It’s summertime, which means blueberry picking! We headed out on Saturday morning to a new place, Blue Sky Farms, in Marysville and met up with the Bethune’s. It is a 5-acre patch in the backyard of a family’s home and the entire patch is enclosed in netting! That’s the first time I’d seen that! It was a pretty warm morning, but we were able to pick just over 5 pounds of blueberries (Chandler and Draper varieties). I had high hopes of picking like 20 pounds which wasn’t really possible there as their plants are pretty young still. Although what we did pick were super yummy and pretty big!
Since I had high hopes of picking major quantities of blueberries, we carried on to another blueberry farm south of Columbus in South Bloomfield called Blueberry Valley. This one was entirely enclosed in netting too – and from the highway we were super excited that they would have more fruit to pick. We were sorely disappointed and didn’t pick anything! Most of the fruit wasn’t yet ripe and the workers were weeding the rows (tossing all the large weeds into the grass rows!). So we took some photos, bought a few things from the roadside veggie stand, and headed to Enon. We had a “roadtrip” on our summer bucket list, so we turned this day into that and on our way to Enon looked up other blueberry farms that we could go to en route to Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs. It wasn’t meant to be though, as the three or four places I found were all closed to allow for ripening. Booooo!!
So we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong and checked out the progress they are making on remodeling their new home. It’s looking great! Finn played some baseball in the driveway and we enjoyed a pizza dinner before heading to Young’s Jersey Dairy for some ice cream dessert.
Sunday was a busy day too with a birthday party for Finn’s friend Owen, followed by a small group social day at our house. It was planned for a friends house, but she came down with a bug and rather than cancelling we just decided to host. I didn’t snap too many photos, but Kevin setup the water table, mini pool, bounce house, and tee-ball for the kiddos to play. We were exhausted by the end of the night!
During the week Finn and I headed to Zoombeezi on my day off. This time we arrived when they opened at 10:30 and were there until 7. Wowzer! We packed a lunch and got a nice chair in the shade this time so we could rest a bit. My plan was for Finn to fall asleep in the car on the way home and go right to sleep – but that didn’t work! He was a tired boy though as we had been in the sun and water all day long.
Finn may turn into a fish – as he also got to go down to the Fountains this week downtown with Debbie. In keeping with the water theme he made “Nemo’ and a crab. Kevin and Finn also caught lightning bugs (see if you can find them in our video) and let our last two butterflies go this week.
This week Millcreek exhibited at the Cultivate’16 Trade Show in downtown Columbus at the Convention center. It is one of the largest conventions for the Green Industry in the US. Lucky for me, the convention center is across the street from the North Market, so I was luck to meet up with Kevin for lunch. We had deliciousness from The Little Eater (http://littleeater.com), a vegetarian eatery that makes the most amazing and tasty dishes. I would eat there every day if I could…..
Tag Archives: art
November 8, 2015
This week it has been all about leaves! This one Debbie took of Finn one afternoon at Inniswood Metro Park. Then on Saturday afternoon while Finn was sleeping Kevin was out mowing and cleaning up the leaves in the yard. He decided to make a giant pile of leaves for Finn to play in once he woke up! It was just before the sun went down so, unfortunately, many of the photos aren’t the most clear but they surely capture the fun my two boys had together (and Lily too, eh, a little).
Right after the fun in the leaves we headed to Mansfield for a short visit to Mom and Dad’s. Kevin spent a lot of time upgrading the Hostaworks.com website this year, enhancing the shopping cart system for one and also an overall update to the aesthetics of the site. He added more imagery and gave it a more modern look. Very pretty, don’t you agree? We had one slight glitch with the launch of the seed shoppe, so we headed up to go over everything in person rather than over the phone! Everything turned out fine and we had a fun visit complete with Leaning Tower Pizza and Sub. Yum.
Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, we took Griffin with us in the morning to go vote. He helped each of us cast our ballots and he was given a fun sticker, just like us. Afterward we headed to Annie’s Kitchen, a small diner right in the heart of Powell. It’s a yearly tradition.
In other “new things” Kevin and I headed out with our friends the Mannings for drinks one night. We had all decided since we would be nearby that Abby would watch all of the kiddos for the first time. Finn of course loved that he was able to play with the “Manning durls”. They watched a movie in the family room and when we walked in the door he was having so much fun!
On Sunday, during our family Cgroup night, the kids packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Kevin and Griffin went shopping for all kinds of fun toys to put in our boxes this year. We are sending 2, one to a boy and one to a girl, aged 2-4 years old. It was fun to watch the kids make cards for the kids who will receive the boxes. Kara asked who would like to pray for the boxes and for the kids who will receive them and it was sweet to hear Amy and Talon offer their prayers. And many thanks to Abby who helped Griffin with his card. We are going to track our packages this year to see where in the world they end up!
The weather has been really nice lately and Debbie has taken Griffin and Sam on some fun adventures, had lots of crafty time, and made some goodies in the kitchen too! Here are some photos from their week. The first one is them loving on Cameron and helping her to feel better. They are both so affectionate and good caregivers to her – petting her and bringing her water, especially when she barks to let someone know she is thirsty!
Finn also made a pumpkin pie at school this week. They are learning about senses and to demonstrate, they sprinkled real cinnamon on their pumpkin pies!
Finn ~ 13 weeks
About a month or so ago I had the idea that it would be fun to have a regularly scheduled “date night” each month for Kevin and myself. I thought it would be fun for Aunt Amy and Uncle Andy to watch Finn and that way the cousins would also have time to play together. Then, on another night we would reciprocate and head to their house to watch Graham, Rowan, and Greta while Amy and Andy enjoyed a fun night out together. This Saturday Amy and Andy went out. Prior to showing up to watch the kiddos Kevin, Finn, and I went to the Columbus Arts Festival for a quick walk around and to have a bite to eat. We put Griffin and Greta next to each other once we were at Amy and Andy’s. They are pretty close in size these days!
On Sunday, we headed up to Mansfield to celebrate my dad’s birthday. It was our first road trip to Mansfield with Finn. We enjoyed a nice afternoon with everyone as Amy, Andy and the kids were there as well. Grandma had lots of time holding Finn while Kevin and I walked around the yard with my dad looking at the hostas throughout their gardens. Graham enjoyed helping Beepa open his gifts and blow out the candles on his cake.
He took a nice long 2 1/2 hour nap in the pack ‘n play that Grandma got for him. Here I am with Finn in my childhood room!
On Monday, June 10, I headed back to work full-time. It was a rough morning for me – lots of tears for sure. The work days went pretty fast this week as I had many meetings each day. When I came home from work I enjoyed many long snuggles with Finn. He is is good hands during the day. Tricia plays with him, does tummy time, reads books, goes on walks, and so on. He is a happy guy and we feel very blessed that we are able to have care for Finn in our home. Hailey, Cameron, and Lily also enjoy having Tricia around.
Thursday morning when I woke up and looked at Finn he was totally laying on his left side in the co-sleeper! Uh oh, rolling over isn’t that far away! He is also beginning to lose hair on the sides of his head as he often turns his head to look at me while he is in the cosleeper. His hair that is coming in is blonde so he is beginning to have a lighter head of hair!
Friday I was playing with Finn. He often grabs my hands and I pull him forward so he can strengthen his neck muscles. Well today, I pulled him forward to a sitting position and then he kept on going and stood up! He is getting to be a strong boy and loves to be upright most of the time. He loves to look up and watch everything that is going on.
Saturday Kevin and Finn went with me to Millcreek for the Friends and Family Plant sale that we hold each June. They spent time hanging out together in the office. This was his third trip to Millcreek – but first time for photos. Here we are with George.
Later that night Kevin and I spent our date night at the Columbus Crew Game. It was a fun night out!
Finn has also taken to eating his bib! This pretty much captures it!
Here are Finn and daddy, how does it go – like father, like son?
Finn is also getting quite good at grabbing things and keeping a good hold of them. Here he is holding on to some of his jungle animals!