Tag Archives: soccer camp

July 2022

July is hot and the pool is cool 🙂 We scattered in a visit to Zoombeezi bay (me, Lilly, and the boys) in July in addition to our other trips to the pool. Reid is really swimming quite well. No more floaties!

We finally were able to get Reid his COVID shot! He was a champ at Powell Pharmacy and as always the staff there is great with everyone, especially kids. Reid also had his 5-year well check (in July! as I had totally forgotten to schedule it for around his birthday – yikes) and he is a super healthy kiddo. He weights in at 43.7 pounds (68th percentile), 43″ (48th percentile), and 16.61 BMI (81st percentile). No shots this go round though we did ask them to treat his largest wart on his right hand.

 

Several family fun activities in July included Bocce at Mom and Dads, family bike rides, and a movie date for Reid and me.

 

This summer we were home during the week of Vacation Bible school at NPC. The boys really enjoyed it. Griffin was a “Wagoneer” and Reid was a “Beetle”.

My parents are always planning fun activities and traditions for everyone. Traditions are something that I really love. This summer it was Griffin’s turn to have a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s all on his own. This is something each grandkid has gotten to do when they are 9 years old. Griffin was so excited to begin this weekend he was counting down the days for it to begin. Mom and Dad picked him up at our house and later that evening they showed in the tool box of fishing supplies they had purchased in order to teach him how to fish and cast the fishing rod. Their weekend also included a fishing trip to Mansfield where Griffin caught 27 fish, including two big bass!  They took him to the playpen and he got to learn how to drive the Mule, a dinner out at Roosters, he painted a shark at the pottery shop, painted rocks at Grandma and Grandpas, and built a fun lego car!  What a fun and memorable weekend for him.

While Griffin was away at Grandma and Grandpa camp we had Reid solo for the weekend. It was a busy weekend with a tour for Cultivate at Millcreek where a busload of people from all over the country came to tour our facilities. That took up most of my Saturday (and it poured rain all morning for the tour!). We took Reid on a fun date to Lion Cub’s cookies 🙂

We also went to the St. Timothy festival to see our friend Paul Koehler play live music. Reid loved all of the kiddo rides, balloon artist, and fun stuff.

Another cross country meet at Liberty Park. This time Griffin was running for Olentangy (lol). They ran 1 mile and Griffin finished in 7:48:21, 25th overall out of 100 boys. He had a lovely cheering section including Mom, Dad, Greta, Rowan, Graham, and Andy. The cuzzies even made awesome signs of encouragement for Griffin 🙂

Lilly, Reid, and I had a fun day cruising around the Zoo. We even rode a bunch of fun rides in the Jungle Jack’s Landing area and we rode the Dinosaur water ride.

A big week for Griffin was Crew Camp at the Historic Crew Stadium. This was a day-long camp (9a-4p) and had a lunch break. He had a fun week of skill drills and scrimmages playing on the real field at Crew Stadium, tours of the stadium, a bus ride to Lower.com with a tour of some cool places there too. The Crew players came through one day and gave high fives to the kids and Griffin was fortunate to get Derrick Etienne Jrs autograph on his Crew flag! The Crew 2 players signed their camp shirts and balls on a different day as well. They were long and hot days but he really had a good time and was of course enamored with meeting players!

More summer t-ball for Reidy. He has a pretty good throw and he likes playing on the field. Though he certainly remains distracted by the dirt infield and is regularly playing in it and dust flies everywhere. But this season he has shown so much maturity in that he is no longer getting so upset if he doesn’t get the ball and a teammate does instead. Woohoo!

Griffin finished up Learn to Play 2 Hockey at Chiller North this summer. He’s really liking hockey and we plan to sign him up to play CAHA House hockey this fall.

Friend Wyatt’s birthday party!

Reid lost his first tooth!  It had been pretty loose for some time but he didn’t want it pulled. Eventually it kind of disappeared and we actually never found it! In order to leave something for the tooth fairy to visit, Lilly and Reid made a tooth for out of clay. It looks great, right? And sure enough the Tooth Fairy made her visit.

We had a fun visit with Haya and Summer before Haya’s little girl #2 arrives next month. And Kevin and I enjoyed a Picnic with the Pops at Columbus Commons with the Kessler’s, Manning’s, and Pilgrims one evening. It was really fun to bring our own food and drink and just hang out in the park and listen to music!

Mom, Amy, Greta, and I had a lovely afternoon of vacation prep in the way of pedicures (for me and Amy, Greta and Mom had previous during Greta’s camp weekend), a meal at Kitchen Social, ice cream at Jeni’s, and a walk across the bridge.

Chrissie turned 40 this year and while Kevin and I weren’t able to make the fun trip to the Dominican Republic with friends I went out with the girls to celebrate at Novella Osteria in Powell. This place is delish and it was awesome that Lisa was able to pick all of us up in her car and we all rode together.

Summer is for sleepovers too, right? Miles spent the night and Reid joined in as well in Griffin’s room.

Kevin’s company had a social gathering at Lincoln Social as many employees were in Columbus from Mexico and other areas out of town. It was a beautiful night to enjoy the rooftop bar and Kevin was able to arrange using the space via his connection to friend Alan Assaf (who is the COO of company who built and manages the property).

Oh Reidy. I remember when Griffin did this kind of thing too. This boy is so silly.

When Griffin returned home from his weekend with Grandma and Grandpa he wanted to show Reid all the things in his tackle box. They sat on the garage floor and went through the whole thing!

Here is a pic of the brisket that Kevin gave a go at in our patio Smoker. It was tasty! And below is a pic of the front garden. I’m pretty happy with how this garden is maturing and the pop of pink with annual color is nice too.

June 2021

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We are in June and full-on-summer-mode full of family fun, pool days, sports, sports camps, attending sports events, Father’s Day, Dad’s birthday, helping Mom and Dad pack up and get some things from Mansfield to Dublin, and so on. Another full and fun month.

Driveway lego and pool days. We love the summer days spent down the street at Jane and Bryan’s pool with friends. We have so much fun with swim lessons and then just pool fun afterwards or on separate days.

I signed the boys up for Locker Soccer summer camp this year – both during the same week, Reid’s for a half day and Griffin’s for a longer time into the afternoon. This is Reid’s first time in an organized camp and his first instructional group outing (like school) since March of 2020. He definitely had fun, but he has lots to learn in regards to sharing, taking turns, and listening. Ugh, it was rather hard to watch him struggle so much in the first few hours and day or two. Many moments of sadness, sitting by himself, not listening to his teachers, and so on. But eventually he turned a corner and participated and listened much better. Being on his own, not really having played with friends his age or having been in group settings for such a prolonged time has certainly had an impact on him.

The following week Griffin attended the Barca Academy soccer camp at Liberty Park in Powell. Kevin and I were both really impressed with how well-run this camp was. From daily check in, starting with a song and national anthem of Spain, organized team groups and two instructors per group. Each group was on the same schedule taking break at the same time, etc. This was our first experience with an all-day camp (9a-3p) and I was a bit nervous leaving him in a public park with strangers! But he absolutely loved it and had a blast every day.

Kevin, Jim, and Griffin were able to go to the last game at historic Crew Stadium. This was special to Kevin, as he has attended each opening game (at Crew Stadium and the first game of the Crew in 1996 at the Horseshoe) and he wanted to attend the final game at Crew Stadium too. The boys had perfect weather and enjoyed a great game. The Crew won in front of a sell out crowd 2-0 versus the Chicago Fire.

It was an evening game, so Reid and I stayed home and had a relaxing night at home complete with a fun bath and movie snuggles in bed.

For Father’s Day, we gifted Kevin tickets to the Columbus Clippers. In celebration of Father’s Day, they allowed field access to run the bases and toss the ball around on the field with your family.  What a fun time! Sports for Griffin, snacks for Reid – ha!

After the game we walked through Kevin’s Base22 office, which is on Nationwide across from the Arena. The boys thought it was pretty neat and it was my first time inside too. Then we headed for a burger at R Bar.

Sean, Max, and Charlotte came to Ohio for a weeklong plus visit and came to Powell a couple of times. We were able to enjoy an outdoor concert in downtown Powell on Village Green. The kids absolutely loved playing together and seeing each other again – it’s been a couple years!

 

Millcreeks end of Spring Celebration was a family event this year held at the Columbus Zoo and Zoombeezi Bay. We had a fun family day walking a bit around the zoo but mostly spending time in the water at the Bay!

In early June we headed to Mansfield to rent a U-Haul in order to move down a few key components from Mom and Dad’s house to their new home in Dublin. Things like the kitchen table and chairs, their bed frame, the dining room china cabinet and buffet, and so on. We packed up the rental pretty full, secured everything down, and headed to Dublin. We are becoming excellent packers, lol. We all drove separately, Kevin in the rental, me in the van with the kids, Mom and Dad in their cars. By the time I stopped home to feed Brutus and let him out and then got over to Dublin they had the van all unloaded thanks to help from Andy and Rowan. Whew – way faster to unload than load that’s for sure! Everything is fitting really nicely in their new space.  From the time Mom and Dad secured their new home, Dad said he wanted to close and have possession in order to celebrate his birthday there – and that is exactly how it played out! We got City BBQ carryout and enjoyed our first family dinner there to celebrate Dad’s birthday.

This year on Nathan’s birthday, we visited the cemetery with flowers I’d cut from our gardens. We cleaned up Nathan’s headstone and prayed for our family. Reid had some questions as each year he has more of an understanding of who Nathan is and of course this year questions about where he is. It’s always an emotional visit.

This picture I snapped of the sunrise a bit before 6 am from our back patio. The colors were beautiful! I seem to be in a normal routine of waking up about 5:40 every morning, without an alarm clock. So Brutus and I head downstairs for coffee and breakfast together. We’ve been doing some yard clean-up, including trimming trees in the back. We’re hopeful that this will be the year we are able to put in a new patio and revamp our back yard.

I’ve planted a handful of annuals out front: angelonia, lantana, salvia, verbena, and new guinea impatiens to spruce up the front and add some constant color.  Looking forward to these things getting big!

 

1179 Pearce Drive is beginning to look much different with things moved out and what is left having been rearranged. I headed up to Mansfield for a trip to dig up plants for Millcreek – some ginger and mini-polygonatum. We got many many crates which I drove down to Millcreek and loaded on to a rack. It was hot and we were sweaty but it was fun!

Reidy is usually my morning buddy, joining me on the patio this morning for coffee and cuddles. He also likes to help Kevin mow the lawn.

We’re excited for Griffin to have the opportunity to play on the Olentangy United Football Club soccer team this upcoming year. He will play on the U9 Blue Team with practices and most games in Lewis Center and Powell areas. Griffin is pretty excited!

And here are a few to wrap up June.  Matching PJ’s, a visit from Haya and baby Summer, and a celebration for Chris Howard’s 50th birthday complete with a really cool cake!

 

Reidy got a splinter in his foot (from our kitchen floor, ugh!) and he was really upset! It was a challenge to get out, but we got it!

 

And here are some fun videos.

 

June 1-15, 2019

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We woke up early Saturday morning and decided to get busy marking things off our Summer Bucket List. First up – strawberry picking! It was a rather interesting experience with TONS of people and the farm moved people through kind of like herding cattle. But, we picked an two full buckets of strawberries in a short amount of time. They also had baby cows there that you could pet, though they were mostly just sleeping.

After strawberry picking we picked up Charlotte and headed back to our house. We changed our clothes, left Reid napping with Charlotte, and took Griffin to the Memorial Tournament in Dublin. It was a sunny, beautiful afternoon. A great day for watching golf. Griffin got a couple of autographs and got to see Tiger Woods pretty close (he’s the golfer in the pic below atop Griffin’s head).

Sunday was the last flag football game of the season, which this year they got to play at Jerome High School football field in Dublin. Reid loved exploring the bleachers and tackling Daddy on the sidelines.

Late Sunday afternoon Kevin and I headed out on a date night. First stop, Wheelie Fun Bicycle shop in Powell where we got Griffin a new bike. He’s been needing a bigger bike for awhile and it was fun to pick one out and bring it home as a surprise! We enjoyed time at Nocterra and Koble in Powell and we also walked around Powell and checked out the new building and development that is going on.

Monday morning Griffin started Soccer Camp, through Locker Soccer in Powell that was held at Library Park right around the corner from our house. He had so much fun! After the first day they moved him up to the older kids group which provided him with a more challenging set of skills to learn. He came home each day telling us what he learned and how well he did. It was awesome, thanks Grandma and Grandpa Beilstein for sending Finn to soccer camp!

Mid-week this week Nocterra had the Columbus Zoo visit their beer garden. It was SO crowded but so cool to see some fun animals and so many families with young kids hanging out.

Over the weekend we went to the Duncan’s summer party in our neighborhood. Griffin was so excited to go fishing and ride the paddle boat out on the water. And Reid kept wanting to play their “baby” grand piano, lol.  Later that night we read him his books on our porch and he asked if he could spend the night on the porch. We agreed he could (honestly I thought it wouldn’t last!) but he slept out there the entire night!

On Sunday we headed to Mansfield to celebrate Dad’s birthday along with Father’s Day. The kids enjoyed catching bubbles and playing outside. Do you see Griffin in the picture standing next to the hosta – that is the one named after him “Mighty Finn”! It’s a beauty! And then there is the ginormous hosta that he is standing essentially under in the driveway. Dad had been collecting plants from around the garden and his beds in preparation for heading to the Hosta Convention.

Next camp for the summer: Safety Town! They had several sessions, but the one we chose was put on by the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office and held just up the road at Liberty Middle School. Griffin learned so many things throughout the week. I was able to drop him off on my way to work and Haya picked him up. It was so cool to see what they were going to learn about each day. The list included – Day 1: Pedestrian, Bus, Bicycle Safety.  Day 2: Electrical, Drug, Stranger Safety.  Day 3: Fire Safety.  Day 4: Gun, Outdoor, 9-1-1 Safety  and Day 5: Friendly Sheriff, Water, Seat Belt Safety followed by Graduation where he was given a medal and they sang a few “safety” songs that they learned throughout the week.

I took the boys to the zoo and we explored a short bit, then ate our packed dinner and cooled off with ice cream before we left.

My latest snack invention: banana sushi sticks made of banana coins with a smidge of peanut butter, a raisin, and a pretzel stick. I’m trying to find new snack ideas that are more nutritous and more filling so they don’t want to eat e-v-e-r-y hour!

There is a newer cookie bakery in Powell called Mrs. Turbo’s Cookies so we stopped there for a sweet treat one evening. It’s a cute 50’s themed bakery that has an eat-in counter.

We also checked out the new Dublin Library this week amid the pouring down rain. Griffin got his own library card and we checked out several books and signed up for the reading challenge this summer. Griffin, Reid, and Kevin also got their hair cut at Powell Hair Design, which is more like an old school barbershop in Powell. Griffin can barely fit in the car these days!

Here are a few odds and ends from the week including some artwork from Haya and Griffin, Lily and Brutes sharing the tiny closet space, and the progress on the dock pit at Millcreek at our new Facility.