May 2017
I don’t recall May being so busy in the past, but with
Allison’s end of the school year activities along with my last trip to
Minnesota (more info below) and the weather getting warmer creating more plans
on the weekends, this was quite a busy month!
Our biggest news this month is that we have a new
niece! Molly Margaret Dodson was born on
May 21st and she is adorable.
We got an opportunity to visit with Beth, Matt and Molly once they got
home and they are doing well. Molly is
doing all the normal things a newborn does and it is amazing to realize she is
already 2 weeks old!
As I mentioned above, I had my last trip to Minnesota as
I resigned from Hurco this month. My
last day is June 9th and I will start my new position at Herff Jones
as Director of Finance for the College Division. I’m excited for this new challenge and
looking forward to essentially no travelling for work. It is bittersweet as I’ve been at Hurco for
12 years feel like I’ve done so much there, however it is time to for something
different and I couldn’t be more excited.
Memorial Day weekend was a great time. Laura, Grace & Jake came to meet Molly
and stayed for the weekend. On Saturday,
our family along with Laura’s crew went to Indiana Beach, which was a childhood
favorite for us as kids. Upon arriving,
we took the kids to the kiddie rides and after a few of those, it was time for
some more challenging rides. Allison,
Jake, Laura and I hit up 2 roller coasters including one that goes upside
down. Laura and I gained lots of
appreciate for Dad as he would ride these rides with us and then drive us home
at 11PM. We left at 6PM and I fell
asleep all the way home. We enjoyed
dinner at mom’s condo on Sunday. Monday,
we all went to the K of C pool and the kids enjoyed swimming before the
Vandervaarts headed back to Ohio! We
ended our weekend with a cookout at the Watkins where the girls played well
with all the other kids and we had a chance to catch up with the adults.
Sarah’s Things of the Month
Sarah had her parent teacher conference and we learned
that she is one of the best-behaved kids in the class. Yeah, that wasn’t a typo. Sarah & Debbie enjoyed breakfast together
as part of “Muffins with Mom” to celebrate Mother’s Day. Sarah’s preschool has an annual tradition of
a big-wheel race as part of Memorial Day weekend, called the “Mini 500.” I stuck around for lunch with her class and
then brought her home.
Allison’s Thing of the Month
Allison’s last month of school had plenty of
activities. She had her first field day,
which she dressed up as Jessie from Toy Story and loved playing outside for most
of the day. She had 2 field trips, one to Holiday Park and
another to Canterbury Park (which is one block for where I grew up). Allison also had “Letter Person Day” where
she dressed up as “Ms. A.” Deb did a
great job putting together both outfits for Field Day and Letter Day. Allison also enjoyed a full month of baseball
where she has improved her hitting, fielding and throwing. Allison had her annual check up with Dr. Martinson and is 48 inches tall and weighs 51 pounds. Pretty sure she is going to be tall!
A few more items from this
month:
- Debbie had a social month with some girl’s nights. She went out with some Purdue friends to Upland Brewery. She also met up with her church MOMs group for some wine. She went to Amy Pigman’s for an “oil” party. She met up with Tracy for sushi in Broad Ripple.
- On our 11th anniversary, there is nothing more romantic than watching your wife play kickball with a bunch of Mom’s from the church. It had rained the night before, so it was quite muddy, but everyone had fun. We met up with the teams at the Blind Owl Brewery afterwards.
- We went to a Cinco de Mayo party at the Burkholder’s new house. There were a few families from Allison’s class there and the kids played well together.
- We went to a neighborhood party at the Blackwelder’s to see their renovated house and enjoy their pool. The girls loved playing with the kids and we love catching up with neighbors.
- For Mother’s Day, we maintained our tradition of getting flowers for grandma and mom. We delivered some flowers to grandma which allowed for Deb to workout. After that, we spent the entire day outside working on our garden, planting flowers and repairing our ski bench.
- Deb and I concluded our year of volunteering in the Kindergarten room. We both enjoyed being part of the “centers” and helping out. The kids also did a Lemonade Stand to help raise money for the hungry, so I helped out making the lemonade.
- I went to a school coaching end of year party. It was fun to meet some more people at the school.
