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September 1-21, 2019 ~ Reid starts Preschool!

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Well, these last few days of September have felt more like summer with the heat! But these bathing suit pics and water balloon fight were from earlier in September at Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein’s house with their cousins. Though I’m not sure who enjoyed it more, the kids or Grandpa? I love Reid’s joyful smiles. We enjoyed a tasty dinner followed by smore’s on the deck.

I’ve been taking the boys out once a week for dinner after swim lessons. Most weeks we end up at Culver’s or Cane’s so we’ve accumulated enough scoopie tickets that each Finn and Reid were able to redeem it for a fun toy. We went home with another plush Scoopie and football!

Griffin has gotten rather creative in his room lately. He’s taken to making cages out of his books for many of his lovies. He’s organized them by animal type (tiger, bear, etc). I must say he put a lot of thought in to it and it was pretty neat to see the cages all over the perimeter of his room. Then he told me he slept in his closet, lol.

I’m not sure how it can be, but our little baby’s first day of Preschool arrived on September 4th! We woke him up that morning so we could snap some pictures before Griffin got on the bus – and he was so sad he began crying that he wasn’t getting on the bus too! I told him he gets to take the Mama bus, ha! He was excited to go to school though he was over me taking pictures and at one point in the kitchen walked over to me (as I had my phone up) and said “No!”, “no more pictures” and then he came over and swatted at my phone 🙁 . This boy, he is sassy. When he’s mad or frustrated he’s a hitter and a biter! Thankfully, he knows he shouldn’t do it and shortly after he says he’s sorry. I felt bad doing it, but I actually wrote that on his pre-school papers for his teachers this year. I figure it’s better I tell them up front and hope it won’t happen at school.  He also threw a fit on the kitchen floor, I can’t even remember why anymore, but by the time we got to school he was happy and ready to head inside. He happily walked down the hall (after we convinced him we weren’t going in to the sanctuary) and he put his bag in his cubby, his water in the carrier, and his lunch in the basket. And off he walked right in to the room with a big old smile on his face!  I went back to pick him up at 1 pm and he was all smiles from ear to ear. I asked him how his day was and if he was ready to go home. The first thing he said was “go home and have pbj?”. I asked him if he wanted a sweet treat to celebrate his first day and at first he said no! But after a few minutes he said he wanted ice cream so we stopped at Graeter’s on our way home for a special treat.

{this picture was in the app his classroom teachers use of lunch during the first day 🙂 }

Griffin has been enjoying first grade. He arrived home one afternoon with a “Paws-a-tivity” note for spreading kindness! He particularly seems to enjoy math and has on a few occasions said he wishes he was at school so he could do math! I was like “we can do math here!”. We went to the Scouting Carnival held at his school to learn more about Scouts. I can’t say that I really learned anything as the Den leader for 1st grade wasn’t able to be there and I basically chased Reid around trying to keep him from interrupting kids while they were playing the various activities. At one point it was a screaming fest in the lobby. Kevin wasn’t able to join us as he wasn’t able to get out of work and we had to leave at a specific time to get to soccer – but I decided to sign him up and see how he likes it. As it turned out, the first “pack” event was the following Saturday which was a camp out at Camp Lazarus. Kevin and Griffin had quite a fun time and got to know some kids and parents. The kids in his Tiger den did a skit about Tigers (which Griffin was a tiger and he got to do his favorite tiger running on 4 hands and feet as he escaped his den). The enjoyed smore’s, a nice night in the tent, and bacon and stuffed french toast the following morning. That same Saturday the popcorn sale began too. Kevin and Griffin had gone and picked up a “show and sell” package of popcorn, etc., from the leaders and also made it to the Scouts store as you have to be in uniform to sell. Grandma Beilstein was the first customer as Kevin took the options to Mansfield when he picked up the MG TD to bring it back here for storage. On Sunday, Griffin and I headed out around part of our neighborhood and he was really successful selling to every house that answered their door! He was pretty excited about that. On Monday, there was no school and I was scheduled off though I had to go in for a meeting so Griffin got dressed into his uniform, we took his popcorn, and he setup a station in our shipping department and had another successful sales hour. We’ve been having swim lessons, soccer skill development class, and i9 soccer each week so we’re on the go a fair bit.

One weeknight our neighbors had invited us to join them in visiting the Tecumseh Land Trust field of sunflowers in Yellow Springs. I wasn’t sure about going as I knew Kevin wouldn’t be able to make it leaving as early as they had planned to go, but I decided what the heck – let’s do it! So I got home from work, loaded the kids in the car, and we hit the road at 4:30. We walked the field of sunflowers with Cole, Cooper, Brian, and Lisa and snapped some cute pictures. It was hot! And it had been hot the previous few days also and the sunflowers were just beginning to perhaps pass their prime. It made for a fun memory and then we headed to Young’s for dinner, ice cream, and a quick goat feeding session before heading home. It was a late to bed kind of night!

Reid has been doing some fun artwork at NPCA. They have a structured plan to what they go through each week (letters, numbers, bible verse, etc) and he’s brought home some of his creations. He was super excited one day when he got to ride in Griffin’s seat (one time, special treat!) in the Jeep so Haya could have the van to pick him up. It’s been another season of car seat installation and switching around here! The class pictures are from his teachers. He’s also had a fun couple weeks, including an excursion to the Powell Splash Pad during it’s last day of operation for the season. It was super warm!

My new “snack plate” idea that I tried at dinnertime so the kids could have make their own choices from a few different options of fruits and cheeses. It went pretty well. There’s a pic of the Harvest Moon from our patio and some giant turkey vultures on our roof recently!

Haya took Reid and visited Griffin for lunch this week. He loved having her there and introduced her to all of his friends at lunch. Reid was a handful and basically stole Griffin’s chocolate milk, so Griffin had to go get another one for himself! His art teacher is using Artsonia this year, an online site where the kids artwork will be uploaded and you can then order things with their artwork and part of the money goes towards the school. I surprised Griffin with a mug that I bought with his crocodile sharpie/watercolor painting. He did it all himself and I thought it was super great!

Daddy has been away for a couple days on a guys golfing trip in Michigan. This one appeared in my room Friday morning before my alarm went off! We spent a wet Friday night attempting to go to the Hilliard Davidson versus Olentangy Liberty High School football game but got rained out (or at least lightning delay and then we met our expiration!). Saturday morning was picture day for Soccer, which didn’t happen due to the rain. Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein came to Griffin’s soccer game and essentially sat in the rain for an hour! Most games had been delayed/cancelled during the thunder so games resumed starting with Griffin’s but many kids didn’t show up, so they ended up combining the two red teams and two blue teams to play against each other. We lost 0-2, but Griffin played really well. He’s one of the quickest kids out there and he had several really great kicks and stops. He also used some of his new tricks he’s been learning at weekly soccer skills class – like running toward the ball, stopping it with one foot while he runs over it, and then turns and kicks it the other direction. Good stuff! I’d liek to get pictures, but usually Reid is sitting watching YouTube on my phone. It’s the easiest thing I can do to keep him off the field or not have to chase him all over the back 40.

On Wednesday, I took Brutus to the trainer where he will be spending the next 4 weeks. Ugh, it is so weird around here without Brutus! Even though he can be a piece of work sometimes I find it so odd when he’s not where I he would normally be – like his face at the dinner table, laying at my feet, waking me up in the morning, etc. Jeff, the trainer, sent me a picture of him the first night and has given a couple of updates via text. He seems to be settling in well from the sounds of things.

The MG TD made it’s way to our house thanks to Kevin and Jim making the trip up to Mansfield to bring her down using the Jeep and a rental trailer. We were able to get it off the trailer, took her for a spin around our neighborhood and got a couple quick videos, and then parked her in the garage for storage until she meets her new owner.

The Millcreek Open House was another great success.  Our new Shipping and Growing Facility is {mostly} complete with the exception of the overhead doors and irrigation lines. It’s a pretty one! The weather was beautiful and we had record attendance for the day. Both seminars were really well attended and the food was delish. I was exhausted at the end of the day!

 

April 1-15, 2019

Though the weather doesn’t always seem like it, Spring Season at Millcreek has arrived and longer days at work are in full motion. While I don’t like being away from the boys as much as I am, I do love getting updates from Haya throughout the day, including pictures and videos. They are having lots of fun! The collage of Reid was put together by Google and I thought it was a good one to share. It captures his many faces and moods. 

I’ve been home at good times here and there and on this particular night it was nice enough to go on an adventure through the neighborhood. Griffin really wanted to drive his car, so I traveled behind while he drove himself and Reid on a large loop down the street and back. 

While Griffin seems to have moved on from his interest in arts and crafts, Haya has tried to do some fun crafts from time to time. They made a model of the solar system out of foam balls on sticks and they drew the solar system on paper. We seem to have legos everywhere these days. Griffin sometimes puts the kits together but then takes the creation and eventually makes his own. He currently has an army of his own creations. It’s fun to see how he uses the parts he has and his imagination to build different vehicles. And then to hear him play with his vehicles in his room is fun too!

I’ve taken both Lily and Brutus to Millcreek this spring on my Saturday’s so far. It’s been fairly “quiet” and Lily is a piece of cake and happily greets everyone. I’m working on getting Brutus used to strange and new situations. He was so funny when he walked from the car across the parking lot to the shipping warehouse. He hovered close to the ground and smelled everything! When we walked in to the office he didn’t make a noise at anyone, but as new people would enter he was more skeptical. Still trying to persuade him to happily welcome people!!

Griffin is enjoying flag football (when the weather has permitted the games to be played). I basically spend 50 minutes chasing Reid and trying to keep him off the field. He’s a little pistol and when he decides to take off – he’s gone in a flash and there I go after him on to the playing field.  Griffin loves gardening with me and working in the yard. He’s also been in to climbing trees and cutting flowers. He loves to go greet Reid in the morning and one particular morning I watched the video of him going in and talking to Reid. Reid wanted out and it was kind of cute to see Griffin get him, lol. Gonna have to watch these two together!

We went to Powell’s Village Green Park for the Easter Egg hunt again this year. We met up with neighbors and friends and the older boys had a blast. Reid had his own kind of blast, by getting to his first egg, opening it, and eating the chocolate. Then he’d move on to the next. He didn’t have a care in the world about getting many eggs, just the one before him with the treat was good enough for him. After the egg hunt I went to work, Reid was home with a sitter, and Kevin and Finn headed to the OSU Football Spring Game. It was a nice day!

Later that evening we headed to the Bethune’s to celebrate Greta’s 6th birthday! I don’t have many photos from our time together but the kids had fun and Reid enjoyed the dessert, lol. 

On Palm Sunday at church Griffin joined the processional of kids waving palm branches and standing up on the stage for the first song of the service. We love this tradition at church. 

Griffin definitely has a love for animals. He’s told me he wishes we could have a cat. Sorry buddy, that one’s not gonna happen! But this week Haya took the boys to the pet store where he got to play with several animals, including holding hamsters. As it turns out, about a week or two later Haya got a hamster for herself and her hubby (a compromise from a puppy) and has since brought it to our house for fun. Griffin loves holding them, Reid isn’t quite sure yet. 

We are loving having new windows that open! I love it when the weather is perfect to open up the house and enjoy the breeze and all the sounds of nature. This week Kevin installed window clings in our garage windows. They have a “blinds” pattern and really look nice from the street. No more dirty yucky garage blinds anymore and no new ones that will need to be cleaned!

New windows are now mounted in the porch, just one to go and then the framing of them, etc. There’s still lots of finishing details, lighting, and painting to do on the inside. We’re excited to be able to use it at some point this summer….

I love this throw back of Reid. I remember this picture at Kingwood Center when Reid was a baby. He was so smiley! Maybe it’s the orange that ties the pictures together. I’m struggling with the fact that this sweet little boy is about to turn 2!

And here is some video of the week, including Finn scoring a touchdown!

May 13, 2018 ~ 51 weeks

This happy guy is so excited when you go into his room and greet him after his nap. And he is such a great sleeper, sometimes so much so that I think something is wrong because he sleeps SO much or at least seems as though he’s always ready to go back to bed! This week we were certainly thankful for the help of Jim and Pat on Monday and Friday and my parents on Thursday of this week to care for the boys. Since this post is after-the-fact, it turns out the Debbie has decided to quit and gave no notice. Rather, she told us she was “sick” for several days, texting at crazy hours of 12 and 1 am that she wouldn’t be coming. Friday of this week was her first “call off” but next week they continued until she quit via text on Wednesday afternoon. I had reached out to her mom as I was genuinely concerned about her and her behavior of calling off for nearly a week, at strange hours of the night, a couple times via a “friends” phone as she spilled water on hers. It just kept getting more and more strange. It turns out she didn’t appreciate the conversation that Kevin had with her on Wednesday of this week, and even though as a part of that conversation we setup a time to meet on Friday to discuss some things – that is when her call offs began and she never actually came back to work. It’s a shame and it’s upsetting that she chose to quit in such an immature and unprofessional way after 4 1/2 years of being with our family. I’m upset at the manner in which she departed and that she lied to us over several days saying she wasn’t “feeling well” even though she basically also removed all of her belongings from our house the last day she was here. It will be a big change for Griffin moving forward, not only for Debbie no longer caring for him each day, but also for him not having his best bud Sam around either. But we remain grateful for our parents who have really helped us out in a bind this week (and next!). Somehow I didn’t manage to get any pics of the Armstrongs :(.  This was the week before mother’s day, aka one of my most busiest weeks of the year, especially with the years odd April weather our May has been busier than “normal”. It was so great to arrive home to a tasty meal made by my parents, including dessert of angel food cake with a homemade blueberry reduction sauce.  Yummers! Dad and Finn have developed a hobby of running to the store together to get the days dinner stuffs. If you know my Dad, you know he doesn’t like to sit still (or when he does he’ll end up napping – now you know where I get it, lol!).   I so loved going to NPCA for the Moms and Muffins morning with Finn. We played connect four (he is really good!) and he showed me around his classroom. We played with some toys and then Mrs. Laura read the paper that each kid completed about their Mom. He’s pretty much got me down.  Well, he could have just stopped at my mom is really good at “working”….and left off the “out”. This boy has my heart!  Later during the school day the kids went to a nearby pond for a nature expedition where they looked for frogs and various insects. My friend Laura helped chaperoned and sent me these pics 🙂 Good old Brutes. He has ruined so many things from shoes to clothes to toys, lovies, and so much more. This puppy stage is always a long one with labs. But underneath it all he has the sweetest disposition. It’s not often the first thing you notice about him, as he can be overbearing, he has a deep and scary bark, and when he’s full of energy he can be a handful. And eventhough I’m sometimes cautious with him around strangers or people who are uneasy around him, I have no concerns at all about him with the boys. He let’s these kids do any and everything to him and he’s never once reacted poorly. They climb on him, wrestle him, pet him, push him, tackle him, and on and on. And when he’s tired he’ll just lay there and take it all in, like the picture below (which is terribly blurry but you get the point). He could care less that Reid is smothering him, crawling over him, and dumping all kinds of things off the shelf all over his face. He just lays there and lets it all happen!

Mr. Smiles is really getting good at moving around and making messes everywhere he goes! He’s practiced going up the stairs and sometimes waves, though not reliably so we’re working on that! After Griffin’s football game on Saturday we headed to Mansfield for Mother’s Day. Not wanting to always show the highlight reel, I included this one of Reid (and check out Greta’s expression) not really digging my photo request.  We explored Dad’s hostas and he showed Finn lots of his raised beds. And I love the photo of Reid up in the tree looking at Dad 🙂

Some sweet looking hostas of Dad’s with red petioles and red that has moved up into the leaves all the way to the tips!! And here are a few photos from Mother’s Day with my Mom! We are in front of the Coral Burst Crabapple tree that Amy and I gave them several years back. This might be the best year yet for flowering 🙂

And here is a clip from Finn’s football game where he was the ball carrier. He’s gotten much better throughout the season with his confidence and taking off when he’s handed the ball!