Monday morning, Steven woke to the sound of new construction vehicles outside. He was eager to get outside and take some pictures, which Penni made happen during their morning recess break.

SSA seem good about doing the scheduled gym activities set up by the PE teachers. They’re not always so thrilled to be caught on camera via stealthy selfie mode, though. 🙂

Steven has a Mo Willems art book that has resurfaced as a recent favorite. He uses Light Cat, a gift from Charlie, to light his way when he’s doing his art in the early morning hours (in our bed).

I’ve enjoyed seeing the artwork that the kids are doing “at” school. This week they made these elephants. In order it’s Amaya’s, Sammy’s and then Steven’s. Sammy’s critique of Steven’s elephant was that the background line, for perspective, was not supposed to go through the elephant.

The kids use white boards for school. I think they do equations and other work that they can do quickly, show their teacher if needed, and then erase. The kids also like drawing on their white boards during breaks.

Steven’s Tank House.

Amaya’s rainbow heart.

Steven told me what this is. A truck delivering something. Maybe construction materials for our street. But I can’t remember exactly and he’s busy watching our Roomba mop (Moppy) so it may live as a bit of a mystery.

The rule is that the kids have to sit up properly for their live, synchronous learning time but they have more flexibility during independent working time – as long as they stay focused and get their work done. I was able to sneak this picture when I came down to get a snack.

Ms. and Mr. Raspberry Hands.

During lunch one day, Steven had this comment about rice & beans: The way Amaya eats rice and beans is kind of like Q and U. Amaya will eat beans without rice but she’ll only eat rice with beans. You can have U without Q but you can’t have Q without U. So it’s sort of the same.

I love Amaya’s fashion choices. This is a tank top that she wears as a halter by putting her head through one of the arm holes.

We leave for NY on Friday, 10/9 and Amaya is already planning with Charlie. This is a visual reputation of activities she wants to do with Charlie in NY. Jump on the trampoline. Color-on temporary tattoos. Make bracelets. Bake cupcakes. I suspect her list will continue to grow.

SSA tend to fight Penni when she suggests they go outside for recess but always seem happy to be outside once they acquiesce. With all the time in the house, it’s not quite as optional as the presentation makes it seem.

Sweet chats with his Daddy.

Sometime this week Steven imagined the planet Moso. It’s in the Butt Cheek galaxy, 100,000 miles from Earth. When it’s day on Earth, it’s night on Moso. On Moso, there are no clouds but they do have rainbows. The nearest dwarf planet does have clouds, however. Moso is flat planet. You don’t have to worry if you visit because there are many signs warning you two minutes before you get to the end of the planet. Moso is more technologically advanced and have two space stations, unlike Earth’s one. One space station is for when Steven visits. The other is for the rest of the people of Moso. Moso has volcanoes but not lava volcanoes because there’s no lava at the center of Moso. Every day there’s something new to learn about this planet.

Sally has been so patient with the kids these days. (And vice versa.) They can sit and pet her for ages now. It’s awesome.

Thornton Creek Gators art!

Sleeping Sammy. He is still the best sleeper in the Cline family, and the least likely of the kids to call for us at bedtime. When it’s time to sleep, he sleeps.

On Friday night Steven was having a difficult time falling asleep so I cuddled with him and fell asleep myself. Best way to drift off… Love that Jason captured this.

On Saturday morning we had another class meet up at the TC playground. I think it will be a regular thing as long as the weather is nice enough. The kids played gaga again, and did lots of (needed) running around. I even put a ball in our trunk in case no one else brought one.

Saturday afternoon was our last pool day of the season. Sadness. 🙁 Steven, Sammy and Amaya didn’t expect to get in another swim day, though, so they made the most of it and no one wanted to leave. I’m so glad the JCC found a way to make this work this summer. It was wonderful. Fortunately, the kids will keep swimming because swim lessons start on 10/1. Definitely not the same as free play time in the pool but hopefully they enjoy it and develop new skills.

Credit for this photo goes to Amaya. <3

We’re hanging on to summer but it’s definitely fall in the Land of Cheltenham.

I was upstairs relaxing, before going to pick up sushi, and heard the tell-tale sounds of an ice cream truck on our street. We’ve been to ice cream trucks in NY, by Chase and Charlie’s school, but never had the fun of running outside out house for ice cream. No way we were passing that up. Even I couldn’t resist getting a Chocolate Eclair ice cream bar. Those, and Strawberry Shortcakes, were my elementary school go-tos.

Another photo I’m so glad Jason captured.

Today, for reasons that make great sense in the minds of the Cline kids, was National Sports Day and National Dads Day. (Different from Father’s Day which isn’t national, you see. And on National Dads Day, dads don’t get to sleep late.) The kids celebrated with activity stations around the house. Sammy set up a book-making station. Amaya set up a puppet making station. Steven set up a ball card and Jedi dueling station. On National Dad’s Day you also eat cake. So there was cheesecake.

As always, Amaya made goody bags.

Making Puppets.

Jason’s story book deserves some space of it’s own in this week’s blog.

“Space Family Cline – by Daddy

Space Family Cline boards the rocket ship. Up, up and away for space, Family Cline! Space Family Cline appears to be weightless in orbit. That’s how it seems… but in reality, both they and the ship are falling around the earth at the same rate. To come back to early, Space Family Cline fires rockets to slow their horizontal speed. And so, instead of falling around the earth, the fall toward the earth… So they can come home to the land of… Cheltenham. <3″

• 

• 

• 

This afternoon the kids and I headed over the the Novi library for their first library cards. What a great age and time for this. Knowing that they won’t be able to check out books from their school library adds a ton of value to visits to our local library and they’re really into picking out books to read (and have read to them).

Outside of the library there’s a statue of two boys and a girl reading books. Immediately, SSA noticed the statue and said that it was “Just like them”. Amaya looks annoyed in this picture because Sammy was standing on the “wrong” side and they weren’t in the same BBG order as the statue.

New library card holders! They even got to write their names on their cards. Forever keepsakes, for sure.

A whole world opening to them…

Amaya saw this picture and said, “I look like a grown up.”

After the library we spent about an hour at a nearby playground. I haven’t been to this one with the kids in at least a year and, suddenly, it seems so much smaller. It’s still great for the kids but they fill the space so differently.

We wrapped up the day with chicken and potatoes ala Amaya and Sammy. Amaya washed, cut and seasoned the potatoes. I just added some salt and put them in the oven. Sammy prepped and seasoned the chicken all on his own, and to his own desire. Again, I just added salt (and cut the onions). We have amazing chefs.

I’ll leave you with a picture of our sweet Sally.

Have a great week!

Steven really wanted to go on a nature walk on Monday so Penni worked it out to make that part of their PE time. The each grabbed a baggie and set out to find what they could find – namely, a lot of acorns.

The rest of PE was spent with balancing / core strength exercises.

Monday afternoon, Steven and I set out for an eye doctor check in. He was excited because it was his first visit since moving to 4 hr/day patching and was hoping for good results – and he got them! Last visit, the best corrected vision in his right eye was 20/40 and this visit it was 20/30. His doctor is hoping we can get him to 20/20 but said she’d be very happy even if 20/25 is the best results we see. So it’s continued patching for Steven and another visit in 2 months to check in.

I don’t let Amaya play around with Steven’s patches. It’s not just the money wasted on patches, it’s that they’re a medical device for Steven. He doesn’t get to choose whether or not he wants to wear it so it doesn’t seem fair for Amaya to play games with the patches and then take them off on a whim. Whenever he goes to the eye doctor, Amaya asks Steven to bring him home a sample patch which he’s always happy to do. And then, for the 10 minutes she wears it, they’re patch buddies. (Sammy tried one on for less than a minute before realizing it’s not a great experience. I’ve tried one, too, and also thought it was terrible which makes me appreciate Steven’s effort even more.)

School is going well. Better than I thought, to be honest. The school still seems manageable and the blend of synchronous and asynchronous appears to work well to keep SSA engaged. There are harder days, for sure, where it’s a little more difficult to focus. And days where the kids just breeze through. I’m thankful for how well Penni is helping them navigate through this.

Tuesday night baseball. Our final week! I always tell myself I’ll remember how they do and then I forget. I believe Sammy got one hit and, when he got on base, he was so excited.

Bobes- getting ready to bat.

Amaya getting some mid-game batting tips from Jason. She tends to swing down at the ball and he was working with her on a more level swing.

A guy who got a great hit.

Daddy and Steven <3

Steven has a printed picture of me that he keeps on the wall next to his bed, along with a few other photos I’ve printed for him. (Of the corn maze map, of the construction vehicles on our street…) It got difficult for him to move the pictures every other week when swapping bunk bed spots with Sammy so we go him a binder, with inserts, to store his pictures. I grace the cover of Steven’s binder. Amaya wanted one, too, and the picture she chose for the cover is no surprise.

In the hallway by the garage door we have an organizing area for the kids’ school stuff. Last year it was labeled with days of the week for anything the kids had to bring back to school with them. This year, Penni asked for labels for reading, writing, math, science and social studies. These are Jason’s interpretations. 🙂

Busy with math. Sometimes the kids need a change of location.

Coach J with Sammy and Amaya at 1st, at our penultimate game. Sammy and Steven both got two hits in this game! Steven seems totally satisfied to hit off the tee but Sammy is elated when he hits off the coach’s pitch.

The class is starting to use their reading notebook where they write about books that Mrs. O’Neil reads to them.

Amaya: My favorite part was when Ray was surprised.

Steven: My favorite par was when bunny went into Ray’s hat and ray found bunny.

Sammy: My favorite part was Ray finds bunny!

SSA are writing “Small Moment” stories about something that happened in their life. This is page 3 of Sammy’s story about leaving NY: When we [went] on the plane. I was so sad and the plane was already in the air.

Friday night Facetime with Nana and Papa!

The final baseball game of the season. 🙁 We even had an umpire for this game. (Though we also decided not to play outs so the kids could all have a chance to run in their last game.) When Amaya was playing pitcher, she was able to field a ball and throw it to Alexa on first to get an out!

Trophy time! As Steven would say, “It’s kids baseball” and we don’t keep score – so trophies for everyone. They’re personalized for each child and glow in the dark – major keepsakes.

Players and coaches

My favorite White Sox <3

Saturday was Rosh Hashana, and with virtual services, we were able to go to our game and still celebrate the holiday. We watched Temple Israels children’s service – a nice, condensed 30 minutes – and also made our first challah. It was dense but definitely edible. We were very proud of ourselves.

Watching the last two episodes of The Legend of Korra. I got so into the show that I watched episodes on my own if I knew I couldn’t watch with the kids.

It was Steven’s night to pick a bedtime book and he picked “Go Dog. Go!” which he read all by himself. It’s a long book. I was really impressed with his interest and stamina.

This morning we all went to a really nice Rosh Hashana Tashlich program at Temple Israel. Families had to reserve a slot that ran in 30 minute increments. Each family sat at our own table where we did a few activities – wrote about our hopes for the new year, wrote about things we want to improve for the new year, and put our names on decorations for the temple’s sukkah. Afterward we were lead to the pond where we cast our (dissolvable) papers and threw in crackers in true tashlich fashion. Then, since we probably can’t gather for Sukkot, we visited the temple’s sukkah to add our decoration and there was an opportunity to learn how to shake a lulav and etrog. It was all so nicely done and I love that one of the rabbis greeted our family by name when we arrived.

Brunch in Birmingham. (Amaya asked if we were in “Downtown City” which is what she calls Ann Arbor. 🙂

The Cline men watched the Lions game while I took Amaya to a play date with Maia. We’re so close to “drop off” play dates but Amaya isn’t quite comfortable yet. Maia has a big dog and Amaya wants me there in case it makes an appearance. (Maia’s mom is very sensitive to Amaya’s fear and keeps the dog well out of sight.)

The face of a 6 year old girl offered ice cream at her play date.

That was our week! We’re gearing up for week 3 of first grade, starting to plan for Halloween and excited to start swim lessons on October 1. Have a great week!

I think I’ll skip Monday and just get to the good stuff, except to say that we had a lovely Labor Day as a family with baseball practice at the school field and a Mommy/Cline Kid homemade dinner of sweet potato gnocchi.

I do want to get these photos of the kids with sweet Sal, though. Maybe it’s her age (16!) or their age, or both – but she’s so patient with the kids these days. It’s very meaningful for me to see. I flash back to the day Sally and I became family and I never could have imagined where the years would take us together.

The good stuff. The main event. FIRST GRADE.

While I can’t believe we’re here, it also feels a lot less emotional and overwhelming compared to the start of kindergarten. We’re all ready.

Our district started 100% virtual with an option to stay virtual through 1/29, which we chose. The kids teacher is Mrs. O’Neil and the class is all of the kids who are fully virtual for the first semester. It’s a large class – 26 kids – which I have issues with compared to the number of kids in the in-person classes (15) but their teacher is seasoned and seems totally on top of things.

Even though school is at home, we still took our traditional First Day of School photos. Shoes on and, two minutes later, shoes off. 🙂 It was raining and the kids loved seeing me standing out in the rain.

First day of 1st vs. first day of kindergarten. Such a difference!

Amaya wants to be a swimmer, a teacher and an artist when she grows up.

Steven wants to be an EMT, an artist and a chef when he grows up.

Sammy wants to work with animals when he grows up. Maybe on a farm or at a zoo or as a vet.

The blog isn’t going to turn into a million pictures of the kids sitting at their computers at home but there are a lot this week. Steven, Sammy and Amaya all took up the spots they claimed in the spring. Steven is on the sofa in the sitting room. Amaya is on the sofa in the family room. Sammy is at the kitchen table. It seems to work and they appear able to focus as needed on their zoom lessons. This fall there are four different scheduled whole-class zoom times. In between they do independent work related to the zoom lesson and also have additional small-group sessions with Mrs. O’Neil. Each day is also a humanities lesson – gym 2x week and one day each of music, art and Spanish. (Spanish was a new switch from French.)

Day 1 got off to a good start. The kids all had familiar faces in their class. It’s not the same as being there but they’re making it work.

Show and tell – something green.

Mrs. O’Neil does regular GoNoodle dance breaks with the kids. Seeing photos of Sammy in action makes me smile.

Wednesday dance break. 🙂

PE activities.

Wednesday was our one ballgame of the week. Amaya got in some amazing time with Sally before we left.

May May surprised the kids at the game! It was a good one. Sammy got a great hit and made it to first. Steven got to field the ball a bunch of times.

Class on Thursday – participation from Sammy. On his chair you’ll see his art work. They all did some Mo Willems pigeon art and write something they want in a word bubble.

Amaya wants a little sister. Sorry kiddo!

I think Sammy wants to finish the assignment without writing anything. 🙂

Steven wants to not have to go to school. Again, sorry kiddo. (Even though he says that, he seems to be very engaged in the work.)

Music class! Since the humanities classes aren’t live on camera, Penni is able to run them from our TV so the kids can participate together and get a little change of pace.

SSA have recess in the morning for 30 minutes and again as part of their 60 minute lunch break. Penni is getting the kids outside as often as possible. (It’s also an option if they have 30 minutes to work on an assignment and manage to finish it quickly.)

Steven live on Amaya’s screen. Fun view.

I’m in meetings, meetings, meetings all day but it’s a treat if I have a break that coincides with a break for the SSA. <3

Our housekeeper came on Friday so school moved to the basement. It actually seemed to work pretty well. I think it will be a welcome change of pace every other Friday. Gotta mix it up a little.

Math activities

They all had to write something they’re worried about.

Amaya is worried about coronavirus.

Steven is “worried of being alone”.

Sammy is “worried about puppy [his lovey] being lost.”

Sleeping kids this week.

SSA started their Saturday with decaf. As you do.

Our Saturday morning was an exciting outing. For the first time since March, SSA headed to a playground. But not any playground – their school playground. AND, they met up with 10 or so other kids from their 1st grade virtual class. It was amazing. They were so happy. All the kids wore masks and a few other parents mentioned that it was their first post-COVID visit to a playground, too.

Amaya and Maia are excited to be in class together again.

The kids started an impromptu game of Gaga. <3

The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Crafts, legos and a visit to see the construction happening further down our street.

Today was a busy, busy day. We started off with Hebrew School – first week of the year. It’s a modified schedule this season. There are a few outside classes, shortened to an hour, and a handful on online session. It’s intended to be enough to keep kids engaged and connected but not so daunting online that the kids tap out. We’ll see how it goes.

Sammy had a bit of a tough reentry. Eventually he pushed through and we sat together for the latter part of the hour.

To help connect us to fall holiday season, the religious school gave us a big bag of activities to go. We dug in today with tote bag decorating, honey tasting and, with a kit from the Shofar Factory, sanded and polished shofars.

Apple stamping a tote bag

Learning how to finish our shofars – we sanded them and then finished them with mod podge. It’s also suggested we drill a bigger hole at the base but we’ll probably need Jason’s help for that.

After the shofars we made delicious honey cake muffins.

I thought we’d rest before afternoon plans but the kids watched an episode of Emily’s Wonder Lab that featured Ooblek and we had to try making some ourselves. It’s cool stuff. Pressure makes it act like a solid and low/no pressure makes it act like a liquid. The kids got such a kick out of trying to punch it. Lots and lots of fun to play with. A lot less fun to clean up.

Almost clean!

We rounded out the day with a trip to Maybury Farm to visit the Corn Maze with Megan, Taco and Rainbow Heart. It was so much fun! Amaya and Taco were adorable together. We made it through the maze in about half an hour and then had time to visit the farm. Everything is getting easier as the kids get older – which is no surprise but new for me to experience.

Have a great week!

The kids definitely made the most of their last week before school starts again. They had a fun adventure almost every day starting with the zoo on Monday. It’s been over a year since they visited and long overdue. It’s so nice that they’re old enough to go with nothing but a little extra sunscreen and their masks. A far cry from the days of triple strollers and diaper bags.They had a great day!

I’m told by the kids that this is not a wishing fountain.

In the kangaroo enclosure a Joey hopped right in front of Sammy.

Giraffes!!

The kids were not at all interested in a photo together but Steven and Amaya were totally game for solo pics. (Speaking of their individuality, I was filling out some info for their teacher and I was curious what Amaya thinks about being referred to as “the triplets”. I asked if she prefers when she and her brothers are called, “the triplets” or “Steven, Sammy and Amaya” and she said, “Definitely Steven, Sammy and Amaya.” I just asked Steven and he said, “I don’t care.” Sammy said the same. Which is an interesting connection to Amaya being the one who wanted her own class.)

Sammy exploring Jason’s Fantasy Football draft binder.

Penni sent me this picture and said, “I love that they take pictures and are sooooo invested in making them look they way they want.”

Sammy was wearing his Disneyland buttons which motivated Steven to sell his preference for Legoland. Eventually they agreed it was a matter of opinion.

On Tuesday afternoon, Penni took SSA to an orchard for some apple picking. They got lucky because Amaya was not a fan of the bees that live at the zoo and I was a little worried the orchard would be buzzing, but it wasn’t! Now we have a ton of hand picked apples to enjoy.

Looking at Delta planes. I hate flying so much and still can not wait to get on an airplane again.

Sammy, Steven and Amaya were playing a game where Sammy was the boss and he kept saying things like, “Let’s keep these people on task! We have to meet our goals!” I have no idea where he heard things like that lol!

The kids had baseball Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I had meetings all day on Tuesday so Gabby got the kids ready for their game and had them ready and in the van just after 6pm. We headed to Thornton Creek, got out of the car, and I realized that there were two teams on the field and neither was ours. So I double check the schedule and realized we had a game on a different field. We got back in the car and headed there. Through very poor planning on the part of whoever gave us the address, it took us another 15 minutes to figure out how to get to the field parking lot. But we made it and played for an hour before it started to rain on us. (Which didn’t cancel the game for a good while, which we spent in the field.) So Tuesday was rough. The highlight was Amaya’s monster hit at her first at-bat.

Wednesday’s game was a lot better and it was at 6pm! All the kids got hits. At least I think they all did. Amaya got at least one hit, maybe two. Sammy hit the ball twice but was tagged out at first both times. I think Steven got a hit but now I’m second guessing myself. I told Sammy he did a great job and he complained that he got tagged out twice. I told him that he’s still learning to play and hitting the pitched ball is a big important step. He said, “It’s also important to learn not to get tagged.”

On Thursday, before heading to the pool, Penni got the kids’ Schoology accounts set up on their chromebooks. We’re getting close!

Possibly the final JCC pool day of the season. With a possible exception on Wednesday, it’s unlikely to crack 80 degrees again this season and the pool is too cold to swim in the 70s. (For me, at least, and they expect me to get in the water with them when we go to the pool.) At least we’re less than 4 weeks from the start of swim lessons.

Two years ago, compared to this week.

Penni said that, after a rough morning together with fights over seats and cereal, peace was restored between the brothers with talks about She-Ra.

On Friday, Penni and Gabby took the kids to Greenfield Village. Another great day to round out their last full week of summer vacation. It’s so nice that Gabby and Penni like doing these activities together. It’s definitely special for the kids.

Jenga (which is Steven’s and he’s clear about that) has been a big hit lately. Sammy wanted me to take pictures of the game at every angle. He couldn’t believe how high it was.

Juuuuuuust before it tumbled.

On Friday night Jason and I went out for an early dinner in downtown Northville and, while we were there, I picked up our finished ceramics pieces. They came out great!

Amaya’s unicorn.

Steven’s tank.

My hedgehog. 🙂

Some serious Minecraft business. I love when they collaborate.

On Saturday morning we stayed home all day, in PJs, and relaxed together. Steven and Jason built a train city.

Amaya started on a Lego hospital that she got for her birthday and hadn’t opened yet.

Prepping for Fantasy Football

This morning we went out for a yummy family brunch at The Sardine Room. Jason wowed us all by killing 3 wasps that buzzed around our table.

Homemade Lego necklace!

The kids and I had a plan to go for a hike after brunch but Sammy and Amaya were worried about the rain so Steven and I headed out on our own. He talked the whole time and I smiled the whole time. It did rain but, thanks to the tree cover, we didn’t get wet. Steven determined our path and we spent about 45 minutes walking together. I’ve really missed the quality 1:1 time I got from traveling with the kids but, on the way home, Steven and I talked about how we don’t need an airplane or even a car to have special time together. (As long as we have our imaginations, “so we do need our brains”.)

We hiked around a pond that Steven named “picture pond” because every time he saw a “pond trail” he wandered down and asked for a picture. I probably have 7 or 8 different photos of him in front of thd pond.

For dinner tonight we dove into another Raddish Kids kit. This time it was roast chicken and vegetables, with roasted red skins, followed by apple cider donuts. Amaya was on chopping duty while Sammy prepared the chicken. A whole chicken!

He thought it was gross but necessary. I can agree with that. I was really proud of his work. He stuffed the chicken with salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, fresh thyme and chopped garlic.

Donut time! Steven joined us for this one.

Proud kids!!

We wrapped up the day with The Legend of Korra and some downtime.

Have a great week! We’ve got Labor Day and then it’s off to FIRST GRADE!