Another week, and I haven’t left the house since I last wrote a blog except to take a recycling can down to the curb. I’m doing my part and, frankly, so busy with work that I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t actually counting.

We don’t start breakfast until 8:30am so Steven, Sammy and Amaya are deep into table time in the mornings. It’s going to be a rude awakening when someday, maybe for camp, they have to hustle in the mornings again.

I had some important meetings on Monday so, while Gabby had her online class, Penni came by to watch the kids. They did their journaling and she had a great idea to challenge them to write four words each time.

End of day, story-book-time selfies.

Mrs. Shuart is using photo albums on Member Hub (our school parent portal) to try to engage the kids in activities. On Wednesday she asked everyone to submit a photo of their kindergartner reading to a stuffed animal. Amazingly, when I texted Gabby to take a photo of Amaya she was already sitting at the table reading to her narwal, Leelee.

Temple Israel is doing their best to stay connected to families, including through the religious school. On Wednesday morning, the kids had a Zoom class with Ms. Amy. I was working through it but they seemed to enjoy the time, though Amaya asked why they had Sunday School on a day that wasn’t Sunday. Fair enough.

While Gabby took her class on Wednesday, I had calls (call all day, every day) so I needed to keep the kids occupied. While they rotated through eLearning, I did a pattern hunt activity shared by the boys’ art teacher.

First, they walked around the house and drew patterns that they saw. Then I gave them my phone and let them take photos of the same patterns and made the photos into a matching 9 box.

Here’s Amaya’s:

Sammy’s:

Steven’s (He checked off his patterns as he photographed them):

There is one member of the Cline household who’s particularly happy about the recent changes. <3

On Thursday Gabby had the great idea to take the kids to Maybury Park to walk the trails. It wasn’t terribly crowded and everyone kept their distance from one another. I’m so glad the kids got to go somewhere (safe).

When Penni asked them to take a picture for me lol.

I’ve been working in the guest room and, by Thursday afternoon, was totally over working from a bed so Gabby helped me bring this desk up from the basement.

I even have a view of the kids when they play outside.

To help stay in touch with people we love, I am asking anyone who’s interested to record themselves reading a children’s book to the kids. If you can send me the file (or a YouTube link) I can add it to the Story Time playlist I’m creating. I know that Steven, Sammy and Amaya would love to see their family reading books to them! (If you want to read a book and don’t have one sitting around that’s age appropriate, let me know and we’ll send you one. 🙂 )

Story Time with Savta

Story Time with Papa

We kept up with our schedule this week, including reading time. I love when I happen to get peeks of group reading time. It’s always my surest sign that everything is going to be just fine.

A few weeks ago, back in normal times, Sammy picked out a chess set as a stay in bed prize and this week he earned it. So he’s on his way to becoming a chess master! Jason found some online tutorials for kids and then he challenged his mom to his first game of chess.

Honestly, I was really impressed with how much he picked up so quickly. Six is probably a great age to start playing. It’s testing me, too, because I haven’t played in years and never very often.

When you’re stuck at home on a rainy Saturday, it’s loooooooong baths for everyone. This girl is so sassy.

Drawings from Daddy! Steven was sweet and suggested that Sammy should get a drawing first today because only he and Amaya got Daddy Drawings on Saturday.

Still obsessed with Amie and Krystal.

Today was about as lazy as a day could get around here and I think everyone needed it. The kids were on their tablets for hours this morning while Jason and I worked. They we all sat around. And sat around. And sat around.

SSA had a FaceTime lunch date with Chase and Charlie.

Sammy and I played another game of chess today (yes, he’s in the same PJs as yesterday) and today he won! I helped him along the way but I’d say he won fair and square. Once I was stuck I was stuck, and I certainly didn’t protect my queen well enough.

The kids and I made a delicious Greek chicken dinner.

Steven’s eyes were watering from cutting scallions lol

And some art from the week!

Amaya drew this one today. It’s me playing Memory with Steven. I have two cards, Steven has 0. (Though we ended up tying.) The designs on our shirts match our first match. And we have question marks over our heads because we’re guessing. Go mom.

Some Mo art!

Steven drew fish in a fishbowl on Mo’s counter. The one at the bottom is just decoration which you can tell from the sticks holding it to the bottom of the bowl.

Sammy drew this little whimsical king guy.

Amaya’s cat.

And that’s it for this week. Stay safe everyone.

Wow. Here we are. Week 1.

It went as well as it could, I suppose. Which says a lot.

The kids are home. Gabby and Penni are holding down the fort while Jason and I work. Jason is still going in every day. I went in Tuesday and Thursday but I’m not sure how long that will last. I think I’m nearing 100% WFH now.

Right away on Monday we dove into our weekly schedule and we were able to keep it up through the week. Very quickly the kids understood their schedule and their willingness to follow it said a lot to me about it’s value. In fact, Gabby asked if we could take our 2 hrs of Free Choice and add more structure so the kids now have options to do some video time focused on yoga, wildlife with the Cincinnati zoo, or story book read alouds. Later in the week I made mention of not being in school and one of the kids commented that the have school but it’s at home. We’ll keep at it.

Each morning kicks off with independent reading time and, afterward, the kids take turns reading books aloud to the group.

After reading we have 45 min of STEM time which is intended as building play with legos, magnatiles, marble runs, etc. That seems to work well, too. I was wondering if SSA would get bored of that as a daily activity but so far, so good!

After STEM time is a snack and then recess. On Monday and Wednesdays, Gabby has a class from 11am- 12:20 so I’m on point from about 10:45am- 12:30pm which works well, based on the activities planned.

Morning “recess” is going well. I wasn’t sure if they’d like the required outside time but, again, no complaints. They’re used to recess at school and seemed to slide right into it at home. It’s hard to be stuck here. They need to get outside. (Thank goodness it’s not January.)

One of the favorite times of the day is eLearning time. The kids all rotate through online learning programs provided by their school. One is math based and one is reading based. During this 90 minute block they also eat lunch, do their writing workshop and, at their request, work on some math worksheets (also provided by their school).

Here are some writing workshop sheets from Monday. (Which reminds me that I need some new options for this week! We have “This weekend I…”, “I like…”, “I love to…”, “I am happy when…” and one more that I can’t remember at this moment.)

Most of Amaya’s have been about Amie and Krystal from Lego Masters. Here’s a rare one about something else.

Steven

Sammy (“Is Queem” <3)

So Monday started well and ended well, but it’s still a lot of change. I’m trying to give lots and lots of extra hugs and as much emotional support as possible. I’m trying to find a balance between routine and structure and “business as usual” and understanding that this is anything but business as usual.

Tuesday I went into the office while Penni was with the kids. I don’t know how long I’ll go in but it’s literally a situation where I sat in my office with the door closed and took every call from my office. So it’s a change of scenery but certainly not different from working from home and I expect we’re about to be full work from home with about 80% of people already there.

I love that Amaya has Home School Style.

During STEM time, Penni worked with the kids on their KiwiCo kits from Grandma Sunshine. They were a great way to spend time and the projects were awesome.

Steven made a manual sweeper. It works!

Sammy made a marble timer.

Amaya made a working lantern!

I forgot to mention that we have Specials on the calendar. This is what the kids’ school refers to as their out of classroom classes like French, Art, Music, etc.

On Tuesday, Amaya led music class. First she led them in a couple of songs and then they took turns trying to make up a song together.

Afternoon recess seems to be focused around bike & scooter rides. Again, saving grace that it’s not the dead of winter.

All Hail Mo!! Mo Willems was such a godsend this week. He’s doing daily weekday Doodles with Mo on YouTube and they’re awesome. For me, he’s an amazing blend of Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross. We already love his books (especially ones that feature Piggy & Gerald) so this is a perfect afternoon activity.

I love that Steven, Sammy and Amaya are still innocent enough to show their artwork to Mo when he asks.

Here are drawings of a creature with a lot of legs.

Steven

Sammy

Amaya

And the kids’ interpretations of Gerald!

The OG.

What day is it? Oh, Wednesday. It’s going to be hard to keep track, soon, I think.

Sammy at writing workshop.

For their math activity, they had to find circular objects in the house, draw them, and then count them. The kids got really creative! Shower heads, screws on light plates, the bun in Amaya’s hair.

Very little tops their Dreambox and Raz-Kids time.

Amaya wanted to stay in her footie PJs for the day so she shoved her feet in rain boots and made it work.

Thursday, rinse, repeat. For STEM time, the kids made these cool Lego bracelets I got for them based on this new Dots line that Jason found.

Cosmic Kids Yoga is the best! The kids did yoga with Trolls and friends from Frozen. I hear there’s Minecraft, too.

We’re still reading. Though the schedule for bedtime books has been off a bit this week between weird schedules and Mo Willems. I want to get back to it regularly. I think I like consistency as much as the kids do.

Amaya’s favorite camp counselor, CC, was supposed to come on Friday morning until Gabby was done with class but she canceled last minute so I worked my work around the kids. While I was busy, they used their independent reading time to play Sight Word Swat. I love it!!

Steven wanted me to see everything they were doing with Magnatiles but I was working so he took my phone and brought me photos.

The kids have these star machines and I was doing a shadow animal show on the ceiling. Steven, in particular, thought it was hysterical.

We had a quiet, schedule free weekend. I worked most of it. Jason held down the fort an exercised. The kids got out today but yesterday was just a needed lazy day.

Amaya made a sign to cheer me on for my game of Scrabble Jr. with Steven. Loving the bubble letters!

While I worked in my room, I had periodic visitors.

Captain America

A Queen delivering lunch. (Thanks honey.)

Labeled kids!

A leftover promise from yesterday, I went for short 1:1 walks with each of the kids. Amaya left a note in front of her classmate Nico’s house.

Art time

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Game time

Snuggle time

Have a safe and uneventful week everyone. <3

Well, here we are. Anywhere but normal. It’s unbelievable to think about how different life was just a week ago. So we’ll go back there, first.

March is reading month (still is, always is) and the Cline kids had lots of time reading to us and being read to.

Amaya was worried that Daddy couldn’t pull off a “girl voice” for Fancy Nancy but I heard him and he nailed it.

On Monday night Steven had his piano lesson and Sammy & Amaya made the formal decision to join him. So it’s three 30 min sessions in a row coming our way. For now, we’re going to continue lessons with everyone washing their hands before and after, including Mr. Anthony.

Mr. Ed, the kids’ bus driver, has an art contest with a Spring or Easter theme. On Tuesday we were home for primary day in MI and Amaya and Steven got right to it.

Amaya’s idea was to trace the outline of leaves from our backyard and them fill them in.

At the bus stop on Wednesday I took a picture of the kids with their entries and Sammy cracked me up by holding up his imaginary picture. 🙂

(Looking at this picture makes me so sad. No bus stop. No bus. No school. What a mess.)

I worked from home on Tuesday morning while Gabby was at our house. When she went off to class, the kids and I went to vote and to Steven’s eye dr appointment. They were really interested in the process and loved their “future voter” stickers but seemed to unanimously agree that they thought it would be exciting.

What did parents do at long appointments before tablets??? We had a 2 hr appointment thanks to dialation and the tablets were a life saver. (That first photo is waiting in our exam room, not the waiting room.)

Getting comfortable.

Look at this guy lounging. <3

This was an appointment with a new provider for a 2nd opinion. I got a lot of great info. First of all, she said we’re doing the right thing by patching. She said Steven is farsighted and that she thinks that he’ll actually outgrow it over time if we continue to patch and have him wear his glasses. That was new news!

The poor kid struggled a bit with the eye drops but persevered and earned a new lego set for his troubles.

Sammy remains our best sleeper and the Cline Kid most likely to fall asleep in the car.

Gabby was back from class when we returned and dove into a number of Jenga games with Sammy. I think he smoked her!

In addition to Steven’s big lego set, Sammy, Amaya and I each got a small flower lego set from Jason so the kids were all excited to build.

Steven’s airplane!

It’s amazing how every picture just highlights how much changed, so quickly. On Thursday this week I had the joy of being the Mystery Reader in Steven and Sammy’s classroom. I’ve spent so much time in Amaya’s class that I was thrilled to get a chance to visit the boys’ room.

About 90 minutes before I was due at school, I got a call from the office to tell me that Amaya was there complaining that her stomach hurt and she was nauseous. I got on the phone wiht her and could tell, pretty quickly, that she was just fine. Earlier that day we’d been talking about COVID-19 and Amaya was saying she wanted to catch it so she could stay home for 2 weeks. I think this was her subtle attempt.

She agreed to stay at school and I said I’d check in on her because I was going to be a Mystery Reader in Ms. M’s class, but not to tell the brothers. Apparently she did her best but couldn’t help but to give The Brothers clues that gave it away.

Regardless, the boys were thrilled I was there. I picked Fox Make Friends and Ms. M offered to have me read a 2nd book because I have two kids in the class.

My boys!

Peeking in on Amaya doing her work.

She told me her stomach still hurt but she was completely fine in the classroom until she saw me so I agreed she could sleep with me that night and she went back happily to her classroom.

St. Patrick’s Day artwork in the hall.

I woke up Friday morning to the now all to common news that school was closed until April 13th – after spring break. I knew it was coming but it still felt like a shock.

The kids took it in stride. In fact, they were so excited that the all seemed to feel a need to express their love to me!

We made it through the day and, to our great fortune, were able to line up child care for the work week between Gabby, Penni and CC, their camp counselor. Even if we aren’t going into the office for much longer, it’s nearly impossible to work from home long term with three young kids around. And there’s a lot to do at work right now.

But moving on… this weekend we finally bit the bullet and removed the beds that are never used from Sammy and Amaya’s room. It’s freed up a ton of space in their room and in Steven’s because we were able to move one of the dressers. They seemed thrilled!

My colleague Christine texted me about a Lego challenge to build a bridge the way the Lego Masters did on the show this week. It was a great activity for us. We spent 30- 45 min building and had a great time doing it.

Amaya appointed herself the judge and said, “I might like someone else’s bridge better than mine and vote for them. I might!” But (of course) she didn’t lolololol.

I’m darn proud of my drawbridge even though I came in last. 🙂

Bedtime was a breeze. Here are the kids in the their new set up.

Aunt Ouize & Uncle Todd – we still love Carcasonne!

Jason kept the kids entertained today with helium balloons. I think their favorite part was hearing his helium voice.

Today was Morminer’s birthday! Steven set up a party where you could to three things: draw a picture of Morminer, get Morminer’s autograph and get Morminer’s phone number. I opted for station 1.

Showing Mormier my work.

Some art from the week.

Steven made a rock ladybug.

Amaya is ready for the warm weather.

And off we go to the world of homeschooling. At least some version of it.

I want to be sure the kids stay on some kind of schedule and that it’s thought out enough in advance to draw from the myriad of available resources. They do well with routine. In fact, Amaya can tell you her class’ entire daily schedule. So I made one for us to use while we’re home. We’ll see how it goes and adapt as needed.

Amaya loves these writing worksheets so I made some for the kids to use.

The kids made Book Buckets back in October and they haven’t gotten much use in the form we had them but they’re perfect for at-home literacy. I loaded each bucket up with books the kids can read during independent reading and group reading time. It won’t be the same, but it will help.

And that’s it for this week. Stay healthy. Stay sane. Love each other.

I’m going to eat some ice cream.

It’s another week where Monday feels like a lifetime ago. Jason and I both had board meetings this week with mine taking me out of town. Jason had to leave for work around 6:30am on Thursday morning, with no room for error, so Grandma Sunshine came and stayed for a few days to be sure everything went without a hitch. (It did!)

Sammy sometimes gets the Sunday Night Blues but these kids are always happy at the bus stop on Monday mornings. I really hope they continue to have such good experiences at school with great teachers and great classmates.

Amaya’s interesting fashion choices continue. On Monday it was a button up – buttoned all the way up – with rainbow tiger leggings. Because why not? I can’t wait for the day she sees these pictures and asks why I let her wear these outfits. 🙂

Piano lessons! This week Steven learned about the pedals on the piano. It will be a little while before he can use them independently, though. (This reminds me that he hasn’t practiced all week. We need to remember to suggest he practice for at least 5 minutes every day or so. But with his eye patch and school reading and everything else going on, it’s so easy to forget. For him and for us.)

The way Steven shows his love for me is really something special.

Tablets can get a bad rap but Steven has discovered audio books. And he loves them! The ones on his kindle are great because they highlight the words as they’re read. On Tuesday morning I let him stay in bed a little longer so he could finish his book. (And, wow, can I relate to wanting to stay put until a book is done.)

On Thursday morning I asked Grandma for a pic of the kids before school so I could see their gorgeous little faces. My little loves.

At school on Thursday the kids had an event called “Science Switch”. All three kindergarten classes rotated between classrooms for science activities. I love that we get pictures like this or I wouldn’t know a thing about it. Questions like, “Did you do anything fun at school today?”, generally end up with answers about recess or French class or Art.

In this game, the kids had to use the push pins to guide a ball from the top cup to the bottom cup.

This smile!!

I think Sammy explained this as some sort of bowling game using books to guide the ball.

I got back to MI on Thursday night, in time to help give the kids a hand using their new umbrellas. (Funbrellas. Hahaha.)

Jason and I had dinner plans on Friday night but, when Sammy heard I was going out, he got really upset. “But you just got home to us!” He was right, and truly sad that I was leaving, so Jason and I canceled our reservations and Sammy and I got some quality time together. It was 100% the right choice. <3

OMG, so apparently Steven had a rotting pumpkin in his room. It was a little white pumpkin that he named Pumpky and he was very sad when I told him that he had to throw it out. To ease the blow, he asked if he could make a card for Pumpky. It says, “I love you so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much Pumpky. Love Steven.” Then he put the pumpkin and card together in a bag so they’d get “crushed” together.

Every Saturday we watch Lego Masters together and, from the beginning, Amaya has been “scoring” for Amie and Krystal. They were in the bottom two the past two weeks and she was really nervous all throughout the episode. Sure enough, they were eliminated and Amaya immediately burst into tears. She was so sad that I almost started to cry, too.

To help her process I suggested she make cards to send to Amie and Krystal. That idea helped a lot and she also asked if she could dye her hair blue because Krystal has blue hair and Amie has pink and blue in her hair. We’ve never done a whole head of hair dye for Amaya but we went for it.

Here she is in her tinfoil bonnet.

Making her cards.

Our blue haired girl! (As a bonus, she looks like Evie from Descendants.)

Her matching cards for Amie and Krystal.

Rather than try to mail the cards, I decided to tweet Amie and Krystal.

Within a few hours, we heard back!! Amaya was so excited. How cool is that? A message from Amie straight to Amaya. And how awesome is it that little girls can see builders like Amie and Krystal on TV?

Krystal and Amie

For now Amaya says shes not watching the show anymore but well see how that plays out. Sammy has decided hes scoring for Christina and Aaron and Steven is scoring for Tyler and Amy. “Do you remember when I was scoring for them and then they won!?!”

Such a fun show for us to watch as a family.

Our March Raddish Kids package arrived this week. First up on the menu was a country breakfast with eggs, ham and (our addition) steak. We also had some amazing onion & pepper seasoned tater tots. Amazing what seasoning can do. 🙂

We’re ready to work on egg cracking skills! I was really impressed with all three of the kids’ efforts.

Steven really loves cooking at the stove. Here, he was transferring pan seared steak to the ham & eggs.

Today was a big day of Purim festivities at school. The kids could dress in any costume (minus masks and weapons) but SSA all wanted Purim themed costumes. We had two Hamans and a Queen Esther.

At Hebrew school they went to a Purim Spiel that was Frozen themed. The kids raved about it. Amaya even got to go on stage for part of it. Afterward, we stayed for the Temple Israel Purim Carnival. They had games, bounce houses, crafts and food for the kids and it was Frozen themed, too. Even Anna was there. I was really impressed but, after the time we’ve spent at Temple Israel, not surprised.

The bounce house obstacle course was Sammy’s favorite.

The boys’ Haman hats cracked me up, and got a lot of compliments.

While Steven was coloring this clown I told him I like his design and he said, “Well, I usually know what looks good.”

From yesterday morning, here’s Amaya’s telling of the Purim story.

When we got home, Jason and the kids went for bike/scooter ride around the neighborhood.

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Today the kids and I cooked jambalaya and blueberry lemon bars. It was a good recipe in terms of the distribution of jobs for Steven, Sammy and Amaya. Steven got his first cooking cut so we bandaged him up and popped a cooking glove on his hand.

This girl loves lemons.

Did I mention that March is reading month full of all sorts of reading challenges activities? They have reading bingo. A reading log. Friday in-school themed activities. And a bookmark challenge. Only Amaya and Steven participated. Here are their entries…

Amaya’s is a Super Gator for their school mascot. (She wrote CT, meaning TC for Thornton Creek.

“On a snowy day, I like to bury myself in the snow.”

“This weekend I watched Lego Masters and I like it. I did not eat anything at all.”

In art class this week the boys did finger paintings. As is often the case, the difference in their art aligns so well with their personalities. Steven has the barn and the tornado, specifically planned and executed. As my friend Ames said, “I see Sammy’s as art done by a kid who enjoys it but would happily do anything else. ‘Paint paint paint done! What’s next?'”

And that’s our week. Have a great one!

Steven was so excited for his piano lessons on Monday. Mr. Anthony said that he has wonderful questions. Steven’s very excited to earn the certificate at the end of his beginner piano book.

Checking out his certificate…

On Tuesday, at lunchtime, I took Steven back to the eye doctor for a check in after ~5 months of patching. The eye doctor saw progress! She said that his left eye had been 20/20 corrected and his right as 20/40. Now his left is seeing at 20/30 and 20/25. His depth perception is also improving. Go Bobes! We are supposed to keep patching for another 4 months and are getting a 2nd opinion in early March just to be sure we’re on the right track.

With their weekly reading assignments, the kids also got a sheet of 100 CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). They’ve loved reading through the list.

Mr. Piano Practicer pounding out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

This two were playing “Family” during story book time and Steven was cuddled up to his “mommy”. 🙂

Goofballs. (Amaya wouldn’t sit up because she wanted to be sure you can tell that Steven is sitting on her lap.)

Jason recently added labels to our pantry which, I think, was the inspiration for Steven to create labels for his room.

Sleeping spot, picture spot, book spot, clothes spot.

It was a very creative week for Steven. Here’s his ambulance and hospital and his school bus and school. I’m particularly enamored with the sound waves coming from the ambulance.

This week brought us two snow days. The kids were thrilled. Jason and I, not so much. On Wednesday Jason stayed home until noon when Gabby arrived. On Thursday I worked from home and Gabby came early afternoon when her class was through. I didn’t want anything to do with the outdoors but Steven, Sammy and Amaya all had fun sledding, playing on the play set and shoveling our deck.

Sammy has been into Mario lately, thanks to Owen from school. He needed a new sweatshirt and picked this cool Mario hoodie.

Friday night was the Novi mother/son dance! We had a great time. It was casual and easy. The boys picked out new button downs and even put on jeans!

A photo staged by Steven. (Preceded by a photo shoot carefully art directed by Amaya.)

Sammy was most excited for the chocolate fountain, which he was sure would be there after Amaya’s report from the father/daughter dance.

Steven and Sammy bumped into a 3rd grader from their bus. He was a nice boy who paid attention to them and they hang on his every word, especially Sammy.

A highlight of the night was the balloon drop. Sammy parked himself right in the middle of a ton of bigger kids. I could barely see him in the mix. I think he was really proud of himself for getting in there.

Lots of moms with cameras waiting for our boys to catch balloons lol.

My boys. <3

Steven has a rubix cube that he couldn’t solve so he gave Jason a challenge to complete two sides for him. Surprise! Jason did it!

Our Saturday morning routine now includes watching Lego Masters together. Our Lego Masters it the making are all loving the show and have their personal favorite teams.

Sammy literally had holes in his shoes so the kids and I ventured out to get him some new sneakers. Amaya, too. I love watching them make decisions. Sammy tried on three different pair and ran around the store to see how fast he was before picking a pair.

Amaya was mostly concerned about style. Which isn’t surprising in the least.

This weekend Steven and Amaya got back to sewing. Steven has been working on this fox for a while now. He likes to sew but has doesn’t have a terribly long attention span for sewing. Which is, of course, totally fine.

Amaya worked on, and finished, a cute little snake. She’s interested enough that she can sew and stuff and sew until she’s done.

A proud girl.

Amaya wanted to be patch buddies with Steven yesterday. I told her we can’t make a daily habit of it but she could try it for a day, as long as she was willing to wear the patch the whole time Steven did. (Because it’s not a game or a toy for Steven. He doesn’t have flexibility.) I was actually surprised she went for it because she’s afraid to use band-aids out of fear it will hurt when she takes them off. But she did, and she lasted about 15 minutes lol. Sweet, sweet Steven saw she didn’t like it and told me, “It’s okay if Amaya takes off her patch. She doesn’t have to wear it as long as I do.”

I love this picture of my macaw twins.

Book time with daddy.

This morning Jason took Amaya to Hebrew school and I took the boys to a classmate’s birthday party. It was a sports party and they got to play flag football and dodge ball. They loved it!

Before the sports started, the kids battled with pool noodle light sabers. Such a clever idea!

The girl Steven is battling is Elin. She’s been a favorite friend of his since the start of school. When I ask who he likes in his class, her name has always been at the top of the list. When I told her mom that today she said, “Elin always says she’s going to marry Steven.” <3 <3 Unfortunately Elin is moving to Dallas in July so their future seems unlikely. 😉

This child was so excited about flag football.

Most of us stayed off the field for the sports until the kids came upstairs to tell us it was time for us to play Parents vs. Kids in dodgeball. The kids actually took a round – the first, when we were still timid.

Steven was his usual “loving his mama” self and, before each game started he’d yell, “I love you, mama!” Sometimes in the middle of games, too. Everyone got such a kick out of it.

A Storm Trooper cupcake!

The boys and I picked Amaya up from Hebrew school and surprised her with a cupcake of her own. Another happy child.

Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I went to a Purim event this afternoon. It was held at a place called Friendship Circle, co-sponsored by Temple Israel. Friendship Circle is right by the JCC but new to me. It’s an incredible center focused on programming for individuals with special needs. The programming teaches life skills and addresses sensory needs but is grounded in forming friendships and social skills. Pretty amazing.

The event we attended included lunch and a Purim scavenger hunt. Amaya and Sammy decided to make Haman’s hats from their Hamentashen.

The kids all colored Purim masks.

For the scavenger hunt, the participants toured around an indoor cityscape and answered questions about the holiday in exchange for treats for their misloach manot baskets.

A look at the cityscape.

It’s becoming tradition for the kids to help me with dinner over the weekend. They’re getting more and more comfortable in the kitchen and more and more proficient. I love it.

That’s it for us. Have a great week!