We had a fun-filled family week around here. Uncle Todd was here through Wednesday so he was able to take in our morning getting ready for school on Tuesday and hang with the kids and watch Griffin get on the bus. Finn completed section 3 of his first book of sight words, and I was able to volunteer on Wednesday morning at Dads and Donuts on the playground before school began. It was super busy – we handed out 80 dozen donuts, the very last one gone right at 8:59 am! We also went through 4 percolators of coffee and 13.5 (out of 14) gallons of chocolate milk! Those kiddos were enjoying sweet treats and hanging with their dads (or other guest). Griffin was so excited when he saw me and came up to the table to get a donut and he had a lot of fun hanging with Kevin and putting tickets in the raffle baskets. 
Hannah took the boys to Glacier Ridge Metro Park this week where they climbed all around, enjoyed the sunshine, and collected nature. 
On Wednesday, we invited Jim and Pat up for dinner to celebrate her 70th birthday. We did good at keeping the surprise of Todd being in town. We kept him off to the side while they arrived and then he surprised her in the kitchen :). Todd, Kevin, and I had planned out a mexican dinner to enjoy at our house. It was great – Todd and Kevin went shopping, and Todd made the meal! I picked up a special German Chocolate cake at Sweettooth Cottage along with some cake balls and sugar cookies. We had quite the spread! After dinner and dessert we were hanging out on the patio and through the back yard appeared Sean! His flight arrived later in the evening so we had planned for him to arrive after dinner while we were hanging out. 
Though it is technically Fall, it has been really warm out! Hannah and the boys did some fun painting this week of fall leaves and trees. We’re hoping the cooler weather and fall colors arrive soon! 
I love this season for many reasons, but one of my favorite is the flexibility I have in my work schedule. I’ve been going in after Griffin gets on the bus on the days he has school. Or going in late to go to meetings at school. I was able to take Friday off to enjoy the festivities at Tyler Run for their Fall Festival. They have a school wide assembly, followed by a 1-mile fun walk through the neighborhood of the school (The Lakes of Powell, my old neighborhood). Parents, pups, and siblings are invited to join in so it’s quite a fun time. I was super excited to participate and then wouldn’t you know it in the morning as Griffin was getting on the bus I started to jog into the garage to get Reid and something popped in my left calf. Ugh, felt terrible and I couldn’t extend my leg all the way. But I was determined to still go – so I did, and I think the walking was better than sitting down. After the fun walk I had planned to help out at all of the lunch periods. The kids are able to buy raffle tickets and some of them buy so many or are slower at writing their names/room numbers on the tickets so they have adult volunteers there to help the kids. So I did that for a few hours before heading home. Later that night we headed to the school for the evening Fall Festival. Unfortunately, it had to be moved inside this year due to the pending storms, but it was still lots of fun. Inflatables, lots of games, food trucks, a cake walk (always my fave), face painting, and seeing friends. 
On Saturday we packed up our crew and headed to Enon for a birthday gathering at Jim and Pat’s that included family and friends. Lily and Brutus enjoyed the excursion too. 
https://youtu.be/yc4LKn7QVMk
And here are a few of our growing little boy Reid. I remember the night I took this photo, when he was still sleeping in the co-sleeper next to our bed. He still does this to this day – when he is tired, he will grab your hand and pull it to his face and have you cradle his face. He just loves it. 
Big boy is riding our blue pony, he is so proud and happy that he can get on and off all by himself. And just one of him gazing out the front windows with the sun shining on his face :). 
And then Facebook and Google show me these photos from years past and it gives me all the tears! Look at our sweet baby – I remember the day this photo was taken. And the next photo when he was such a big boy as he began sitting in a high chair. Whew, now he’s riding a bus!
We began the week on Monday with his Elementary Open House. Upon arriving at school we found his classroom and got to check out his new space. We found his name on the table he would be sitting at and met a couple of his new classmates (Mason and Jackson). We found his school supply kit (I did the convenient pre-order through the PTO) and unpacked all of his supplies into the various bins and organizers. We spent some time walking around his room and finding where he puts his folder each day, his book bag and coat, lunch bag, and so on. We were in his room for a long enough time that we barely had time to find where the bus arrives and how he gets to his classroom from the bus drop off! Five o-clock came quickly and we had to rush out of there to get home and changed in order to get to swim lessons! Sadly, we missed the popsicles on the playground – so instead we had a sweet treat at home later that night. 
On Tuesday night, the eve of Kindergarten, I created Finn’s yearly first day of school sign. Nothing spectacular, but a sign to record all the details of the year :). 
We surprised Finn with a scrumptious breakfast for his first day. Daddy made Tiger paw pancakes and Griffin had the biggest one!
We headed out a bit early before the bus to get our annual first day of school photos. Jim and Pat spent the night as they’d been helping with the kids the past couple days so thankfully they were able to take some family photos. Griffin looks so excited and SO grown up. I still just can’t believe it. 
Our driveway has always been the bus stop for elementary, middle, and high school bus runs. We love it! Cooper, Cole, and Abbie got to hang out for a short bit and we snapped some group photos of all the kiddos. Seems hard to believe these kids have been best pals for the last 3 years. They have assigned seats on the bus and Griffin and Cole sit right behind the bus driver, Mrs. B, whom by the way seems awesome! Getting on the bus we tried to get Griffin’s attention but he was so intent and focused he didn’t even turn around! I snapped a pic once he got on his seat – he had a rather unsure look on his face. But by the time the bus went down the street and came back through to leave the neighborhood we could see a slightly happier face through the window (at least for Cole, who was sticking his tongue out!).
Kevin ran an errand after the bus left and swung by the school so he capture the first day of school sign 🙂 We were both able to be home to get him off the bus – and he was SO EXCITED! He got off the bus and was so happy to see Reid and tell us that he loved school! We went inside and he scarfed down a snack of pretzels with nutella and his celebratory School Bus cookie. He brought home some coloring pages, artwork, and a booklet about his first day of school – where he chose the “excited” emotion to express how he felt about his first day. We figured since it was early and we were all home we’d go out to Griffin’s favorite place to celebrate his milestone day so off to Rooster’s we went. 
Since we are in between caregivers again, we’ve been enlisting the help of both of our parents, which we are super thankful for! On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein arrived in time to spend a short bit with us in the morning before Griffin got on the bus. He was excited that he got to see both sets of grandparents this week and that everyone got to see him get on the bus. 
Here are a couple of pictures Mom texted to me from their day home with Reid. It is SO quiet during the day with just Reid around. He babbles some but isn’t yet talking, and when he’s taking a nap it’s super peaceful around here! And a bit strange. 
And before long it was the end of day 2 of Kindergarten! Since Reid has just begun walking he enjoys having reign outside while we all wait for Griffin to arrive. 
I snapped this shot off Facebook which details the enrollment for Olentangy for the 2018-2019 school year. It will be fun to see how this compares to when Griffin is in High School (which is currently the largest high school in the district, by enrollment – Liberty). 
I was so happy to receive an email from Griffin’s teach which was sent to all parents. It detailed things about the first day of school and included photos! How neat to see Griffin in his classroom with his classmates. 
There’s never a dull moment around here and the second day of school is no different. Once Griffin got home we did a fast change into our wedding reception duds and headed downtown with Griffin for Lisa and Brian’s wedding reception party. We left Reid at home with Cameron so he could enjoy sleep and we all could enjoy a more pleasant evening not chasing him everywhere! Griffin had so much fun dancing and hanging with the kids. It was a really fun reception with a live band, lots of dancing, drinks, and fun with several of our neighbors. Oh, and the succulents in the flowers came from Millcreek. Fred’s wife’s company, Madison House Designs, did their flower arrangements. The food was tasty and I love that Griffin devoured his salad. 
On Saturday, Griffin and Kevin joined Lisa, Brian, Cole, Cooper, Bill, and Tammy (Brian’s parents) for some fun at Pins Mechanical in Dublin for a couple hours. Reid and I joined them later and then our family headed for pizza at Tommy’s in Dublin. 
These kids. They play together all the time when the boys are at Brian and Lisa’s. This night I went outside and they are all suited up in play outfits running like crazy from each other on separate teams playing spy. 
We purchased our first family puzzle and put it together pretty quickly! We’ve begun to enjoy sitting down together at the table and putting them together. Griffin is really quick at finding matches!
We’ve had another week of summer fun around here including the season’s last baseball game for Finn. Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein came down and watched him play. It was actually one of the best games of the season with several great hits and plays by the kids. There was so much improvement between the first game and last. 
On Sunday we headed downtown Big City to see the Clippers play. Again, another super hot day, but thankfully our seats were in the shade and there were very few people around us so we had plenty of room to spread out. Reid did really well and spent time cruising down our aisleway. It was Family Fun day where the kids and parents can run the bases at the end of the game. Griffin and Reid (with Kevin’s help) rounded all four :). 
Some of these are kind of fuzzy (not sure I’ll ever be a great photographer) but they serve as good reminders of what our typical days are like at home. The loft is really a great playspace with the carpeted floors and all of the kids toys in one place. The boys like to play with each other and Lily and Brutus often get in on the fun together too – both with each other and with the kids. Brutus tries so hard to get everyone to play with him often bringing things he know he shouldn’t have!
Griffin had a dentist appointment this week where he got two fillings (a milestone I’d rather not have had at this age!). He did so great! They have a tv overhead so he happily watched a show while Dr. Nick worked quickly – we were done in 25 minutes. This practice is certainly efficient (and not inexpensive since we don’t have dental insurance for the boys or me. The used both laughing gas and novocaine – the mask helped to act as a shield where Finn couldn’t really see what was happening so I don’t even think he knew that he was being given a shot here! Afterwards we went to Bob Evans and had a tasty breakfast before I went in to work. Griffin was SO SAD that he couldn’t go with me to work that he cried for probably 10 minutes, just begging to go with me and “work” in my office with me. Poor guy, I was so tempted to take him with me – but I offered a movie at home and he took me up on that instead. He continues to do really well at swim lessons. It’s fun to see his confidence grow each week – just look at his launch off the side. 
George, Fred, and I took a trip this week up to Corso’s in Castalia, OH to see their shipping process in action. We are seriously considering changing our shipping process from a pull by order pick to a “batch pull” pick system where we pick 3-4 trucks at a time. We’ve been looking in to this process since last fall as it is one that would require a new shipping and supermarket-concept facility. Corso’s is very different from Millcreek as they service box stores (Lowe’s and Home Depot) and grow a very limited number of sizes, they have order minimums of shelf quantities, etc., but to see the process in action and view their setup was very helpful. It gave us many ideas and much to talk about!
