Tag Archives: fall fest

October 2022

October is full of more soccer and even included a tourney win at the Hopewell Cup at Newark. Despite having the tourney forfeit our first game (which we won 3-1) due to using Caleb as goalie (he also played on the white team in the same tourney, which apparently even though our coaches asked there was miscommunication and as it turns out he wasn’t allowed to play for both teams). We setup camp for between games and were able to hang with buddies and families from both teams which was a lot of fun.

This is a great crew of kids right here! Black and White teams together!

Mom, Dad, Graham, Rowan, and Andy came to cheer Griffin on at a game too. I believe this game we was a loss to SP but a good game.

Griffin and I enjoyed some fun team bonding time with buddies Emerson, Graham, and Rhett at Ten Pin Alley after a game one weekend. Pizza, fries, bowling and buddies. A pretty good mix.

We celebrated the end of the fall season with pizza at the Lewis’ house in Westerville. So many boys running around and playing together. They had a nice fire outside and plenty of food for all. It was a weird end to the season as we were to play SP Academy in the last game of the tourney. Turns out they forfeit the game due to issues/frustrations with decisions made by the  tournament director. So as we were headed back to the field to play our last game we were told we didn’t have a game. Ugh! We had cookies made to give to each player! So instead we handed out what we could and then drove all around town delivering the rest.

Afterward we stopped to play putt-putt at Olentangy mini golf. We played 36 holes, both courses. A bit of fun before Kevin’s upcoming surgery this week.  Later this evening Griffin started feeling unwell. I took him to the doctor the next day and as it turns out he has the Flu A. Ugh again!

I was able to volunteer at Donuts with a Grownup again this year on the playground at Tyler Run. This is part of the Fall Fest week of activities. Giant Eagle donated all of the donuts!!

Neighbor families the Dennies, Bolans, Duncans and us purchased a Norway Spruce to plant in memory of our neighbor, Don Maxwell, who passed away in August. Millcreek put in an order of plants to Acorn and so once delivered to Millcreek, it was delivered by our driver John and also Mike to our house. It’s a pretty one. Kevin and I took to planting it on our own in the cul-de-sac in front of the Maxwell’s house. A week or two after we had a neighborhood dedication party with appetizers prepared by Jane Martin. The neighborhood also purchased a stone to mark the tree.

We eventually got around to planting the trees at our house too. The Zelkova went out front to be a street tree between our house and the Dennies. The Black Gum went in the back and will eventually provide shade from the west to the pavilion and patio. We also planted the Rhododendron in the back hosta garden to eventually hide the utilities on the back of the house.

Tooth #2 goodbye!

I was able to take Friday off to volunteer at Tyler Run on the playground for ticket sales for the Fall Fest gift basket raffles. The morning started with the Fun Walk through the neighborhood. Saturday after Griffin’s soccer game he and I attended the actual Fall Fest at school where Griffin played with buddies and many games for an hour.

Reidy came down with some sort of bug and was really sleepy for a few days. He and Kevin camped out at home for a couple of days missing activities while Griffin and I went to fall fest and soccer games.

The neighborhood ladies enjoy the company of Beth Maxwell and for a fun activity to keep her occupied since the passing of Don, we asked her to teach us how to make raspberry jam! We had a fun night of making jam while having wine and charcuterie.

Random photos from October.

Dental checkups and no cavities. I was in disbelief given teeth brushing is still a struggle over here. But, yay!

 

 

Lilly came to see Reidy play a game! Griffin and Daddy were at Griffin’s first ever hockey game (which we attended for the first period and a half before leaving for Reidy’s game).

Griffin’s first ever CAHA 10U minor Stingers team game was bright an early at 7:30 in Easton. On the way there Griffin said he was nervous and so we talked through that. He also said “wouldn’t it be awesome if I scored in my debut?”. His debut. This kid.  Sure enough, he did score, and it was the 8th and final goal to win the game. I was super bummed to have missed it as Reid and I left for his soccer game. But I was so happy for Griffin to achieve his goal, both literally and figuratively. The scoresheet is all whacky as the kids didn’t have their uniforms yet, so even though Griffin is listed as #21 on the Scoresheet (what will be his real number) he was wearing #20 during the game (one of Cole’s old jerseys!).

Griffin and I went to the Momster Ball at Berlin High School with a couple of soccer buddies and moms. It was a costume, game, dance kind of night!

The boys and I went to Peppa Pigs Adventure live show for a fun evening show. I must say, it wasn’t what I anticipated. But the boys enjoyed it and it was fun to try new things.

October means field trip time for Reid with NPCA. This year we went to the Maize for a fun (and cool!) day of adventuring. We got to feed the goats, go on a wagon ride, pick a pumpkin and gourd, and play games. Fun Fact, one of Reid’s classmates lives in Powell (Lakes of Powell, actually) and she will go to Tyler Run next year! That is so unusual! We were glad to connect.

Daddy and Reidy night out to Don Tequila!

Mom, Dad, Kevin and I ventured to Mansfield to begin the process of moving the Walls’ train set to our house. It was several hours of disassembling, labeling wires, disconnecting track, cleaning train houses/trains, and packing everything up.  The hauling of everything in Dad’s truck back to Powell reminded us of the days of moving into college and down to North Carolina when the truck was loaded up.

October is for pumpkins!

Griffin wasn’t feeling well and thankfully I was able to get him in to the pediatrician. He tested positive for Flu A. Sadly, this was on Trick or Treat night so he wasn’t able to go out with all the kiddos. We also hosted friends on our patio, so Griffin watched from within the windows! he was a trooper though and was treated to a special 10 pack of timbits and several packages of candy brought to him by friends. And a pic through the front glass door!

Reid was so sweet that he collected candy for Griffin. When he got home (which he had at least two candy dropoffs due to having a full bag during his route!) he put everything on the patio table and split it up for he and Griffin to share.

Mom and Dad came over and brought some fun frankenstein rice krispie treats!

October 2022, Pre-K Monkey class at NPCA.  Age 5 (almost 5 1/2).

September 2022, Tyler Run Elementary School, 4th Grade, Mrs. Price.  Age 9 1/2.

3rd grade, 2021.

2nd Grade, 2020.

1st Grade, 2019

Fall Family photos 2022! This year we went to Coffman Park for family photos with the Mom and Dad and the Bethune’s. Turned out to be the perfect evening for photos.

October 16-31, 2019

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October has been filled with a lot of fun and adventure. We picked up Brutus on the 16th and brought him home where Lily was excited to see him (after she sniffed and licked my pants for a bit?!). She hadn’t been eating very well the last 2 weeks of his absence but since he’s been home she is back to her spunky self, even laying on Brutus’ “place!”. Jeff, Brutus’ trainer, gave us a training maintenance plan which includes a 15-30 minute walk each day, two 15 minute training sessions a day, maintaining door manners, and so on.  I’ve made it my mission to take him on a walk daily before work (almost always, but I’ve had to go after work once or twice). I actually really enjoy getting out and working with him. He’s doing so well and is fun to give him commands and work with him to demonstrate those commands. He’s still a work in progress and is easily distracted by other dogs, people, and even blowing leaves on walks but it is so  great to be able to go out and take him on a walk and hardly need the leash! We did find an engorged tick on Brutus the morning after we brought him home. Kevin got it off successfully (and intact) and after a call to our vet I sent it away to get tested and thankfully all test results indicated it was free from many tick-borne diseases including Lyme. Whew. I was worried!

We celebrated Lily’s 11th birthday on the 28th. It was nearing dusk before I was able to get her outside and get some photos! Thanks to Haya’s thoughtfulness we had a birthday party for her the next afternoon, complete with treats that Haya picked up for both Lily and Brutus. I arrived home to her and Reid having Lily in the party hat and treats ready to go!

 

Reid is enjoying going to preschool at NPCA. Like most schools these days the teachers now use an app and post class news and photos in the app throughout the day. In typical Reid fashion, he has quite an array of facial expressions. He’s been crafting cute fall pumpkins and artwork, exploring the fire truck, and playing outside on the playground. His school photos are cute too! Gymnastics is a mixture of Reid following along and doing the activities his coach demonstrates and also running away like a wild man to another area he’s not supposed to be in! This kid. He’s still taking two naps a day and if he doesn’t get his second one he’s delirious by 5:15 gymnastics class, hence the running around giggling and going nonstop. I’m trying to determine how to best adjust his sleeping as he does so much better with two naps but it’s not always feasible!



For COTA day (no school for Griffin and it was a Friday so no school for Reid) we went to our neighbors, the Bolan’s, for a halloween party. So many kids in costumes! Lots of new friends I hadn’t met before and quite a spread of food and fun.

I’ve had some fun time together with Griffin lately. He was off school on a Monday, so we took Reid to preschool and then we both had eye doctor appointments. He checked out wonderfully and I didn’t have any changes either. After our visit we headed to the zoo for a quick adventure before we had to return to pickup Reid at school. We fed the giraffe’s and talked about how their tongues are like sandpaper!

We joined the Bethune’s for the Dublin Spooktakular on a nice Fall night. Reid is a cowboy and Griffin is LLoyd from Ninjago, but on this night they went in their jammies as skeletons. Worked for us! We even found some skeletons walking around during our visit. They loaded up on more candy than they will ever eat and got to play different games and pet some animals at a petting zoo. Griffin was even so brave he wanted a tarantula to crawl up his arm!

Crazy face games at Roosters on a fun Friday night.

Kevin and I went to the Ochmonek’s annual Halloween Party again this year. We made rice crispy pumpkins and a yummy spider web bean dip (no pic of that tho). Kevin pulled off yet another awesome compilation for our costumes as Mary Poppins and the Chimney Sweep. He pieced together so many parts and so many people gave us the most fun complements at the party. I love that he does this each year – I just tell him the date and he takes care of the rest! He even put the ashes on his face using my mascara ! 🙂

Quickly on the night of trick or treat Kevin brought in the pumpkins and we had an amazingly quickly pumpkin carving session. Like, record setting in about 15 minutes! We were gathering next door at our neighbors for pizza dinner before heading out with the neighborhood crew for trick or treat. We’re really enjoying that there are so many kids in the neighborhood that regularly want to play with each other. Each day after school Griffin either heads to a friends house or they show up here! Trick or Treat was COLD and WINDY  this year and there were snowflakes by the end of our adventure. We were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong come visit and help hand out the candy to the kiddos.

We received news that Jim Trame, the father of John (Kevin’s best friend growing up) had passed away in early October. Fortunately, Kevin was able to attend the Visitation on Friday and Saturday we both went to the funeral which was in Dayton. Jim and Pat were a tremendous help as they watched the boys for us so we were able to go together. We planned to go to Dayton for the funeral and then head back, however, everyone was invited to Tom and Ana’s vineyard for a celebration after the service. It was indeed a celebration complete with music, fire, catered food and drinks. We ended up staying until 10 pm. It was an emotional day for sure. Kevin was a big part of their family growing up and has many lifelong memories with John, Tom, Karen, Steve, and Joe including 18 years of riding together in the DALMAC bike ride in Michigan. John was the best man in our wedding, Tom and Kevin ran a business together in the past, and over time they hadn’t kept in touch much. So it was a really nice day to see so many people that Kevin has told me about but I hadn’t met, and to see so many people young and old come up to Kevin and share stories going back 40 years. I think he knew a majority of the people who where there and there were tons.

We’re storing the MG TD in our garage and Kevin decided he would work on the patina. Can you tell the difference in the pic below? It’s looking really nice, now to find a buyer!

Fall Fest at NPC was a big success this year – one of the best attended ones that I can remember, really. Kevin and I had a small part this year, heading up the decorations and chili judging portion of the day. We had a new layout this year, chilis separated by category and separate areas for desserts, salads/sides, and hot dogs. Reid was a trooper. We got to church at 10:30 and left at 7:30 pm. He didn’t get a nap, but did lay down and “rest” in the portable crib. He thought it was the bees knees and wanted in it the rest of the evening. Griffin was a great helper and then once the festivities began he had fun with his cousins and friends. It was a fun night!

 

October 14, 2018

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Here the boys are a couple months ago in their Santa hats being silly playing together in the loft.  Next they both suited up in their super hero outfits, which we ended up having Reid wear as his Trick or Treat outfit since it was the perfect fit.  Griffin and Cole play together after school every Monday and Tuesday (when the boys are at Brian and Lisa’s house). Brian sent me this cute pic of the boys in their unplanned matching Batman shirts.
The boys and I took in some nice weather this week. I also had an eye appointment and for the first time ever took both boys with me as tag-a-longs. Thankfully, Dr. Bryan is pretty laid back and engages the kids in conversation.  Griffin has been doing really well with his sight word booklets. This week he earned two stickers in his pink booklet. He is not very fond of practicing at home with me. When I bring it up he usually sighs and and rolls his eyes and says he doesn’t want to do them. His personality is such that he doesn’t want to be incorrect or fail at anything, so he’d rather not try to do it. I certainly get the perfection thing, but I’m sad that at such a young age Griffin already is prone to not wanting to be wrong. So we’re working on that! Once we go through the words and work through any that he doesn’t know I usually get a big smile (and his signature lip lick) once he goes through them all. He does enjoy reading to his brother! It was also Fire week at school so the Liberty Township firefighters came to Tyler Run to talk about Fire Safety. The kids got to go outside and check out the firetruck and see the firefighters in all of their gear.  Daddy was able to come to soccer this week and watch Griffin in his 3 on 3 play. Griffin seems to enjoy playing the 3v3 rather than the “lessons”.  I had some special visitors at Millcreek this week! Dad and Bob Solberg came for a tour. Bob hasn’t been to Millcreek before and he wanted to see our operation and learn a bit about how we grow, starting with how we propagate. We had fun walking around :).  Griffin enjoys going in to Reid’s room in the morning when we wakes up. It’s fun to get on the video camera and listen to what he says to Reid and to see the two of them interact when we’re not around. Another fun fact: Griffin loves to get in his bed with him and talk and play! I caught him climbing out and also reading some books to his brother.  It was a busy weekend with Fall Fest at NPC and a birthday party for Griffin’s classmate, Ethan, on the same afternoon. I was able to break away from church setup for a bit to take Finn to the party. He had fun running around outside at Emily Traphagen Park. Then we headed back to NPC and finished decorating and setting up. Kevin and I took on a smaller role this year with Fall Fest. It was both good and frustrating. The event definitely had a lot of people (despite the poor sign up numbers online) and by the end of the night every pot of chili was empty!