Tag Archives: book fair

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.

February 16-29, 2020

It’s a wrap on Griffin’s first session of indoor flag football. He really enjoyed it and his team ended the season with all wins, except for 1 – which quite honestly was in our eyes still a win as there were several questionable calls and the other team was in many cases playing tackle football – not flag! Griffin played well this season. He had time at QB, receiving, and defense. He got more aggressive and confident with his flag pulling too.



We’ve been enjoying lots of family time and snuggles on the weekend. Reid is in a “I want to nuggle you” phase and loves to come in our room in the morning and then go downstairs with one of us to feed the dogs and make my coffee. Haya has been doing fun art/craft projects with Reid while Finn is at school. He’s so proud to show me when I get home each day!

It was Dads and Donuts recently and Kevin was able to take Reid on a Friday (not a school day for him) and have a donut and see some art that he had made at school. They had a fun afternoon together and Reid was so tired he fell asleep in the car on the way home!

Griffifn had his best bud Colel over for a last minute sleep over one night. They had literally been playing together all day, from our house to Cole’s and back. Cole joined us for dinner at Roosters and then they asked if they could have a sleep over. They read books for such a long time before they fell asleep. Then they were up and at ’em early Sunday morning!

February is Book Fair time at Tyler Run and I’m on a committee that puts the fair on. While I enjoy helping, I’m by far the least involved. I liken it to being on the bus, in the very back seat! It involves helping with decorating, setup, working during fair week (an entire week of school), and then tear down. The kids in the school love this week each year and the hallway decorations add to the excitement as they walk past the library each day. Griffin was able to come to the library after school and help me for a couple days. He enjoyed getting a behind the scenes look at the bookfair and helping with delivery teacher books to their classrooms.

February has been rather dreary weather so I thought it would be nice to include this great photo of Mom and Dad enjoying sunshine in sunny Florida! They’ve been enjoying their time down south with daily walks on the beach, pool time, and fun with friends!

Big changes are ahead for our family, as Kevin has decided to make a career change after working over the last 10+ years as an Independent Contractor, with the State of Ohio as his client. Some people he works alongside organized a nice Farewell party at Pins Mechanical downtown at the end of his final day of work on February 27th. I was able to join in the celebration and it was great to finally meet so many people whose names I’ve heard for such a long time. So many people sang Kevin’s praises and spoke so highly of him. I was a proud wifey and enjoyed seeing him be celebrated by so many people. I was so busy talking to people I didn’t really snap many photos! We’re excited for this next phase for Kevin as he joins Base22 as a partner.

On leap day we had a neighborhood progressive dinner: “Breakfast for dinner” complete with everyone in PJ’s. It was a huge and awesome breakfast spread complete with mimosas! The kids loved playing together for hours. This time we stayed put at one house, the Duncans.

Millcreek’s inside building project is coming to a close and the finishing touches are going up in most ways. It will be put to use quickly!

 

February 1-13, 2019

Here I am at the end of March, trying to find time to post about life back in early February! I guess that’s what pictures are good for, eh? Stirring up the memories. We had gotten a good amount of snow and school was cancelled on the day of bookfair setup at Tyler Run. I was off that day from Millcreek and Jim and Pat had stayed the night previous so thankfully I was able to leave Reid at home with them while Griffin and I headed in to school to do some setup. As always, he was a great helper setting up the room. We also enjoyed some warmer weather where Griffin and Cole were coloring on the driveway in the sunshine 🙂 Early February started out with our window replacement for the whole house – but I’m going to make that a separate post!

This one. He is so, so curious and observant. So stubborn and independent. And a risk taker. He’s cute and sassy. He looks at you with a smile when he knows he’s doing something he shouldn’t, and then he gives a little shriek or giggle of joy. 

Our childcare situation has been challenging since the first of the year. We have signed up with College Nannies and Tutors for now to get help finding someone. We interviewed a girl who was to start on Monday of this week, and on Sunday night at 10 pm I got a call that she wasn’t going to be able to be here. He car was repossessed (despite her having called me herself at 7 pm to say she was excited to begin the next day, I guess this happened after that). I was scheduled to be off Monday and Tuesday anyhow to be home and get her started, so I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and just enjoy the day. I took the boys to the zoo and they had a great time exploring. Reid jumped in all the puddles and came home soaked (after a huge 5 minute fit, where he wouldn’t let me buckle him into his seat in the car – joy!). Griffin loved running all around and expending his energy. When we arrived home, the window guys were popping his window frame out of his room on the outside and we were able to watch it all happen from the stop sign (but you’ll have to read the window post for that).

I signed up with my friend Claire to help chair the PTO Book Fair, which is a week each February at the school. I was able to see Griffin with his class, making their Gingerbread houses in the the main hallway one morning so that was a sweet surprise. He continues to do well at school and is mastering his sight words. I must say, I’m not very good at the nightly review (or even a couple times a week review). Seems by the time I get home from work and we do dinner, it’s then time for bed and it’s totally slipped my mind. But this kid gets them down in a short bit of time – thankfully!

Here are some scenes from the bookfair. This years theme was dinosaurs. A mom from the school makes all of the decorations and she does a great job! I didn’t get one of the hallway, which was really neat. 

Before I left for San Francisco I left work early and attended Griffin’s Kindergarten Valentine concert one afternoon. The kids sang various songs and demonstrated how they use their voices when playing different games. It was really cute. Then, to my surprise, they called three kids up to read why they love someone – and one of them was Griffin! It’s in the video below. Afterwards we went to Graeter’s with the Dennie’s and then I got in a quick run to the store before I went home.

We were able to find a different nanny within a day or two and she began with us later that week. Her name is Haya and so far things are going well. She is working 4 days a week and a girl from church is working one day a week (all to avoid overtime which is outrageous!). 

One Friday night Cole was over and he and Griffin were playing together. At one point they were painting, they also wrote some comics, and then they were playing in the basement. All of a sudden around 5 pm I hear screaming and crying and the kids run up the stairs as I was running to the basement and Griffin’s mouth is covered in blood. I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, I figured he’d banged his mouth and lost a tooth – but after some looking around and cleaning out his mouth it turns out he poked the roof of his mouth (thankfully the hard palate) with a green building stick – when he landed on the floor after jumping off the 4th step. He was crying terribly and bleeding a lot but luckily the bleeding stopped fairly soon. It could have been so much worse…..and he now understands not to put things in his mouth, nor jump off the stairs!

I took Brutus to the vet for his regular shots and to get more medicine for his allergies. We’ve been doing daily pills rather than shots for now and since his vet is out of town for the next month we’re gonna stick with that. He was a really good boy this time – eventhough he gets very unsure and nervous there – no muzzle this time and not a bark or growl the whole time. Progress!

I was leaving for San Francisco the next day so on this night we had a silly time at bedtime. We were being all goofy and giggly and it was a lot of fun. Griffin took the picture of Reid and me 🙂 The next morning was Valentine’s Day, the day I was leaving, so I had the kitchen all setup for when the boys woke up. Thankfully they each woke up before I headed out so I got some good snuggles. Haya brought cookies for them to bake and decorate and by the time I landed in San Francisco I had a video and some pictures from here.  They were having a good time 🙂

We’ve gone around about what kind of stained glass Dad could make to have in Reid’s room, and we finally chose a cute fox. Dad whipped that thing up in no time and we were super excited to see it! We’re waiting to put it up until the new windows are done – but it is the perfect fox and the colors are great! Thanks Dad!

Kevin needed some new profile pics for work purposes so at out monthly dinner (this time lunch) with the Bethune’s Amy took Kevin’s photos. They turned out super great. 

And check out this throwback to Griffin, when he was a little older than Reid is now. Lily and Cammie are so young. And his crazy long hair!