Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 2022

As I noted at the end of March, I flew home from our spring break / North Carolina trip two days early in order to go on a girls trip which I’d planned awhile back. Jaime, Amy, and I drove to Indianapolis for a quick girls getaway. We walked around Indy, went to a show, walked around Newfields, indulged in sweet treats, enjoyed several nice meals and just hung out and caught up on life. It was nice!

How does it go – when Mom is away the boys will play? Once Kevin and the boys returned from NC they had a fun boys weekend that started with the Early Bird Soccer Tournament at Spindler in Hilliard. Kevin picked up Dad and they watched Griffin’s team have a good weekend of games, finishing as Champions! I was able to get dropped off at the field for the end of the final game so that was fun to see. Go OUFC Boys U09 Blue!

In between games on this particular day the boys played the Dads in a pickup game of soccer. Now this was fun to watch! The boys had so much fun and the dads did too.  Here are a few more pics of this month’s soccer games. Luckily I was able to make it to each of them despite my work schedule 🙂

Griffin is having fun at the Learn to Play hockey lessons. Each week he literally says he “can’t wait to get on the ice”.  He’s on the left.

For his 100th day of school Reid counted and packed up 100 cotton balls!

It’s nice to be able to go to Tyler Run again for different activities. This time, it was for the art show where students are work is displayed throughout the hallways. I love to see Griffin’s creativity! He also wrote the poem that he is holding up. This was shortly after we returned from North Carolina and both Kevin and I were so impressed with his poem!

Feel the warm on your feet.
The blue water on your body.
Find the shards of sea shells and feel the blaze of the sun.
What a treasure of a vacation.

Grandpa came over one afternoon to hang out with Griffin and open and sort some of the many packages of sports cards Grandma and Grandpa gave him for his birthday. So Many Cards! Griffin is literally such a sports fanatic. He knows a ridiculous number of players, their number, position, team. It is pretty remarkable. Anytime Kevin or I want to know something we just ask him!

Our annual daffodils with food coloring :).

Dad is using the former shipping hut at Millcreek as growing space for his hostas. Dad (with periodic help from me and Mom) has gradually been updating and customizing the space, including weed mat, benches, closing in the ends with shade cloth and irrigation.

On this cold and misty day I took the boys to the Powell Egg Hunt. It was cold and had been raining so it wasn’t nearly as busy as prior years. The boys teamed up together in the 7-10 year zone and hauled in a lovely number of eggs.  A couple of days later we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt in Bartholomew Lakes with our neighbors and friends. So much fun and candy!

And the following day the Maxwells hosted another small egg hunt for the Bolans, Duncans, and Armstrongs as they had the day confused and weren’t ready on the day of the neighborhood hunt. This kind and fun couple put together eggs full of coins, $2 in each egg, and every kid got 7 eggs. Woah! They just love all of these kiddos and their fun and energy. They often remark how they love to see them outside playing all of the time.

We also enjoyed a fun egg hunt at the Bethune’s with the cousins and then a nice dinner to celebrate Greta’s 9th birthday!

Handsome Brutes and some other photos from the month. We definitely enjoy being outside on our new patio and walk as much as possible.

Reid has a lot of fun at pre-school in his Monkey pre-K class. He did a fun questionnaire for both Mom and Dad and as typical the answers are funny.  Carrots? We’re both 80. Lots of answers about working so much. That makes me sad to be honest. But I try to remind myself that once spring is over I get to have a very flexible schedule the remainder of the year.

In 3rd grade with Miss Robinson this year, Griffin’s class had pen pals with Miss Robinson’s Orange High School softball team where she is the varsity coach. Griffin’s pen pal was Reagan, and throughout the year they wrote each other notes back and forth. Toward the end of the school year Miss Robinson organized a night where the kids could come to the games (JV and Varsity) and meet their pen pals and watch them play. It was a lot of fun and Griffin got some ball time in with Reagan and her teammates too.



 

 

Reid enjoyed a fun birthday party for a class mate at Graeter’s! It’s so nice for him to be making friends and connections this year in school, having not gone to school last year due to Covid. He is a social butterfly and loves to make friends.

Here are a few work snaps of what is to come. Spring is nearly here!

March 2022

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.

February 2022

February started off with a huge check mark of Griffin finishing his 3 week course of antibiotics. Yay!!!! He was so glad to be done (as we all were) and he really mastered taking the 22 mls three times a day for three weeks by the end.

We did have a follow up appointment for bloodwork/labs and an xray which came with rather short notice via a phone call. There was a big storm coming and we needed complete the bloodwork either the same or next day (storm was coming the next day of course) so Griffin and I headed to the Children’s location on US 23. After all he’d been through he was really scared and nervous to be poked with any needles which is completely understandable. It took a lot of convincing and kind explanation from Abdi, the phlebotomist, about how quick it would be. In the end Griffin sat on my lap and it was less than 10 seconds and Griffin did great. Abdi was so patient and he found a toy to give Griffin to tell him how great of a job he did. We celebrated after with Cane’s on our way home :).

It’s been a pretty stressful start to the year and I’m not the best at disguising any of it at home. Griffin and his kind heart made this “book” for me as a lovely encouragement.

Griffin is pretty much back to normal activities and everyday fun. He’s moving better all the time but still favors his right knee some with a little “limp” here an there. He accompanied Brutus and me on a walk in the snow “storm” that in fact did arrive. The snow was coming down so fast. We walked in the tire tracks in the road it was so deep!

The neighborhood crew enjoyed playing in the snow plow mounds of snow in the culdesac at the Bolans.

This was a pretty big snowstorm and while I love a good driveway shovel workout I’m thankful our neighbor came by and saved the day! Tom used his snowblower and in no time our driveway was clear.

Griffin has told me that some day he wants to possibly open a sundae shop. It’s his favorite dessert to create and serve to everyone. He likes to take orders, ask what “toppings” you’d like, and serve you your sundae in a cute dish. We sure do love Graeter’s peppermint stick ice cream in the winter.

Arts and crafts haven’t ever been a thing for me. It’s just not something I enjoy really. Thankfully, Lilly is creative and enjoys creating things so she took pictures of the boys and helped them create custom Valentine’s boxes of themselves! It was such a fun idea and I love how they turned out, each representing their personalities to a T.

Reid is so full of personality. He’s zero or 100 most of the time. He’s either happy or silly or sassy or stubborn or any combination of the above. He sure can be a goof. He loves anything small and tiny and has to bring things everywhere. He is regularly carrying a sack or bag or small container of the smallest toys. His current favorite is Robot Town and the tiny robots inside.

Some kind of sports practice, game, or watching a sport is a pretty regular thing in our house. Kevin and Griffin went to a Crew game together and the give away that day was an awesome yellow Crew hat!  We celebrated Paul’s 50th birthday with friends at their house while watching the Superbowl. And Griffin and Kevin, along with Miles and Jay, went to the CBJ hockey game. Griffin received tickets for Christmas to take two friends to a game.

Reid is really getting good at writing his name! As a Valentine’s activity at school he answered some questions that his teachers wrote down for him about what he loves. Cute!

While Mom and Dad were away in Florida we checked in on the hosta seedlings and the basement finishing progress. Reid helped me mix the pink fertilizer water and feed the plants and enjoyed his snack while we were there. Griffin also popped over there with me once or twice as well.

Kevin purchased a fun new toy in order to clean out our dryer vent. He and Griffin gave it a whirl on a warm and sunny February afternoon.

February means book fair week and this year’s theme was Reading land – a take from Candyland. Once again the decorating team took it to the next level and everything looked amazing.

Since having Covid Kevin has really not been feeling well. While dropping off something to me at the bookfair he mentioned he was feeling a bit off and his hand was feeling funny. He decided it was a good idea to get checked out so he went to the nearby Emergency Department where they ran an EKG and hooked him up to all kinds of monitors and ran various tests. Thankfully, everything came back ok and they suggested follow up with his primary care doctor for further tests. Whew.

And here are a few randoms from the rest of the month including gearing up for our second team of H2A workers who arrive in early March. We’ll have 3 additional apartments and while Shaina is out early on maternity leave I’m executing the plans for furnishing the apartments.