Get ready for photo overload! It will come as no surprise that I had a wee bit of trouble narrowing down the photos this week, which means there will be many for you to see!

Last year when Finn was about 10 or 11 weeks old we went to the Powell Memorial Day Parade. It was cold and raining. This year was a completely different story! It was sunny and 80 degrees! There were so many people there and we even ran into our friends, the Eilermans! Many people brought their dogs and Finn loved being able to pet a few of them (and a pony in the parade – see below!). We headed to Rita’s Italian Ice in Powell for a sweet treat to top off the morning.  In the afternoon we headed to the Mihocik/Kessler Memorial Day cookout. We had a fun time and Finn loved having free reign and wandering about amongst so many other kids.  We are loving (me especially!) having a garden right off the edge of the patio. Finn is such an outdoors little guy. He LOVES to go outside to check on the plants and help me water them (and the indoor plants too). In fact, he oftentimes picks up the watering can and pretends to water the houseplants. He does that pretty much everyday! And outside he keeps himself occupied by stacking the empty pots. He loves to dig in the dirt and also loves that Lily is out and about on the patio and in the yard. He says “yilly yilly yilly” to get her to come back over to him. It’s the cutest thing, really. 

Amy and I had been tossing around the idea of going Strawberry picking with the kids. I found Mitchell’s Berries in Plain City, literally just barely outside Dublin, so we gave it a try on Friday morning. Finn and Greta picked some berries and helped themselves to plenty of samples during our adventure. And Graham and Rowan had a good time too – RoRo was my little shadow, coming up to me and saying “whatcha doing Iggy”, “can I help Iggy”, and of course wanting a taste of my lemon-water (“what’s that Iggy”). It was a fun morning and perfect weather! Sarah, Audrey, Samantha, and Mary Lou joined us too.  It was the Memorial Tournament week this week too which is always a fun time. Friday night we had a slumber party here with Debbie and Sammy as Debbie was so kind as to stay at our house to watch Finn so we could go out in the evening. However, the plan changed throughout the day so Debbie and I headed to the Tournament in the late afternoon with Finn and Sammy while Kevin and his dad did some major demolition to the former dining room! They were on a tight schedule to get things ready for the dry-wall people to close-up phase one of the new kitchen. We had a lovely stroll around the golf course and then came home and the boys had some dinner followed by a bit of fun with bath time! And Saturday morning Finn was pretty excited to see Debbie and Sammy and be able to play for a short while before they had to leave.  And Sunday afternoon Finn spent a few hours with Cameron while we were at the Tournament. He really adjusts well to staying with anyone and was totally good with us leaving after the initial shock of major kisses compliments of Clarence, the Howard’s dog!  For the first time I witnessed Finn actually climb something other than the stairs. Here he is, looking all proud and yet also checking in to see if he should be doing what he is doing! We put this box near his playpen so I would remember to take it to work and sure enough he found it and hopped right on top!And a few other shots from the week, here Finn is dancing and snacking while on a recent trip to the mall. And Finn and Sammy are checking out the monkeys and lions at the zoo! An update on the remodeling progress.  Kevin and Jim have made a ton of progress. They demolished the tray ceiling in the former dining room and Jim did tons of electrical wiring in the ceiling of the new kitchen as well as wiring for all of the appliances. Jim also re-wired the Radon pump on the exterior side of our house so the electrical line wasn’t running on the outside for half the length of the side our house. Plumbers were here to rough in the plumbing for the kitchen sink and the gas line for the range.  The drywallers came and hung the ceiling in the new kitchen and the small walk-in utility room. They also finished the walk-in pantry.