Nolan Family

“It’s loose, it’s loose!   I finally have a wiggly tooth!”   We were all excited, as we had begun to wonder if any teeth would ever fall out of his little mouth.   Each visit to the dentist would be greeted with all is well and don’t worry.   First through kindergarten, then through first grade, his teeth had remained solidly in place.   But now the teeth were finally loose.   We were so excited!   But quickly we realized that even though they were loose, they did not plan on leaving their spot in Ryan’s mouth anytime soon.   For many months the bottom front teeth wiggled.   The adult tooth slowly emerged from the gum behind the tooth and yet the baby teeth remained stubbornly in place.   So the weeks past and every once in a while Dave or I would ask Ryan how his tooth was.   We would do a check, but they were not ready yet. Finally, Thursday, September, 13, 2012 on a routine check it was determined that the tooth was lo...

On August 30 th , Grandma Rosi, Dave, the boys, and I, headed to Red Smith School for the Open House.    Josh is in 5 th grade this year and Ryan is in 2 nd grade.   We started our night in the gymnasium as Josh now must wear a student ID.   Josh had his picture taken and it turn out to be a great picture. Then it was upstairs to the boys’ classrooms.   This year both boys have classrooms on the 2 nd floor.   Josh is in room 212 and Ryan is in room 202.   We started at Josh’s class and met Miss. Klaus, his new teacher.   This is her 2 nd year of teaching and she remembered Ryan from when she student taught in his Kindergarten Class.   Josh put away his school supplies in his desk and checked out the classroom. Next we headed to Ryan’s room.   Ryan has Mrs. Charlier who has taught for 27 years and was Josh’s 2 nd grade teacher.   Ryan found his nametag and chose a desk.   He will have 25 kids in his class, but they...

Fall is in the air, trees are starting to turn from bright green to the shades of fall and football season has arrived.   Normally, football season means cheering for the Packers and Badgers in Wisconsin, but this year we added the Hawks to the teams we cheer for.   “The Hawks?”   You might ask.   Yes, the Hawks!   After, many years of waiting, begging to play tackle football, Josh was permitted to join the St. Thomas More, Hawks.   Josh has many friends on the team and practices are at the park 3 blocks from our house.   It has made it much easier to get him to practice 5 days a week!   2 hour practices have been a great way to keep Josh active and in shape! August 25 th was their first game against the St. Phillip’s Falcons.   Josh was very excited for his first game.   He is number 50 and played left tackle and was part of the return team.   He also was able to play a few plays on the defense.   Altho...

 Josh, Ryan, and Aly show Caryn the new things they recieved from the parade!  The weather was very hot this year on the 4 th of July.   By late morning it was already in the 90’s.   Caryn Sparacio suggested that we go to the Waupaca 4 th of July parade.   I had not been to a parade for years and despite my fighting a sore throat, it sounded like fun.   The Sparacio’s, Brenda Rebercheck, The   Hoffman’s joined us and we headed to the parade.   We found a little shade and were very thankful for the free bottle of cold water that was being handed out.   The parade started and the kids were delighted with the candy that was tossed.   The adults enjoyed the ice pops and water.   Then a fishing club came by and handed out stuffed fish and fishing poles.   The kids were very excited.   The group was also excited with the free coupons for scoopers! Watching the parade! Everyone enjoyed the parade, but I think the air-c...

Josh, Aly, Joey, Ryan, and Brigit at Scoopers Ryan’s actual birthday is July 1 st and we celebrated it camping at Hartman Creek State Park.   For breakfast we made chocolate chip pancakes over the camp stove.   Ryan spent the afternoon in the lake playing in the sand and water.   This is one of his favorite activities.   Late in the afternoon the Sparacio’s and Catalano’s arrived.   This added to the excitement of a perfect day as Ryan now had friends to play with. His birthday dinner was brat’s and we even sang an off key version of Happy Birthday to him.   He was able to open a few special “camping” birthday gifts and then it was off to Scoopers to celebrate with some ice cream and our friends!  Joey and Ryan  Checking out the new toys!

Being born on 4 th of July weekend can greatly impact your ability to celebrate your birthday.   However, this year Ryan’s birthday week started early and continued on past his Birthday.   We decided to have Ryan’s party a week early, to beat the holiday celebrations and because we were going to be camping on his birthday.   Ryan chose to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday party.   Several of his friends joined him to make it a special time.   Ryan enjoyed games, pizza, cake, and a special visit from Chuck E Cheese. One of the new features at Chuck E Cheese is the ticket blaster.   I had watched other kids not end up with many tickets, so I had set my mind that Ryan would end up with the minimum 200 bonus tickets.   The other two birthday stars from the other parties went first.   Neither of them was able to get the special 1000 bonus ticket.   So my expectations were low as Ryan prepared to enter the ticket blaster. ...

Dave and I decided that we would like to go to Commander College again.   We had forgotten about the intense schedule of Awana Commander College.   201 had an even more intense schedule then 101.   We completed 28 hours of training in a 49 hour period.   On Thursday, June 7 th we headed to Plymouth, MN.   We arrived at 3pm and settled into our very warm dorm room.   We were happy to learn that the classrooms were air conditioned and since we would spend most of our time there this was good news.   For 2 ½ days we learned from the other commanders in the room and from our instructors.   We were challenged to continue to strive for excellence as Awana Commanders and as Christians. Friday night we headed to the Mall of America for a special outing.   After a time of prayer, our team decided to reach outside our comfort zone.   It scared us to death.   My stomach was in knots.    Dave was trying to come up with an...