Tag Archives: npc

October 16-31, 2019

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

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!

July 15, 2018

It’s been another week full of fun and adventure as we prepare to go on vacation in a couple of days! This week it was VBS: Mission Unstoppable at church. This was Finn’s second year going and he had a great time! I was able to take him in the mornings and witness some of the fun they have each day. He really loves all of the songs and activities that they do all week.  Griffin has been doing really well at his swim lessons each week. He’s getting more and more comfortable in the water. This week when he exited the pool area he was carrying a card that said “I graduated today!” He is moving on to Level 4, Sea Horses! He was so excited. We’ve also been having dance parties in the evenings at home. Here you can check out some moves of Finn and Reid. It’s a bit long, but I love to see their personalities come out as they dance. 

It’s been a warm one this week, which means cool treats and inside time too. Kevin and I have been fortunate to have Jenn stay late one evening each week for a “date night”. So she has a fun night at home with the kids also, which this week was a movie and popcorn night with Finn after Reid went to bed.

On Friday Mom came down and treated the girls to our annual pre-vacation pedicure! We went to Elli Nail Spa in Powell and then enjoyed a tasty dinner at Local Roots followed by dessert at Graeter’s.  Yummers.  Full belly, full heart! And check out this awesome smile. Who knew spaghetti o’s and meat balls could make someone so happy, lol!

This Sunday at Finn’s baseball game Kevin pitched when Finn was up to bat. It’s not the best video (you’ll hear Reid fussing and I missed the arc of the hit!) but you get the idea. Just one for the memory books for later.