As I noted at the end of March, I flew home from our spring break / North Carolina trip two days early in order to go on a girls trip which I’d planned awhile back. Jaime, Amy, and I drove to Indianapolis for a quick girls getaway. We walked around Indy, went to a show, walked around Newfields, indulged in sweet treats, enjoyed several nice meals and just hung out and caught up on life. It was nice!
How does it go – when Mom is away the boys will play? Once Kevin and the boys returned from NC they had a fun boys weekend that started with the Early Bird Soccer Tournament at Spindler in Hilliard. Kevin picked up Dad and they watched Griffin’s team have a good weekend of games, finishing as Champions! I was able to get dropped off at the field for the end of the final game so that was fun to see. Go OUFC Boys U09 Blue!
In between games on this particular day the boys played the Dads in a pickup game of soccer. Now this was fun to watch! The boys had so much fun and the dads did too. Here are a few more pics of this month’s soccer games. Luckily I was able to make it to each of them despite my work schedule 🙂
Griffin is having fun at the Learn to Play hockey lessons. Each week he literally says he “can’t wait to get on the ice”. He’s on the left.
For his 100th day of school Reid counted and packed up 100 cotton balls!
It’s nice to be able to go to Tyler Run again for different activities. This time, it was for the art show where students are work is displayed throughout the hallways. I love to see Griffin’s creativity! He also wrote the poem that he is holding up. This was shortly after we returned from North Carolina and both Kevin and I were so impressed with his poem!
Feel the warm on your feet.
The blue water on your body.
Find the shards of sea shells and feel the blaze of the sun.
What a treasure of a vacation.
Grandpa came over one afternoon to hang out with Griffin and open and sort some of the many packages of sports cards Grandma and Grandpa gave him for his birthday. So Many Cards! Griffin is literally such a sports fanatic. He knows a ridiculous number of players, their number, position, team. It is pretty remarkable. Anytime Kevin or I want to know something we just ask him!
Our annual daffodils with food coloring :).
Dad is using the former shipping hut at Millcreek as growing space for his hostas. Dad (with periodic help from me and Mom) has gradually been updating and customizing the space, including weed mat, benches, closing in the ends with shade cloth and irrigation.
On this cold and misty day I took the boys to the Powell Egg Hunt. It was cold and had been raining so it wasn’t nearly as busy as prior years. The boys teamed up together in the 7-10 year zone and hauled in a lovely number of eggs. A couple of days later we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt in Bartholomew Lakes with our neighbors and friends. So much fun and candy!
And the following day the Maxwells hosted another small egg hunt for the Bolans, Duncans, and Armstrongs as they had the day confused and weren’t ready on the day of the neighborhood hunt. This kind and fun couple put together eggs full of coins, $2 in each egg, and every kid got 7 eggs. Woah! They just love all of these kiddos and their fun and energy. They often remark how they love to see them outside playing all of the time.
We also enjoyed a fun egg hunt at the Bethune’s with the cousins and then a nice dinner to celebrate Greta’s 9th birthday!
Handsome Brutes and some other photos from the month. We definitely enjoy being outside on our new patio and walk as much as possible.
Reid has a lot of fun at pre-school in his Monkey pre-K class. He did a fun questionnaire for both Mom and Dad and as typical the answers are funny. Carrots? We’re both 80. Lots of answers about working so much. That makes me sad to be honest. But I try to remind myself that once spring is over I get to have a very flexible schedule the remainder of the year.
In 3rd grade with Miss Robinson this year, Griffin’s class had pen pals with Miss Robinson’s Orange High School softball team where she is the varsity coach. Griffin’s pen pal was Reagan, and throughout the year they wrote each other notes back and forth. Toward the end of the school year Miss Robinson organized a night where the kids could come to the games (JV and Varsity) and meet their pen pals and watch them play. It was a lot of fun and Griffin got some ball time in with Reagan and her teammates too.
Reid enjoyed a fun birthday party for a class mate at Graeter’s! It’s so nice for him to be making friends and connections this year in school, having not gone to school last year due to Covid. He is a social butterfly and loves to make friends.
Here are a few work snaps of what is to come. Spring is nearly here!
December arrived in beautiful colors this year – these pictures are from my morning walk on December 1st, about 7 am. The pictures don’t even capture the colors like they appeared in real life!
December 1 also begins our tradition of daily readings of the Christmas Story from our Advent calendar. We also ventured out to get a true live tree for our front entry. We went to Home Depot (ugh, I know) and got a 6′ Balsam Fir which is actually quite beautiful!
Saturday December 4th was the Frosty’s Gift Shop and Scholastic Book Fair at Tyler Run. Griffin also played in a 4v4 indoor soccer tournament that day, in which his team placed 2nd. I wasn’t able to go to the tourney as I was helping with the book fair during the same time. Fortunately, the tourney was early morning and Griffin was still able to come to school and shop at Frosty’s. He was so excited he was able to do that! We ended up selling just over $3,000 in books at the fair – we were busy!
As if the day wasn’t busy enough, in the afternoon we headed back to Powell Pharmacy for Griffin’s second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. This time Griffin was so brave and confident and it was a breeze!
Look at our little Reidy from 4 years ago! Ugh, I miss that baby stage and all those paci’s! Reid is all about Brutus snuggles.
In preparation for our annual candy making day on Sunday, I had some help making the buckeye dough from Reid. And Kevin assisted me with the sugar cookie cut outs!
Prior to the candy making starting, Reid and Griffin attended Ella’s surprise birthday party at KSM Fitness. Griffin absolutely loved this space as it was all athletics and games the entire time! Touch football, obstacle courses, and such. Reid struggled from time to time but finally found his happy place in the donut.
Candy Making was a success! This year we were joined by the Bethunes (Amy, Rowan, and Graham came and were later joined by Andy and Greta after her dance rehearsal), Mom and Dad, the Manning family, and a short visit from the Vertuccis. We made buckeyes, rolo/pretzel bites, iced sugar cookies and hard tack candy in flavors of lemon, peppermint, and cinnamon. We feasted on chili, hot dogs, fruit, and chips for lunch/dinner.
Lilly crafted this fun family of me, Kevin, Griffin, and Reid – isn’t it super cute!
Griffin brought home some art work before winter break including paintings and also a ceramic donut! I’m proud of his creativity and the fun he has at school. They also created gingerbread traps in his class at school (see the instagram shot).
Kevin had an in person and virtual work party with offices joining from Mexico and Columbus as well as people who were in Brazil, Arizona, and Cleveland! It was a fun concept with messages from their leaders (Joe, Kevin, and Rafael) via live video and also raffle drawings. It was a fun time in person as we wore ugly sweaters, hahaha. There were about 13 of us in attendance at the office in Columbus, all vaccinated and boosted!
We got a start with wrapping by wrapping Kevin’s birthday gifts and Lilly’s Christmas gifts at the same time. These kiddos love some wrapping. For Kevin’s birthday we ventured to Greta’s Nutty Nutcracker dance performance, Rowan’s Select hockey game (he played our neighbor Cooper’s team), and then on to Mom and Dad’s where we enjoyed pizza and a delicious chocolate brownie cake my mom made. It was rich and delicious.
Poor Reidy came down with a little bug in the middle of the month. He had a runny nose and a slight cough, so we decided to take him to Nationwide Children’s on a Monday morning and and get tested for Covid. The results took about 6 hours – and I was checking the app all the time waiting for them!! Thankfully, it was negative. Then Tuesday (a day he doesn’t have school), when I arrived home from work he was asleep on the barstools and I knew that wasn’t a good sign! I picked him up and he felt warm and turns out he had a mild fever of 100. He sat on my lap a few minutes and then got down and said “I’m going to bed” and sure enough he walked upstairs at just after 6 pm and put himself to bed for the night. Sadly, that was the day before his Christmas Program at school, so we weren’t able to go this year. I was so super bummed as I had taken that day off work months ago in anticipation of the cuteness of 4 year olds trying to sing songs on a stage. Ugh. Even worse, he seemed to remain the same for a few days so sadly he and I also stayed home from the For King and Country concert, Little Drummer Boy, which we’d planned to go to as a family months ago! But Kevin and Griffin went, and even met up with Amy, Andy, Graham, Rowan, and Greta before hand at Local Cantina for a quick dinner. They enjoyed the show very much.
Griffin arrived home on the last day of school with treats from his class party and a book from his teacher’s mom! Miss Robinson has her pen pals and her mom each year give books to a kid in the class, like secret Santa. Griffin was lucky to receive Captain Underpants.
On December 15, George closed on 17 acres of land from the neighboring farmer to the north. This is the same farmer we purchased the land where the I-huts and our Shipping Facility sit. On the 16th, George, Fred, Doug, and I walked the perimeter of the new property together. This will almost double our acreage (we currently sit at 20 acres on 2 parcels). Now the fun begins in how to develop it!
While Daddy and Griffin were at the For King and Country concert, Reidy and I made some sugar cookie dough and frosting for my OU girlfriends gathering that was happening the next day. Reidy wore a mask the whole time but he was in good spirits and loved being a helper. We turned our night in into a fun mom and Reid night, complete with Roosters carryout – at the request of Reidy. Aaaannndddd, they finally had the mac-and-cheese bites available. He was so happy 🙂
On Saturday, the 18th, my friends Jaime, Kim, and Amy came over for a fun day of brunch and making cookies and catching up. I made a couple of quiches, cinnamon rolls, and bacon and we had mimosas. Then we got to work on making peanut butter kisses, sugar cookies, and gluten-free oatmeal cookies. We had so much fun!
Remember when I said before that I dropped off the letters to Santa? Well, Santa wrote both Griffin and Reid back! They were so excited to get these letters in the mail!
Over winter break the boys have been having fun making forts in the basement using the air hockey table. Griffin even spent the night down there one night!
Check out the moon on the morning of December 21, the winter solstice!
One of our family traditions is to put on Christmas jammies, load up in the car with hot cocoa, and drive around looking at Christmas lights. This year we headed to Glen Ross neighborhood as well as Lucy Depp Park. They were both really neat.
With our new up lights in the front Kevin used some lighting film and turned them red and green for the holidays 🙂
Lilly drew us the most awesome family picture as our Christmas gift! Even Brutie is on there! We love it.
A few random December images….
Griffin discovered this on the passenger door handle of our van when we were leaving, none other than Roosters, one evening. What a wonderful surprise! We brought it home and passed it along – Griffin delivered it to one of our neighbors in stealth mode not to be seen.
We’ve signed Griffin up for the Columbus Blue Jackets Learn to Play program starting in January. For first time enrollees, they provide all of the equipment – from skates, stick, jersey, all the pads, helmut – so much equipment! It arrived and all fits great. He is eager for January!
We went to the 5 pm service at NPC on Christmas Eve, which was a service of carols and readings. It concluded with candle light for everyone. After church we went to Mom and Dads and enjoyed sloppy joes followed by dessert of meringues, ice cream, and fudge sauce. Then our traditional PJ’s and this year a couple of Christmas stories read by Grandpa.
We returned home (quite late!) to put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Then those kiddos were off to bed. Griffin had hopes of getting up at 5 am, but it was 8:10 before I heard any pitter patters in the house! The boys came downstairs and were excited but not overly energetic, surprisingly! They methodically went through their gifts and stockings. It was a nice and rather slow morning.
I totally forgot to give Brutus his stocking until we had been opening gifts for about an hour! He was so excited when he realized he got two new toys. He pranced all around and played with them for hours! He and I went on a walk – a very soaking one – in the neighborhood. It was a soggy Christmas.
Early afternoon we headed to Mom and Dad’s for gifts and Christmas dinner. Each of the kiddos took turns passing out gifts to everyone. A fun time was had by everyone followed by a delicious dinner of beef tenderloin, gruyere potatoes, wedge salads, green beans, and figgy pudding with foamy sauce for dessert.
On Boxing Day we went to the Bethune’s where everyone played a game of street hockey on the courts. Then back to their house for lunch! Pretty nice weather for December!
Later that afternoon we were joined by Jim and Pat to keep the Christmas celebrations going! We had a lasagne dinner (no one fell ill, lol) and pecan pie and cookies for dessert (and some whip cream, ha!). Then we had a nice time opening gifts.
Monday after Christmas Haya and Summer came over for brunch and to visit for a little bit. Big news, baby Summer is going to be a big sister! Haya is due in late August! Griffin was excited to put on all his new gear to show her.
The boys and Kevin headed to Top Golf with some neighbors for a couple of hours of golf fun. It was the first time for all three of them and they loved it. Both Griffin and Reid declared they want to have their birthday’s there this year.
We gathered on the Bolans patio to do our neighborhood kids gift exchange. Crazily, the kids are sitting almost in age order in this pic without setting them up this way! Other than little Abbie and Dewey!
With the warmer weather we’ve been getting outside. Griffin and Reid came on my Brutie walk too. With Griffin’s new watch that has a step counter he is all about getting in a lot of steps (or rolls in this case).
The boys had a sleepover at Mom and Dad’s on Thursday. This was the only photo Mom took – Reid was wiped out on the couch before dinner! So Reid. They had really fun time of pizza dinner, sports watching, and a big breakfast!
And we are closing out 2021 in a very relaxing fashion. We are on movie number 3!
Here’s to a great 2022!
And here are this months videos. So….many….videos! 🙂
Reid. He is uniquely Reid. I mean, I guess we are each uniquely ourselves, but this kid has his own spunk, sass, style and personality that he brings to every situation.
Griffin’s team played in a few tournaments throughout the season. This one, in Newark, was a great one for them and the ended as finalists (2nd place). They lost in the final championship game to a team that was really quite excellent. But these boys have fun and are improving and playing like a team, passing better and better with each game. Reid loves these kids and the feeling is mutual. They call him the team mascot.
We were able to return from Day 1 of the soccer tourney to attend the Fall Festival at Tyler Run. It poured down rain shortly before we went so everything was soaking wet! The boys had a great time playing games and Griffin got to hang with a couple of friends for a bit.
On the 2nd day of the tournament Kevin went solo as I had a girls day with my college friends planned. Griffin’s team did well and the ended up in the finals and I didn’t want to miss, so I ended up heading to Newark just in time to arrive after the start of the game. It was a rough one, they were shut-out. But the fun in receiving medals and celebrating having a great tournament was a good time.
Reid has a lot of fun at NPCA, including visits from fire fighters! He and Lilly have fun on his afternoons at home and on Tuesday’s when he doesn’t have school.
I took the day off to attend Reid’s field trip to the Maze. Full of fun-fall-adventures including a wagon ride, picking a pumpkin and two gourds, feeding goats, and doing fun games.
More t-ball where Reid’s personality continues to shine. From fits and tantrums for not getting “every” ball, to playing with sand or talking with friends, every game is an adventure.
From Little Reidy to big Reidy.
We went away for a weekend to Hocking Hills to celebrate our neighbor Brian’s 40th birthday. The Craig’s, Dennie’s, and us had a nice time in a cabin that had a fun basement and hot tub. We were able to go hiking at hocking hills, eat a lot of good fun, and just hang out and chat. We woke up early Saturday morning, came back to Columbus for Reid’s tball and Griffin’s soccer game, and then headed back. Kind of crazy – but Griffin only had 3 games left and they only have 3 subs when every player is there! He didn’t want to miss (and honestly I didn’t want to myself!).
Funny thing – a few days after we returned, Mom and Dad went to hocking hills with the Dewald’s and also hiked Old Man’s Cave!
We attended the season opener for the Columbus Blue Jackets with the Bethune’s and Mom and Dad. We had great seats in the Scotts Terrace and the Blue Jackets came away with a great victory.
Third grade pictures are in! Just look at this kid growing up. If I was only able to pause time I would do it in an instant. He and I went on a fun date to the Columbus zoon one day and had fun feeding the giraffes amongst other things.
More soccer……! Griffins team placed 2nd in their age group at a tournament in Hilliard at Spindler Park. It was a fun tourney as cousin Rowan was also playing there so we were able to catch him playing as well. Lilly came to watch and Mom and Dad bounced between fields!
Poor decision, as I had already rescheduled our tickets one time, but we had tickets to attend the Pumpkins Aglow at the Franklin Park Conservatory – which ended up being the evening after the soccer tournament (second day) and everyone would have rather stayed home and lounged. Both boys fell asleep on the way to the conservatory! Thankfully the rain was finished and though wet grounds, we didn’t have to walk around in the rain itself. It was a neat exhibit.
As is neighborhood tradition, we gathered in our driveway for pizza and social time prior to heading out for trick or treat. This year the adults decided to get inflatable costumes too as a surprise to the kids. Unfortunately, mine wouldn’t inflate so I didn’t partake in the fun. But several neighbors enjoyed the adult costumes as much as the kids. Mom and Dad visited with us and stayed behind to pass out candy while we explored the neighborhood. It was a great night of weather for trick or treating.
Here are several videos from this month’s soccer games 🙂
