We’re just moving on from on birthday to the next as our highlight this week was having my parents in town on my Dad’s birthday! Perhaps not the birthday he’d envisioned? I requested their help to watch the boys on Thursday or Friday this week as we knew when we hired Jenn she wasn’t available on these days. Turns out they chose Thursday which is my Dad’s birthday so he spent his day watching the kiddos AND making a delicious dinner of cheese and mushroom stuffed chicken breasts, steamed cauliflower with a homemade cheese sauce, and a tasty salad. Poor guy didn’t get a break on his birthday! And the peace sign actually indicates a “2”, as in 72, hahahaha. 
You aren’t going to believe this, but on Friday I took the day off to be home with the boys. In the early afternoon we decided to head to the zoo for a brief visit and walkabout. We no sooner arrived in the parking lot and it started to downpour. As in torrential downpour. We waited 10-15 minutes in the car and after looking at the radar decided to bail and head home to start packing for our weekend adventure to Mansfield to celebrate Dad’s birthday with the rest of my family. So, we stopped at Graeter’s on our way home to pack up. Ugh. All of these posts is making me realize I’ve got a problem with Graeter’s. But at least I got some pics of the crazy rain. 
I pulled the van in to begin loading up and as I was walking to put some things in the back I nearly wiped out on the floor. I’d seen a puddle pooling on the floor and in my head just through it was water from the air conditioning system. As it turns out, the van is leaking oil, which led to a complete change of plans. Griffin thought it was so neat that his bike wheels were making rainbows in the driveway :(. Kevin was working as this was a huge weekend for his work project so I texted him and he said I shouldn’t drive it and needed to take the Jeep. Hmmm..well that was an interesting feat to pack two dogs, tons of baby gear including the stroller, suitcases, two kids, and me into the little mini-jeep. Whew. I made it work but it was not easy, and probably not the safest, as Brutus is so big he could easily decide to just hop into the back seat from the back of the car. Thankfully after we got going they laid down together in the back for most of the trip. They did, however, completely remove the blanket I’d laid down so my black back is now Lily-white. 🙁
We arrived at Mom and Dad’s and not long after the Bethune’s arrived too and all of the kids began having all sorts of fun. They built a car that they all rode in together.
On Saturday we ventured to Kingwood, we thought we’d beat the rain but as it turns out we didn’t! But we still enjoyed walking all around and looking at the Big Bug exhibit and feeding the ducks. After a brief rest at home we then headed to the Infield in Lexington for Dad’s birthday shenanigans including racing in the go-karts and a round of putt-putt. We had a tasty pizza dinner along with cake and presents too. It was a great weekend!
Each of the older kiddos also gave a concert on the piano. It was quite entertaining to listen to each of their styles. Well, I guess Brutus might have thought otherwise.
On Sunday the crew went to Bob Evans for a tasty lunch. To speed things along we sat at two separate tables. For some entertainment Amy was showing me how to use the filters in Instagram and I happened to get a couple of cute pics of Finn and Reid.
And one night at home Finn put all of his animals on his bed (they are normally hidden behind his chair where they are safe from Brutus) and it seems he’s got quite the collection these days!
And thanks to Aunt Amy for capturing some awesome photos of Finn, Reid, and all of the cousins! She took these on Sunday morning, right inside our parents front door with her background setup. It was about 100 degrees and 90% humidity and we were all sweaty in about the first minute. I was doing jumping jacks, leg kicks, screaming giggling, flailing, pretty much anything you can think of to get Reid to look at the camera and remain still for more than 2 seconds. It was quite the challenge but as always Amy captured so many great ones! I’m thankful to have these awesome photos! And these are just the highlights. I need to get the rest and add them here in the near future. One of my favorites is Finn’s fierce football face – so you’ll have to re-visit the blog at some point to see more. 
June 10, 2018
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Well, now that Summer is here we’re in fun-mode and gearing up for our summer trip to Florida by getting some life jackets at Costco, of course! On Monday morning we headed to downtown Powell for our traditional trip to watch the Memorial Day Parade. This year we were joined by our neighbors too so Griffin enjoyed gathering up all of the candy with Abbie. 
After the parade we headed home and had family, friends, and neighbors over for a backyard cookout and party for Reid’s 1st birthday! We had plenty of scrumptious food grilled by Kevin and numerous sweet treat options including Reid’s smash cake and a cute fox cake and sugar cookies from a local bakery. The cake was lemon and was so delish! Reid enjoyed smashing his cake – or rather eating all the frosting! He learns that naturally from his brother. Thanks to Amy for many of these great pics!
And here are a few others from our week. Can you believe I took the boys to Graeter’s again? It may be a habit. 
The boys sure love when Grandma and Grandpa visit! 
Griffin has started swim lessons at Aqua Tots in Powell in preparation for our trip to the beach. He’s going to be going twice a week which I think will be really helpful as he’s pretty timid in the water right now. This pic is from his first lesson where he was NOT excited to get his face in the water and he held on pretty tight to his teacher. 
I helped Jane and Kathy from our neighborhood plant our entryway on Saturday morning. We planted 50 Lantana and 48 Sedum pretty quickly and they look quite nice!
After we dropped Finn off at school for his last “normal” day of the year I headed to Millcreek with Reid to check in on the troops. See that big boy taking charge at my desk?
It was bike day on Monday also, so we took Finn’s bike for the day and he enjoyed riding around during the day with his classmates. 
Reid had his 1-year well check on Tuesday this week and he is doing so great! He weighs 21 pounds 14.6 ounces (60th percentile and up 4.5 pounds from his February 9 month check), is 29.5″ (36th percentile and 1.5 inches longer than 9 months) and his head circumference is 48.4 cm (96th percentile, up from 79th percentile in February). He is cruising along couches, chairs, tables and anything he can pull himself up to. He’s a happy boy, who loves to sleep at night and nap during the day. He loves to play and his smile is so big and bright. He’s a stubborn little man that knows what he wants and he often screams to let you know he wants it, he wants down, or he’s not happy you took something away or removed him from something he enjoyed doing. He’s got the most cute (and most pathetic) sad scrunchy lips when he’s sad or tired and he regularly takes his index finger to his lips when he’s without his paci but really wants it. He certainly does love his pacifier, so much that he sleeps with one in his mouth and his backup in his second hand. It’s not uncommon if he wakes up sometimes and has lost his spare that he’ll cry for it until you get it for him. Then he quickly plops down in his bed, lays down, and goes back to sleep. He is so fun!
And here is our soon-to-be graduate on his last morning as a Monkey at NPCA! He was excited to take gifts to his teachers Miss Laura and Miss Lori. His graduation ceremony was at the end of the school day. The kids were so cute they sang several songs and recited their memory bible verses during the ceremony. Finn’s face was obscured in almost every photo I took of the group up on stage, but if you look hard you can find him! He was the first kid of all the graduates to receive their certificate and thanks to Aunt Amy we got a good pic! After the ceremony we had cake before heading to First Watch for a celebratory lunch with cousin Greta, Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein, Aunt Amy, Uncle Andy, cousins Graham, Rowan, Greta, and of course me, Daddy, and Reid. 
And google has been showing me several “then and now” photos so I wanted to include a few. Time is flying by!
And here are a few others from the week. Reid enjoying his yogurt, Finn so tired after taking a nap one afternoon that when I brought him down to the kitchen he fell back asleep on the chairs, and Brutus wanting in on everything as always. 
On Thursday we went to Get Air in Hilliard for cousin Graham’s 8th birthday party! It was an hour or letting out all kinds of energy!
And on Friday Daddy had a surprise fun day at the zoo with Griffin! They spent the afternoon exploring the zoo, riding camels, and having a fun time together. They also went to the local bike shop and bought Griffin a new bike helmut for him to use this weekend as we teach him to ride without training wheels!
You’ll have to check out the video of Griffin learning to ride his bike without his training wheels. Kevin let go of the seat and he was on his way – never looked back! He was so happy and we spent probably 45 minutes to an hour of just watching him ride his bike! Then we went in to the library and checked out some new books before heading to Bob Evans for a celebratory breakfast. 
And of course at some point in the week we went to Graeter’s where everyone always wants to sample my ice cream cone. Griffin’s selfie was one he took while out playing in the yard one day. He asked for my phone and then showed me this. 
Three or so years after we had the birch tree and alberta spruces removed from the front of our houses we finally got some boxwoods planted. Albeit on one of the hottest days of the week and finishing in the dark as we didn’t start until nearly 8 pm once the sun was going down and it was the slightest bit cooler! And we are not at all looking forward to the Jewett Road closure toward Liberty Road where they will be putting in a roundabout this summer. Ugh, it makes the commute to work and home and pretty much everything we do in Powell pretty ugly as we’ll have to take 315 and Powell Road for most things. But hopefully the roundabout will be nice once it’s done!
