Look who got to bring home the class mascot this week! Finn was so excited to bring home Tony the Tiger from his class. We had an action packed weekend weekend and Tony was able to join us on our adventures!
Tony’s first adventure was to help Finn make dinosaur fossils with Debbie and Sam. It looked like quite a fun baking experience. 
Next up was a bike ride through our neighborhood followed by ice cream at Graeters and plenty of snuggles. Yum!
On Saturday we went on a road trip to pick apples at Apple Hill with Mom and Dad. It was a warm and sunny afternoon, a perfect day to be outside! And once again, Lily was able to join us. This girl is getting to be pretty spoiled!
Afterwards we decided on a whim to stop for dinner at the Buckeye Diner, which is just off Rt 97 exit of 71. The restaurant is an old train that has been converted to a diner. We all had burgers and fries and played around a bit outside before heading home. 
Sunday was yet another beautiful day and our adventures took us to our annual trip to the New Albany Classic. It was WARM and sunny. The layout was a bit different this year so all of the inflatables were in the sunshine, which made it nice yet very hot! Tony the Tiger got to meet princesses and see some horse-jumping. One of Finn’s favorite parts was new this year. They had a Hollywood exhibit that showcased costumes and apparel from movies and shows. Batman, Spiderman, Ironman and many other characters outfits were there. The plants in this exhibit looked really cool this year, most of them were from Millcreek!
And here are a few others from our week. Finn is getting to be really great using a knife for cutting. Here he wanted to help me cut onions for dinner and he did a fine job. Finn, Debbie, and Sam also ventured to Highbanks Metro Park this week where they explored nature and got their feet wet! And they made yummy pumpkin sugar-cookie cut-outs!
This week was Griffin’s Pre-School Orientation on Thursday. This year he is going to be a Tiger and will go to school two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday. I went with him and met his teachers, Miss Jen and Miss Irma, and we played for about a half an hour. It was just a short visit so he could see his classroom and get comfortable with his surroundings. Afterward I thought it would be fun to have a little date together since I was off for the day. We went to First Watch for a nice brunch and then headed for a fun activity at Color Me Mine. Griffin chose a huge Spider Man coin bank and I chose a simple pleated bowl. We both had a lot of fun painting our projects and we will get to pick up the finished projects next week!
It was also a rather noisy week as we got a new roof! It took about two solid days of work, with a crew of about 6 or more guys working all day. I was pretty nervous to pick the shingle color as we have a huge roof and the wrong would look bad, obviously! But I must say, we picked an excellent color! Kevin and I were both quite happy with it as it goes really well with our new paint color and has some flecks of our brick in it as well.
Google just so happened to remind me of the below photo from one year ago. A lot has changed since then – our house color, a new roof, new skylights, and our shrubs out front have grown like crazy! We also planted three new trees this year. I’m excited for next spring already!
Finn had a fun week of play too. He often gets out with Sammy and our neighbors Cole and Cooper early in the week. They have a lot of fun together! He and I ventured to Graeter’s one afternoon with Lily (she had her follow up appointment for her teeth, so she was with us) and she got a pup cup! And we’ve gone on several bike rides this week in our neighborhood. Finn has really been enjoying riding his bike and he is getting to be really great balancing and lifting his feet off the ground for long stretches of time. He’s gotten so much taller that we had to raise his seat up a notch. I remember when we gave him this balance bike he couldn’t stand all the way with his feet on the ground yet!
