A Successful 1st Term

Our eldest daughter turned 4 years old today. We thought she started out as a pretty good-looking kid, but some of those radioactive isotopes Becky was snorting during her pregnancy must have caused some really freakish beauty enhancing genes to start manifesting. I'm hoping these genes turn off by the time she starts dating. Maybe if we're lucky she'll get acne or tusks or something.

We celebrated by forcing friends and relatives to come to a spray park and consume extraordinarily sweet cupcakes near a spray park.

Samantha has built up a tolerance for toxic levels of glucose ingestion. Some of the adults fared far worse.

Ella and Cooper spent a good part of the afternoon crouched like Neanderthals, grunting at passersby and scraping at shiny rocks.

This is where Sam got 25% of her attractive genetic material.

Melissa and her daughter, Brookelin are smiling here, but they're both threatening Lucy at knifepoint to reveal the secret to Samantha's fusion equations.

Here's a moose-eye view of the cupcake decoration table. Can you guess which topping bowl held the hidden happy wasp?

J-O-N

I just wanted to post that I have the greatest, most loving, most thoughtful, most handsome, most wonderful husband in the whole world. These cute girls think so too.

Another Biter

Our smallest little angel has gone ahead and grown herself a couple of teeth. She did it without crying or fussing. She did have a touch of diarrhea, but that's hardly different from her usual display of inconvenience.

One day at a time

A Day in the life of a Tolman.

Wake up to sweet Nora's cry.

Go through another of these:

Feed her some of this liquid gold:

Sam wakes up and joins Nora and mom on the couch.

This is what it looks like afterwards.

Sam loves to color. So does Lucy, but Sam has actually started trying to stay in the lines. She drew a horse at church today that was pretty impressive for a 3-year old.

This is usually what Sam chooses to do during nap/quiet time.

This is Lucy after her nap on Mom & Dad's bed. Sometimes we play outside in the sprinkler, or go to the library or the spray park. Last weekend this happened:
It's a blurry picture of a reunion of old friends, but I didn't actually attend. They camped. Enough said.

A little bootie

and a bigger one.

More Colorado Wonder

As was previously posted, we had the pleasure last week of basking in the company and hospitality of the Senior Tolmans in Colorado.

Speaking of basking, check out THAT hunk of temptation. The frigid waters of the Aurora reservoir did nothing to temper the overwhelming hotness of Wendell E. Tolman.

And here he is with a pair of sandy breasts.

Samantha the mermaid in the very bright sun.

As you can see, Becky needed to change her swimsuit after the first hour due to some unwelcome fabric incursion.

SHOO-GAH.

We also went to a place called "Tiny Town" which is up in the foot hills and has been gradually getting bigger since the 1920s. It's a bunch of little houses and a little train. See how happy everyone is?

Sam is standing in front of the Mini McMurphy's Boarding House. I left out the pictures of the mini saloon, the mini glue factory (complete with mini horse carcass loading dock), the Tiny Town DMV, and the mini red light district.

This is another lady who thought her kids looked cute on the train.

Grandma Deanna got Sam a new princess dress for her upcoming birthday because she desperately needed more dress-ups.

Becky and the Kung Fu master in Dick's sporting goods.

Sloshy

We were in Colorado for a week. Why, you ask? Well be quiet. I ask the questions here.

We went to escape the Missouri heat for a bit and to enjoy the company of Grumpa and Grandma Tolman before the latter takes off on her East Coast adventure .

These are some scenes from the Denver Aquarium, whose main attraction is a collection of Indonesian Tigers. Again, take that quizzical look off your face, it makes you look silly.

Big tube. surrounded by fish. GREAT BIG TUBE. Surrounded by FISH.

A great big tube surrounded by fish is an ideal place for swiveling your hips. Just ask Terry Kaiser.
Almost four years old and wearing a pink hat. It's as though she knows exactly where Bin Laden is hiding.

Keep your kids in the net. In the NET! Not the particle accelerator!!

Keep your kids in the net and keep your wife in an underwater bubble with a limited oxygen supply. That's what Uncle Clair always taught me.

That shark was much bigger than it appears in this picture. And Samantha was wearing shorts, I swear.

Guess who's 2?

Lucy's Birthday Present to you.

At birth she looked like this.

At one year her head grew.

Today she wore a cute hat.(And got caught in the baby's swing. Little stinker)

The Run-down
We started out the birthday festivities by letting her attend my church meeting.

When you do a search for an "lds church meeting" image, this is what comes up. I guess whenever a Mormon has a meeting, Romney will show up.

Romney was quickly followed by Ravioli, a lunch item that has been banned due to behavior like this:



But it is her birthday, so to prepare for the worst, we dressed them like this

and let 'em have at it.

I know, we ARE amazing parents.
Last week we celebrated with the extended family. We ate this.

Now we are going to splurge and get her free birthday ice cream from Cold Stone!

But her present to you.....

A contest!

The last person to leave a comment today

(meaning before midnight on June 20th, 2009, Lucy's 2nd birthday)

will get a birthday present from Lucy in the mail.

Good luck.

(We will notify the winner via e-mail to get your mailing address)

As Punishment for Our Sins

Lucy has to join the Red Hat Ladies Club

The two older children now have to eat in the kitchen at a spray painted plastic table we found on the side of the road.

Nora has to spend time with her family.

Alternative Post

We went to the lake with some friends of ours. Sam has asked to go back every day since. Every. Single. Day.

I wish we had gotten a picture of the ducks. They are NOT afraid of people and we kept having to chase them away. It started with Jon running joyfully into the lake, kicking his legs up behind him in a dance of glee and spray of water, but ended with the kids chucking handfuls of sand to keep the pesky birds away.

Little Nora slept away in the shade while we got fried in the sun. Sunblock. What a novel idea.

We think Samantha looks way too old here. Is it bad to covet a toddler's figure?

Tolman dictionary:
Bedtime: (n)
Pronunciation: \-ˌtīm\
Definition: a time for play

My love.