May began with a fun Derby Party at our friends the Bolans up the street. Our fam sported some fun attire for the evening. It was a fun time with friends and fascinators – ha!

My annual Mother’s Day handprint painting! Each year I look forward to the new creative way the boys capture their hand prints. This year it is fun cactus plants with hand flowers! I also received a lovely necklace with Griffin, Nathan, and Reid.

This kiddo was lucky to get his face painted at the zoo on a trip with Lilly. I was working late and wasn’t able to see it in real life before bedtime so we facetimed and then he wanted to sleep that way so I could see him in the morning.  Raaawwwwrrrr!

Brutus and Reid both took note of the little birdy on our patio that wasn’t faring so well. They both just watched the birdy. It was cute to watch them watch the bird.

I think these Christmas family jammies are on like year 3. They are some of the most frequently worn when they want to match each other at night. And on this night they both wanted to show me their styled slicked back hair.

 

Kevin took the boys to the 1 year anniversary celebration of Father and Son Sports Cards and Collectibles shop. They had cake and fun activities. Griffin loves going to the shop and asks to go at least once a week. He enjoys looking through the boxes for specific players and also takes in cards (sports or pokemon) to try to sell.

On the 20th we celebrated Reid turning 5 years old! Woah, it seems so hard to believe it’s been 5 years since our silly, stubborn, fun, goofy, expression-filled, hug and kissing little man was born.  He loves movies and popcorn. He is always hungry yet never eats much in quantity and prefers food in crinkly packages (aka anything processed). He eats PBJ, mac and cheese, yogurt, crackers, butter butter toast, and loves his MILK and not much else unless it is a “snack”. This one keeps us on our toes.

This year Reid’s birthday fell on a Friday and being a weekday at the end of a busy spring week I didn’t have much free time to make a cake. My sister came to the rescue and made Reid an AMAZING rainbow cake (which is what he’d asked for) for his birthday! Look at this thing. It was so awesome and he was amazed. Being a Friday and Griffin’s soccer team had a game that evening and a pool party after at teammate Brady’s house – we opted for cake for breakfast and prezzies before school!

Reid enjoyed watching Sonic 2 with friends at the Dublin AMC for his 5th birthday (directly after a soccer game, of course)!

Reid’s birthday celebration continued with our family gathering on the patio! We also celebrated Graham turning 12! Woah. Last year before he will be a teenager!!

And here are some more soccer memories captured this spring. These boys on the OUFC B09 Blue team are so fun as are their families. We had a great fall and spring season and the boys improved to much throughout that time. They have such fun together and truly enjoy hanging out with each other. They go to so many different schools across the Olentangy district as well as private schools it has been fun getting to know others from outside of Powell.

Special roses from the boys on Mother’s Day at the game!

Spring brought our first out of town Soccer Tournament down in Cincinnati at the Kings Hammer tournament. The boys went 4-0 and were champions in their bracket! We spent two nights in Cinci getting to spend time with our teammates and families between games and in the evenings at the hotel and restaurants. It was fun!

To celebrate the end of the season we hosted a cookout after the last game. The weather thankfully was warm enough to be out on the patio and the boys played soccer and other games outside while many of the girls created art on the driveway. Sadly, our friend Xander injured his eye toward the end of the party slinging water balloons. Ugh. I felt terrible that it happened but our team rallied around him over the next couple of weeks (he ended up needing surgery for a partially detached retina) but has since healed well and we are so glad!

Prior to hosting the soccer team Kevin and Dad built our patio tables. He got the design from Chad’s tables (that Chad built) and made two tables for under our pavilion. Altogether we can seat 12 or when separated we can do 8 and 4 in different areas of the patio. Yay for having a big table!

Last day of school starts with a donut celebration for the kiddos!

And celebrating after school with dinner at Cap City followed by fun at Pins Mechanical. My busy work season is winding down as well.

We celebrated Abbie Manning’s graduation at her party though somehow we didn’t get a photo with her in it (other than the table decor!).

Brutus is such a good boy he often accompanies me outside when I’m working in the yard or just sitting around out front. Even when other dogs walk by he just lays there and I often don’t even know they are nearby. On occasion he may sit up. I love that he can have the freedom to hang out anywhere.

Dad was off on hosta adventures so Mom joined us solo for the Memorial Day Parade in Powell. Griffin walked with his Cub Scout Pack (along with Kevin) me, Reid, and Mom tried to find a shady spot on the sidewalk. Afterward we watched the flag burning ceremony that Griffin participated in at the Municipal Building in Powell.

Look at this 5-year old pre-K monkey and some fun pictures from school.

Reid, Titus, and Garrison – these three are buddies!

And our annual end of school neighborhood hang out. These two also love to play together. Abbie even calls him “Reidy” all the time.

Griffin has been invited to join the Black team for next season with Olentangy United. We are excited at the opportunity for him to play a level up (this year he was Blue, Gold was  a level up – for 2023 the team colors/names change from Gold to Black and Blue to White). We’ve learned two other teammates, Graham and Emerson, will also play on the Black team so we’re excited about that. But we will surely miss the remainder of our team and families who will be playing White.