We’re late! For the first time in a long time there was no Sunday blog. In fact the whole site was down while my webhost did some sort of “internal audit” of the server. It sounded very CSI / Homeland to me. But we’re back up and running. Let’s see if I can remember what happened last week. 🙂

Amaya, as always, is very specific on her style. On Monday afternoon she told me, “Take a picture. I look like a grown-up from the waist up.”

We had a lot of baseball and softball this week! The boys had games on Monday and Wednesday. Amaya had games on Tuesday and Saturday. The boys had practice on Saturday and Amaya had practice on Sunday. It definitely gets me out of the house. Gone are the days I’m homebound from Sunday night through Saturday morning.

Here are some pictures of the As from Monday night.

Sammy at bat. Steven told me their coach is hoping they can each hit a home run before the end of the season.

Steven, the flash, running to first base.

Sammy had a doctor appt on Tuesday afternoon which meant he and I got some Mommy/Sammy time. Lucky, lucky me! (The luck continued through to Saturday morning when Sammy decided he wanted to hang with me all morning cuddling and talking. From 6:30- 8:30am I had Sammy’s undivided attention and he had mine. <3 )

This picture appeared in Amaya’s school SeeSaw blog. Penni said this is the 2nd take. Amaya made her redo it to get her lips right lol.

Tuesday was crazy. Amaya had softball pictures at 5pm. Then practice before her game, which started at 6pm. The boys had baseball pictures at 6:15pm. I had a call until 5pm. Jason can’t get to the field until ~6:15pm.

To make it all work, Penni took the kids to Amaya’s photos leaving at 4:30pm with sandwiches packed. I drove Penni’s car and met them there at 5:15pm and Penni left from the picture site. I drove Amaya to her practice/game and hung around until 6pm when I left her in the care of the team to take the boys to their photos. Jason arrived at Amaya’s game around 6:20pm. Where there’s a will, there’s (sometimes) a way!

Ready for the night!

Jason got some pics of Amaya on the field.

Amaya got her first hit at Tuesday’s game! We’re so proud of her, and even more proud for how hard she’s working on her batting. She had a minor injury from the way the ball hit the bat and sat out the rest of the game but was right back at it on Saturday.

On Thursday afternoon, Penni took Steven to pick-up his sports goggles. Now our guy can play ball and see!

Amaya was thrilled to find a dead snake in the yard. They placed it near the woods behind the house and it appears it’s since been eating. Yum yum.

Penni was off on Friday so the kids and I worked together to manage my work day and their school today together.

Amaya and I started with a little meta photo action – taking photos of us taking photos of each other.

I really love this picture. (Amaya did her own hair. 🙂 )

Between meetings/classes cuddles.

Sammy got busy with some feather artwork.

The finished product.

And, in the evening, I was happy to see the kids pounce on daddy!!

Amaya and Steven, on “sleep with parent night” Friday.

We had a very relaxing weekend. I had a lot of work to do which I was mostly able to do at our kitchen table. While I worked, the Pile Of Clines watched some animal documentaries together.

The kids spent a while outside with stores that they set up. There were a lot of puts and takes in the Mommy Bank as they sold to one another.

We also had time for board games. We didn’t finish this game of Carcassonne before the boys had baseball practice so we left it for Sunday.

Jason took the boys to 4pm baseball practice and Amaya and I got ready for a 5:30pm softball game – with dinner in tow for The Brothers.

There’s Amaya! The Green Aliens lost this game 8- 10 but put up a good fight!

Daddy Man and The Bobes

Sunday was another quiet day with the wrap up of Carcassonne (Steven won) and a game of Catan Jr. (Sammy won).

While I did more work, Jason took the kids to the mall where they got treats and a visit to Claire’s. Jason reports back that Amaya was in absolute heaven in that store.

Steven’s baseball teammate Nora also plays Animal Crossing so her mom and I connected them and she and Steven were able to have a Switch/FaceTime play date. “If you have a wasp nest and three clumps of weeds I can make you some medicine, Nora.”

We wrapped up the weekend with an impromptu softball practice for Amaya. She spent an hour and a half kicking butt at batting practice.

And that was our week! Have a good one!

Sammy and Steven love watching Ryan’s World videos. In the morning, before school, that’s where you can find them. Monday was an unusual day in that Sammy was watching in the hall, not in the crawl space under their bunk beds.

On Monday night, Steven and Sammy had their first game as As! Both boys got hits and did a nice job fielding, too. Sammy is number 10 and Steven is number 2.

On Tuesday, Jason celebrated his 52nd birthday. One of his first acknowledgements of the day was this text from Steven. <3

The kids had the day off for teacher professional development (and a local voting day) so Penni took Steven to get fitted for sports goggles. (Like these, but ones that fit his face.) These should allow Steven to wear his glasses while batting and more easily in the field.

Making cheesecake for Daddy

Steven used the day off to design his own hardware store – Steven’s Duster. It’s open from 6am to 8pm.

Steven also made this wonderful birthday book for his Daddy, “Love for Daddy”. (That note says, “Some of the letters are stapled.”)

Amaya made a birthday card for her daddy with a special May the Fourth theme.

After work celebrations!

Jason, capturing his gift from Sammy which was taped and wrapped like it’s own special puzzle.

Our girl, fashionable even at bedtime.

Our neighbors are repaving their driveway so, on Wednesday between classes, the kids got outside to take a look at the construction.

On Wednesday night both the A’s and the Green Aliens had games scheduled so Jason went to the boys’ game and I took Amaya to her first softball game, where I was dugout coach. (I like coaching, to be honest. It’s a great way for me to spend the time. I’d have been a regular assistant coach on Amaya’s team this year but I was worried there would be many conflicts and I’d miss too many of the boys’ games.)

The use a catapult machine to pitch the ball which comes in around 30 miles/hour. They get five pitches to try to hit and outs and runs are counted. If a team gets 5 runs in an inning, that half of the inning is over. In game one, the Green Aliens won 10 to 8!

Working to remember to keep that embow up! No hits yet, but some really great swings at the ball for our girl.

It was cold so she had her jacket on under her jersey.

I hear the boys also played well batting and fielding at their game. I can’t wait to see them play on Monday.

Thursday night snuggles with Daddy. I love this picture.

Amaya took this selfie. 🙂

Saturday we had our annual family photos. I moved them out from January this year because I wanted the opportunity to take pictures outside. When the kids were younger that year over year snapshot mattered more than now when they don’t change quite as much over a few months. Of course it was chilly and not quite the weather I hoped for but we made it work. I can’t wait to see this years’ photos. Maybe I’ll even update the blog header.

Amaya had a very strong point of view about her hair for the photos.

Sneak peek of an indoor photo! It’s the one time/year you’ll find our boys in jeans.

While Jason took Steven and Sammy to their baseball practice, Amaya and I stayed home and made dinner for the crew. (Jason took the boys to get cleats today and said that, when Steven hit the field he took of yelling, “IT FEELS SO GOOD TO RUN!”, which everyone got a kick out of.)

I had a wonderful, relaxing Mother’s Day. The kids brought me a sugary feast for breakfast in bed, I went back to sleep afterward until 10am and then had quality snuggles with Steven, Sammy and Amaya to round out the morning.

I got lovely cards from the kids.

Sammy says my super hero name is “super mom”. I’m super because “my mom can make soup”. lolol I love my mom because “I have no idea”.

From Steven…

My super hero name is “Bestie”. I am super because “she is the best”. My mom’s favorite thing to do is “be with me, Sammy and Amaya.” (True! And their daddy.) I love my mom because “she is the best.”

From Amaya. That’s me, flying.

My super hero name is “Loving.” I’m super because “she takes care of me.” My favorite thing to do: “Play board games with me.” And I love my mom because “she is my mom and I don’t know what I would do if she was not my mom.”

The kids and Jason also made me this awesome bouquet of flowers, sure to last forever!

Checking out my cards. <3

The trifecta! Wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to Nana, Auntie and Savta.

Jason had plans to take the kids to a Tigers game and give me home-alone time so it figures that it was cold and rainy today. But they decided to give it a shot in the hopes the game wouldn’t be rained out. They got to the game and got pretzels in time for it to be called. But the troops rallied and took a shopping trip to Target for a new toy each and supplies for dinner and banana splits.

For these Amazon shoppers, at trip to the toy aisle is pretty special.

Setting up Steven’s new Hot Wheels rocket ship track.

We wrapped up the day with a Raddish Kids kit. Cooking with SSA is truly one of my favorite things to do.

And finally, banana splits! It was a big night because Steven officially likes ice cream!

Bonus pic – showtime snuggles for Amaya and Steven.

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week so the kids all made digital cards for Mrs. O’Neil.

Here is Steven’s.

Part 2 of Steven’s card.

Amaya’s card.

You can’t tell from this but Sammy’s is an animation that ends with a big heart on the screen.

That’s it from here! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in our life!

It’s been a busy week! I think we need to get used to this as we enter sports season and approach summer. I’m not complaining, though. More sunshine and warmer weather are my jam.

We kicked off the week with a calm Monday. Amaya got her fashion game on and made this stylish dress out of a trash bag – and wore it all day long.

I got some lunchtime cuddles with Sammy. <3

It’s almost pool season and the JCC pool isn’t heated so we’re going to try out wetsuits this summer. Sammy’s looking pretty damn stylish in his, if I do say so myself.

Thank you Grandpa Homey for sending SSA their new friend, the talking Sloth. They all love him!

On Tuesday morning, early, Sammy came to me to cuddle. That’s not his usual morning behavior but I love Sammy cuddle so I went with it. A little while later Steven came in and started whispering to him. So I knew something was up. It turns out the kids were downstairs making me breakfast in bed. Such little loves. And it was some breakfast! I had toast with lots of cinnamon sugar and toast with cinnamon sugar and chocolate syrup and toast with honey and chocolate and melted popsicle. A sugary feast fit for a queen.

5pm on Tuesday afternoon was the first baseball practice for the boys. (Which has since moved to Saturday afternoons.) We didn’t have child care past 4pm-ish so I decided to take the kids to the playground at 4pm and take the rest of my meetings from the playground and/or car. It was a little hectic but worked out great, overall. I was really excited for SSA because some of their friends from Kindergarten, who are at school in person, were also at the playground. They were so excited to see their old friends.

Amaya took some pictures of the boys at practice for me. You can see she drew arrows toward Sammy in the first pic and Steven in the second. I think she’s proud to have learnd how to do that. 🙂

Our ball players, ready for a great season. They’re doing coach pitch again and there are three or four other boys from their class on the team. (Owen S, Jack, Quinn, Ruxin and maybe a couple others.)

Wednesday it was Amaya’s last practice before her first game!

Playing catcher.

Steven and Sammy do a great job occupying themselves while Amaya practices. Sammy made this neat stick sculpture.

Steven showed me some love. <3

Daddy cuddles before bed

Steven and I got a little silly on Thursday morning and we checked out what he’d look like with longer curly hair lol. He was totally cracking up.

On Thursday afternoon, Amaya and I headed out for our first girls’ weekend in NY since Dec 2019! COVID, and lots of “all of the kids” strips put a short crimp in my 1:1 trips to NY but Steven and I got it going again in Feb and now it’s Amaya’s turn. I can tell you that this girl was ready to see her cousins.

My best girl.

Charlie hugs are Amaya’s favorite hugs! (I literally just turned to her and asked, “What kind of hugs are your favorite hugs?” and she answered, “Charlie hugs.” Which should surprise no one.)

The Goldstein Girls!

A huge bonus of the kids’ iPods is they can text me when I’m away. Is there any mom who wouldn’t want to wake to messages like this?

We don’t root for teams in the Land of Cheltenham, we “score” for them. And a Yankees/Detroit game presented a dilemma for Steven. 🙂 Seven years old and texting me screen shots. I love it.

Plus, some pre-school FaceTime (with both of my boys) on Friday morning.

The brothers got ready for school together and had some downtime to watch Ryan videos before their first class.

This week Charlie was home for virtual school which worked out perfectly because she and Amaya were able to do school together on Friday while I worked from the Goldberg’s house. They did an amazing job staying focused and rewarded themselves with a “spa day” after school.

Steven really liked seeing Amaya on screen during their class. I love that we’ve taken advantage of these opportunities in this weird virtual year.

Boys loving HUGE pieces of watermelon just like their daddy eats.

On Thursday, Amaya received a package that included a bunny on a leash that she bought with her own money. She couldn’t take it to NY so she left Sammy and Daddy with instructions to walk it at 1pm on weekdays and noon on weekends. On Friday, Sammy stepped up and took care of Amaya’s “pet”.

Friday night dinner out for the Cline men, braving the cooler weather!

In NY, we celebrated Mother’s Day a week early with Nana, Papa, Savta, and Allen and Syvia Goldberg. The kids spent the morning making cards. I love Amaya’s creativity.

It’s not a trip to NY without time on the trampoline.

Back in MI, Sammy asked Jason to preheat the oven to 400 degrees so he could experiment and bake something for the men. Sammy told Jason, “I was afraid it would be dry because I only used one liquid but lots of dry ingredients.” I hear it was delicious!

Just like the trampoline, video games are also a staple of our visits to the Goldberg’s house.

We spent the afternoon at Chase’s soccer game. It was fun to get to watch him play!

Amaya worked out the courage to pet Millie, Allen’s black lab.

Afterward, we hung out at the Goldberg’s. There were card games and beers and Uncle Dave started to teach Amaya to ride without training wheels! She’s so close!! We just need to get back to it at home, and quickly before she forgets what she’s picked up.

Back in MI, it was another dinner out for the Cline men.

Today we had a lazy morning and then headed to another soccer game before leaving for the airport. The goodbyes were hard.

Nana and Amaya walking the track

Off we go, back to the men!

With gifts in tow. 🙂

Just a few more things before I wrap up for the weekend. The kids are still working on their animal books and I took a sneak peek at some of the content.

Here are Steven’s dedication and “about the author” pages.

Amaya’s dedication and “about the author” pages.

And a page from Sammy’s book about the appearance of polar bears.

That’s it for this week! Have a great one!

It was a pretty mellow week so this will be a relatively short blog. We need weeks like this!

On Monday, our new afternoon nanny started. And tonight she sent me a text saying she needs to quit. I’m pretty unhappy about starting a search again but we’ll make it work.

I spied the kids chilling with Penni on Monday afternoon.

On Tuesday morning, Sammy and I went to the doctor for a check on his infected cut. He was very brave as she poked and prodded. It’s healing nicely and Sammy’s been a great patient all week with his antibiotics and 3x daily ointment. In fact, if I couldn’t do his midday ointment due to meetings, Sammy was able to take care of it on his own. If I didn’t want to check on how it’s healing each day, I think he could be entirely self sufficient. Big kid.

April 21, 2021 in Michigan. This is a big NOPE from me. Thanks to the weather, the boys’ first baseball practice was canceled on Tuesday night and Amaya’s practice was canceled on Wednesday night. Even right now it’s only 38 degrees out (but will be 84 on Tuesday)!

Steven loves jokes. Last weekend I printed him out a sheet of jokes that he’s been reading to friends and family. Penni sent me this picture of Steven on Wednesday and shared that he started a joke contest in gym class. 🙂

The kids and I had plans to wake up at 5:45am on Thursday morning to watch the Dragon Crew-2 launch. After the kids were in bed I realized the launch was scrubbed and rescheduled for Friday so I very quickly made 8 of these signs and put them all over the kids’ room and on my bedroom door. I was worried they’d wake up, see the time, worry they’d missed the launch and wake me. Fortunately they saw the signs, and even more fortunately, they could read them.

Amaya, posing in her new PJs. I know someday I’ll think seven was young but, right now, it’s hard for me to believe how big these kids are getting.

Pre-bedtime cuddles and story time. We’re reading “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” – a book I loved and read many, many times as a kid. It’s really cool reading this book to SSA.

I tried to read “Ramona and Beezus” to the kids but it felt very, very dated. Much more so than when I read it myself in the early 80’s. I checked the published date and was surprised to learn that it was written in the early 50’s! No wonder parts of it felt so outdated. And I can see how it would feel more relatable to a kid in the early 80s’ compared to 2021. I think I’ll give one of the later Ramona books a try and see how it feels.

Friday morning – 5:45am – we were up and ready to see Crew 2 launch! It was really cool. I love this stuff and was glad to be up for it – something I wouldn’t have done if I wasn’t sharing it with Steven, Sammy and Amaya.

It really blew our minds to think that one of the astronauts has a 7 year old child, just like I do. Steven was pretty clear that he doesn’t want me to go to space.

On Friday it was back to softball. Gabby’s background check wasn’t back yet so I joined her and the kids and worked in the car while she hung out with the boys. (But it’s back now so we’re good to go!)

Here’s Amaya at 3rd base.

We had a really nice lazy day at home on Saturday. I stayed in bed until 10am and Jason a bit longer. It is surreal to be able to stay in bed that long with kids who are self sufficient enough to get breakfast for themselves and entertain themselves while we relax. I keep thinking about to their baby years when I could see this in the distance but it felt so out of reach.

Jason and the kids – with extra effort from Steven – spent time organizing ball cards. Steven set up a ball card shop and was a very persuasive salesman.

He has a set of numbered 1992 rookies and there is no #6 in the set. “There is no 6. I don’t know why.”

Labeled, priced, and ready to sell!

Jason treated me to a box of the new Star Trek: Picard trading cards and, after opening and shorting them, I wanted a binder to store the unique cards. Steven quickly ran and grabbed me a binder he has that he isn’t using. It’s perfect.

It was a table game day, too! All 5 of us played a 2+ hour game of Ticket to Ride. Daddy was the overall winner, Amaya was the kid winner.

Contemplating her next move.

Steven came up with an intricate coding system connected to his squishies. For example, if he pressed the hamburger it meant he was making a move. The pumpkin meant he wanted a card from the pile.

Sammy requested a game of Carcassonne and he was our winner!

Amaya had some change she wanted to transfer over the Mommy Bank so we sorted and counted it together. She had $47.62 in coins! Some haul!

Today was another relatively lazy day. The kids had Hebrew school, outside in the cold, from 9:30- 10:30am but that was about it for the Clines.

Amaya wore a big bow that she made with Grandma Betsy.

Showing me some chalk art they made at Hebrew school.

Post Hebrew school hot chocolate! (Amaya left her jacket at softball practice so she’s wearing one of mine.)

Amaya’s store! It was a creative afternoon. Steven opened a science lab and hired Amaya to work in it. Both Amaya and Steven opened up shop again.

Amaya and Daddy, shopping together so Amaya could spend some of her Mommy Bank $s.

Finally, I can always count on Sammy to help when there’s raw meat to cook!

Have a great week!

It was a busy, busy week around the Land of Cheltenham.

Monday was pretty quiet with school and lots of play time. Sammy helped Amaya build a house for her little ball of biscuit dough, affectionally named Doughy. (And who has since said goodbye to the family and moved on to the land of discarded food items.)

Steven earned a staying-in-bed prize on Tuesday and picked a backpack water gun. It holds a really nice amount of water and has great range! He can nearly hit the woods behind our house from our deck!

Penni was off on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday and we still didn’t have an afternoon nanny this week so I did what many parents around the country have been doing over the past year and attempted to work from home while the kids had school from home. It’s not ideal but, even with my days full of meetings, anything is possible for a day and a half. It’s definitely a benefit of still working from home. As incentive, I created a reward chart. The kids earned 1 point for being at class on time and 1 point for showing up with all the materials they needed. They did great!

Amaya’s Go Noodle movement break.

These faces are so Amaya. It’s how she looks when she’s saying something like, “Yeah, they think that’s how it works but they’re actually wrong.”

Wednesday was a long day. I browned a roast and put it in the crock pot before my 8:30am meeting and was so proud of the kids who were ready and rolling for their 9am class without much of my help. Amaya even set up everyone’s laptops.

Their morning meeting was a science assembly. Mrs. O’Neil sent home the kits to use which included plastic tubs, dirt, twigs, leaves, fake moss and a small plastic insect. Through the assembly, the kids learned about and made habitats. They were all so careful and thoughtful about what they made.

Shortly after I took this, thinking about how smoothly everything was going, Steven accidentally knocked his habitat into Sammy’s school supply bucket. I was so proud of both Steven and Sammy. Steven was really upset at first, lamenting how hard he’d worked on his habitat, but we gathered up his contents and he got to it again. Sammy, for his part, took it in stride that there was a big pile of dirt covering his stuff.

Visitor for me, mid-meeting, between classes.

On Wednesday afternoon, I wrapped up work a little early so the kids could eat dinner and we could all head over to Amaya’s first softball practice!

Her team is the Green Aliens and her teammates are other 1st – 3rd graders from the district. At least half of the team is from Thornton Creek and there’s one other 1st grader – Alexa, who’s in Amaya’s class. Alexa’s mom is the team’s coach and coach SSA’s team last year so it’s nice to have that familiarity.

Amaya is in the blue and pink sweatshirt, practicing throwing.

I helped out with some drills. Here, Amaya was hitting off a tee using just her inside arm.

Steven and Sammy were able to pass the time running around and hanging out with some other brothers. They said the time went by so fast!

Steven still loves looking at his map from the San Diego Zoo – a trip he and I took in Feb 2019. He spent some time on Friday showing Penni all the places he visited and how the zoo is laid out.

Friday was practice #2 and I could already see Amaya getting more comfortable. The coach suggested fielding masks which turned out to be a great idea to help get comfortable with learning fielding and catching skills.

The league uses a catapult machine for pitching and Amaya was able to get a great hit at practice.

While the boys were at Amaya’s practice, Steven (with Sammy’s help) built a bridge that was strong enough to support his weight. He was so excited that it worked!

Steven’s reaction is the best.

Sammy and I had an adventure on Friday night. Earlier in the week he had a sore on his leg and we sent a photo to a teledoc at the time, but it wasn’t too irritated and they weren’t concerned. He put a band-aid on it so he wouldn’t scratch it. Last night I asked to see under the band-aid, after noticing some red around the area on his thigh. It was pretty clearly infected and I didn’t want to wait until Saturday to get it checked out. The one urgent care we thought was still open wasn’t, so we popped over to the local ER. It wasn’t too crowded but nothing’s fast in an ER. We arrived just before 9pm and were out of there around 11:30pm with a diagnosis of cellulitis and prescriptions for oral and topical antibiotics.

He thought the ER bed was very cozy. After some hemming and hawing, and as it got later and later, Sammy let me cuddle with him. Eventually we both fell asleep during the hour long wait for his meds – though not easily with the bright lights in the room and the noise of an agitated patient somewhere nearby.

A short cuddle with Daddy when we got home, just before midnight.

This weekend all of the kids got in some great catching practice with Daddy. (Steven and Sammy start baseball practice on Tuesday.)

At Steven’s request, the kids and I played Catan Junior on Saturday afternoon. Sammy took his first win.

Aiding Sammy’s win was his strategic risk to encroach on my space. Had I gotten a lair down first it would have backfired but Sammy prevailed. He was thrilled when he realized he got me.

Some beef tacos for dinner. Sammy helped with the beef and Amaya did her usual great job of chopping and separating green onions.

Today I’m 45 (!!!) and it’s been a wonderful day. The kids let me sleep in and brought me breakfast in bed. Then I came downstairs to a wonderful assortment of activities and cards/gifts.

Texts from Steven <3

Steven created a wonderful game that combined scrabble, First Orchard, his 13+4 spy game and jenga blocks into a big game full of traps and pitfalls. Land on a jenga block with a “B” written on it? Get a popsicle stick with instructions like “trade spots” or “go to prison”.

The kids and I went to Starbucks and Sammy suggested I write “Birthday Girl, Mom” on the van window.

Jason grilled hot dogs for lunch and we had our first backyard meal of the season!

A selection of my treasure trove…

From Amaya:

From Sammy:

From Steven:

We had a relaxing afternoon. Steven performed some lung surgery on Jason with magnatiles and plastic cups and set his broken leg with jenga blocks.

Less relaxing, Jason started a project power washing our driveway. I had no idea how much it was needed until he got started. Steven put on his water backpack to help.

We wrapped our my birthday / Sunday with a trip to downtown Northville for dinner.

Making wishes…

Waiting for our table

My little loves <3

Have a great week!

It was a pretty quiet week around here. Gabby, our afternoon nanny, had to leave us unexpectedly so the big activity was working with Penni to cover as many hours as possible. It’s hard, though. We have child care past 6pm for a reason so accommodating a sudden change has it’s challenges. Hopefully we’ll have someone new in place soon, though.

Sammy spent a day as Darth Vader, when he wasn’t in class.

On Tuesday, the kids caught a toad (Toadie) in the yard. They even put a fly inside with the toad to give it some food. Eventually, though, Jason helped them understand that Toadie needed to live their full, free life out of captivity.

Goodbye, Toadie!

Apparently this is one of Sammy’s favorite spots to watch videos on his iPod. Looks cozy!

Thursday was a beautiful day and the kids’ teacher was out after their 9am meeting so Penni packed a lunch and took the kids to a playground for a few hours. Definitely a benefit of virtual school.

SSA are doing work on work tense and nouns, verbs, etc. I peeked in one of their workbooks and thought it was cute to see what the kids chose for proper noun examples. In order, it’s Amaya, Steven and then Sammy’s work.

Pre-bed shows and device time + cuddles.

Amaya wanted me to take a picture of her making this face lol.

Early Saturday morning I took Steven and Amaya to their school playground. Sammy stayed home with Daddy. These two had a good time together but said it’s a lot more boring without Sammy there.

The kids also had hours outside in our yard yesterday. Hours. I love this time of year when it’s getting warmer and we have the promise of months of warm weather to come.

Steven took this picture of me resting on their swing. <3 (Sammy reminded me I should always hold on with two hands.)

Daddy and Amaya had a shopping trip on Saturday afternoon to get Amaya all set with her gear for softball! She’s joined a girls softball league for 1st- 3rd graders and the boys are doing baseball again. Amaya’s practices start this week. I’m psyched for the kids to get back to after school activities but a little stressed about the scheduling with our nanny change.

Saturday evening baseball with Daddy

On Sunday morning, while Jason and Sammy were at the grocery story, Steven and Amaya spent ages doing art tutorials of Animal Crossing and PJ Masks characters.

Amaya’s drawing of Isabelle, Cherry, KK, Owlette and Luna Girl.

Steven’s drawing of Cherry, with a “Joy Reaction”.

Steven’s PJ Masks puppets.

Meanwhile, when he got home, Sammy got busy with magnatiles.

It was a big cooking day with a new Raddish Kids kit. We started with Strawberry Cupcakes. They were delicious, hot out of the oven. I didn’t even need frosting on mine.

As a Schitt’s Creek fan I had a great time telling the kids they were going to have to fold in the strawberries. Sammy did not disappoint when he asked, “But what does it mean by ‘fold’?” (Reference)

In the afternoon, we made a delicious dinner of country ham sandwiches complete with homemade biscuits. Amaya was a huge fan of the apricot mustard dressing.

Watching the Masters while dinner cooked.

After dinner, Amaya and Sammy volunteered to model their Raddish Kids aprons, which have many, many patches at this point. Amaya wanted to take “at least 10 pictures”. Sammy wanted me to take a picture “that looks like he’s just walking by.” Mission accomplished.

Book time is the best time! I got the kids some books at their level but they generally still prefer that I read them at bedtime.

On Friday night, though, Amaya did a phenomenal job reading a level J Flat Stanley book to us. They do all of their daily reading time in breaks between zoom meetings, often via online books, so we see the kids’ skills growing in huge leaps. I’m honestly amazed at how much they’ve learned this year, especially in this unusual environment. No reading just for fun, yet, but maybe someday.

This week included a lot of Steven cuddle time. I love this picture that Jason took.

The kids keep notes on their iPods and Steven showed me a note he made, complete with a photo. <3

It’s not just evening cuddles. I got a lot of morning cuddles this week, too.

That it for this week! Have a great one!

*Blog title by Amaya

What a week in NY. This was our third time staying at this AirBnB, affectionally referred to as “907”.

I had a number of meetings throughout the day on Monday so we headed over to the Goldberg’s house for the day where the kids played and I was able to get my work done.

Amaya dressed for the day with her mix & match fashion – all created with one sweatshirt.

Doing word puzzles with Nana.

The kids love to play a game with Charlie where they use a bathrobe tie to pull her around the house on her roller blades. I think I have pictures of this from earlier in the winter, too. The game lives on! (Sometimes Charlie puts on her helmet and knee pads and Uncle Dave pulls her fast through their cul de sac.)

Super Mario Party!

Charlie came back to 907 with us for dinner and some shows before heading home for the night.

Broccoli Boy

This sweet boy loves to keep his mama close by, even when I’m one room over. <3

On Tuesday, the kids, Nana, Aunt Sara, Chase, Charlie and I spent the afternoon at the Bronx Zoo. (Reportedly one of the best zoos in the world!) We spent over 4 hours there and saw a tiger, bears, very active seals (and sea lions?), giraffes (my favorite!) and an incredible Congo exhibit with amazing monkeys and gorillas. The “walk from NY to Africa” was Steven’s favorite part of this trip to New York.

How big are we compared to a tiger?

With my girl…

Nana treated everyone to a Bronx Zoo souvenir. A snake for Amaya (named Sequin), a parrot for Steven (named Fruit Loop) and a polar bear for Sammy (named Polar). Steven wants you to know that Charlie’s monkey is named “Peely”.

Carousels – fun for all ages!

Walking through a big fallen tree.

Steven (who’s sitting with me as I write), wants me to share that he thinks this monkey’s face is very pretty. Honestly, it was wild to make eye contact with the various apes. I felt like they could really see me.

Amaya loved the baby monkeys.

The gorillas were incredible and there we so many of them! Again, it was kind of freaky when they’d look at me. I definitely had a Planet of the Apes vibe.

We wrapped up our zoo day with a sleepover with Charlie.

On Wednesday morning, the kids all went to visit Savta! There’s always so much to see at Savta’s house.

Regular stop at the Halls Pond playground.

We had a big lunch together at Nana and Papa’s house. It’s so, so nice to be back there.

Our Wednesday afternoon activity was ice skating – a first for SSA! It was a lot harder than they expected but they all persevered and made great progress through their time on the ice.

As time went on, the kids got comfortable enough to venture away from the wall.

Can you spy Sammy with Nana and Amaya with Aunt Sara?

Watching the Zamboni before we headed out for the evening.

We made the decision to take a leisurely drive home to MI and start the journey on Thursday evening so, early Thursday morning, the crew headed to the Goldberg’s to say goodbye to Aunt Sara, Uncle Dave, Chase and Charlie and then Savta and Papa came by for goodbyes. Goodbyes really stink.

Our afternoon adventure was a visit to the American Museum of Natural History. The kids visited about 2 years ago but it was definitely time to return. We were so lucky that Nana decided to join us!

We spent over 3 hours walking around and SSA were really interested in all sorts of exhibits from dinosaurs to meteorites to exhibits on peoples of the world. I was very impressed with how engaged they were and the questions they asked.

If you play Animal Crossing you won’t be surprised to hear that the dinosaur exhibit reminded the of the island museum.

This is the largest meteorite on display in any museum in the world. It’s so heavy that the support beams go all the way through the museum basement into the bedrock below.

There was a lot to learn about central and south America.

When the museum closed at 5:30pm, we said goodbye to Nana (SADNESS) and started our journey home. First stop – the Poconos and Bushkill Falls! I booked a villa not far from Bushkill Falls which the kids looooooved. From the entry level, you could go down a small flight of stairs to two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Up a small flight of stairs was the main living area. The highlight, though, was the spiral staircase that led to a sleeping loft with two twin beds.

Due to a Door Dash mishap, we didn’t eat dinner until 9pm – which created its own excitement for the kids.

Our Friday morning adventure was a visit to Bushkill Falls. It was opening day for the season and it was a cold morning! The hiking kept us warm, though, and the views were definitely worth it.

In case you can’t see him, that’s Steven on the bridge.

Between the late night and the morning hike, I had three tired kids when we hit the road after lunch.

To break it up we made a few stops along the way including a quick visit to the Bees Knees Winery where I got some fruit wine (yikes) and the kids got honey sticks.

They liked this little bear.

We stopped for the night just past Cuyahoga National Park. It was a long day but not too long, which was my goal. One last night on our spring break trip!

On our last morning, I fulfilled a promise to the kids – mini golf. We drove about 2 hrs to Toledo before we stopped for two rounds of golf.

All 3 kids managed at least 1 hole on one.

Hole in 1 face!

Hole in 1 face! Steven also got a hole in one while there was a red light on, which meant he got a special price – a discount off our next game and an orange golf ball.

We made it back home a little after 3pm. I was really torn about leaning on Thursday evening but I think having the full day home on Sunday was the right call. It gave all of us some downtime before heading into the week. The kids got to play outside and spend some quality time with Jason. I was able to unpack and catch up on work.

Checking out a new swing addition on our play set.

Today Jason worked hard on some basement shelving, with help from the kids.

I got this text from Steven <3

Amaya’s Sunday fashion

We wrapped the day with dinner out at Bonefish Grill. It was a beautiful night!

Before we left, Amaya took time to style her hair with this side swept look.

Have a great week!

Before we get to Passover in NY, just a few highlights from the week proper.

The warmer weather is amazing. In the early part of the week we even had a day or two with a high of 70. I am definitely a warm weather person. It’s so good for my soul.

Amaya makes beds for her stuffed animals out of cardboard boxes and, here, she was celebrating Beary and Raccoony’s brithdays.

We wrapped up Reading Month this week and, on Monday, the kids’ teacher – Mrs. O’Neil – was Thornton Creek’s guest reader for Zoom Bedtime Stories. SSA were completely enthralled while she read. You could hear a pin drop.

They discovered a planet song in one of their programs and it’s become a favorite to listen to over and over again. Sometimes there’s dancing.

My turn! This was my view during a 5pm vendor-sponsored wine tasting. To be honest, I’m not all that interested in the nuances of wine but this is a great vendor and I love to drink wine so it was a nice way to wrap up a work day. Sally approved.

Daddy and Steven cuddles

Amaya really likes my colleague Sean and, Thursday evening, she had a chance to catch up with him. It was really sweet. Sean is so thoughtful and kind in how he engages with the president of his fan club.

On Friday, after lunch, the Cline 5 hit the road for our journey to New York. Sammy set the mood with shorts on his head.

Amaya, playing Super Mario Party – little arms flying all over the place.

It was relatively uneventful except for a car sickness episode for poor Steven. He rebounded quickly, though. We’ve driven back and forth to NY 2 other times and Steven got sick on one leg of each of those trips so it’s time to take some action. For the drive home, we’re going to try Sea Bands and see if they help. They’ve worked for me on cruises and helped May May when she was pregnant so it’s worth a shot.

The Cline 5 have officially outgrown a single hotel room for all of us. The kids are too big to comfortably fit with us in two queen beds so two rooms it is. For this trip, on our overnight stop in Lamar, PA, Amaya and Steven bunked with me and Sammy and Jason had a room together.

Very excited to have his own bed in a hotel room with his daddy.

Amaya and Steven had some cuddle time in the morning before we hit the road.

As we did on our two previous trips, we stopped at a scenic overlook in NJ. I’m a big fan of tradition so I loved sharing this with Jason.

Showing Steven the trash that litterers have tossed over the wall.

We’re here!!! It was a beautiful, beautiful day in so many ways.

We had a relaxing afternoon with family – lots of cousin time – before heading to Nana and Papa’s house for the first Passover Seder. It was so special to be able to have the Seder at their house after this past year of distancing.

Legos, legos and more legos.

Nana and Papa’s house! I was so happy to be there.

Steven was my Seder buddy.

Amaya and Charlie with their “wine”.

Sammy and his Savta. <3

Charlie did an amazing job reading the four questions. She brought her nana to tears.

Bitter herbs. Sammy, in particular, loves parsley in salt water.

Nana and her grandkids. Love, love, love this!!

Sammy and Papa, deep in discussion about Matzah Balls soup.

Auntie came for dessert and it was extra special because Saturday was Auntie’s birthday!

Celebrating Auntie

Sisters!!

We had a very, nice lazy morning at the AirBnb. The Cline 5 relaxed until about 10:30am when Nana, Aunt Sara, Chase and Charlie came over.

Another practice for The Four Questions.

Big lunch at Nana’s before Jason left for the airport. <3

A pre-birthday celebration for me. 🙂

I took Jason to the airport and the kids all went back to the AirBnB to relax and also play around in the jet tub. Then we went back to Nana and Papa’s for night two of Passover.

Before we got going, we ask Savta a burning question that was on our minds during our drive to MI – “What were telephones like when she was a kid.” Everyone listened, but Sammy was truly enraptured by the explanation of how phones worked in the 30’s.

These girls partnered today for The Four Questions. Charlie took the Hebrew, Amaya took the English, and Nana kvelled.

We’re going to the Bronx Zoo on Tuesday and Amaya told Savta that, if she couldn’t walk around the zoo all day, Amaya would push her in a wheelchair. Such a sweet girl.

And that’s it for this week! We’re ready for a new one in New York!

*Blog title by Steven, because we’re mostly in NY for this blog but not all of it is.

Sometimes it’s challenging for the kids to all sit in the same space and work, especially when they have small group break-outs and are having different conversations with friends. On Monday, Steven took to the library to do some work and caught me peeking in on him. <2

Here’s Sammy, later in the week, getting into the conversation during one of his breakout sessions with a classmate.

Sammy is loving Ryan’s World videos on YouTube Kids so, in the morning or during evening device time, it’s not unusual to find him in odd spots around the house watching videos.

It seems St. Patrick’s Day is a big deal in first grade. Not only did the kids make art, but SSA also built a leprechaun trap in their room. They left Hershey kisses out so it would have something to eat and placed them strategically to help their trap work better. Sammy wanted to set alarms throughout the night so he would have a better chance of seeing the leprechaun but Steven thought that would be a waste of sleep if it turned out leprechaun’s aren’t real. Sadly, they didn’t catch one but did know it came and escaped because it left behind all of the Hershey kisses wrappers and a note saying that maybe they’d catch him next year.

Steven, in his green shirt and green glasses

Amaya made this hat for Gabby.

There Sammy is again, watching his videos.

We’re re-entering the season where I get to watch the kids playing outside from my “office” window. Definitely a perk of working from home. Maybe you can spot Steven and Gabby across the street.

The kids and I are still happily playing Animal Crossing and they find art tutorials to draw AC characters. Here are Steven and Amaya’s renditions of Flick, the island-visiting bug collector.

On Saturday it was back to the playground for three hours in the sun with friends. I’ve been packing sandwiches so we have the flexibility to stay as long as we’d like. I even got a little red form all the sun – in Michigan in March!

When we got home, Amaya got to work on a new KiwiCo kit that arrived. She was incredibly independent in her work on this kit. She made some kinds of air blasters that can be used to play a game with the set in the background. Amaya did an amazing job working through the instructions on her own.

This morning Steven worked on a KiwiCo kit, too, with Jason. He wired a color changing crystal! When you move the switches, the crystal changes colors. It’s very cool and he was understandably proud of his work.

Sammy and Charlie had a video date planned for this morning. It was short lived because his iPod died but he was excited about it all morning.

It was absolutely gorgeous out today. We headed to a playground around 2pm and it was a real feel of 69 degrees. After about an hour and a half the kids were actually complaining that they were too hot! (And to think I made Sammy change out of shorts.) Kids at the playgrounds always seem to play really well together and today was no exception with a group of kids playing some form of tag together.

We rounded out the weekend with dinner in downtown Northville, preceded by drinks in the streets – wine for Mommy & Daddy and cranberry juice for the kids. I’m so happy the weather is turning. We made it through our COVID winter!

Have a great week!

On Monday, Penni got busy with the kids playing online math games. Right now they all think their math class is too “easy” so maybe these games challenge them a little bit more. They do seem to have strong number sense and, most importantly, really enjoy math.

It was gorgeous out on Monday and, when a meeting ended a few minutes early, I popped outside to say hi to the Gabby and the kids. This is what I can generally expect from Steven when he sees me unexpectedly. Sweet boy, running to his mama.

I promise Sammy wasn’t as disinterested as he seemed lol.

Monday night, Steven was explaining something to Jason. I just love this look on Jason’s face. <3

First watermelon of the season for Sammy and he was a happy happy boy.

The kids are still working on their animal reports and Sammy has been full of facts about polar bears. (Side note: He told me his favorite books to read are ones about animals that live in the arctic and animals that live in the ocean. Amaya’s favorite are comic books.)

It seems he’s been looking at pictures of polar bears because he sent me this array of polar bear pictures via Messenger Kids.

Amaya has been creating Lego inventions and loves explaining them to us. She has some very creative ideas!

I think we’re all excited that it’s getting nicer outside. I get lots of requests to watch the kids’ tricks.

I could sit for hours, just watching Sammy run.

March 12th marked the last day that the kids were in school last year. I honestly can’t believe we hit the year mark. On the 12th, I had the opportunity to join the boys’ class as the mystery reader and I honestly had no idea what was coming. That night, we got the news that the kids would not return to school until after spring break. And here we are. It’s been some year.

Steven, Sammy and Amaya have done an amazing job learning and growing in virtual 1st grade but I truly can’t wait until they day they return to school inside Thornton Creek Elementary.

Amaya, modeling some new Under Armor gear that Jason got her. This child knows who she is.

Snuggles

The kids had another CARES month delivery on Friday. This time they dropped off the care packages and cards from the Thornton Creek first graders. Steven was so excited to meet police offiers.

Checking out a police car.

Steven always, always wants his mama close by.

Big day on Saturday! I got my COVID vaccine! Freedom and normalcy, here I come!!! Honestly, cried through the whole experience. I’m so grateful to have reached this point.

After a 4 month hiatus, yesterday the 1st grade playground meet-ups resumed. There were 5 families and 10 kids who came and the kids all had so much fun. It’s nice to see them playing with peers. The adults even got to watch them problem solve. They were all on a piece of equipment that only works if someone pushes it around in circles. After standing around and discussing, they settled on Rock Paper Scissors to determine who would push first.

Based on what we’ve seen, none of us are too worried about their academic development this year but do worry a bit about what it will be like for them to return to in-school social situations having missed a whole school year of daily socialization. We’re all glad to see them figuring that out together.

I had a blood donation scheduled on Saturday afternoon and, while I was out, the kids set up all sorts of art & writing stations around the house. This was Sammy’s…

Home from my donation and pooped, I got some cuddles before I napped.

Today was a BIG day! Now that Grandma Sunshine is fully vaccinated, Jason and the kids went to her house for the first time in over a year! Whoo hoo!! (It’s also, I believe, the first time in two years that I’ve been alone in the house for a full day.)

As Jason said, “The kids are bigger now than the last time they went to Grandma’s!”

Steven is still happy as a clam.

Sammy helping Grandma prepare lunch.

Grandma’s boys showing how to do stuff on her device.

That’s a wrap! Have a great week!