Kevin hit the half-century mark on December 12th, 2020 amid the Covid-times. It wasn’t the way we had planned to celebrate his birthday, but hopefully it was a fun one anyhow.
I stayed up late the night before to surprise Kevin in the morning with the downstairs all decorated for when we woke up and came downstairs. Flowers, balloons, confetti (including toilet paper confetti to mark the times, lol). It was a fun way to begin the day.
It was a warm day for December so we ventured off on a family bike ride around our neighborhood and a few others nearby. Later, Mom and Dad stopped by to deliver Kevin’s birthday gifts and for a short visit! And later that evening Chris and Sarah Manning hosted a small outdoor gathering of friends on their patio. It was cold! But we used radiant heaters and bundled up and everyone had a great time. Sarah and Chris had quite the spread from Condado’s as well as Sharecuterie to fill everyone’s tummies. Chris and Chad lit “50 Roman Candles” in celebration of Kevin turning 50. It was a fun evening spending time with great friends!
Happy 5-0 Kevin!
We took the boys to Ella’s birthday party, held at the Chiller, for a bit of skating mid-day. A good workout for Mom too.
Reid woke up all smiles on his birthday! These pictures were snapped by 6:30 am! He was so excited to awake and find that his door was decorated and the kitchen was too. The best part? The rocket balloon! He was super excited about the balloons. And also the break-through banner that Griffin wrote out for him “Happy Birthday Reid From Griffin”.
Reid is full of love and spunk. He’s fun, sassy, silly, and stubborn! He loves all things yogurt, cheese, crackers, chocolate, and sweets. He will not let a vegetable be on his plate, let alone eat one! Not one for much protein other than chicken nuggest and the daily PBJ. He is determined. He’s a little jokester and may be an entertainer one day. He knows how to ham it up for the camera and is a champ at the “no smiling” game with Daddy and Griffin. He loves to snuggle and do anything his big brother does – always! We love him to pieces and are so happy to celebrate him.
I kept asking Reid what kind of cake he would like for his birthday. He went back and forth between Pokemon (what Griffin had) to Bunny. But the last several times I asked he kept saying bunny – so that is what he got! I’m not as talented as my Mom in decorating just yet, lol. I didn’t have a lot of creative juice or energy at 10 pm on a weeknight in spring! But Reid loved and and his smile makes me happy.
Reid is getting pretty good at taking pictures with my phone (even when it is locked!) so here are a few he took this morning.
Signature Reid smile! Big wide smile, happy eyes, and a bit of a nose scrunch. We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and both boys came with me in the morning for my walk with Brutes. Griffin got up early to celebrate his bro!
(we concluded our walk by checking out Daddy’s handiwork in diverting a clogged downspout amid torrential downpours we’ve recently had).
Reid was excited to show Haya his balloons! We tried our best to re-enact the “2” photo from last year, lol. Haya gave Reid all kinds of play-doh which he absolutely loved. They played for hours at the kitchen table.
I left work at 4 (and went in late) so I was home during daylight – woohoo! We had Rooster’s carryout for dinner (mac and cheese bites, tater tots, mandarin oranges is the current favorite of Reid!) and did presents and cake.
Reid has been loving “pushing” Griffin on Reid’s trike lately. There are lots of giggles and silliness during our excursions.
We had a socially distanced cookout at our house with family to celebrate Reid turning 3 and Graham turning 10! The Beilstein’s and Bethune’s joined us out in the back yard for a tasty spread followed by cupcake-cones and presents. Kevin got the award for finding a super funny card for Graham 🙂
Going back in time to put together some posts that I’m behind on. Our worries were far less back in January! Reid and I are up and at em early this morning I figured I’d go back and put together some blogs. As I look through these pictures from school it seems like such a long time ago! Now, granted I’m putting together a January post in late March, but still, even though the boys have been out of school for two weeks it seems like all that has happened with the Coronavirus and various orders within Ohio started such a long time ago!
Griffin and Reid play together quite often. Reid basically imitates anything Griffin does from words and conversations to running, jumping, or any other physical activity. Things go from fun and laughter to screaming and fits in an instant around here!
I was able to volunteer at Tyler Run during the COSI on Wheels visit. I stepped up to the pH table and talked to the kiddos about the difference between acids and bases and did some hands on experiments with different liquids to determine if they were an acid or a base. It was a fun and fast afternoon! Griffin was excited to come to my table :).
Here Reid is playing in our refrigerator cubby in the kitchen. Our fridge has stopped keeping a consistent cool temperature. It fluctuates all over the place and unfortunately, the fix is to replace the entire cooling system which costs half as much as a new fridge. So the hunt is on for a new one, though it’s not as easy as you would think. It turns out our space is 33″ wide and most fridges are 35.75″ wide, ugh!
One afternoon I arrived home and Haya was cleaning up paper off the floor. I wasn’t sure what kind of activity they had done, but as it turns out she brought a balloon filled with confetti the color of which revealed whether she was having a boy or girl! She recorded a cute video asking each of the neighborhood kiddos what their thought was and then Griffin popped it with Reid sitting nearby. It was cute!
We celebrated Andy and Mom’s birthdays with dinner at Polaris Grill followed by dessert and presents at our house. We celebrated a bit early as Mom and Dad headed to Florida for the month of February! We also celebrated our neighbor Abbie’s birthday with a fun party at the Bolan’s house. Tons of kiddos played for quite a long time and little miss Abbie tore into her cake!
For Christmas I’d given Kevin an Order of the Moth membership at Nocterra, though honestly I forgot to give it to him, lol! Then I got a reminder of the Launch Party from Nocterra and gave him the belated gift. Thankfully I had it together enough to get a sitter back when I purchased it so we headed out for the launch party on a date night. We love hanging out at our community tap room!
Brutie is getting some love from all the Manning girls. I rode with Sarah to pickup Abbie from a retreat and the rest of the girls watched Griffin and Reid. It was a win-win for everyone.
This was a beautiful sunrise I captured upon leaving the driveway one morning en route to work. The picture isn’t nearly as pretty as it was in person, but you get the idea! This is Wyndbend.
The new office and restroom building inside our Shipping Facility is coming along quite nicely. Drywall is up and mudded!
