Keaton's Pool Party!

 Keaton decided that he wanted to have a pool party for his 9th Birthday! I have to say that this was probably the easiest birthday party I've had for one of the kids. Another bonus was that it didn't cost much money either! He decided on a Star Wars cake.

 He invited his cousins and then a bunch of kids from our neighborhood. That is one thing about our neighborhood that I love, there are tons of kids and there is no shortage of playmates!

 The kids had a blast with each other while the parents sat in the shade and visited.

We ordered pizza for lunch and they delivered it right to us at the pool.

 Keaton showing off his moves. I have to watch him these days. He likes to try and do front flips into the pool and that makes me so nervous. I don't mind it on the trampoline but not in the pool. He has gotten to be a really good swimmer. I wish we had time to do swim team but we just can't fit it all in.

Blowing out his candles! Can't believe how fast nine years have gone by since my little Keaton was born. He has turned into such a funny and giggly kid! We sure do love him!

Kayla's Knee Surgery ~July 2012~

 Kayla is getting ready to go back to surgery to figure out what is causing so much pain in her knee off and on for the past year and a half. They had a little trouble finding a vein to stick for her IV but after that she was set to go.

 Had to get a picture with the nice surgical cap on! She was in surgery for a little less than an hour and she was all done and ready to go home. In surgery they discovered a piece of plica which is just an extra piece of tissue that was rubbing against her bone and causing the discomfort. After a little research on our part we found out that this can be caused by a trauma or fall, (aka the skiing fall when all this started). The piece of plica would have still been theret the fall may have just triggered the pain So the good news, it was an easy fix and other then recovering from surgery on her knee she has a perfectly strong knee.

 She was a pretty good patient except for when we made her get up and walk on it. The next few days she had movie fests with her friends. Kayla and I also had slumber parties on the couch at night while falling asleep watching Friends! The second and third days were definitely the most painful ones for her.

 She had four weeks of physical therapy to look towards. She hated that and it was painful but necessary.
She had to miss the first few weeks of soccer and she started back very slowly.

She has pretty much been back to normal the last few weeks and is playing regularly again. She has her good and not so good days. We are excited for her that she is back to playing soccer and that she is recovering well! Thanks for all the calls, cards, and candy for her!

Braves Game / Star Wars

 We took the family to a Braves game on a Friday night this summer because on Friday nights they have a fireworks show after the game. This was our second game this summer and when we got there we realized very quickly it was Star Wars Night! Jason gets the tickets free from work so alot of times we just decide at the last minute to go. A good bit of people were dressed up as Star Wars characters and it was a lot of fun! Kaden wanted his pic taken with Darth Vader.

 The boys and Kayla got their faces painted. The Braves team members were the jedis on the big screen so everytime they showed their stats they looked like jedis and the other team were storm troopers. All the games going on during the game were also Star Wars themed.

 Kayla and Sabrina having a good time except for the guy in back of them that apparently showered them with his spit throughout the game. Yuck!  They didn't tell us about that till later.

 The best fireworks we saw all year was the show at this braves game. The whole show had star wars music and was timed perfectly. It was really good and we all enjoyed it.

We had really good seats down the third base line but i was nervous about foul balls the whole game. The last game we went to the guy sittin right behind us caught a foul ball right where Kaden would have been sitting but we went up to let the kids run the bases on the upper deck.

Halloween and The Flu

Our Halloween was a bit different this year because Jason and Kaden were sick with something like the flu and were definitely not feeling well. Normally we have a big get together and have lots of kids over and then go trick or treating as a big group. We didn't get to do that this year because we didn't want to give anyine else our germs. This is Kayla with some of the friends she went out with. These are her friends Autumn and Katie. She had a school soccer game that afternoon right after school so we didn't get home from that until 6:15. We were definitely rushed. Luckily my mom came over and stayed with the boys and helped get them ready to go. I would love to meet the genius that scheduled that game on Halloween.

We still did have cousins come over to trick or treat with the boys. We figured being outside they probably wouldn't get too many germs from the sickies. The boys would have been heartbroken if they couldn't have gone with their cousins and that has always been what we have done since Keaton and Conner were babies. We begged Patrick and Karen and they said that it was fine. We just didn't have anyone come inside the house. Keaton was a G.I. Joe Ninja and Kaden was the White Ninja or MaNinja as he called it.

Kaden was super excited to start trick or treating. Halloween is his favorite holiday. He loves dressing up and he likes to be scared a little bit. He didn't last as long as he normally does. His fever started coming back after being out about an hour so I took him home and Jason took Keaton out a little longer.

Keaton stayed out the longest and he got a ton of candy. People were tired of giving it out so they just started giving dumping it in his pumpkin. Kayla didn't stay out very long either and she was having trouble with her knee again so she came home.

We had a Fall Festival at the preschool that I work at. All the teachers dressed up and this is me as Minnie Mouse! I was originally going to use the dress for a halloween party that Jason and I were going to. I was going to be a fifties girl and Kayla and I were excited to dress Jason up like a greaser but he got sick and we didn't get to go. It turned into a nice minnie mouse dress though.

Kayla

I thought I would post some of Kayla's modeling. Kayla and her friend Sabrina love to take pics of each other. They get a fancied up and then they take turns modeling. I have hundreds of these kind of photos of each one of them. Makes me thankful for digital cameras and not having to pay for the film...
Things start to get silly after a while.

Not a Tolsma face at all!

Finally, soccer time for Kaden!!

Having a older brother and sister play soccer since you were born means a lot of going to practices and games and watch them play. Kaden kept asking us when he was going to get to play. Well, his turn has finally come and he got to play his very first season of soccer this fall.
This is his team. Jason coached and had his own first this season. He coached his first set of triplets. They were hilarious to watch and how they interacted with each other. On their good days they had lots of fun playing with each other. On their bad days when they were tired or cranky it made you thankful you had your babies one at a time.

Kaden showing off his moves. He is a fast little boy, when he wanted to take the ball down the field he did and not too many kids could stop him. Unfortunately, for the first part of the season every time another child would take the ball away from Kaden he would burst into tears and basically pitch a fit and want to stop playing. We weren't really prepared for that. I didn't really know how to handle that but like every good parent after some bribery we were able to get the message across that we don't cry we just go after the ball and try to get it back.

He was doing much better by the end of the season as far as the crying. He was soooo excited to finally get a trophy. We are excited to see how he does next season and he is excited to get another trophy!!!

A Hiking We Will Go

We have a rather new state park in Coweta County. I had been hearing things about it now and then but it wasn't till I started driving Kayla to Carrollton for soccer practices that I paid much attention to it. I kept seeing signs for it and we thought we would take the boys over for some light hiking and a picnic.
The boys and daddy absolutely love to hike and go in the woods. You won't see any pics of Kayla on this trip because she can't stand to go. Instead of listening to her complain we took the boys while she was at a friend's house. Kayla cannot stand bugs so I guess she didn't quite turn in to the tomboy Jason was trying to make her into!!

The boys had a fun time collecting leave and acorns off the ground. We had quite the collection of that stuff this fall. They want to keep it forever and ever but we keep it until they forget about it and then I get rid of it.

Kaden showing off his collections!

Crossing over the bridge! The state park is really nice and clean. We may have to trying camping here in the spring. How convienent to only have to drive 30 min. to go camping.

The Adventures Of Friendly Frog

This is friendly frog. This is a friend that was sent home with us for the weekend from Kaden's pre-k class. Friendly likes to go places with the child and then we are supposed to take pics and write and tell the class all the adventures we took him on. They get to have friendly when they have been especially good that week at school. He was sent home with us on a busy weekend! We are off to the Georgia Tech game! Go Jackets! Bo bulldog fan here!

Kaden had a t-ball game and Friendly came to cheer him on!

We took him out to The Mix for frozen yogurt with all kinds of fun toppings!

Friendly got to watch the crazy hibachi guy cook but Kaden and Friendly stuck with good ol' chicken nuggets.

He even got to try out our trampoline and have fun with some of Kaden's friends. Kaden loved having Friendly come home with him and get to take him to some fun places. ( Jenny maybe a good idea for you and your preschool kids.)