Having fun in the kitchen and knocking another item off our summer bucket list: make a pie! Finn and I made our first blueberry pie of the season this week to take to the Pilgrim’s for the 4th of July festivities at their house. Yummers. I still need to perfect the baking – this time it turned out a bit soupy, but still delish. We enjoyed hanging out with friends (and family, ha!) at the Pilgrim’s and were also able to walk to Coffman High School for the Dublin 4th festivities which include a million bounce houses for the kids to burn some serious energy!
Earlier in the morning we started the day by building and then destroying a “downtown big city” building. 
Finn went down to the Columbus Commons for Kids on Friday with Debbie. There are a lot of fun activities, including baseball, hockey, and planting seeds (oh, and free ice cream sandwiches!). Here Finn planted a bean and watermelon seed. He also ventured to the zoo where he continues to enjoy the fun of having a Gold Membership so he can feed the giraffes and ride ponies, camels, and rides for “free”. 
Kevin and I have been lucky enough to enjoy date nights lately. I had arranged with Debbie to stay late one night a week while her son is away at his dads for several weeks this summer. So we headed to Aab India and enjoyed some yummy Indian food. When they brought out our food they called this one the “tv dinner”, ha! Even Finn got to enjoy some leftovers the next day as we saved the round, donut-looking ball for him. Apparently it was delish! 
On Saturday we made a late in the day decision to head to the Clippers game. Kevin had rented a trailer to bring home some trees we purchased for our front yard. Those two picked up our trees and brought them home and it was perfect timing that I got home from Millcreek (we were on the Cultivate’16 Grower Tour this year) in order to have an evening of fun. It was a hot night, but a fun one! 
We had on our summer bucket list to attend 3 outdoor concerts – I think we’ve already surpassed that! Going back to our dating days Kevin and I have always enjoying hanging out listening to live music and since we’ve had Finn we’ve always taken him along. He likes to dance and be silly. We were joined by the Bethune’s, Eilerman’s, and Manning’s this week so we had a nice fun crowd. 
And remember our caterpillars? After what seemed like forever, on Saturday the first one emerged as a butterfly! After watching it for a day Kevin and Finn released it on Sunday. Then a bit later when Kevin and Finn were mowing the yard they found a baby toad!
Earlier in the week Debbie was off for a couple of days, so my sister was kind enough to watch Griffin on Monday. She picked him up from pre-school, along with the other kiddos and they had a fun afternoon playing in bear-suits and being silly. My mom came down later that night and we had dinner and then headed to Graeter’s for dessert, of course! Then on Tuesday mom stayed home and played with Finn for the day. Super thankful our families are always helping us when we need it!
Tuesday was also Finn’s last soccer lesson for this session. He really loved running around and learning a bit about soccer. They also work on motor skills, listening, and various athletic skills too. Some of these photos are fuzzy, but they show him having fun nonetheless. And at the last lesson Kevin went out and played a game of “sharks and minnows” at the end of the class. It was a beautiful night so we celebrated with dinner on the patio at Liberty Tavern, where Finn likes to get his picture taken next to the Statue of Liberty. 
We’ve been playing outside a fair bit lately since the weather has been so nice. Finn was hitting balls off the tee and after a bit we decided to pitch to him. He has a really solid swing (and an accurate throw for his age too!) and made contact several times with the ball. I took a video and he missed the ball the first video I shot, so I figured I would take another. And here is what happened:
This week we had fun with all things Easter, including pictures with the Easter Bunny at Polaris Mall (followed by ice cream, of course) and several Easter Egg hunts too. We also explored the Ohio Bird Sanctuary in Mansfield during our weekend roadtrip. We had fun exploring nature with Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein and the Bethune’s. 
We snapped a quick cousins Easter photo after church. Later that afternoon we were invited to Easter Brunch at Mike & Laura Pilgrim’s new home this year. It was a pleasant afternoon with the kids playing together and yet another egg hunt all on top of a delicious meal. 
Griffin also had a fun afternoon at the Franklin Park Conservatory with Debbie and Sammy this week. Always remember to slow down and smell the flowers!
And while the weather ended on a warmer note this week – it was pretty cold earlier in the week and at Millcreek we ran the water to protect the plants that were outside already. The water turns into ice which serves as an insulator to protect the plants from the low temperatures. It works really well!
And here Google put together a movie of my photos from the week. I think perhaps I should just post one of these every week, ha!