Tuesday was picture day and 2 of 3 Cline kids had very specific points of view on how they looked.

Amaya picked out this dress and asked for two small braids that meet in a pony tail.

We’d suggested collared Under Amour shirts for the boys which was fine with Steven but Sammy thought it was “plain and boring” and went for his t-shirt with a balloon animal dog. And then Steven got breakfast food all over his UA shirt and ended up in his brother’s size-bigger shirt. Good thing it was available for him!

I had a golf outing for work on Tuesday which worked out perfectly because the kindergarten classes needed parent volunteers to cut paper for an alphabet project. I volunteered with another mom from Steven & Sammy’s class (who, by chance, I met the weekend before at a birthday party for a pre-k friend). I’m so grateful to work so close to their school and have flexibility in my schedule. I really want to get there for volunteer opportunities and events as often as possible.

Mrs. M, the boys’ teacher, has a program called “Star of the Day” where a student stands in front of the class and all of the other kids draw a picture of them. The pictures come home in a “friend book” and it’s so cool.

Here’s Sammy’s picture. <3

Some others that I particularly loved.

At bedtime, Amaya was trying to tell me about her job in class this week. She said to Sammy, “What did I tell you my job is?” Sammy answered, “Mommy, what’s that thing where do you do all of the jobs but you only do them when the person who has that job isn’t there?”

A substitute! What a clever way to explain it to me.

SSA have started coloring in the morning while we wait at the bus stop. It works as long as they stop as soon as we see the bus coming. So far, so good.

I upgraded from my iPhone 7 to an 11 Pro and was playing around with the wide angle photos and portrait mode. Love it!

This picture made me realize it was time for haircuts lol.

Jason and I had plans on Friday night but got a little time with the kids watching the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie before we left. <3

To get the kids out of the house for haircuts I bribed them with a trip to Starbucks for breakfast.

It was our first trip to a real barbershop. The kids place doesn’t do a great job so it was time for an upgrade (which, incredibly, doesn’t even cost more). Both boys were pretty nervous to try a new place. Steven was supposed to be up first but he panicked so Sammy climbed in the seat and did an awesome job. He was very clear that he wanted his hair to be very short with no bangs on his face.

Poor Steven was totally worked up and ended up with a nose bleed. I’m so glad Sammy was settled enough for me to disappear with Steven for a bit. Eventually he was calm enough to get a haircut sitting on my lap, scissors only – no clippers.

Handsome boys!

As of Saturday, my mom, sister and I are tattoo triplets! My mom got this “shehecheyanu” tattoo about a year ago and Sara and I joined her this weekend. In my mom’s words: “To me, this is a reminder to be mindful we are alive and to look for those times – big or small, special occasions or ordinary moments – that make us grateful for our lives and the people in them.” <3

We spent Saturday afternoon with Megan and family at a new kids fun place that Megan recommended. They loved it and we’ll definitely be back during the winter.

We wrapped up the day with a late dinner at Chili’s, at Steven’s request. We made it through with just four trips to the bathroom. Sometimes I’m amazed at what these kids can put back. Sammy at 2 kids cheeseburgers, an ear of corn, one of Amaya’s chicken tenders and a serving of mandarin oranges. Plus milk! I wonder if a growth spurt is coming.

Amaya had the idea to use leaves for hair on her drawing.

Some artwork from the week.

Steven drew a horse, a butterfly, his snake Rattle Spot, a tiger and an elephant.

Amaya and Steven made charts of things that are hot and cold so you know what you can and can’t touch. I’m guessing this came out of safety week at school.

Finally, for this week, I emailed SSA’s teachers and principals about our schedule for the Jewish holidays. I wanted them to know when the kids would be out and why, and that of course we take attendance seriously. Amaya’s teacher emailed back to say that of course it was no problem and, also, “Just want to let you know that Amaya is doing a great job adjusting to kindergarten.  She has made many friends, follows our classroom rules and is always ready to learn.  It has been a pleasure getting to know her!!”

I read it to Amaya and she grinned from ear to ear with well deserved pride.

Every morning is another day of bus stop adventures for Team Cline and every morning is a bit of “hurry up and wait”. We’ll definitely need to think through our plan as it gets colder but, for now, we’re (mostly) enjoying our morning time outside. SSA like the hunt for caterpillars and interesting fallen leaves.

Steven self identifies as “silly, cute, adorable and lovable” and tries to reflec that in his pictures. <3

Sammy is really enjoying cooking, especially now that we’ll let him work at the stove. (Supervised, and the pot handle was turned in.) I’d love to see if we can find a kids’ cooking class for him.

Amaya came home with this school work! They had step by step examples to draw the animals which she followed well, and embellished all on her own. I also love seeing her writing. Kindergarten is so cool.

On Tuesday I remembered the kids are learning French at school and asked them to show me what they’ve learned. They’re learning French!

Tuesday was Steven’s glasses follow-up appointment to see how they’re working for him. It was so much fun to go to his school and pick him up early. Any chance to be in his building and see the school in action. (On that note, I have a work event on Tuesday that doesn’t start until after 10am which gives me the chance to do some out-of-classroom volunteer work at their school. I’ll be cutting paper for an hour, and thrilled to do it.)

The eye doctor said that the glasses are the correct prescription but, even with glasses, his right eye is not seeing 20/20. What has since been explained to me by another eye doctor is that, when a child isn’t seeing with binocular vision, the brain blurs the vision in one eye so that it can make sense of what it’s seeing with one eye. It’s not an eye issue, it’s a brain issue. One way to build the strength in the weaker eye is to patch the good eye for some time each day. After the eye is strengthened, vision therapy may also be needed to help the two eyes learn to work together. So, Steven is beginning his patching journey – 4 hrs/day for 4 months.

He’s a total trooper. He doesn’t love it but he’s accepted it so easily. We’re very proud of him.

Dance class! Week 2 had the routine down even better thanks to Gabby’s suggestion that we change at home rather than at the studio.

Amaya loves writing. She’s been asking us to tell her how to spell a variety of words. It’s cute to see the kids help each other with letters. (Amaya: How do you write an “F”? Steven: It’s a line with a hat and a mustache.”)

Cat, Dog, Diamond, Fairy, Jewel, Flower, Leaf. (The top, according to Amaya, is “cursive”.)

Passing time while we wait for the bus.

After work cuddles with Mr. Patch. <3 <3 <3

Side note: Steven’s started doing some rudimentary math (single digit addition and subtraction). He says it’s easy because he has his fingers for counting.

We got this glasses cover to use as an alternative to patching. As long as he keeps his glasses on and doesn’t cheat by looking over the top of his glasses, it can work just as well without the annoyance of a patch.

He thought it was so cool he chose to wear it to school on Friday!

“Ugh, Mommy!”

This week was fire safety work a school and the kids started bringing home library books. It’s such a great way to read new books with them each week. And now they’re pressing us for our fire safety plan at home – which is a good idea to have in place.

Amaya’s class during fire safety week. You can see her in the middle of the line of kids – a tall girl in rainbow leggings.

Gabby was sick on Friday so I got to surprise SSA at the bus stop. Such a great for me!!

After dinner we had a treat for all of us and went out for some frozen yogurt.

“Look! My shoes fell off!” Love his smile.

Friday night story time, featuring Steven and Sammy’s library books. I’ve really been prioritizing bedtime reading and it’s such nice, valuable time together.

On Saturday morning, Steven tried out one of his new, super cool patches. Tiger Steven! He liked the patch so much he even wore it out to the start of a birthday party!

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Ethen, Steven’s friend from the JCC. We hadn’t seen him since May so it was nice to connect and the kids had fun playing on the playground, fighting with light sabers, doing artwork and eating cupcakes.

There was a rain storm when we got home so Sammy and I went for a quick walk to see what it’s like to actually be caught in a storm. The answer: cold and wet. But worth it!

Post dinner cuddles for Sammy and Daddy.

This morning, my little chef Sammy did the bulk of the work making oatmeal. He’s so careful and proud.

I’m so glad to know that we’re not past the days of dress-up. This little girl has a very clear fashion vision. 🙂

Today it was Lizard Steven! He made it 3 hours in the patch and then we switched to the glasses cover. (He does wear his glasses with the patch but he wanted to see how it looked without them.)

This afternoon was another birthday party for a pre-k friend – this time Emma C. The party was at stables where the kids got to groom a horse, take a carriage ride to pet goats and bunnies and then ride horses. So cool!

The Clines kids were the last of the bunch to try grooming the horse but once they gave it a shot they loved it.

Sammy, Hannah, Amaya, Shoshana and Steven

Sammy wanted to feed the horse but lost his nerve right at the end so I helped him out and we did it together.

Carriage ride! Sammy was very clear about not needing to sit with me.

This guy and his sister, on the other hand lol.

Goats!! Sammy and Steven went right in the pen. It was so cute. Amaya was scared but worked up the never, holding my hand, and stayed for about 2.5 minutes before she decided it was not for her.

Just after I took this photo the goat gave Sammy a little head butt. Sammy was startled but totally took it in stride.

Amaya and I hung out while Sammy and Steven played with bunnies. Amaya wasn’t thrilled that they were running around, uncaged.

Horseback riding! Amaya opted out pretty quickly (though later she said it was helmet related). Steven and Sammy were excited but quickly got nervous when it was time to get on the horses. Sammy got on and off quickly and then got his mind set on the miniature pony in the barn. Steven was also nervous but I was able to convince him to give it a shot, with my hands around the waist, and after a few circles around the stable he sent me to sit on a bench with Amaya because he was totally fine on his own. Proud mama moment.

Sammy was thrilled to get his shot on the miniature pony and I bet he’d try a big horse if he had the chance.

Now they want us to buy a horse lololol.

To wrap up the week, here are some recent creations from the boys.

This is Steven’s family fire plan. He started off with a map to the house next door but Amaya is afraid of their dog so he moved our meeting spot to the house two doors down.

Sammy looooooooves Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (and the sequel) so he wrote a 3rd part for the series narrating the copy and images for me to complete. Here’s his masterpiece which he asked me to mail to Savta.

Steven created a tornado safety book, drawing the pictures on own and narrating the copy. I love his tornado sirens.

And that’s it for the week! Have a great one.

Week two of school! Amaya says it’s boring and she doesn’t like it but she still gets dressed and gets on that bus which makes me comfortable that her dislike is mostly superficial. The boys seem to enjoy being at school. At least they haven’t said otherwise.

I put a little pink in Amaya’s hair on Sunday night and she wanted a side pony to show it off.

Steven had an orthotics appointment on Monday morning and wasn’t getting on the bus which made Amaya a bit sad and jealous. Steven took these pictures of us hugging it out before the bus came. <3

Bye Sammy! Bye Amaya!

Mommy / Steven time!

The highlight of my morning was dropping Steven at school. I got to walk him to his classroom (and had to fight the urge to peek in and see Sammy because I knew it would just cause distraction and chaos).

Bedtime story books – somehow the kids convinced me to spend 45 minutes reading them a My Little Pony graphic novel. Time well spent.

On Tuesday morning Amaya found a centipede outside and ran to get a paper so she could pick it up and carry it around. Just like her cousin Charlie! (Only Charlie would carry it in her hand.)

Somehow standing on the manhole cover is a morning thrill. (And a regular morning fight between the kids.)

More bugs on Wednesday. This time we saw a cicada, too, that I thought was dead until I kicked at it and we all ran screaming lol.

Look at these waves, courtesy of the humidity. I love it. She’ll do beach waves well when she’s older, if she wants to.

Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I are back at dance! It’s a little more hectic this year because it’s a quick turnaround from the bus to dance class but we’re figuring out a good process. This year, like last year, Amaya and Sammy are taking jazz and tap and Steven is taking jazz. They all expressed interest in ballet, too, but there’s a lot of change right now and one night of dance class feels like enough, at least for now.

The zipper on Sammy’s new backpack broke (1-star amazon review, thank you very much) and he picked out a new backpack with flip sequins. He loves it and Amaya and Steven are jealous enough that I had to tell them that breaking their backpacks on purpose is a surefire way not to get their own sequin flip backpack.

Yet another bug for Amaya. Though they seem to escape her paper traps pretty easily.

Artwork came home with the boys on Friday.

Sammy drew a picture of himself at the north pole. “See all of the ice, Mommy?” On the left is a frozen tree. All of the blue is ice. The person is Sammy in a cool hat. (Sammy says that Steven drew his hat.)

Steven drew a picture of the two of us on the helicopter ride at Legoland. It’s a really nice representation of the helicopters that went up and down and around.

We got more pictures from Amaya’s teacher this week.

First up, Mrs. Shuart’s class at lunch.

And free choice time.

Grandma Sunshine came for the night on Friday. I snapped this sweet photo of mommy & son cuddling. (See boys??? Even grown men can cuddle with their mommies.)

Grandma got up with SSA on Saturday morning so both Jason and I could sleep in. I came down to find the kids playing with legos and the new magnet STEM kit from Grandma that arrived this week.

Jason worked with the kids to show how you can close a circuit to create magnetism, just like we do with electric circuits. Such a cool kit!

Lego time.

Amaya asked for beads in her hair.

The kids and I took advantage of a gorgeous afternoon at Maybury Farm. They all insisted on bringing their money with them and, for the first time, used their own money to make purchases. It was so cute to watch them count their quarters. They were so proud to buy something on their own.

Sammy really enjoyed watching the ducks.

Sammy was trying to make fire by rubbing two wood chips together.

Steven said, “The farm even has a sandbox now!” I had to explain that it was always there but I never let them go in it before. Sandboxes are a big mommy thumbs down.

When we left, the kids were insistent on finding toys they could afford with their money. It was slow going based on the prices in the shop but eventually they all found something they wanted. It was really cool to talk about what they could afford and whether or not it was something they really wanted to spend their money on.

Steven: Do a lot of sons and daughters have crushes on their mommies?

Jason eventually rescued me from the sweet boy lying on top of me and I found them both fast asleep a short while later.

It was a great Sunday. Lots and lots of play time.

“Look mommy! Steven is doing a handstand!”

Jason spent a good portion of the day going through our books and had three helpers ready as runners. “Mommy! Do you want to keep this one?” About 90% of the books I chose not to keep ended up in piles for them. I mean, sure, why wouldn’t a 5 year old want to keep a book on energy & economics? (And, to be clear, before they kept a book they were sure to ask what it’s about.)

The JCC had the Shofar Factor Festival today so we hit it up this afternoon. Steven’s highlight was a trackless train ride. Even after his ride he watched for a long time, waving to the conductor each time the train came around.

Amaya gave this bungee jumping activity a chance. The boys stepped up but were too nervous to ultimately go for it. Amaya was anxious at first but got comfortable once she learned to control the height of her jumps.

While Amaya and I waited in line for lunch, the boys spent about 20 minutes talking to bee keepers. Sammy even convinced me to buy some of their honey. Later in the day I went over to thank them for being so attentive to the boys and they said that my sons are “cute, smart and well-behaved – the perfect combination.” Proud mom moment for sure.

Photo of the boys. Credit: Amaya

Photo of bees and honey. Credit: Steven

Crafts to make Rosh Hashanah cards and tzedakah boxes.

First order of business when we got home was diving into the fresh new honey.

Steven and Daddy watched the Lions.

We wrapped it up with a family dinner and I had the best helper prepare. Sammy has always loved to be a kitchen helper and he’s so excited to graduate to real work like slicing cucumbers. What a sweet boy. <3

That’s it for us! Have a great week!

Monday was a beautiful, beautiful day and we took full advantage of Labor Day with a nice long bike ride around the neighborhood. Down the block is a family with another kindergartner, in Amaya’s class, and the mom joined me for my walk with the kids which was nice just prior to the start of school. She has two older boys and it was helpful to get a little extra perspective.

I’m not a huge fan of all of the segregated communities. I prefer to be able to ride/walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. But one nice thing about where we live is the kids can ride a pretty far distance without having to cross any streets thanks to some well placed courts.

How many Clines does it take to change a lightbulb?

We had some burned out bulbs in this high chandelier so Jason got some scaffolding to help with the job. I had so much fun I want to rent out my lightbulb changing services.

Photo credit: Steven

Sammy shucked his very first ear of corn.

Tastes even better after a little labor.

The rest of Monday was prep for the first day of school. (!!!!) Amaya wanted a curly ponytail so we prepped her hair with fancy braids. Braided braids, in fact!

Steven’s Lego creation

This is what lunch and two snacks looks like. We’re getting into a groove!

Ready to go! For the first week, SSA wore name tags with their names, teacher, grade and dismissal plan. Amaya wasn’t thrilled but survived the four days with her “ugly necklace”.

First day of Kindergarten!! It blows my mind that we’re here.

They walked onto that bus without a concern and now I wait hours and hours to hear about their first day. They’re totally ready but I still worried about the little things. Will they use the bathroom? Will they have enough to drink? Will their teachers be able to see them in a class of 22 kids? (What I don’t worry about at all is Amaya choosing to be in her own class. She’s ALL for it.)

When they grow up-
* Steven wants to be an EMT.
* Sammy wants to be a popcorn seller. (Two years running.)
* Amaya wants to be a princess mermaid queen. (Which Sammy says can’t happen because “mermaids aren’t real and you weren’t born to royalty. 😂)

Silly Steven

Sweet Sammy

And our poised fashionista, Amaya

Waiting for the bus! The timing works out well. It arrives around 8:05am which still leaves me enough time to get to 8:30am meetings. We knew the bus stop was on the corner that you can see peeking through the top left of this photo but weren’t sure of the exact location. We had to hustle over to the bus on day 1 when we saw where it actually stopped but it’s in a great location in front of the house next door.

Bus Driver: Turn around a smile for mom!

Steven, Sammy and Amaya hopped on that bus without missing a beat. It was great that they were able to get some practice the last four weeks of camp. The bus driver was great, too. He has the kindergartners sit right behind him and, since we’re the second stop, SSA are right behind him. Nice and safe!

Here you can see how close our house is to our bus stop.

Passing by their school on my way to work, while the kids were still making their way via the bus.

Jason and I were eagerly awaiting news from Gabby that the kids made it home. The bus was late on day 1 which caused me a touch of anxiety but at 4:15pm, here they came! Thanks to Gabby for catching this moment for us. (The bus driver even made a point to confirm that Gabby is an approved adult picking up the kids each day.)

I couldn’t help stalking the front door via the Nest cam while I was waiting for the kids to get home on their first day.

There they are!

It was difficult to get much info out of the kids. How quickly they resort to shoulder shrugs when describing their days! I heard the most about the lunch process and the bathroom. I’m trying to learn what questions to ask to get more details.

Amaya was the toughest because she told me she didn’t go to kindergarten, she went to 5th grade. She didn’t make any friends because all of the kids are older. And her favorite activity was swimming. That about sums up our girl lol.

Later in the week, Sammy told me, ” It’s way way way different than preschool. They don’t have toys!”

Here’s a picture Amaya’s teacher shared of her class on their first day.

Day 2! I was so glad they were still willing to get on the bus.

Day 3!

Thursday Sammy fell on the playground at recess. He had a rough bedtime, worrying about lying on his stomach and irritating his knee. When we finally got him to settle down he was asleep in 5 minutes. (Overall it was a week of emotional nights and kids who were quick to fall asleep.)

Friday – Day 4!

Some “First Friday” pictures of Amaya. She and her friend Emma are nearly inseparable.

Silly class!

The boys had art class on Friday brought home pictures of turtles they drew. I asked how they did these and they said they watched a video that showed them how to draw the turtles step by step. I’m really impressed, especially with Sammy who doesn’t always have a tremendous amount of focus for artwork!

Steven’s turtle

Sammy’s turtle

Amaya wanted to dress me and, foolishly, I said yes. This outfit followed me to CVS, to my office to drop off food for folks working on a weekend project, to the playground and out for lunch. Yikes. (Photo credit: Amaya)

The kids watching the copier lol.

Amaya posing after dropping off treats for my colleagues.

We all went to the kids’ school so they could have space to drive their car.

Amaya was happy to just scooter and play on the playground.

Back out for sushi!

Amaya and Sammy are obsessed with gum.

This weekend Amaya roped me into making hair tie bracelets – one for her and one for Emma.

She’s looking so old these days! And always posing.

I’m hoping to make the most of nice weather while we have it.

Collaborating with a huuuuuuge stick.

Until someone doesn’t like how they’re collaborating!

We started off the morning with breakfast at McDonalds.

Amaya and Sammy wanted to go swimming. Amaya, in particular, has been worked up over not having swimming at school this year and kept saying, “Can we go swimming since I don’t swim at school?” Honestly, they wore me down pretty easily.

The indoor kiddie pool is zero entry to two feet on the left and then 4″ on the right, starting with a 2″ ledge. It’s still a bit too deep for Amaya to swim much without her puddle jumper but she was having a blast. It took Sammy a while to get comfortable floating around in his puddle jumper but eventually he got the hang of it. In these two pictures Amaya is pulling Sammy though the water. 🙂 He kept saying, “I don’t know how to make myself move!”

Before we left they checked out the big pool, which actually starts off 6″ more shallow than the deep end of the kiddie pool.

While we were off at the pool, Steven played a round of golf and then hit up a playground with Jason.

We’re loving our new couch. The red one has amazing memories but, wow, we have such great space for lounging now. All of us at once!

I wrapped up my day with a game of Chutes & Ladders with Steven. After losing to both Sammy and Amaya earlier in the day I was hoping this was my time to shine but, alas, the Cline kids were 3 for 3 against their mom today.

Hopefully week two is equally successful. Fingers crossed!

Have a great week!

This was a gap week be tween the end of camp/our trip to NY and the start of school on Tuesday. I think it was valuable downtime but we also found ourselves in a position to cobble together childcare for a week. We had Monday and Tuesday covered with Penni until Gabby arrived in the afternoon. Friday was an all-day day for Gabby. Wednesday and Thursday were up in the air for the early part of the day. I had the idea to post on the Michigan Triplet Families facebook page to see if anyone knew someone who could help. I have the flexibility to work from home so it was fine if we had someone new come by for those days because I could be in the house with the sitter. It worked! A mom of 4 year old triplets said her sister was free and could help us out. Whoo hoo!!

Monday was a lazy, silly day at home.

On Tuesday, Penni took the kids for new sneakers, out for lunch and then off to get dance shoes. Steven still has the biggest feet!

All was going well until Sammy threw up all over the waiting area of the dance store. Thank goodness Penni was calm and collected through the ordeal. Sammy is not a calm puker. (“Why is this happening!?!? Why is my body doing this!?!?!” He’s also the guy who, last year, wailed “Darn it! Darn it! Darn it!” through a puking episode.) Our Bubba.

It was and odd one and done situation but it did mean I needed to cancel a work party scheduled for our house that night. Sadness.

Amaya with beach hair.

Bedtime snack. Amaya was not having it with the photos.

The dinner party was for my team, half of whom were visiting from out of town last week. Since we canceled the party and I was working from home on Wednesday morning, our sitter (Tricia), the kids and I headed into my office to meet everyone for lunch.

On the way we bumped into Sean, Amaya’s “favorite person” that I work with.

During lunch, Amaya started surveying everyone. “Raise your hand if you’re a lady with earrings.” “Raise your hand if you’re a man.” “Raise your hand if you have a cat.” My colleagues were very generous with their participation. 🙂

A benefit of working from home is cuddles with Sal.

Wednesday evening was Kindergarten open house / Meet the Teacher night. After what feels like a looooooooooooooooong build up, it’s almost here!

On they way to open house we had this exchange –

Me: Boys, do you think people will think you’re twins since you’re in a class together, without Amaya?

Steven: If they do, I’ll say, “Actually we’re triplets.”

Amaya: And they’ll say, “OH MY GOD! That’s amazing!”

 It’s so interesting to see her awareness of people’s reactions.

So when we met the boys’ teacher she did, in fact, ask if they were twins and Steven did, in fact, say “Actually, we’re triplets.” She did not, however, exclaim her amazement. 🙂

(It was interesting to me that Amaya’s teacher knew she’s a triplet with her brothers in another class but the boys’ teacher didn’t seem to have that info.)

One of the great pieces of news for this fall is that Amaya has a friend from pre-k in her kindergarten class! Emma J has Mrs. Shuart also! They were so excited to see each other and held hands the whole night. As they were walking into school Emma said, “Amaya, this is crazy!” lol

Amaya found her seat!

Meeting their teacher. It was pretty chaotic with 22 kids and their parents all checking out the classroom at the same time. Still, their teachers were able to be attentive with all of the kids who came by to say hi.

Steven and Sammy checking out their room. Steven was as chatty as I’ve ever seen him when he met his teacher, Miss M. Sammy said hi and was out of there pretty quickly to check out the rest of the room with Jason. (And while all of this was happening, Amaya was off at the playground with Emma J and her parents.)

Playtime and popsicles after the classroom tour. I was glad to hear that kindergartners get outside for recess twice/day (all the way to 0 degrees).

Tuesday is the big day!

The kids had a quiet morning at home with Tricia on Thursday.

Lemon eater!

Thursday afternoon, Gabby finished up the dance shoe shopping with Steven, Sammy and Amaya. It’s tap and jazz again for Sammy and Amaya and jazz for Steven.

On Thursday night, the boys and their daddy had a sleepover. Amaya got to sleep with me!

I told Amaya it was “bright clothes” day at work. She was determined to dress me. “Daddy, is this bright!?!” How could I say no to this ensemble, especially when it coordinated so well with what Amaya was wearing?

Gabby brought a fun Friday craft for the kids.

They made a short trip to the cider mill and then hit up a playground. I’m counting on many, many more weeks of outdoor weather. I’m not remotely ready to say goodbye to summer.

“We made these to catch butterflies. See? We put in everything that butterflies like.”

The kids were bummed we didn’t have a party at our house on Tuesday night because it meant they couldn’t stay up late. On Friday night we made up for it with a movie night. Sally got in on the fun, too, and for the first time EVER all 3 kids were able to pet her for an extended period.

Saturday was State Fair day! One of Jason’s friends from a local bar got us 4 ultimate pass tickets which was awesome. It was definitely a year for limitless rides!

Ferris Wheel! Amaya was insistent she sit without a grown up.

Steven’s first ferris wheel ride. “Hi Daddy & Sammy!”

Amaya and Sammy tried out this climbing activity which ends with a ride down the covered slide. Sammy loved it and went through multiple times. Amaya panicked at the top of the slide and ended up getting a ride down with a fair employee.

Amaya and Daddy, off exploring

We went on a ton of rides. Many were firmly in the “kiddy” category but others were fun for me, too. Amaya and Steven both went on a second ferris wheel with me. Sammy went on a few rides where he just made the height cut off. That boy loves his thrills!

Steven really pushed himself out of his comfort zone at the fair, but also did a good job pulling back when he knew it was going to be too much for him.

Amaya took a 2nd turn on the ferris wheel with a “friendly stranger”.

Great view!!

Last year Steven wanted nothing to do with this ride.

I think he was telling me about a tire he could see. I think.

Mommy and Sammy on a FAST ride. It made me nostalgic for our Disney trip.

Amaya’s #1 priority was face painting and this place didn’t disappoint.

Wonder Woman!

Hulk!

The Flash!

My loves. <3

Building and racing lego cars. I love seeing how they differ in their choices and approach.

I got to ride the Dumbo type ride with both Amaya and Steven. Another ride that Steven wouldn’t try the year prior!

Steven, Sammy and Amaya desperately wanted to play a game and win a prize so we found an “everyone wins” fishing game for them. Of course the picked the loudest prize there.

Serenading fair-goers.

We wrapped up the day with dinner at Shiro. Man, these kids can put back sushi.

The kids weren’t the only ones tuckered out. <3

Today was a wonderfully lazy day for most of the Clines.

Right out the gate, Amaya wanted to paint shells.

Despite the rain, the boys managed to get some bubble time.

Jason had to go to work and Amaya insisted she wanted to go with him. She can have a pretty solid attention span and Jason was game so I packed up some art supplies and off they went! Going to my dad’s store is such a special childhood memory. It fills me up to know Amaya had this experience today.

Steven, telling Amaya that he and Sammy were going to get to watch a movie while Amaya was with Jason. (My bribe to keep them happily home.)

This girl.

We have one more day home and then we’re off to Kindergarten. These kids are SO ready but it’s still incredible to me that we’re reached this point. Tuesday’s the day! (A special thank you to Aunt Bonnie who recently sent a ton of “bribing” candy which will come in handy on Day 1 when I corral the kids on our stoop for a First Day of School picture.) Have a great week!