October 2022

October is full of more soccer and even included a tourney win at the Hopewell Cup at Newark. Despite having the tourney forfeit our first game (which we won 3-1) due to using Caleb as goalie (he also played on the white team in the same tourney, which apparently even though our coaches asked there was miscommunication and as it turns out he wasn’t allowed to play for both teams). We setup camp for between games and were able to hang with buddies and families from both teams which was a lot of fun.

This is a great crew of kids right here! Black and White teams together!

Mom, Dad, Graham, Rowan, and Andy came to cheer Griffin on at a game too. I believe this game we was a loss to SP but a good game.

Griffin and I enjoyed some fun team bonding time with buddies Emerson, Graham, and Rhett at Ten Pin Alley after a game one weekend. Pizza, fries, bowling and buddies. A pretty good mix.

We celebrated the end of the fall season with pizza at the Lewis’ house in Westerville. So many boys running around and playing together. They had a nice fire outside and plenty of food for all. It was a weird end to the season as we were to play SP Academy in the last game of the tourney. Turns out they forfeit the game due to issues/frustrations with decisions made by the  tournament director. So as we were headed back to the field to play our last game we were told we didn’t have a game. Ugh! We had cookies made to give to each player! So instead we handed out what we could and then drove all around town delivering the rest.

Afterward we stopped to play putt-putt at Olentangy mini golf. We played 36 holes, both courses. A bit of fun before Kevin’s upcoming surgery this week.  Later this evening Griffin started feeling unwell. I took him to the doctor the next day and as it turns out he has the Flu A. Ugh again!

I was able to volunteer at Donuts with a Grownup again this year on the playground at Tyler Run. This is part of the Fall Fest week of activities. Giant Eagle donated all of the donuts!!

Neighbor families the Dennies, Bolans, Duncans and us purchased a Norway Spruce to plant in memory of our neighbor, Don Maxwell, who passed away in August. Millcreek put in an order of plants to Acorn and so once delivered to Millcreek, it was delivered by our driver John and also Mike to our house. It’s a pretty one. Kevin and I took to planting it on our own in the cul-de-sac in front of the Maxwell’s house. A week or two after we had a neighborhood dedication party with appetizers prepared by Jane Martin. The neighborhood also purchased a stone to mark the tree.

We eventually got around to planting the trees at our house too. The Zelkova went out front to be a street tree between our house and the Dennies. The Black Gum went in the back and will eventually provide shade from the west to the pavilion and patio. We also planted the Rhododendron in the back hosta garden to eventually hide the utilities on the back of the house.

Tooth #2 goodbye!

I was able to take Friday off to volunteer at Tyler Run on the playground for ticket sales for the Fall Fest gift basket raffles. The morning started with the Fun Walk through the neighborhood. Saturday after Griffin’s soccer game he and I attended the actual Fall Fest at school where Griffin played with buddies and many games for an hour.

Reidy came down with some sort of bug and was really sleepy for a few days. He and Kevin camped out at home for a couple of days missing activities while Griffin and I went to fall fest and soccer games.

The neighborhood ladies enjoy the company of Beth Maxwell and for a fun activity to keep her occupied since the passing of Don, we asked her to teach us how to make raspberry jam! We had a fun night of making jam while having wine and charcuterie.

Random photos from October.

Dental checkups and no cavities. I was in disbelief given teeth brushing is still a struggle over here. But, yay!

 

 

Lilly came to see Reidy play a game! Griffin and Daddy were at Griffin’s first ever hockey game (which we attended for the first period and a half before leaving for Reidy’s game).

Griffin’s first ever CAHA 10U minor Stingers team game was bright an early at 7:30 in Easton. On the way there Griffin said he was nervous and so we talked through that. He also said “wouldn’t it be awesome if I scored in my debut?”. His debut. This kid.  Sure enough, he did score, and it was the 8th and final goal to win the game. I was super bummed to have missed it as Reid and I left for his soccer game. But I was so happy for Griffin to achieve his goal, both literally and figuratively. The scoresheet is all whacky as the kids didn’t have their uniforms yet, so even though Griffin is listed as #21 on the Scoresheet (what will be his real number) he was wearing #20 during the game (one of Cole’s old jerseys!).

Griffin and I went to the Momster Ball at Berlin High School with a couple of soccer buddies and moms. It was a costume, game, dance kind of night!

The boys and I went to Peppa Pigs Adventure live show for a fun evening show. I must say, it wasn’t what I anticipated. But the boys enjoyed it and it was fun to try new things.

October means field trip time for Reid with NPCA. This year we went to the Maize for a fun (and cool!) day of adventuring. We got to feed the goats, go on a wagon ride, pick a pumpkin and gourd, and play games. Fun Fact, one of Reid’s classmates lives in Powell (Lakes of Powell, actually) and she will go to Tyler Run next year! That is so unusual! We were glad to connect.

Daddy and Reidy night out to Don Tequila!

Mom, Dad, Kevin and I ventured to Mansfield to begin the process of moving the Walls’ train set to our house. It was several hours of disassembling, labeling wires, disconnecting track, cleaning train houses/trains, and packing everything up.  The hauling of everything in Dad’s truck back to Powell reminded us of the days of moving into college and down to North Carolina when the truck was loaded up.

October is for pumpkins!

Griffin wasn’t feeling well and thankfully I was able to get him in to the pediatrician. He tested positive for Flu A. Sadly, this was on Trick or Treat night so he wasn’t able to go out with all the kiddos. We also hosted friends on our patio, so Griffin watched from within the windows! he was a trooper though and was treated to a special 10 pack of timbits and several packages of candy brought to him by friends. And a pic through the front glass door!

Reid was so sweet that he collected candy for Griffin. When he got home (which he had at least two candy dropoffs due to having a full bag during his route!) he put everything on the patio table and split it up for he and Griffin to share.

Mom and Dad came over and brought some fun frankenstein rice krispie treats!

October 2022, Pre-K Monkey class at NPCA.  Age 5 (almost 5 1/2).

September 2022, Tyler Run Elementary School, 4th Grade, Mrs. Price.  Age 9 1/2.

3rd grade, 2021.

2nd Grade, 2020.

1st Grade, 2019

Fall Family photos 2022! This year we went to Coffman Park for family photos with the Mom and Dad and the Bethune’s. Turned out to be the perfect evening for photos.

September 2022

This kid is just growing up so much. I look back at photos of just this year and see how much older he is looking and bigger he is getting. I was able to go to Curriculum night at school and learn about the year ahead and see some of Griffin’s initial school work. I love him so much!

September also means prime soccer season with practices, games, and tourney’s. Griffin is on the Black team this year along with Graham and Emerson (teammates from last year) and many new kiddos. It’s a bit of a different dynamic and definitely different coaching style. We are enjoying getting to know the new kids and families and love it when we run in to last season’s buddies at the same tourneys.

 

Reid’s school begins after Labor Day each year so here we are on his first day of Pre-K Monkeys at NPCA with our traditional daddy made pancakes. This kid is also getting so big! His language and conversation skills and personality is so fun.

I love having the day off and taking Reid to school and picking him up. He is always so happy! We celebrated with tasty after school cookies at Crumbl this year. Reid has been all about “dressing up” for school wearing belts and fancy shirts and shorts. A departure from his normal OSU athleisure wear for sure!

Part of the reason we signed Reid up for OYAA is to be able to meet other families that will hopefully attend Tyler Run so we can know kiddos that are Reid’s age. So far we’ve meet some people who live just across Jewett and she (Jodie)  will be in K next year.  Yay!  The Bethune’s came to cheer Reid on at one of his games, complete with awesome signs!

September also means our annual neighborhood campout. This year we were at the Duncans yard. The weather was good for the evening but rain arrived during the night. Kevin and the boys camped in the tent and I crashed at home! The next morning the Duncans treated us all to a lovely breakfast!

This kid is so fun. He picked out this hanging basket with Kevin and was so excited to bring it  home.

 

OUFC Club Night at the Olentangy Braves home game on evening in September. So.many.kids got to run out on the field – even Reid and Orin! Brenna, teammate Graham from last seasons sister, was so kind to run with Reid and watch over him out there. It was a stampede!

Brutus and I are keeping up with our early morning walks. Sometimes we catch the sunrise :).

I purchased a couple of trees while Kevin was out of town in Michigan on a golf trip. A Zelkova ‘Green Vase’ and a Nyssa ‘Wildfire’ (blackgum). Who knows when they will get planted!

Mom and Dad’s patio was finished this month and looks fabulous! It is nice and big with plenty of room for friends to gather and enjoy. The lighting is really nice too.

See, here are the pjs again :). I took the kiddos to our spot, Roosters, while Kevin was out of town with the guys on a golf trip in Michigan. We also got to see Greta play soccer.

Jim and Pat visited to celebrate Pat’s birthday. We had dinner and cake and presents on the patio.

Griffin had a day off school due to a teacher work-day, so after dropping Reid off at NPCA Griffin and Kevin had a nice breakfast date at Sunny Street. Dino pancakes with oreo!

September also means popcorn sales for Cub Scouts. Oh.my.goodness. This kid gets so excited to go door-to-door and sell. As soon as he got off the bus he got dressed into his scout uniform, loaded up the wagon, and walked the neighbhorhood with friends who wanted to join him on his expedition. He was gone over an hour and a half and I had to go explore to find him!

I’ve been taking days off work here and there and on this particular day went downtown to Kevin’s new office on moving day to help him setup the workstations. They relocated from one floor to another within the same building, for now.

Kevin’s team had a social activity at Pins Mechanical one evening so I took the boys and joined in the fun toward the end of the gathering. Many were surprised at Griffin’s strong bowling skills as he won a couple of times! And Reid had fun too.

For Brutus’ 6th birthday the entire family ventured to the pet store and gave him a bath. We picked out a couple of toys too. He got a bowl of marshmallows and fun treats at home.

Reid’s Fall Fun Fest at NPCA was on a Friday evening so he and I headed there for fun while Kevin took Griffin to hockey evaluations for CAHA House Hockey for this fall. Reidy loved all of the games. He was SO patient on the cookie walk. He probably went around 15 times before his number was called. And NO fits! Even Mrs. Laura commented on how different he is this year at school.

New this year at Millcreek are Mums! Kevin used them as the background for taking pics of his new promo mugs he ordered to give away as promo material. They are nice mugs!

Some random shots from the month.


This is Griffin’s draft list for Fantasy that he gave to Kevin for him to use at his draft. They are teaming up together this year for Kevin’s fantasy team. Griffin is really in to it!

September is also the time for the annual Millcreek Open House. It was really well attended we had less than normal staff so it was a busy and somewhat chaotic day.

We hosted a patio party for the OSU-Notre Dame game. Thankfully the weather held out and the Buckeyes came through! We also celebrated Ro’s birthday with little Nothing Bundt Cake’s that Chad brought.

August 2022

August means it’s family vacation time! This year we went to Lewes, Delaware along with Mom, Dad, Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan and Greta for a nice week at a lovely home in a neighborhood with amenities. A social area with a couple of pools, workout room, tennis courts, walking paths and such was all within walking distance. We enjoyed many a trips to the pool and hot tub.

And as with each and every vacation we spent time in line for ice cream 🙂 These cones were ginormous!

We went to Funland which as the name reveals is full of arcade games, rides, and fun things for kids and adults. Griffin absolutely loved collecting tickets and redeeming for things at the ticket counter.

This is one of my favorite pics of the boys. Classic candy necklaces and happy smiles.

We visited Rehoboth Beach for a brief walk and to dabble our feet in the water. The waves were super rough and I was a nervous wreck! The beach was so crowded with people but no one really in the water as it was a red flag on this particular day. We even met up with the cousins for a bit on the beach before heading back to dry land and a stop at the ice cream shop. I was happy to be on dry land!

This trip is so nice each year for the kids to be able to hang out so much. TV time, games, some sports mixed in. Even though we live nearby we truly don’t get together very often amid sports and school schedules.

I took each kid on a “date” during our trip. Griffin, in particular, has been needing some one on one time. We drove to Rehoboth and walked the boardwalk, had a pizza lunch, went to Zelky’s Arcade, and Griffin got a henna tatoo – what is wanted to go there for! He was so happy with it.

Each year Mom and Dad graciously watch all of the kids while Kevin and I and Amy and Andy go out on date night. They’ve moved on from English Muffin pizzas when they were little kids to full-size pizzas now that their appetites are so much bigger!  Kevin and I had a delicious dinner at Raas, and Indian restaurant in Lewes. We walked around the little town afterward and perused some cute little shops.

For Family dinner night we headed to Matt’s Fish Camp, only about a 5 minute drive from our house! This was awesome considering traffic in the area could be really heavy and though we didn’t always go far it could take 20-30 minutes to get around. Afterwards we enjoyed a family round of putt-putt.

Bunk beds in the kids room and lots of time at the pool!

Our traditional “cousins” group photo. In this one they are reenacting the photo from when Reid was 3 months old. They are all much bigger now, ha!

Back home it was time to gear up for school. Here are a few pics from our yard. The shrub I’m standing next to was only planted last summer. It has grown a crazy amount in height and looks awesome.

We finally got around to planting the hostas from Mom and Dad in our garden around the patio. We are planting all of the family hostas there including Mighty Finn, Reid All About It, and Megan’s Angel.  It’s taken us awhile but we finally have all of the shrubs and other plants planted in all of the beds in our outdoor patio area. Whew. That was a big check mark.

During the beginning of Covid we bought the boys desks and set up the basement like a classroom. In order to give them more open space in the basement we decided to move their desks to each of their rooms. They’ve really been enjoying them! Reid has been writing and drawing and Griffin’s is full of his cards and he uses it as a workspace to sort and organize.

This summer Reid played T-Ball through I9. He’s definitely growing up and having less frustrating moments and fits. He was so happy at the end of the last game that he earned a medal as well as receiving the season ending trophy.

Griffin’s soccer club has a new 2-year kit and the colors are now black and white. He wasn’t too excited at first, but after picking them up in person and putting them on he’s decided he really likes them and thinks they look sharp.

We also signed Reid up for OUFC Juniors this Fall and he is playing with his buddy Orin. These two have a lot of fun each week. It has worked out awesome that Reid’s practice on Tuesday’s is during the same time Griffin’s is as well. Two for one!

Griffin and Kevin attended a Crew game and had a great time. They met up with buddy Rowan too 🙂

Reidy and I stayed home and had “breakfast for dinner in bed” and watched a show. The best of both worlds for each kiddo.

The start of soccer season arrived and we’ve begun spending lots of time at practices and games. I really love watching Griffin and his buddies play together. And we made to it watch Aidan play in a Varsity game for Berlin and were able to chat with him after the game.

Griffin is also really enjoying hockey. On occasion our neighbor Brian will reach out with a fun extra lesson or practice that he extends to Griffin and other neighborhood kiddos. He even takes them all!

We also signed Reid up to play OYAA soccer this fall as the OUFC is really just skills work and practice but not games. Reid is on team Royal (pre-K). He is excited! We got him a soccer bag as well like his big bro. He’s super cute to watch. He’s either all in or totally distracted as you would expect at 5 years old. But man, when he scores he beams with excitement and a smile!

OUFC Coach Pete has tremendous patience with these kids. I wish we had known about or thought to enroll Griffin in club soccer earlier than we did. The skills Pete is teaching these kids at the age of 5 is so cool! Reid is learning “foot skills” and if any one kid scores too often when they scrimmage he’ll tell them to do a “foot skill” on their way to the goal before they can score again. So fun!

Griffins OUFC U10 Black team was asked to be ball boys for the Olentangy Varsity game one evening. It worked out great where they were able to walk over to the field after practice. Each kiddo received some food (a pretzel or nachos or hot dog and a drink!) and got to stand along the edge of the field and retrieve balls.

In Scouts Griffin is a Webelo this year which means all new scouting gear that is tan/green and no longer blue. Kevin and Griffin attended a campout together at Camp Lazarus in Delaware.

I’ve been trying to be more intentional with one on one kiddo time. Griffin and I went on a date to the movie theater where he chose to see Minions: The Rise of Gru. It was a cute movie.

One night I went in to check on Griffin and I found this – his light on, shining on a sports card on his desk. This kid just absolutely loves sports. Sports players, teams, games – he is full of information. He knows more than Kevin or I about any of it!

August also means Back to School time. This year Griffin will be in 4th grade and has Mrs. Price as his teacher. We went to the Open House to check out his room, find his desk, and meet Mrs. Price. We ran in to a bunch of buddies too :).

Night before the start of school trip to Graeter’s with our neighborhood crew.

Prepped our first day of school outfit the night before!

Traditional first day of school pancakes by Daddy.

Look at these kids all getting so big. Last year at Tyler Run for Cooper and Ella! Dewey and Jay in 1st, Miles in 3rd, Griffin and Cole in 4th. Reid in Pre-K – next year will be  in this photo as a kiddo headed to Tyler Run!

Donuts and OJ on the patio before the first day of school.

Lisa was home on maternity leave this year so she was able to join in the fun with Myla! She’s typically at school, as a teacher on the first day shenanigans.

My date with Reid took us to the same place – the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru. This kid loves movies and popcorn.

We’ve really enjoyed spending hours upon hours outside on our patio. We gather every chance we can for dinner, with neighbors, or just to watch a movie or sports.

These PJ’s are classic. They have worn them all-year-round since November 2019. They used to be so big and long on Griffin and Reid and now look at those ankles! They are favorites!

We also got to go to meet the teacher morning at NPCA for Reid. Lilly joined us also and Reid did the traditional handprint on the class canvas.

August means neighborhood block party too. Another fun night with friends and this year the bubble truck!

Griffin loves to go to the card shop. He would go every.single.day if we would take him. This week was a special treat to be able to go and meet famous baseball player Jose Rijo who played a majority of his career for the Cincinnati Reds!

Look at what is missing from this kiddos mouth! Reid lost his first tooth! We are not sure, however, where it went! It seemed to have disappeared and he didn’t really realize he lost it. Lilly and Reidy made a tooth out of clay to leave for the tooth fairy!