Tag Archives: cookout

September 6, 2015

DSC_0531Early in the week we had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong who had just returned from their adventures out west to visit Sean, Max, and Charlotte in Arizona and the Scotts in Texas. Finn was really excited to see them! He spent some time on Grandma’s lap looking through photos of his cousins Max and Charlie. And he really loves his dinosaur shirt and hat that Geema and Papa brought back for him. He’s been sleeping every night with his new mammoth too (I think sleeps with at least 7 animal friends now!).  DSC_0528 DSC_0536On Wednesday Griffin and I headed to his preschool orientation at Northwest Presbyterian Christian Academy.  It was a short visit where he was able to meet his teachers, see his room, and play for a bit to get familiar with everything. He walked right it and started playing with the toys they had setup in various areas. His preschool class, the Guppy’s, meets in one of the rooms he has been in during the nursery hour at church on Sunday mornings so he is pretty familiar and comfortable there. I didn’t take any photos, other than this one of a perfect rainbow that we saw on our drive over to school. This was taken right by the zoo at Riverside Drive and Powell Road. IMG_20150902_091830281_HDRWe had a super busy weekend as we hosted a cookout with family, friends, and neighbors on Saturday. We all had a really fun time and I just didn’t make a point of snapping any photos – though I now wish I had! On Sunday we hosted another cookout as a kick-off for our new church C-group that is forming. That was a lot fun and we got to know our new pastor and his wife and kids as they are going to be in our group. We’re looking forward to this new group as the format will be a bit different than we’ve done in the past. The women meet once a month, the men meet once a month, and we will have one family gathering a month.

And here are just a couple of random shots from the week. Finn has been back to really liking and asking for his “nola” bars, Cam is hanging out on her bed, and Lily strikes a pose. Cam has actually  been doing really well lately. Both days during the cookouts she walked all throughout the yard (to scavenge for food) and was pretty active for those several hours. I was impressed! And Lily remained in our yard even with people coming and going and the gate being open the entire time. IMG_20150906_101535566 DSC_0530 DSC_0529

 

May 24, 2015

It’s warmer weather and time for a summer-do for Finn.  Check out a before and after of sorts – our boy got quite the hair cut! He looks so much more grown up with this summer-do. But he gets so warm, has so much hair, and it such a head-sweater that we both thought a short summer style was a good thing!DSC_0005 IMG_20150524_162331547

This week Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong played with Finn for a couple of days. And Finn was super excited to play in their new “R.B”! One of his favorite things to do right now is to “drive drive drive”. Anytime we go somewhere or even if we are walking past the car in our driveway Finn loves to sit and drive and play with all of the accessories. He loves driving grandma and grandpa’s new RV, not to mention walking all around and checking it out. It is “really, really nice” says Finn, and we agree!DSC_0002 DSC_0004 DSC_0003 DSC_0001

In other big news Finn is doing really well with potty training. On Friday, after attending Graham’s pre-school graduation (he and Greta are sharing some cake below), I headed to the mall to get Finn some big boy underwear. He was pretty excited to wear them, as you can see! He has been going on the potty multiple times each day (both #1 and #2) and he is so proud of himself. I tell him when he’s finished that I’m “so proud” and he says, “you so proud, mommy?”.  Melts my heart.  We’ve been giving him stickers each time he goes on the potty, and while this picture below isn’t the result of any pottying (he was just having fun with stickers) I thought he looked cute 🙂IMG_20150522_125416724 IMG_20150522_173240609 IMG_20150520_182956196Can anyone spot our frog legs? This night Finn was being pretty silly and giggly. IMG_20150519_204733919 IMG_20150519_204756474Friday night it was a really nice evening and Kevin was heading to the Crew game, so he asked Finn and I to join him. We had fun being together enjoying popcorn and hot dogs. And to top it off, Finn met Crew Cat! He thought it was pretty cool – the rest of the game he kept saying “where is crew cat?”.IMG_20150522_211418931 IMG_20150522_212219872_HDR IMG_20150522_212355764On Saturday we had family over for a last-minute cookout for Memorial Day. The kiddos enjoyed checking out Grandma & Grandpa’s RV, playing in the basement, flying a kite, jumping in the bouncy house, and getting wet at the water table. And Finn really enjoyed playing in the yard with Babou (aka Abou) and Lily. IMG_20150524_160719227_HDR IMG_20150524_161137162 IMG_20150524_153234786 IMG_20150524_162331547 IMG_20150524_161944004_HDR IMG_20150524_161914929 IMG_20150524_172932709IMG_20150524_173159028_HDRIMG_20150524_182127239IMG_20150524_183630185IMG_20150524_184354275IMG_20150524_185251319

September 1, 2014

DSC_1256Wow, how can it be September already?! Fall is my favorite time of year, I just can’t believe it is already here. Good thing we hit the sprinkler park one last time!

We ended last week with Rowan’s 3rd birthday party and my dad took several really good pics of the kiddos and all the activity – so I wanted to share them, here they are!DSC_0965 DSC_0966 DSC_0052 DSC_0021 DSC_0003 DSC_0057 DSC_0062 DSC_0094 DSC_0139 DSC_0168 DSC_0169 DSC_0175

We’ve had quite a fun (and tiring!) week around here. Debbie, Finn, and Sammy spent lots of time outdoors playing in the water and drawing on the driveway. I kicked off my four-day weekend by taking Finn to pick raspberry’s at a local farm.  He did really well and in the beginning he ate so many berries right off the plants! By the end he was really tired and ready for an early bedtime. He’s been teething this week (his upper molars have finally poked through) and he hasn’t been napping very well during the day. He is, however, sleeping really well at night. photo (43) photo (44) photo (46) photo (47)DSC_1178 DSC_1181 DSC_1182 DSC_1196 DSC_1198 DSC_1200 DSC_1204 DSC_1202 DSC_1209I was able to take Friday off and go to a play date at Columbus Commons and the Fountains at the Scioto Mile. Debbie, Sammy, Finn and I packed up the car and headed downtown for an afternoon of fun. The boys had a great time. They didn’t venture very far into the sprinklers, but they had a blast! And the Commons had free carousel rides, kids activities, and the boys enjoyed a pizza and ice cream lunch with the whole group. When we arrived home, Kevin had a nice surprise for Finn in the backyard – a bounce house! Finn thought it was great (as he wasn’t big enough to go in the one downtown). Kevin surprised us all with the bounce house – it was to be the fun for the kiddos for our Labor Day cookout. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the cookout, as Finn picked up the Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease virus which reared itself for the over the weekend. I enjoyed some girls fun later Friday night – it was a fun day! DSC_1225 DSC_1228 DSC_1237 DSC_1235 DSC_1240 DSC_1243 DSC_1251 DSC_1257 DSC_1263 DSC_1270 DSC_1273girls night_1girls night_2Saturday, we ventured off to the Richwood Independent Fair with the Ackerman’s. Chad is from the area and has family who farms and show animals. It’s a small, and cute, fair. One of Finn’s favorite words currently is “tractor” (tak ta) and he delighted in climbing all over them! It was a nice day filled with plants, animals, friends, and food!DSC_1317 DSC_1278 DSC_1307 DSC_1282 DSC_1286 DSC_1288 DSC_1291 DSC_1297 DSC_1301 DSC_1331 DSC_1339Since we were rather house-bound due to Finn’s virus, we worked tirelessly to unpack all of our kitchen belongings and settle in to our new digs! I can’t even count how many hours it took or how many bins we unpacked or how many dishwasher loads we ran through on the express wash (thank heaven for 30 minute cycles!). Finn happens to love our step stool and even more so he enjoys having his play yard back upstairs. He was so upset when Kevin kept going to the basement to put tools away or put things in storage – he cried every time because he wanted to go down and play!DSC_1340DSC_1210 DSC_1341 DSC_1345

BUT, we are loving our new kitchen! And we celebrated our first meal with mom and dad, who came down for dinner anyhow! We enjoyed a small-scale cookout and tested out both of the ovens – one for mom’s corn pudding and the other mom and I made the first batch of chocolate chip cookies.  Worked like a charm! We’re mostly unpacked in the kitchen and the pantry, though there are a few details that still need wrapped up: a couple of cabinets to install, crown molding at the ceiling, toe kicks in a few places, a couple of drawer pulls, floor trim, painting the walls, light fixtures, backsplash, close up the basement ceiling, and the list goes on – but we couldn’t be happier! We are excited to stick around home base this week and make some meals 🙂 Come on over anytime – we even have a fully functioning bathroom on the first floor – yippee! Please forgive the dark photos – it seems I only remember to take photos after the sun has gone down!DSC_1357 DSC_1366 DSC_1375 DSC_1377 DSC_1378 DSC_1379 DSC_1384 DSC_1373 DSC_1219 DSC_1365 DSC_1360 DSC_1361 DSC_1359 DSC_1221