Monday always feels like it was so long ago when I’m writing the blog on a Sunday. I think it’s especially true when we have out-of-the-ordinary weeks and a holiday week definitely applies.

On Monday morning, at breakfast, Steven told me that his ear hurt. I asked if it hurt inside or outside and he said, “Inside. It feels like it does when I’m on an airplane.” So interesting! I didn’t realize they had any discomfort or pressure on airplanes. I’ll pay a little more attention to encouraging them to drink on ascent and decent, and to let me know if their ears feel funny while we’re flying.

I made Steven a doctor appointment for the afternoon and, sure enough, he had an ear infection. I think the kids have had ear infections every time they’ve complained about ear aches. They know when they’re not right.

Monday night I got some treasured Amaya cuddles. They don’t come as easily or as frequently as they do from the boys.

The kids looooooove texting emojis to Jason. Sammy and Amaya tend to send as many as possible. Steven deliberates over each and every choice.

Before bed, Steven told me this (again): “Don’t forget. You can still kiss me if my eyes are closed. And don’t forget! You can still kiss me if I’m facing the shade. Remember all the things I told you. And don’t forget you can still kiss me if I’m doing both of the things at the same time.” As if I’d ever forget to kiss his sweet face before I go to sleep.

We seem to have turned a corner with regards to staying in bed in the morning. After a long road to each 6-heart achievement, Steven is staying in bed almost every morning now. Next up – the kids need to start staying quieter while they’re waiting for their green light to go on.

Tuesday was mild enough that SSA were able to play outside after school.

Rolling down the hill!

Chanukkah bingo with Madison

On Wednesday, Steven, Sammy and Amaya were invited to stay at school for lunch to enjoy the “Thanksgiving feast”. It was really nice of their teachers to include them with the full-day kids.

Wednesday afternoon the kids had a special treat with a visit from Ashley! It’s so nice that we’re still in touch 15 months after she stopped working for us. It’s really special.

Making turkey hats!

I had a short day on Wednesday which gave us time to make chocolate pecan pies. Everyone was a helper! Steven was thrilled to pour the whole bottle of Karo syrup into the bowl.

Sammy was our principle mixer.

Placing pecans. Steven went with a devil-may-care approach and Amaya worked on a carefully place swirl.

On Tuesday Amaya asked if we could get sushi so, with my early arrival home, I had the chance to do something new – take SSA to my sushi restaurant for dinner. It was fantastic. Sammy at 6 pieces of sashimi, including a new kind he hadn’t tried, as well as half a California roll and shrimp tempura. Amaya devoured two different vegetarian rolls and Steven ate a NY strip. They loved sitting by the sushi bar, especially when the folks making the sushi used the blow torch. It was fun to share my favorite restaurant with them.

Happy Thanksgiving from our three turkeys in their turkey hats!

Sammy was working to copy Amaya’s pose. It really is amazing how Amaya seems to just intuitively know how to pose. That knee pop in the photo above? 🙂

Prepping rolls with Grandma Sunshine

Our delicious meal – with turkey from Aunt Annette, sides from Grandma Sunshine, veggies from Daddy and desserts from me!

 

Sammy, at his request, continued last year’s Thanksgiving tradition and ate crab legs instead of turkey.

Post-meal game time!

One quick Amaya story – We were watching the parade and there was a performance from the Broadway show, King Kong. King Kong has some strings to help with his motion and they made it looked like he was tied up. We had talked about how it seemed like King Kong was mean but he was only angry because he was hurt and how, once he was taken care of, he wasn’t so scary any more. Amaya asked if he was hurt “because the strings were cutting off his circulation”. It’s so interesting to me to see all the things the kids know.

Some Thanksgiving crafts.

Feather families – made at school while Steven was home sick.

Fall trees. I love these because they show Sammy’s approach compared to Steven and Amaya. He’s a free spirit.

What we’re thankful for…

Another story… at dinner on Thursday night we were talking about letters and vowels. It started when I said “o” makes an “oh” sound and the kids corrected me to “ah”. That makes sense because I believe kids initially focus on the soft vowel sounds that are in early reading words (hot, cot, etc.). They then explained that “e” doesn’t always say it’s name like in “Cline”. They’re learning all of this at school! It’s so cool. It might be time to break out their beginning Bob books.

Sammy did an amazing job doing the dishes. He scrubbed the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. All I had to do was turn on the water. Maybe a little supervision, too.

My office was closed on Friday but Madison was working. It created a rare opportunity to spend a day with the kids but also take some time for me. I headed to the movies (Crimes of Grindlewald) while SSA watched Brave, drank hot chocolate and ate pumpkin pie.

Madison planned a great afternoon craft with the kids to gear up for Hanukkah – one we can use for holiday decor in future years, too.

Amaya, laughing at Steven.

Steven looks even older like this with his face thinned out as he jokes around.

 

Piano duet!

Silly Mommy – I tried to nap on the couch. Instead, I was in Sammy and Steven’s hair salon. 🙂

Madison was the next customer!

Steven and Sally shared a moment on Friday! He sat so patiently and waited for her to come to him. He wants to pet Sally so badly and is doing all the right things to start to build her trust. She’s still very skiddish around the kids.

Saturday morning was a building day. Legos and Magnatiles – our current favorite!

Amaya built a house with a splash pad including two diving boards – a low dive and a high dive.

“Take a picture with it, Daddy! Smile!”

Sally has been throwing up lately, with too much frequency, so I got brave enough to get her in a carrier and took her to the vet. She’s so nervous and, as I could have predicted, was not having it when the vet tried to do x-rays and take blood. After some sedation they got the job done. Poor Sal. The x-ray shows that movement in her GI track seems slowed and she may have a stone in her bladder. We’re waiting for her blood work to come back to see if it tells us anything more definitive. Sweet, sweet Sally girl.

After 2 days in the house, it was time to get out! The Clines started at Chile’s for lunch (where the kids can circle the pictures of what they want on the kids’ menu) and then headed to Belle Isle to check out the Aquarium and Nature Center.

Amaya and Sammy ordered their standard Shirley Temples.

Me: “Amaya, which Cline is most likely to fall asleep in the car.
Amaya: “Sammy.”

We all know our Bubba. <3

Belle Isle Aquarium! When they’re checking tags, you just need a State park pass to visit the island and then the attractions are all free. The aquarium is the oldest operating aquarium in the US. One highlight was a fish that dates back to before animals evolved out of the sea. It even has fins that it can use as “legs” when it’s in shallow water. Pretty cool.

“Take a picture of me by myself.”

Off to the nature center.

Checking out the bees – a highlight for Steven.

A natural playground. Very cool, and would have been even better if it was warmer and drier.

The highlight at the nature center was the opportunity to feed deer. They have 8 or 9 deer on the premises that are the last remaining deer from the island – previously brought over from France in the 1800’s. Here we were waiting to go into the enclosure.

Sammy was the only Cline kid who wanted to try to feed a deer but it worked out well because, Steven, Amaya and I were distracted by really awesome, fuzzy caterpillars. They curl up in a ball when you pick them up. I was surprised that Steven and Amaya were willing to hold them.

And Sammy was successful! Jason said he wasn’t sure the deer was going to come over but it did and Sammy got to feed it. I love him in this little video.

Our final adventure of the day was a ride through Wayne County Lightfest. (Thanks for the rec, Madison!) “Merriman Hollow Area Lightfest features more than 47 giant animated displays and more than one million lights; it is the Midwest’s largest and longest light show. The complete Lightfest route is over four miles of Hines Drive.”

It’s a nice slow drive through the lights – which include a Hanukkah display. SSA looooooved the experience. They didn’t know where to look first! Sammy said, “I thought it was going to be boring to sit in the car and look at funny lights but this is a lot better than I thought!” (The kids have called Christmas lights “funny lights” for about as long as they could talk.)

And here we are at today. What a week!

As usual these days, it started with building.

Jason has connected his keyboard to our smart tv and can work on fantasy football spreadsheets on our big screen. He gave each of the kids a chance to work on their typing.

While Jason went into the office, I made playdoh for Steven, Sammy and Amaya. Sammy had been asking for it and I needed to wait until we had a new stove top. (We were without one from 11/3 until 11/21.) Grandma Betsy has made it for them before which is how they know about the homemade variety. Mine isn’t as good as Betsy’s but it was good enough to play with. (In fact, Amaya said that both were good but Grandma Betsy’s is better.)

Amaya is showing off the new slippers she got at the aquarium.

For the first time in a long time (July, I think), I took all three kids to the grocery store. It’s rare that I do our grocery shopping to begin with and even more unusual for me to have all of the kids with me. They spent most of the time pretending the cart was a pirate ship. “Hoist the sails!” “Raise the anchor!”

A goal of our trip was to pick out toys for the Toys For Tots collection at my office. We prepped for it, but this poor kiddo still had a very difficult time with the concept of a gift for someone else. 🙁 She rebounded quickly once we decided to pick out something that she already has.

Just a few more photos to wrap up the week.

Amaya made these plates for everyone in the family. “How do you spell ‘Joanna'”?

A self portrait!

Finally, this is me! The photo is probably 20 or 21 years old and I stumbled on it today. I was in VT with friends and we were jumping off the 2nd story deck into the huge snow piles below. It’s fun to remember this trip and being that young. Also reckless, it seems. Things I would never to today… (Don’t do this, Steven! Don’t do this, Sammy! Don’t do this, Amaya!)

Have a great week! On Wednesday, Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I are off to NY for a long weekend.

This was week three of colds in our house and it was Steven’s turn. I wish the germs knew that it would be more convenient if they could all get colds at once.

Madison is doing a great job involving kids in daily clean-up in the house. At this age, their help is actual help. Can you spy Amaya in a winter hat? Madison often wears winter hats in the house and Amaya was trying to copy her style.

This child is working the poses. She cracks me up. Here, she’s wearing a pair of baby leggings over her tights as leg warmers. Creative and functional.

Curly pony from an overnight braid.

On Tuesday night, Amaya visited Sammy’s hair salon.

“Are you making a braid?”
“Well, I have your hair in three pieces so I might be.”

By Wednesday morning, Steven’s cold was on full force. We decided to keep him home from school so he could get some extra rest. It’s nice to have that flexibility with Madison, this year.

I was off to DC where I was speaking at a conference and got lots and lots of hugs before I left. Sammy had a hard with me leaving – my 4th trip in 6 weeks – so there were more tears than usual. He hung onto my leg for as long as he possibly could. I’m glad this ends my run of trips for while – save for the week after Thanksgiving when I’ll be traveling with SSA.

This sweet, sweet face. <3 <3 <3

Two Cline kids dipping apples in ketchup. They absolutely did not get this from their mother.

Thursday morning was another sick day for the Bobes. He vomited twice, very early in the morning. I’m still convinced it was from all of his drainage because it didn’t happen again, but it meant that he had to stay home from school and everyone needed to stay home from dance class so he didn’t risk infecting anyone else in the lobby/waiting area.

Making tracks in the snow after school…

By afternoon you’d have hardly known he was ever sick.

The kids asked for a picture in front of the snow. They’re getting SO BIG.

Always posing.

Steven, Sammy and Amaya had a real treat on Friday. It was “Special Person Shabbat” at school and Madison made plans to attend with the kids. Since drop-off was only an hour prior, Ms Bri and Ms Jena invited Madison to stay in the classroom with the kids for the morning.

Steven, working on his typing.

Sammy & Amaya coloring with Ms Bri

Steven and Shoshana did Madisons make-up.’

Special Person Shabbat! I was so grateful that Madison was available and interested in attending with the kids. I’d have hated for them to be without a special person. <3

Running to Ms. Shannon. I can’t overstate how much the kids love Shannon, their center director, especially Sammy. If you ask the kids who their favorite person is at school, Amaya says Henry, Steven says Evelyn and Sammy says Ms. Shannon. It’s so sweet & special.

The whole gang.

After Shabbat, the kids asked Madison to stay for the rest of the day. She got some photos of the kids sliding down the snowy hill and even joined in herself.

This is Amaya playing with Henry. He’s her favorite at school but she’s pretty clear that she’s marrying Elsa. Or has already married Elsa. The status of her nuptials varies by the day.

Waiting for me to get home from the airport! Jason and Madison both reported that the kids were so excited for me to come home. Amaya would never actually let me see her excitement but she admitted it to her daddy. 🙂

Homecomings are the BEST.

My secret sister sent us a great Hanukkah gift – DIY candles! I’ve never seen them before and we had a great time making them.

She also sent us a Haunkkah bingo game, that both Jason and I had fun playing with the kids this weekend. (As you can see the background of this photo, we have Hanukkah decorations up around the house. Those were carefully placed by Sammy.)

Sammy is super independent with food and loves anything he can do himself. He’s making a tasty butter sandwich – and Steven is having a meltdown because he’s eating the last two pieces of bread.

Amaya stayed in bed until her green light went on for 6 nights in a row. As a result, her hair grew a long braid overnight! 😉 She’s so pleased.

We spent a lot of time playing with legos this weekend. It’s nice that I enjoy it so much, too. Steven does a very good job following the instructions. He’s right when he says, “I’m very good at legos.”

We built this house together. I found the pieces in the big box and he followed the instructions to build it.

All of the kids are so creative. It’s really interesting to see what they come up with when they’re left to their own devices.

Jason spent a good amount of time today making custom pictures for each of the kids. 🙂

Talent!!

Jason saw these Under Armour shirts that match one he has and got them for the kids. He gave them to the boys but also had one for Amaya. It went something like this:

Amaya: Those shirts are just for boys.
Jason: I have one for you if you want it.
Amaya: Yeah! *rushes to change into her new shirt*

She later told us she looked like a boy which opened up a whole new discussion. Amaya’s pretty cute trying to say “social constructs”. I hope the message she took away is that she should like what she likes and be who she is. The end.

Someone tell me how she looks so old. Mind boggling.

Sammy wanted his shirt buttoned all the way up.

The whole gang in their matching shirts. I hear there’s even one for me, too!

They’re cute when they play together. Dr. Amaya was taking care of Sammy’s puppy who’s allergic to everything except his special food. It was a lot of fun up until they couldn’t save Puppy and he died.

Steven was watching a show and was full on belly laughing. I should have recorded it – the sound was so amazing.

Finally, what the kids are thankful for!

Steven: Nana, Mommy, Daddy, Amaya, Sammy, Madison, Ms Bri & Ms Jena.

Sammy: Savta, Mommy, Chairs, Daddy, Grandma Sunshine, Nana, Amaya, Steven, School & Pictures

Amaya: My Brothers, Madison, Mommy, Daddy, Gifts

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

This picture is so, so Steven. Sleeping cuddled with Morminer, and half his possessions in his bed. I mean, what it he needs to make a call or measure something in the middle of the night? He’s prepared!

Monday was a pretty mild day so Madison and the kids got outside to take advantage of it. We were just asked to send snow pants, hats and gloves to school, too, so it sounds like SSA will be getting outside even in the coming cold, snowy weather. That’s good, because I certainly won’t be taking them outside when it’s cold and snowy. I’m adventurous, but I prefer that my adventures are warm.

Tuesday morning I left early to go vote before an 8am meeting. Steven was having a hard time saying goodbye so I promised I’d wave as I drove away. I forgot. 🙁 🙁 🙁

Jason called me about it just as I was getting to the polling place and, if I knew just how sad he was, I’d probably have turned around right then. Instead, I promised to come home after I voted and go to my meeting late, if necessary. Once I saw this picture of my sad Bobes sitting at the window waiting, I knew he needed me to come in for extra hugs instead of just a drive-by wave. Sweet, sweet boy.

Here’s Madison with the kids after work. I was home later than usual so she had them upstairs & ready for bed so our time together could be with story books instead of the administration of the bedtime routine. It was perfect.

Cool Bobes. I think his favorite sweatshirt is officially too small.

By Thursday, Amaya had Sammy’s cold and wasn’t in shape for dance class. She was more than happy to just color while her brothers sashayed around the dance room.

Air time!

Madison reports that Sammy is a lot more focused in tap when Amaya isn’t there. (This was his second class on his own. The first was when we were in CA.) I was really proud of him for going in by himself while Amaya and Steven were waiting outside. I think it’s a sign of his interest.

Focus.

Both boys, dancing around with ribbons in jazz class.

Strong helpers. Getting more and more helpful by the day, in fact.

On Thursday night, Steven surprised me with his ability to write the alphabet. He made his way through by singing the ABC song and stopping when he got to his next letter. The only tricky part was “lmnop” which tripped him up. He kept thinking the next letter was p, because of the way it all ran together. I didn’t realize he knew how to write his letters so well!

The finished product. Once he got to “X’ he decided that X needed to mark the spot so he detoured a bit and drew a path between the X and a pirate ship. 🙂

Even sick, Amaya has her sass. You can definitely see the cold in her eyes, though. We decided a day at home would serve her well, and made plans for her to stay home on Friday.

Even sick, and even staying home, this girl gets herself dressed.

Sammy loves to help his Daddy shave. He’s so focused and gentle.

Friday was our first snow of the season. Booooooo. I’m not ready! The kids were excited, though, and Madison had prepared for a first day of snow craft. In order, it’s Steven’s, Sammy’s and Amaya’s.

Gratuitous pic of sweet Sally, who doesn’t get enough love in the blog.

Friday night cuddles, near as best I can do with all 3 kids these days.

The Cline family had big plans for Saturday. Sammy really wanted to go out for breakfast with pancakes which led to us planning 1:1 meals with each of the kids. Amaya had a scheduled haircut with plans, afterwards, to take treats to firefighters. I wasn’t sure how the coordination would work out but it all fell into place – starting with Sammy ready to go to breakfast at 6:45am. I think they were out the door shortly after 7!

I remarked that this was the table I sat at last week with Steven, Sammy and Amaya and Jason told me that it’s why Sammy picked this table. <3

Jason was going to meet us at the fire station to get Steven for lunch but Steven didn’t want to leave someone he loves home alone, so they stayed together while Amaya, Sammy and I headed out.

Giant floor puzzle!

Lately, Steven has really been enjoying writing and copying words he sees. Saturday he copied the writing at the top of his puzzle. He even gets the airplane in there.

This was only Amaya’s 2nd haircut and it was at a new-to-us place in Livonia. Steven saw this picture and immediately decided that he wants his next haircut to be in the blue airplane.

The have cool vehicles and shows to watch. Hard to beat! It definitely helped Sammy pass the time.

Amaya’s Elsa braid. It was super cute.

Trader Joes, picking up treats for the fire fighters and police officers. I could spend ALL THE MONEY in Trader Joes.

We got lucky with our delivery! There were two EMTs there when we arrived and, while we were checking out the ambulance, a fire truck returned.

Touring the ambulance! Everyone was so nice to Sammy and Amaya. They were very patient and generous with their time.

Learning to use a stethoscope.

Sitting in the fire truck.

And off to the police station for our last stop. It was a quiet morning but we were able to find an officer to deliver the cookies to.

We were all home by noon and had a quiet afternoon tomorrow. I played a game called “Four of a Kindness” with the kids. It’s a card game played Go Fish style, where you have categories to talk about ways you’re kind. We skipped the formal game rules and mostly focused on answering the kindness questions.

At Trader Joes we picked up cards to send to someone’s special. Amaya made one for Charlie. Steven made one for Chase and Charlie. Sammy made one for Savta (not pictured).

At his request, I tried to make Sammy homemade play doh the way Grandma Betsy does but just ended up with neon green slime instead. Sammy ended up having a (messy) blast with it but I’ll have to try to figure out what I did wrong and keep practicing.

When Mommy naps, kids climb on board.

Also when Mommy naps – Daddy gets the kids to work shoveling. They did a great job clearing the deck!

The 1:1 meals ended with a Mommy/Amaya dinner date at Applebees. We sat at the bar. She had a shirley temple. It was a perfect dinner out.

No more pictures.

At dinner we had this conversation –

A: Your job is a really important job.
Me: My job being your mom or my job at my workplace?
A: Your job at your workplace. 
A: So you can buy your kids toys, Joanna.

This child. When I call her on using my name she generally tells me that she’s Elsa and Amaya is visiting Arendelle. Today, in fact, she told me that she (Elsa) left Amaya in charge of Arendelle while she (Elsa) visited me.

Our adventure today was a trip to the Jewish Book Fair at the JCC for Dino Day! There was a huge event set up with crafts, fossils, live animals, story time and more. The kids even got to eat “dino poop.”

Amaya was ready with her dinosaur tail, tiara, necklace and gloves.

The tail was a huge hit. She got so many comments that I felt a little badly about making the boys leave their tails at home but the boys’ dino tails are 4x the size and totally unwieldy.

Checking out reptiles. There was an awesome, colorful lizard there. I said to the kids, “A lot of people used to think that reptiles are related to dinosaurs but what animal really evolved from dinosaurs?” Amaya: “Birds.”

She’s repeating what she’s heard before, but it’s still cool to know it’s sinking in.

Steven and Sammy, digging for fossils. For most of the time we were there, Amaya didn’t want to go in the sand. They received passports, though, that got stamped at each activity and Amaya wanted to earn every stamp which eventually motivated her into the sand pit.

So independent, off on her own doing this craft.

The favorite activity was dinosaur sand art. All 3 kids were totally focused, even Sammy who often taps out before a long project like this one is complete. Goes to show he has the focus when he’s truly interested.

Steven’s.

Amaya’s.

Sammy’s.

Building giant lego towers. Steven and Sammy were very proud of theirs.

Steven and Sammy, making their scrap art dino footprints.

We finished our day in the sand pit. Lots of children playing carefully while my Sammy army crawled across the sand. A lot of which is now in our house lol. But he had a blast.

The Clineosauruses had so much fun at the event and they are now fast asleep. It’s been a rough week adjusting to the time change but hopefully they’re worn out enough to get back on track to the new clock.

Have a great week!

Writing the blog on a Sunday, it’s always weird to think about the family/guests who were still here on Monday. The prior Monday always feels like a lifetime ago!

This past Monday, Nana and Savta were still visiting and the SSA had a very busy day which included their semi-annual dentist visit, preceded by lunch out.

Finding letters in a word search…

Amaya was ready! We’ve come a long way from when they’d sit in my lap for these visits.

Sammy was nervous when the chair went back (very nervous) but got through it!

Steven was ready to go! We avoided xrays by the skin of our teeth. With how crowded his mouth is, we’re expecting to need them in the spring. It’s also time to get flossing into their bedtime routine.

It was nice enough for a walk outside, which you can’t pass up at this time of year.

This picture floors me. Steven looks like a KID. More and more it’s hitting me that we’re moving out of the little kid season of our life. It’s wonderful, and it’s also hard to say goodbye to this time in my life.

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Nana and Savta. This week the kids had lessons on feelings and colors were assigned to each feeling. Before I left for work, Sammy said he was feeling blue. I said I was feeling pink (love) and he said, “Shouldn’t you feel blue because your mommy is leaving?” This boy has so much love. On Sunday he asked Savta, “Why do I love you so much?”

Tuesday afternoon was one of our favorite events of the year – trick or treating at Mommy’s work place! You can’t tell from the photos but we had about 90 kids attend the event. Each department decorates and has treats to hand out.

Little face. <3 It’s fun to see how much more comfortable the kids grow year after year.

The annual “hello” with my boss Mark, who used to be Jason’s boss at Borders.

 

“Bawk bawk bawk”

Finally! Halloween arrived! What a build up for 4 year olds. (Though they did get quite the haul at my office.)

Off we went, right at 6pm. We got so lucky with the weather. It rained all day and cleared up in time for us to head out.

The kids developed very specific doorbell rules:
*The order – Steven, Amaya, Sammy
*If no one answered the door, you got another turn
*If candy was left on the porch, you got another turn
*No ringing the doorbell until everyone as there
*If someone opened the door before you rang the bell you got another turn. (Eventually, I just asked a homeowner if Amaya could ring the bell after going to four houses without getting through her turn.)

We were out for a little over an hour and the kids did great, overall. Steven seemed to have a bit of a hard time keeping up with Sammy and Amaya and, later in the night, Sammy was slooooooooow. Amaya was the Little Engine That Could the entire time.

We also had a weird experience where Steven thought another child called him disgusting. Out of nowhere he burst into tears and was near inconsolable. I didn’t hear it and it was a very random thing for an older child to say to a 4 year old dressed as Captain America. I think he misheard something but that wasn’t the point in the moment because he believed it was said to him. I asked Amaya, “What do we say if someone calls us disgusting.” She answered, “That’s not true! I’m not disgusting!” Steven couldn’t quite get into that head space, though. It took three other moms fawning over his costume to turn him around. We’ll keep working on how we can respond when someone says something that hurts our feelings. (“What if someone said, ‘You have brown hair and brown hair is yucky’.” “I’d say, ‘I don’t care what you think. I like my hair.”) Hopefully the reinforcement will help when it happens for real.

After trick or treating, everyone picked a piece of candy to eat in front of the fire. (First time we’ve used the fire place since I was pregnant!)

Thursday was a no-school day so they started their morning with Frozen. Little makes the kids as happy as starting their day with a movie.

Sammy had a cold this week and wasn’t feeling well enough to dance so Amaya was the only Cline kid in tap. I love how focused and happy she is in dance class.

Steven, showing me the Grapevine. It’s a short little video and he’s so cute explaining it to me.

Steven got hold of my phone on Friday morning and photographed his favorite subject. <3

Sammy was still sick on Friday and Amaya seemed like she was catching the cold so we kept everyone home on Friday to fight off whatever was going around.

This child. She gets up in the morning and, without fail, puts on tights and a skirt or dress. And, now, a tiara.

Saturday gave me a chance to finish my Saturn V rocket and I had helpers. The kids – particularly Steven – love finding the pieces I need. There was even a section of the rocket that Steven and Amaya were able to put together on their own. The end result is awesome.

Sleeping beauty lol.

After too long with a half functioning dishwasher, it was finally delivery day for our new appliances. Steven helped by making sure that everything would fit.

Installation started at 4:30pm (and went until 10pm) so I took the kids out to eat. Sammy wanted pancakes so the diner it was!

Before

After

We had lazy, lazy day today and did a whlole lot of nothing. It was really nice! The kids played with magnatiles, play doh & made up a ton of games together. They boys stayed in their PJs all day while Amaya was dressed in a dress & tights by 7am. 🙂

Big. Kid.

And that’s it for this week. Have a good one!