March arrived and with it came a fun month of birthday celebrations.

We started off the month with a trip to the dentist for both of the boys and healthy teeth with no cavities. To say I was surprised is an understatement. Teeth brushing is a regular battle at our house nearly every night. I just don’t get why it’s so dreaded and such an obstacle to bed time.

Once Mom and Dad returned from Florida we joined the Bethune’s at Mom and Dad’s house to celebrate Mom’s birthday a bit belated. At the end of the evening Grandpa demonstrated how he uses his zamboni to cut his hair on Griffin and Reid. He wasn’t able to convince them to sport his style just yet.

Early on my birthday morning Griffin served me a nice cup of coffee. It’s my favorite part of the morning each day.  He also made me a lovely birthday sign that was laid out in front of my gifts. As Kevin has continued each year, he and the boys decorate a birthday bunny cake for me. They each took turns with putting frosting on the cake (and in their mouths!).

Mom and Dad joined us for a weeknight dinner and cake for my birthday. It was so long ago (since I’m writing this post in November) that I don’t even recall what dinner was! Oh well, this is 46!

As birthday month continued, Griffin was up next with birthday #9. Woah, the last birthday in single digits! Not sure how we arrived here, but nonetheless here we are.  This is 9! As our tradition has become, we decorated Griffin’s door for him to bust through when he woke up. He came down stairs to the decorated kitchen and gifts. He was all smiles.

 

He opened gifts before school and was super excited for many of the sports cards he received. He’s also been loving the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book Series (sometimes though I’m not sure if it is the best influence!).

Thankfully the cake disaster was averted. I ordered a cake from Giant Eagle and when I called to confirm it before pickup, they hadn’t ever “confirmed” the order and therefore didn’t have it.  Yikes. This was the evening of his birthday!! So I went to Giant Eagle anyhow and bought one off the shelf and they put together some frosting for me to be able to write on it. Crisis averted and he was all smiles (and had no idea what had happened anyhow!).

For his birthday dinner (another Wednesday night) he chose Culvers. We typically would ride our bikes there but with Kevin’s recent Covid and lingering symptoms we decided to drive the car. Culver’s is a top choice for this kiddo.

We gifted Griffin a new bike for his birthday (albeit a bit before his birthday) as his old bike was getting pretty small and he was working hard to keep up with us on longer rides. He opted for another bright orange one, this one with much larger wheels and gear options.

Reid also received a new bike for his birthday. “Bluey” he calls it and he loves his new bike. It has a bell ringer and a cup holder and he loves bringing a water bottle along for rides.  For now we cruise around the neighborhood on it but for longer rides he still rides in the “bullet” as it’s a lot to ask him to keep up with the pace and distance and we likely wouldn’t make it much farther than Jewett Road without a melt down.

Griffin’s 9th birthday party was at TopGolf and included some good soccer buddies and the neighborhood crew. Sadly, I was sick and didn’t want to share my germs with anyone (thankfully not Covid, but still!) so I sat this one out at home. I was so bummed to miss his party. But he had a great time with golf and friends and food. I mean, look at the size of the cupcakes – thanks Costco!

This 9-year-old well check visit went great – though I didn’t snap a pic of the stats! But he is a strong and healthy kiddo. Dr. Houts was impressed by his knee recovery as well. We did learn that sadly Dr. Houts is retiring in July. He is our absolute favorite and we are going to miss our visits with him. We’re grateful for the care he’s provided to our family over the years.

Birthday’s continue…..this time for Jay and Miles whose party was a skating party at the Chiller. The boys both had so much fun and Reid, in particular, was Mr. Independent! He improved so much on his skates from start to finish.

Initially we signed Griffin up for Learn to Play Hockey sessions, which he was scheduled to begin on the day he came home from the hospital in January. So we punted, and transitioned his start to the next session in March. He was ready!

I did say it was birthday month, right? The celebrations continued for me, Griffin, and Amy with dinner out at Beer Barrel with the Bethune’s and Mom and Dad followed by dessert and prezzies back at Mom and Dad’s house. Griffin received a couple of boxes of, shall we say “antique” cards from Grandma and Grandpa via my cousin Rob whose dad was a huge card collector. These unopened boxes were relics! Griffin was pumped.

Prior to leaving on a trip to North Carolina with Jim and Pat to attend Pat’s brother Bo’s funeral we celebrated with a couple of gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong too. Then we all packed in the car and started our journey to Carolina Beach. On our trip down we spotted the most awesome rainbow!

We drove most of the way and then stopped at a hotel for the night. The following morning the boys enjoyed some pool time before we took off for our final destination. The timing of the trip worked out such that it was spring break week for the boys and I decided to take the week off as well.

We rented a fun family-sized golf cart for our weekly stay. We were at a condo with beach access via a nice walkway out to the beach. The weather was nice and sunny though also very windy from time to time!  The water was SO COLD but the boys wanted to play at the beach regardless so we made several trips to the beach including to watch the sunrise on a couple of occasions.

The big machines are bringing sand back in from out in the ocean and making the beach along the waterfront larger as it was in the past. The sand gets washed out into the ocean. It was really cool to see this equipment work and how the sand is brought back from deep in the ocean.

The sun is shining – but there is a chill in the air!

Bo’s family planned a nice cocktail and hors d’oeuvres gathering at the Sea Witch in Carolina Beach. We attended along with Jim and Pat and were able to spend time with other family and friends (or in my case meet many new people!). Afterwards, we joined Kevin’s cousin Kyle at her place where she lives with her mom Connie, Bo’s wife, who suffers from dementia. Many other friends and family joined as well and the boys were also able to burn some energy outside at the soccer field.

Our trip was a mix of lounging, eating, beaching, and exploring. We took the ferry to Southport, explored the town and had a lovely dinner. We’ve been to this town previously during our summer vacations with the Beilstein clan.

We watched the sunrise a few times. It was beautiful – and COLD and windy!

We visited the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher and also did some exploring on the rocks at Fort Fisher.

Back in Ohio signs of spring are appearing! I flew home two days early from our family vacation in order to go on a previously planned trip with my friends Amy and Jaime to Indianapolis for the weekend. That will be in my next post. Here are a few other random pics from the month.