Park and a Birthday!

We got to celebrate my dad's birthday! We chose a park that would have something for everyone to enjoy and everyone packed their own food for lunch. It was a pretty warm day but that's better than rainy or having to cancel! 

My mom brought the cupcakes!

Pat

The guys played KanJam. Alex and my dad are on the far side.

Happy birthday dad!

Being attacked with bubbles

They used to climb this hill all the time to watch the trains go by

Owen and Paige rolled down the hill, inspired by Aunt Jamie!

 

Binx

I feel like I did a cat post recently but I have so many new Binx pictures that it made sense to do another one. Binx has been making so much progress with getting friendlier and seeking us out at night to have a nap next to us which Griffin never does. I hope it continues past his time as a kitten!

I actually caught a video of this moment where I was sitting on the kitchen floor and Binx was checking things out and then crawled into my lap! I think these are normal things for most cats but not ours!

Binx got to some shots at the vet on this day and was extra sleepy while we watched Survivor

This picture makes me laugh because he looks like a completely different kitten

I was sitting in the kitchen and catching up on some stuff on the computer so Binx joined me by taking a nap in the sun

 

Sleepover

Normal activities are starting to resume more and more! Paige got invited to a sleepover and was so excited to be able to visit with her friends.

 

Soccer Wrap-up!

Owen finished up his soccer season this week! It was a tough season and they didn’t win many games but there were a bunch of really good moments sprinkled in there! First of all just the that they were able to have a season at all was great! Owen had a lot of good plays and got to be a little more flexible with which position he played. There were also some new teammates that Owen really bonded with! In a couple weeks it will be time to start training for the high school team!!

 

Cat Post

I've been holding back on the cute cat pictures because they do something adorable every day and I wanted a collection of them before I posted!

Owen and Binx messing with each other

The first time I caught Binx with his tongue out

They can now share the cat tree. I don't think Griffin liked Binx in his area at first!

We got another cat box and before I could put it together or even take it out of the box, Griffin climbed in and went to sleep

Now they each have one!

Binx chose this spot for a nap but I caught him with his eyes open before he fell asleep

 

Mother’s Day

I thought for sure we'd either be outside watching soccer or at a dance competition on Mother's Day but somehow it worked out that the kids finished all of their activities on Saturday and Sunday was completely open! Pat and the kids made cards for me and bought flowers and gifts (candle, soap, cardigan, Reese's!) which was so thoughtful and nice. Then Pat's mom and brother came over. It was the first time we've had family in our house to visit in a very long time. It felt strange at first but also so nice to be doing something that felt somewhat normal! We got some Olive Garden takeout and hung out before we said goodbye and headed to Mentor for a quick visit with my parents! We had cake and cookies and got to play a game before we went home. 

 

Nexstar Competition

Paige attended her last regional dance competition in Akron over the weekend! It was block scheduling so she did 12 dances plus some run throughs in less than four hours. It was a whirlwind! They danced beautifully but with no breaks or time to eat they (we) were definitely exhausted by the end. 

 

Orchestra

Owen decided he won't be continuing with orchestra in high school so the concert he had over the weekend was his very last concert! I wasn't able to go because I was at a dance competition but Pat took videos of all of the songs and got a picture of Owen with a couple of his close friends. The songs all sounded really good to me although Owen said they did poorly on one specifically. I couldn't tell! Normally we'd follow up a concert with ice cream but Owen had to get to a soccer game instead.

Adam, TJ and Owen

You can't see Owen at all but this is the whole orchestra with his teacher. They played at the new high school, where Owen will be going next year!

 

Hike!

 

We're finally all fully vaccinated (minus Owen and Paige) so we got together with family for a hike! Even just making plans to see anyone still feels weird but I kept reminding myself it was ok and this is one of my most important reasons for getting vaccinated in the first place! The weather was warm and we walked pretty far, I was so tired by the time we finished. We stopped and got some ice cream too, before we headed home! I can't wait for many more get togethers in the future!!

Soccer!

We drove out to Erie last weekend for Owen's team to play one game. It was actually a beautiful day to play soccer and I was happy I got to watch because we've been dividing up so much in the past months I feel like I haven't seen enough! They ended up losing a very close game but they all played so well!

This last picture is from what was supposed to be a game day. We showed up for the boys to play only to find out the fields had been closed and the other team wouldn't be showing up. The coach decided to have practice since everyone was there already and after they scrimmaged the losing team had to slide through the big mud puddle! Owen's team lost:)

 

Binx!

We got a kitten last Tuesday!! We've been talking about getting Griffin a friend for awhile now so when an opportunity to adopt presented itself we decided it was the right time. We named him Binx! When we got Griffin he already had all of his shots and was fixed but Binx came with nothing done because he was rescued from a hoarding situation (50 cats were found in one house!) so we've had to learn a little bit about what kittens need done that we didn't know before! Lots of shots! He and Griffin hissed at each other for the first day or so and Binx would hide in any corner he could find but it's been less than a week and they're getting along well and Binx isn't hiding so much anymore. He still likes crawling under and into things and sleeping but not so much out of fear.