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!
Trick or Treat! It was a soggy and wet night for Trick or Treat this year, but the boys enjoyed walking around the neighborhood with Abbie and Finn’s classmate Ethan, who joined us this year. Reid made it 3/4 of the way through the neighborhood before heading home to get to bed. Griffin had so much candy that by the last house it was spilling out the top of his pumpkin!
I was able to go to Finn’s class party this week. All of the kids were dressed in their costumes and enjoying sweet treats and classroom games. The second group picture is of Mrs. Menary and Mrs. Wilkers classes together as they investigated the differences in the white and orange pumpkins. 
Here are some samplings of Griffin’s artwork. The first is a drawing of our family and the second is Finn playing football which still seems to be his all time favorite sport. 
Griffin earned his third sticker on his pink booklet this week, learning the words as, an, can, have, was. 
And here are some other photos from our week. The boys love playing in the driveway, I made Instant Pot Sesame Chicken which turned out delish (nevermind the look on Finn’s face!), the boys enjoying ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa Armstrongs, and unfortunately the last one is of them at the pediatrician’s office where they were both diagnosed with Croup! Griffin woke up Sunday at 5:30 in the morning and sounded like he was having a really hard time breathing. He kind of freaked himself out and began gagging and drooling (and then began to freak me out). Neither of them seem too bad, though our experience at the pediatric support center (affiliated with our pediatricians office) was less than ideal. The nurse gave Finn his medicine first, but mistakenly gave him Reid’s dose. I asked her if she gave him the wrong syringe as they had a confused look on her face, and she proceeded to ask Finn to open wide as she dispensed more medication from the second syringe into his mouth (down to a certain amount and then stopped). She then had Reid open wide and gave him the remaining portion. I was not happy at all and asked the physician to come back in to the room. He had the personality of a card board box and wasn’t really apologetic much at all. I’ve since voiced my concern and experience to our actual pediatricians office who were quite apologetic that we had such a poor experience. 
I enjoyed a fun day at home this week with the boys. As everyone knows, I’m not gifted with art, but I do love how much fun the kids have with it. So I broke out a bunch of paints and some paper and the kids went to town. Griffin is really creative and likes making many different pieces of art. We also ended with a fun bath, which was quite necessary by the end!
We completed another puzzle this week – it was another one that gave us some challenges! Those tree branches are much harder than they appear at first glance!
The Bethune’s invited us to the Dublin Spooktakular this week where the kids enjoyed dressing up in their costumes and filling their bags full of crazy amounts of candy! Reid was Mr. Independent and wanted to walk (or really wander) everywhere. Kevin had to work late so he wasn’t able to join us this year. But we did enjoy some pizza dinner before we headed home. 
Griffin was treated to a spontaneous Daddy date on Friday when Kevin was home early from work. They had a late afternoon lunch at Corner Bakery, followed by fun at Dave and Buster’s.
Reid and Griffin play pretty well together most of the time. Reid definitely lets you know if he doesn’t want to be doing something – he will scream loud and clear. He is very observant and regularly mocks behaviors that he sees. 
We made our annual trip to Young’s Jersey Dairy this weekend to go pumpkin picking. We rode the trailer out to the fields where we walked all around to find our perfect pumpkins. It was a blue-sky day with pretty clouds, though it was a bit windy!
We are building 5 new greenhouses at Millcreek in the I-pad and have had a new well drilled in that area also (that’s the white stub). So we’ve been clearing some trees and getting the area ready to start construction. It’s been several years since we’ve put up new huts!