Tag Archives: pinewood derby

April 2021

Happy Easter! We got all spiffed up and went to church on Easter Sunday for the first time in a very long time amid the Covid pandemic. We enjoyed church, and then afterward while leaving our parking spot had a slight fender bender where two of us leaving at the same time backed in to each other. Ugh. Made for a memorable return to church. We were barely moving and no one was injured, just some cosmetic damage to Kevin’s bumper.

The highlight reel, and reality – ha! In all fairness it was quite bright.

We had a lovely easter egg hunt in the Duncan’s yard with our neighborhood crew. The kids ran all over and scooped up candy and other treasures like rings and bouncy balls.

A bit later in the afternoon we hosted a driveway gathering with the Bethune’s, Mom, and Dad. We had some desserts and another fun easter egg hunt with the cousins. Lots more treasures were scooped up!

I’m on the neighborhood Landscape Committee and we’re looking to make some improvements to the common areas within the neighborhood. So Kathy, Jane, Beth, Carlene, and I headed out on a tour of the neighborhood to make notes and put together some ideas on things we can do. We’ll be planting some spring bulbs, pruning and cleaning up some overgrown shrubs, and planting some new plants in the coming months.

Since I’m going back and writing this post in November (for April) it kind of feels like forever ago. Here are a few pics of Griffin playing spring soccer with his I9 team and receiving a medal for the week.

The weather has been all over the place this spring. As evidenced by soccer outside in shorts and s’mores outdoors with no coats to several inches of snow! The snow made for pretty pictures at least!

Griffin’s Boy Scout Pack 248 is going to hold the Pinewood Derby this year, outdoors, so Griffin and Kevin got to work making his car. He went with an Ohio State theme again this year and learned how to use the drill to help with sanding and such.  Griffin came in 3rd place overall this year, which he was super pleased with. It wasn’t until afterwards when we retrieved his car that we noticed a malfunction – the sticker was unpeeling from the bottom which was undoubtedly caused from friction and slowed down his car. Lesson learned for the next time!  The kids vote on other awards for different themes and Griffin also received the award for best themed sports car.

We started our annual batch of garden seedlings in the kitchen again this year. Probably most notable in these pictures is Reid’s “haircut” that he gave himself recently.  Pretty good view from the top, lol.

This section of photos I’ll entitle “The many shenanigans of Reid.” Throughout the months of March and April we really have not had childcare and Kevin has watched the boys while also working from home. It is no easy feat and I have no idea how he can do it. During the short stints I’m at home I am far more prone to lose my marbles. Reid is often on his own with periodic check ins from Kevin. So he’s enjoyed some nice exploration shall we say. Kevin often finds him in the afternoon sleeping in random places. He’s at the stage where he really could use a nap, but refuses one if you suggest it, yet he’s asleep in random places. In addition to practicing his scissor skills, he’s also given coloring his face a go.  Super cute! So these are some memorable photos of Kevin finding him getting into various things when coming off work calls.

Nothing like building a snowman in April!

It might be time for a hair cut for Griffin 🙂

Dad came down to Millcreek to pick up a load of soil, so I surprised him by shoveling it all into cans while he was at lunch with George. Dad will likely use some Millcreek greenhouse space moving forward as Mom and Dad look to move to Dublin.

And here are a few from my Google photos “memories”.  A great picture of Kevin, from one year ago already! And some others of Griffin at the age of 4 and 5, where Reid is now. Seems like the blink of an eye!

 

And here are some videos for the books:

February 1-15, 2020 ~ We have a Pinewood Derby champion!

Griffin and Kevin worked on preparing Griffin’s first ever pinewood derby car over the last couple of weeks. Griffin decided he wanted a Buckeye car and he chose the thin shape for the car. They went to the hardware store and had it cut down and then got to work sanding and painting and assembling. They made a trip to Buckeye corner to purchase some OSU things and Kevin purchased weights and other items online. The night before the weigh in the troop sent out some info and in it suggested that nothing on the underside of the car not be flush with the underside! Arrgghh! The weights they built into the car were not flush on the bottom. So they went to work modifying the car and adding the weight to the top – the shiny silver oval which is where the “driver” now sits.

Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong had been in town helping care for the kids so early the morning of the Derby Kevin, Jim, and Griffin headed over. Not long after Kevin texted to say I better make my way there as Griffin’s heat was happening soon. I took Reid (not the best decision, but didn’t want him to miss out) and we arrived just a short bit before Griffin’s heat. Reid wondered around the gym and made friends with older kids and inserted himself with the big boys playing cars in the corner. This kid, he knows no stranger. Griffin’s car did super-great. He set a new track record, followed by another track record (as in he beat himself, lol). In the end, he competed against 3 other kids in the troop for the championship. It was a super-tight race – and he ended up winning the overall champion! The final calculations took some time as it was down to hundreds of a second I believe. We had one super happy (yet shy) champ!

 

Later that evening we celebrated at Finn’s chosen dinner spot: Roosters. Only a few short days later Griffin woke up with a mild fever. I gave him some Tylenol and it went away and never returned that day. On Friday, when I got home from work I felt his head and he felt warm and sure enough his fever was back. Since it was the start of the weekend, Kevin took him to the Children’s urgent care where the result of the swab was Influenza B.  Ugh.  We had plans to go to a Magic Show with several neighbor families. We ended up quarantining Griffin in his room starting Friday evening! He hung out in there, we delivered food and drink and medicine. He had the tablet on which we installed the Spectrum app so he could watch the Blue Jackets. Really, he had it made! Luckily his symptoms weren’t too bad though he did have issues on Saturday night where he threw up in his room and then had potty problems. I think went from not drinking enough to drinking too much hence the puking.  But after that he was fine the remainder of the weekend.  No fever, no meds.  Then on Sunday evening he felt a bit warm and darnit – his fever was back!  Ugh, no school on Monday for him either. But luckily, the fever never returned after one dose of medicine and he was back to his normal self.

This was Griffin’s excited face when he was finally allowed out of his room for a snack and a bit of outdoor fresh air with a short bike ride.

Kevin and Reid went on a date to the Magic Show with dinner first at the Spaghetti Warehouse!

Being home while Griffin was sick gave me some time to finally get Reid’s car seat flipped around in the van. Wahoo!

Next up, Reid wasn’t feeling well and had an on/off fever with no real other symptoms other than he wasn’t sleeping well. The last time he didn’t sleep well he had an ear infection, so I decided to take him in to get looked at. Sure enough, his ear infection from December was still around despite two different antibiotics. Next step: injection antibiotics for back to back days! Ugh, because of the dose they split it up into two shots (one in each leg). His first dose was Monday. On Tuesday’s recheck it was looking much better so we only had to have the second set of injections (thankfully not a third on Wednesday) and a follow up with an ENT at Children’s. He was a tough boy but he was NOT happy during and immediately after the shots. Poor boy!

This year I took the easy route and bought the kids Valentine boxes at Target for $5. Ones that they can easily assemble and customize. The Taco one is perfect for Griffin and the Monster is great for Reid. They decorated them with Haya during the day and each took them to school for their parties. We did make our own valentine cards though – Reid’s a school of fish (his preschool class is the Guppy class) and Griffin’s was an awesome word puzzle greeting where his classmates could find each of the words “Happy Valentine’s Day Your Friend Griffin Armstrong Heart Candy February Flowers Treat Hugs Card Chocolate”. Kevin put it together and it was awesome!

 

Thanks for the Valentine’s cookies Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein!

On actual Valentine’s Day Haya made the boys an everything “heart/pink” breakfast!

Reid had his first dental checkup – and somehow – he was cavity free! He and Griffin loved playing in the playspace before hand. Griffin was a champ and went first to show Reid the way. His teeth were in great shape too – no cavities. When it was finally Reid’s turn he was really reluctant. I ended up sitting with him in the chair and the hygienist was able to get through the entire teeth cleaning. Dr. Bob was able to check out all of Reid’s teeth and get lots of giggles out of Reid in the process. Overall it was a great trip!

Reid’s specialist ENT appointment at Dublin Children’s showed that he still had some fluid in his ears, which isn’t abnormal after an infection. At this point it is what happens to the fluid – if the infection comes back, which the doctor thought we just need to give it some more time. If the infection reappears, we may then consider tubes. For now it is wait and see.

When playing with his neighborhood buddy Miles recently they each designed their own CBJ jersey’s to wear while playing hockey! And here are a few of Griffin and Reid from awhile back to now – they’re both growing up quickly! And another from google of 10 years ago (yikes!) when Mom and Dad helped me move into my house. Crazy it has been 10 years.

Kevin also got a message from Rafael that Base22 had met and was able to officially extend an offer to Kevin! They had been in discussions for some time, but this was the official vote needed to extend Kevin an offer.  Yippeeee!