job Nathan! Wish I was there to see it!

What a beautiful day for sking! Nice view!

Nick's Dragon

I just like this picture of Nick and his pet lizard, Dragon. He really like him. Dragon is getting a little skinny though and not eating. We took him to Petco and had him looked at. Hopefully he is okay. Let us know if anybody has any lizard expertise and can offer advise. We have had him for over a month, he he has shed once. He has both milworms and crickets in his tank and he doesn't seem to be be eating them. His teperature and humidity are both at the right levels. Hmmm? We're perplexed. But isn't it a cute picture though?! Dragon likes to climb on the little toy dinosaur Nick put in there.

Nerf guns...cool fun!

Nick received some Nerf dart guns for Christmas. They have the darts with a velcro tip. One evening he invited the whole family in to his bedroom for some fun with the nerf guns. He had figured out that the velcro darts stuck to a cow his grandma had given him (hmmm, she gave him the nerf guns too, how ironic.) So he hung the poor cow from a rope from the end of a stick that he shoved under his mattress on top of his loft bed. So the cow was dangling in the middle of the room and Nathan and Nick were shooting darts at it. We all had a good time laughing at the cow loaded down with darts and spinning around every time he got hit. Cruel humor, I know. What are we teaching our kids anyway?!

Ahhh, family togetherness!

Good shooting boys!

Safety first, Andrew.. Too cute, er, I mean "cool"!

Rock Climbing!

I am sharing this experience without pictures because I forgot my camera, but I still have to share! I'll take pictures next time though!

On Saturday I took Nick and Tatiana to the indoor climbing center over at OSU. This is the same place Nathan and I took Nick last weekend. Nick loved it so much that he wanted to go again and Tatiana really wanted to try it.

Nick made it all the way to the top of one wall twice and another wall once! That is climbing 30 feet three times! He did so good! Then Tatiana after several tries and making it a little further each time made it up the one wall all the way to the top! I was so proud of her! She is only 7 years old and was surrounded by college kids and her older brother and she did it! She was so proud of herself and we were very proud of her! They also had fun bouldering, climbing without ropes. I belayed them both and because it takes time to tie the knot properly I let them have three climbs on each knot and then they traded.

The best part was to hear my two children cheer each other on and offer advice. It was really sweet. Tatiana would shout, "Go Nick! You're almost there! You can do it! Don't give up yet! Use your legs!" And then when it was Tatiana's turn, Nick would shout, "Put your left foot up on the orange hold by your left knee, there you go! You got it! Keep going! There is an easy blue hold above your right shoulder, yeah right there, grab it! Yeah! You got it! Keep going! You're almost there!" Oh how precious!

I got a lot of compliments on them and how well behaved they were, what good climbers they were, and how sweet they were to each other. Yep, I have fantastic kids!

Ben and Andrew? They hung out at a friend's house being babysat. Ben had fun running through their tunnels and going down their slides in their super-cool upstairs playroom. Ben had a blast too. Andrew was being doted over and everyone was happy. A good day!

Why so private???

Those of you reading from here on out are doing so by invitation only. Don't you feel special! You should because you are! For many reasons of course.

But seriously now, I have made my blog private because of some scary stories my friend told me about not-so-nice people (we will call them the "not special ones") taking things off of blogs. I do enjoy sharing things with anybody and everybody and maybe I'll start another blog for "idea sharing" but as far as sharing things about our personal lives, family specifics, and personal pictures I have decided to be extra safe and protect my family from "those kind of people". So there you go, that's why.

I did think I was safe because in my setting I put that my blog cannot be searched for in a search engine, but I guess anybody can come across it. SO now I am being extra safe. I hope you all don't mind! And now I don't have to be careful about what I say on here.