Monday was another day full of snow and Madison helped Steven, Sammy and Amaya take advantage of it after school. It wasn’t perfect sledding snow but it was good enough for the kids to have fun outside. (Though I think they’re ready for spring. Earlier today Steven was begging me to let him ride his bike.)

What a difference! This is MI weather for you.

Play time with Lego sets. Amaya is hoping I’ll start my 3000 piece Enterprise soon. She’s itching to build something new. 🙂

Sammy asked me to read Snow White when I got home from work. I try to always say yes to story book time. I love how he settled into the cushion tops for the story.

Our Sal.

This was Steven’s “stampede bell.” He rang it to warn us when a stampede was coming. I asked him if he knew what a stampede is and he said, “it’s when a lot of animals come running really fast.”

Amaya was a Rainbow Princess on Tuesday. (Last week she told me, “I want to be a princess when I grow up but I’ll probably be a scientist.” lol)

When I got home from work on Tuesday Sammy immediately asked me to build with him. I’m in. He is such a sweet, sensitive child.

Building a racetrack ramp!

Amaya holds “research class” with her dolls every night at bedtime. At research class you learn your letters, you lean to read and you learn which letters are which colors.

Madison and the kids stopped at Target after school on Thursday to get glue for slime and they stumbled on these wood designs. This was the pic they sent to appeal to me to approve the $3pp spend. 🙂

Steven’s bumble bee.

I was a little worried that his perfectionism would create an issue with the black and yellow blending but he rolled with it beautifully and has an awesome bee.

Amaya’s flower.

She had a very precise vision for her design.

Sammy originally chose a ladybug but ended up with this cool snail.

It’s common for Sammy to lose interest before a project is complete but he was all in on this one!

They want us to hang their creations on their bedroom walls.

SSA and I (you can’t see that Steven is on my lap) were watching a video from our favorite episode of My Little Pony, when they sing the song “True True Friend.”

Here you go. Now maybe you can wander around all day singing it just like I do.

Sammy had a fever on Thursday! His teachers reported that he laid around all day. (Which makes me think about Kindergarten when you don’t have an option to just lie around when you aren’t 100%. The real world is coming for my kids. 🙁 ) I turns out he had a fever which meant no dance class and no school on Friday.

Ready to sit with his tablet while Amaya and Steven danced.

Just two tap dancers this week. They’re starting to practice doing their recital routine without their teacher. Yowza.

(Not their music that you’re hearing.)

Steven, watching his sister.

I took this picture while Amaya was getting ready for bed. It’s crazy to me that this little baby is a self-sufficient kid.

Sammy stayed home from school on Friday and even asked to take a nap. His fever had been gone since the night before but he obviously needed the r&r.

Friday afternoon, Madison, Steven, Sammy and Amaya went to pick up Nana at the airport! Yay!

One extra perk of Friday nights with Nana is sushi. This summer Steven didn’t really want to touch it but he’s come a long way and has favorites now! (Though he did ask Madison to deconstruct his roll and remove the seaweed.)

Shabbat!

Nana and the kids kept up their Saturday morning tradition – getting up together and going to Starbucks. SSA love it and I definitely appreciate the opportunity to sleep in.

Making glow-in-the-dark slime! The recipe never seems to work quite as written but we always figure it out. Key: more baking soda.

Mr. Lashes

We had a pretty lazy day around the house. Steven and I played Carcasonne where he built a 30 point city – the biggest city we’ve seen yet.

Amaya played with some toys that Charlie sent with Nana. (Thank you, Aunt Sara.)

TV Time cuddles

Dinner at Zingerman’s Roadhouse

Sammy ordered decaf coffee again. This time Amaya joined him. They’re so funny with the coffee.

Savta isn’t feeling her best so Nana had to head back to NY on Saturday night. After dinner, everyone said their goodbyes and I took Nana to the airport. <3

PS. Jason’s shirt

Today was laaaaaaaaaazy. L-A-Z-Y. Just what was needed.

Practicing balance with pillows on their back.

“Can you make a ballet bun and put my Jojo bow on it with the pony holder?” “Thanks mom.”

She made me take 5 pictures and then picked her favorite. I am obsessed with this child. (She’ll also pretend she’s Elsa or Twilight Sparkle visiting our house. “Thank you for letting me visit today, Joanna.”)

While Jason was at the office this afternoon, Steven and Amaya convinced me to start my 3,098 page Mega Bloks Enterprise. Without new Lego sets of their own to build, they had their eyes on my big box. 🙂 The trick with Mega Blocks is that, unlike Lego sets, the bags aren’t numbered and organized to take you through sequential building. The bags are sort of organized by piece type but there’s a lot of searching. Once I got into the hang of consistent pieces I could find them easily but any new, small piece became a project of it’s own. Amaya and Steven were both very eager to help along the way.

We wrapped up the day with the Michigan State/Michigan basketball game. Steven was rooting for the “bumblebee team”. He was so cute. Every time Jason yelled, “Get the ball!” He’d yell, “Keep the ball!” And vice versa.

At the start of this video it sounds like Steven is yelling, “Sparty, get the ball!” But he’s really on the tail end of saying, “Don’t let Sparty get the ball!” Fortunately, the Bumblebees lost the game. Sorry Bobes.

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

Steven and I were home from the airport around 10pm on Sunday night. LATE. It was hard to part ways so he had one more night sleeping with his mommy. By 8am, I had to wake him so the kids could get to school. It was a rough reentry for both of us but I was so happy to see Sammy and Amaya when I woke.

Amaya is still killing it with her outfits. 🙂

The kids had a quiet day at school and then play time at home.

Post-work snuggles <3

Steven was very excited to dive into his new 860 piece lego set. It’s a “hostibal” with an ambulance and a rescue helicoptor!

Telling Daddy all about his adventures in California.

Amaya needed her sheets changed which was the perfect opportunity for her to negotiate a night sleeping on her beanbag. But not until her friends were all set up perfectly with her.

There was ice in the forecast for Tuesday so Madison came back at bedtime and spent the night to be sure she could work the next day and Jason and I could get in to work.

Tuesday morning seemed even rougher for Steven. He said he didn’t feel well and wasn’t eating much. That, coupled with the ice on the road, led to a decision to stay home from school again. It’s been a long time since these kids have all had a full week of school! (Like most of the kids in MI.)

Amaya and Sammy wanted to check out the fog.

Thursday was the 100th day of school and the kids had an assignment to bring in 100 units of something – their choice. Sammy wanted to count his with me so we grabbed some pom poms and got counting!

Wednesday was back to school and a special visit from Megan! When I told the kids that she was coming by herself, without Taco, Steven said, “So she can just pay attention to us?” They get it lol.

The kids don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at school but Steven came home on Wednesday (the 13th) with this drawing from his friend Gracie. If you can’t tell, it says “Steven and Grace”

Thursday was the 100th day of school which included lots of 100-themed crafts and activities. Sammy lost patience and scribbled on his worksheet but then was sad he didn’t have a complete one so Ms. Bri sent him one with one to complete on his own. Success!

Amaya can spell her last name!

The kids had dance class on Thursday and Amaya got her tap costume to try on. She also tied her own shoe! (Something Madison has been working on with them.)

Sammy, partnering in jazz.

The kids made 100 day of school crowns that Sammy modeled for me after work.

Drying her nails lol. I see a lot of Charlie in that second picture.

Jason, being the best Daddy putting a braid in a Shimmer doll’s hair. Sally was very interested.

Before bed, Steven got to work on a Valentine’s card for Gracie. He worked on version after version after version, getting angry and crumbling each one when it wasn’t just. so. Eventually I had to call it for the night which was met with a lot of anger and tears but it was bedtime and I could tell he was too tired to finish without more frustration. In the end, he decided this last one was sufficient. 🙂

Finally, Valentine’s Day flowers as a gift for ME, in my favorite color. <3

Friday night started the weekend of legos. (Not unlike a lot of other weekends around the Land of Cheltenham.) Amaya had worked on her castle independently and it needed some revisions, which I helped with. Steven got to work on the 2nd half of his hospital.

Steven’s Legoland pillow arrived!

Sammy got to sleep with Jason on Friday night. He was a happy, happy boy. (Sleeping next to a happy, happy man.)

We got right back to the Lego hospital and castle on Saturday morning.

This guy found his own fun. He’s always known how to lounge..

Helping Daddy get organized.

On a whim, I invited Gracie and her twin sister, Hannah, to come for a play date. I offered on Friday and they happened to be free Saturday afternoon so we made it happen. Hannah is in the alternate pre-k class this year and it’s SSA’s first time in class with Gracie.

Leading up to the play date, and as they arrived, the drama was around hiding special toys they didn’t want anyone else to play with. Steven wasn’t too concerned but Sammy and Amaya made a mad dash to get stuff upstairs. There were tears from Amaya which Gracie and Hannah’s mom totally understood.

Getting acclimated. I think this was a little easier for Sammy than other play dates with triplet friends because he sees Gracie at school every day.

Steven giving his Valentine’s Day card to Gracie <3 <3 <3

Hannah and Sammy and some hungry hippos.

Gracie asked, “Is that the three of you? Why are you in someone’s hand with your eyes closed?” lol Gracie is a spitfire. She’s outgoing with a quick temper – not unlike her friend Steven.

Steven and Hannah played a game with the map of the San Diego zoo where they found and shared their favorite “aminals”, their last favorite animals and animals that they don’t know. They were at it for quite a while.

Amaya was the least interested in playing with the girls. She mostly did her own thing.

Building.

It was a good time. They’re nice girls and I like their mom. Right now they’re not in our school district but they’re looking to move to our area so I pushed the Thornton Creek Elementary school zone. 🙂

TV time! My Little Pony, as always. I love Sammy’s face while he watches.

First thing this morning Steven was back at his hostible. I just checked and it’s 861 pieces and came in 9 bags. He’ll tell you he did it all himself which is pretty close to true. I’d say he managed 90% of it without help.

Showing Sammy how the x-ray works.

We made our bi-monthly trip to Five Below for staying-in-bed prizes. The store has an incredible assortment of My Little Pony stuff. I was talking to the manager and asked if they got Toys R Us closeouts. She said she didn’t think so. There are long plans to keep supplementing. I mentioned that I saw some of the same items on Amazon for 3x the price and she said that people come and buy them out to resell on Amazon. So interesting.

Sammy earned a prize today and picked a slinky. We put together some make shift stairs for him since ours are too deep to work well with the slinky.

DONE! Steven’s focus on the project was impressive and the end result is very cool.

The kids wrapped up the weekend with volcano videos…

…and light saber fights. We’re trying to get them to battle in slow motion to avoid a light saber to the hand or face.

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

Oh, this week. Steven and I have been looking forward to our California Adventure since I returned from LA with Amaya back in early October. He loves legos and doesn’t love most adventurous rides so we agreed that Legoland in San Diego was the ideal choice for our getaway. After what felt like a long wait the day arrived and, on Thursday morning, off we went!

Looking at this photo it feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago. The perception of time is so odd. Steven noticed it too. When we were leaving this morning we headed back to our car which had been sitting in the parking lot since we arrived on Thursday afternoon. He said, “It feels like we just got here and are walking back to the car to get something we forgot, but today is Sunday and we got here on Thursday.”

It’s not a trip to DTW without a stop to watch the fountain.

A rental car on the flip side means a car seat on the plane. It’s cumbersome but we’ve got a good routine now.

We had a relatively uneventful flight and Steven was nervous but excited to ride the rental car shuttle bus. He wanted to hold my hand and a handle bar until he decided my hand wasn’t necessary after all.

Yay!!!!

Our first stop was the San Diego Zoo which took us right past a home I lived in back in 2000. Steven agreed that it would be fun to see the house. We spent a while talking about the fact that I was an adult when I lived here but he wasn’t in my belly yet. It was pretty overwhelming to be there, all these years later, with my child. I’ve been trying to think about what it would be like, even at my age, to see somewhere my mom lived just after college. Our parents are cemented so deeply in their roles that I think I could struggle to connect to my mom’s life there just as Steven (though he’s only 5) struggled to place the me he knows now as the person in that home.

It’s the peach colored one. Perfect location in Hillcrest, walkable to to Balboa part and a quick drive to the freeways.

Zoo!!

We totally lucked out with the weather.

OMG the gorillas. It’s impossible not to anthropomorphize. We were particularly excited to see the gorililililas because they’re Daddy’s favorite.

I was so proud of Steven for going on the sky tram. It goes up high! It’s not too fast, though, so it passed his review.

Planning our post-lunch route. “We haven’t seen the chawalas either!” (Koalas)

Steven had been most excited to see the bears but ended up liking the tigers most and even left with a tiger chomper and a stuffed tiger he has since named Tiger. 🙂 Admittedly, the tiger was pretty incredible.

And off we went to Carlsbad! By now it was about 3:30pm PT and Steven had been up since 5:30am ET. I was hoping he’d nap on the 45 minute drive and it was close there for a while but there was just too much to see. We even saw a hot air balloon over the hills of Solana Beach.

LEGOLAND!! The hotel did not disappoint. There were lego bricks and a lego play pirate ship & castle right in the lobby. Steven was in heaven. I can’t even count how often he said, “This is best trip ever!”

As promised, we were on the pirate floor with a pirate room. Every detail was lego mecca including the elevators.

Our room had a treasure chest with nightly lego surprises inside. Older kids can solve a code to get the combination. (Or more patient moms of younger kids.) I just asked at the front desk. 🙂

Despite the late (east coast) hour, we headed back downstairs at 5:30pm to check out the castle and pirate ship. Steven was totally in his element running around and playing. It was really cool to watch.

There were nightly interactive shows. Steven didn’t want to participate but he loved checking it out. They also have a DJ for nightly, little kid friendly dance parties.

We finally got to bed around 7:45pm and Steven slept for a whopping 11 hours. That’s incredible for this kid. I’m normally over the moon if he sleeps a full 10 hrs at night. That’s what travel and a full day will do for you, I suppose.

Every detail is lego to the max. Breakfast and dinner at at the same buffet restaurant which I think Steven liked because he got comfortable with the routine.

A look at the main part of our room. Down the hallway was also a small alcove with bunk beds and trundle. It’s definitely set up to be family friendly, even for slightly larger families. Here, Steven was building with the legos in our room while I got ready to head to the park.

It was time! We had a picture perfect morning to head into “Legoland Amusement Park”, as Steven calls it. I was so emotional at the start of the day, getting to spend this special time together.

First stop was the car track. Steven had been specifically looking forward to this activity. He liked it, but was disappointed he couldn’t go on the track for 6- 12 year olds. I get it. He was one of the best drivers the both times out and the 3 and 4 year olds often got stuck, blocking traffic. But he had fun and earned his Lego driver’s licence.

Steven’s favorite ride was a helicopter that you could move up and down and right and left. We rode it together four times over the course of two days. He’d decide which controller I was responsible for and had very definite hopes for which helicopter he wanted each time e.g. police vs. fire. We were lucky on Friday because lines were generally short.

Fairy Tale Brook was another ride we did more than once.

He also got to drive a boat!

There were lego characters around the park and lots of photo ops. Steven was nervous at first but finally agreed to take a photo after I said I was going to by myself. He was game from that point on but always wanted me in the picture with him.

The Ninjago ride.

I tried to convince him to try Deep Sea Adventure but it’s a “real” submarine and he said the answer is no. In fact he said, “When I say ‘no” I mean no and you have to listen to me.” Fair enough, Bobes. So we took this picture and then, shortly after, left the line.

Sour Steven. He didn’t like the way I loaded him into the boat – it made him nervous – and he got very angry at me. He’s having a hard time lately with the tone he takes with me when something doesn’t go his way or he gets nervous and it involves a lot of blame directed toward me. We’re going to keep working on that together.

Hands down, Steven’s favorite part of Legoland was miniland. He loooooooooved it. I think we spent a good 2 to 3 hours there over the course of two days. He was super fascinated by the moving vehicles and loved all of the buttons to push to interact with the components.

R2D2! He also had me take a photo of Leia for Amaya and Chewbacca for Sammy.

He didn’t want to take a photo in the lion but asked to take one of me.

Driving boats!

This was pretty cool. The kids were able to build logo boats and then race them. We spent a while here. It was good to see Steven assert himself with older kids though we did have to reign in aggression towards some littler kids a few times.

We wrapped up the day around 4pm after hitting the gift shop and getting presents for the whole Cline family.

A character at the hotel buffet. I love this picture. Such natural joy.

We finished up the night with another show (“this is so funny!” and a few more lego adventures.

What a wonderful day!!

On Saturday morning Steven had some fun in the lego pit before heading into the amusement park.

It was colder and overcast but we planned for the weather and were ready to go.

Today Steven was more excited about photos because he remembered he’d get a photo pillow after the trip and wanted options to choose from. “Take a picture of me with the dinosaur for my pillow!”

We hit up Fairy Tale Brook again.

And back to miniland!

It rained pretty hard while we were back at the boat racing but it didn’t seem to phase Steven a bit. We just dried off with hand driers once the rain stopped.

More lego friends.

A highlight of the trip was a chance to see Addie and her son Nathan, who’s 7. They drove down from Orange County to spend the day with us.

Best pic. 🙂

There were a lot of rides that Steven wasn’t interested in but he was totally into the Knight’s Joust. He patiently waited for half an hour for his turn to ride the horse.

Then Steven spent a full 40 minutes waiting patiently for one last chance to ride the helicopters again!

Up in the air we go!

After meeting up with Addie and Nathan for more rides, we rounded out the day on the stationary cars and a visit to the Duplo playground.

This kid was a force at the playground. He decided he was a police officer and ran around arresting other kids. I had to remind him to keep his hands off other people unless they wanted in on the game. Fortunately he found willing participants (and I was in jail for a good 30 minutes).

After 8 hrs at the park, we headed back in for dinner and a quiet night in our room. While waiting for my to-go wine Steven put his head down on the bar and said, “Are you as sad as I am that our trip is almost over?” Yes I am, bud. <3

This morning as we were walking through the hotel with our suitcase he said, “Do you think everyone will know why my face looks sad because they see our suitcase?” Such sweetness.

Today we headed out relatively early but, with a sudden flight delay, we took the time to drive to Del Mar beach! We even drove down Via de la Valle in Solana Beach to check out the building where I used to work.

It was the perfect way to move past some of the “end of trip” blues and we left with pockets full of rocks.

Back at the airport, watching planes from the sky club.

It was a precious weekend that I’ll never forget. <3

Because a week isn’t complete without Sammy and Amaya, here’s a bit of what they were up to.

Sammy was proud that the cuts on his arm were healing and he was able to take his band-aids off.

Always doing art, often with a reference picture to be sure she’s getting it right.

Two days of cute hair!

This child. <3 Ready for tap!

Looks like Amaya is making some friends!

It appears Amaya has aged significantly since I left on Thursday.

Bedtime stories with Penni.

Sammy and Amaya had two days full of Daddy fun time. Lucky kids!! They started their morning with the My Little Pony movie – a forever favorite.

I’ll wrap up this extra long blog post with two more photos.

First, my favorite character photo.

And an image of Steven’s special Legoland photo, being delivered soon to The Land of Cheltenham.

Steven and I land shortly (and late)! Have a great week!

Oh, this week. I don’t think I realized how much I rely on routine until routine falls by the wayside.

Monday started with a forecast for a doozy of a snow storm. Jason and I decided to keep the kids home rather than risk driving them home from school in the thick of it which turned out to be a good choice. By 11:30am even my office was cleared out for the day which is a first for most of the people I work with.

I pulled over on our street to take this photo on my way home, Happy Meals in hand.

I think this short little video of Steven is particularly adorable. He was eating and singing/dancing along to one of his favorite My Little Pony songs on Pandora. <3

I was working from home for the afternoon but found times to pop down and see everyone – even dance with them to my favorite My Little Pony song while they watched the MLP movie. (Ponies, ponies all the time in our house. And legos.)

It was a perfect snow day. Light and fluffy and just right for sledding. While I shoveled, Steven, Sammy and Amaya had one of their best days out in the snow.

Such a great sledding hill. They really got the hang of it after a few runs.

Joyfully throwing snow at her poor mother. 🙂

Steven was excited to help me out with the shoveling. Sweet boy.

Steven and FaceTime lol. Tonight I checked to see if he was ready to go to bed and he said, “I can’t go to bed yet. I still haven’t talked to Grandma Sunshine or Aunt Ouize.” Then he called me back 2 minutes later and said, “Grandma Sunshine and Aunt Ouize weren’t available so I guess you can put me to bed now.”

Tuesday was a normal day! Yay! Amaya had swim and took a lesson. The boys, unfortunately, haven’t had swim for 3 or 4 weeks because of snow and illness.

Wednesday was day one of the polar vortex. The real feel was in the minus 30’s. (Which has the odd effect of making 5 degrees feel warm.) Madison couldn’t make it to work that day so Jason and I tag teamed. He was home with the kids in the morning and I got home a little after noon to take 2nd shift. Claudia was at our house cleaning so we spent a bunch of time upstairs trying to stay out of her way. Fortunately, as I tried to work, there were birthday presents from Uncle Austin that had just arrived and it was great timing to keep SSA busy. Steven got legos. Amaya got a Twilight Sparkle hoodie. Sammy got a new microphone. A loud microphone lol.

Steven put this lego set together entirely by himself. He’ll ask me for help with the stickers and the wheel spokes but he can just sit down and follow the directions straight to the end. The age 5- 12 lego sets are perfect for him right now.

At one point, Amaya asked me if she could put on my make-up. I said yes, but only blush and eye shadow. She and Sammy ran to my bathroom before I could even finish my sentence.

A few minutes later she came by to show my her work in progress telling me that she wasn’t done yet.

The finished product lololol. It’s amazing what a five year old can do with eye shadow, blush and two make up brushes.

The boys made similarly interesting creations. It was the Cline Clowns around here for a short while. 🙂

More legos. It’s as much fun to see them create from scratch as it is to watch them follow a plan.

Thursday was another stay-at-home day but Madison was back in action. Amaya was excited to see that I slept in the same pants she picked out to wear for the day. This was the best I could do for a photo without forcing myself too more than I wanted to.

Little Mama was rocking an 80’s vibe with the hair and cropped sweat shirt.

Games all morning!

I wonder if Sammy needs more sensory input than we realize. He’s often lying off the ottoman like this. He says it’s comfortable.

It warmed up enough to get out of the house and go to dance class! Yay! Tap had 3 of 5 kids show and their jazz class was pretty full. Michiganders are hearty.

Hat hair, don’t care.

I love this picture of Steven watching Sammy and Amaya.

Hmmmm. Maybe Sammy even likes this sensory input while he’s asleep. 😉

Friday was back to school and work and routine. Whoo hoo! After school, Madison put Amaya’s hair in tight braids for a fancy hairdo at the next day’s Daddy/Daughter dance. Here, Amaya had been crying about something that wasn’t actually a problem and Madison was helping her problem solve. <3

FunnyFaceTime with Daddy

I got some new art from Steven this week. The first is a rainbow with Princess Celestia on one side (in yellow) and Princess Luna on the other. There’s the sun and the moon and, my favorite part, a waffle and a pancake.

“From Steven. To Joanna. I love you Mommy.” Nana helped him with the spelling via FaceTime.

On Saturday, Jason gave the kids a big box of ball cards that he’s been saving up – 2014 Rookies, just like them!

Steven got to work on some model emergency vehicles that he received for Hanukkah.

Playing around, trying to keep Daddy from going to The Container Store lol. Honestly, if Jason has reason to go to The Container Store, I don’t think anything will stop him from his mecca. 🙂

The first Daddy/Daughter dance! Amaya has been talking about this for weeks. <3 <3 <3

She’s wearing the same dress she wore when she was Jason’s +1 for a wedding back in June, only a size up. Same for her shoes. This is Amaya’s official “fancy outfit”.

The hair!

These two…

This weekend and back in June. Such a special bond.

While Amaya and Jason were off Daddying, Daughtering and Dancing, Steven and Sammy got to work on new legos – compliments of birthday money from Savta. (Side note: Amaya and I had a philosophical conversation about the nature of this gift. Amaya confidently asserted – after I made a comment about her “legos from Savta” – that the gift is the money she received, not the legos. I protested at first but she and Jason convinced me otherwise.)

This set is rated 6- 12 and Steven did a very nice job managing it mostly on his own. It’s 323 pieces and took him a looooong time. Sammy worked on it early on and then asked me to do the rest – which I was happy to help with once I was sure he really didn’t want to do it.

When Amaya got home, she dove right into her new set purchased with birthday money from Savta.

Last night Nana read a book to Steven! He held it up to her and she read it page, by page. Such a clever idea!

We started today painting.

Sammy painted a playground.

Steven painted a farm.

Amaya painted a heart.

While Amaya was coloring in a picture of Mulan, Steven decided he wanted to draw a “champion”. I did some googling with him to figure out what he meant and we landed on this character from the movie.

While Jason was at work, the kids convinced me to take them out for sushi and then for frozen yogurt (ice cream).

The sushi place doesn’t have kids menus so I always bring some pencils and paper with me.

I’m so proud of how Sammy wrote here! Even just 6 weeks ago he wasn’t this proficient.

Steven will eat sushi now! Amaya, on the other hand, had a bad run-in with the seaweed and is nervous to heat her rolls.

Fro yo! It was in the high 40s and the place was packed. Practically balmy compared to early in the week.

We wrapped up the afternoon jumping in puddles left by the melting snow. There were some good ones! And it was a huge attire change from earlier in the week when we were playing in the snow.

We had a bit of a rough end to the day. Sammy and Amaya were slow coming down to dinner. When they came downstairs, it looked like their hair was wet but, after discussion, they eventually disclosed that they put “soap” in their hair. The soap turned out to be most of the shampoo, conditioner and body wash in our master shower. Later in the evening Sammy also seems to have gotten to my razor and cut his hand and leg. He was beside himself. That, too, took a while to disclose which I can understand.

While all of this was going on, Steven showed up in his EMT uniform. Not necessarily the right time, but it was a sweet thought.

Sammy’s okay and the cuts aren’t terrible but he was in an emotionally rough place at bedtime. He and Jason had a long, supportive talk about everything that happened and I promised him I’d take him to bed with me when I go to sleep tonight. I’ll give my Bubba some extra love. <3

Oh, yeah. Poor Strawberry the 2nd died this week. He’d been with us since late summer. He was a good fish. The kids and Madison had a funeral and everyone said their goodbyes. They’re already talking about Strawberry the 3rd but I think it’s time for a break from fish in The Land of Cheltenham.

Have a great week! Steven and I are off to San Diego and Legoland this week. We can’t wait!