It’s always weird to look back on Monday. It feels like so much happens in the week and Monday seems so long ago.

This past Monday, Nana was still at our house. She left for the airport at the same time the kids got on the bus for school so she was able to see them off.

We ordered some tea lights for Amaya’s little pumpkin and they worked perfectly. Her hearts are wonderful. She was even able to eat roasted pumpkin seeds from this cute little gourd.

Even in 2nd grade, it’s fun to play pretend doctor. Jason was a great patient for Amaya and Sammy. And they cleared up many of his mysterious maladies.

Cuddling with my Bobes. We finished our re-watch of The Legend of Korra and started on The Dragon Prince.

We had a lot of rain this week. No fun. On Tuesday it was rainy enough in the morning to warrant rain coats and umbrellas. For the kids, it also means indoor recess. Fortunately, they don’t seem to mind the free time in their classroom.

Bubba

Sophia took the kids to swim on her own this week and it was all going swimmingly (see what I did there?) until the power went out. Every one rolled with the punches, though!

It’s been a while, but on Thursday night Amaya had time to FaceTime with Charlie – for a while, too, which she loved. Afterwards, if it was on my phone, I always find screenshots of Charlie in my photo roll. <3

Jason calls this “Pre School Bus Breakfast Table.” On days I’m going into the office, I’m nearly ready by this time. But on days I’m working from home and don’t have meetings until 9am, I may very well still be in my PJs at 7:45am.

Here are some pictures I grabbed from Mrs. Bates’ weekly video.

Friday night cuddles for Daddy with Sammy and with Sally.

Sweet Steven, ready for Sleep with Parents Night.

On Saturday, we took a family overnight trip to Lansing to visit Grandma Sunshine and Annette. I haven’t been to visit in ages! Usually, when the kids go with Jason for a day, I take it as my very rare full day home alone. I didn’t want to miss the chance to visit, though. It was definitely better than being home alone.

This Cozy Coup has been around since the kids were young toddlers.

At Sammy’s request, we played a game of Monopoly and did not deal out the properties at the start of the game.

Team Samommy

Team Gramaya

Rounded it out with team Stedaddy. And the game continued into Sunday…

Before dinner, Amaya said she wanted to pull out her tooth and off she went! She was smart and took a paper towel with her which she definitely needed. Tough girl!

For dinner, we went to a sports bar & arcade and Grandma Sunshine treated the kids to arcade cards after dinner. They had a blast.

We picked up the Monopoly game again this morning. Despite our best effort, Sammy and I were first out in the game that lasted until this morning. Stedaddy put up a good fight but Gramaya was victorious!

Counting their winnings

It was a tough goodbye for the kids when we headed back to Novi this morning.

Amaya didn’t want to leave her baby twins – Hannah and Izzy

Steven loves Grandma’s red door

SSA all helped me out with some yard work when we got home. They’re great helpers.

It was a beautiful, beautiful September day so, after lunch, the kids and I headed over to Erwin Orchard in South Lyon for apple picking. Despite how it looks in my pictures, the place was absolutely packed. Long lines to get our bag and long lines for the wagon to the apple trees but it was worth it!

So many apples

Late afternoon Lions game – what a finish. Delay of game penalty that goes uncalled resulting in an NFL record 66 yard field goal for the Ravens. The boys were flipping out.

Our day wrapped up with a late afternoon playdate for Sammy and his new friend Nolan at the Thornton Creek playground. Nolan is in his class for the first time and they ride the morning bus together. Amazingly, Nolan’s mom is from Long Island, too!

That’s it for us. Have a great week!

It was the first full(ish) week of school and everyone did great! Bussing is still an issue for the district like it is everywhere but we’ve had pretty good luck so far. Except for one day when the bus was 15- 20 min late and one day when the bus was about 35 min late getting home, the kids have been close to on time. On Friday, the kids actually got home when we expected. Hopefully it keeps up.

We have a bus app that tracks the bus on it’s way to our house. In the morning, Steven loves to watch the bus on it’s route to Cheltenham.

On Tuesday evening Amaya had a make-up swim lesson so our new nanny, Sophia, and I went together. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to swim with the kids so I loved getting to see her class.

I went into the office on Wednesday for a board meeting and the timing worked out perfectly. The kids were on the bus by 8:10am and I was at my desk before an 8:30am meeting. We’re really lucky that the bus schedule works out so well and that I work so close to home.

It’s been a long time since we’ve taken a bus stop selfie!

Deer walking across our street! Love the deer, fear the possibility of ticks in our yard.

The kids and I stayed home on Thursday for Yom Kippur. We had a quiet morning, which included celebrating Chucky’s birthday. (See that smart pink track suit she’s wearing? A sweet gift from me.)

It was a beautiful day so Sophia and I packed lunch for the kids and took them to two different playgrounds in the late morning/early afternoon. At this time of year I’m very conscious about spending as much time outside as possible.

After the playground, the kids and I went to Temple Israel for their Yom Kippur Family service. It was such a wonderful experience. Temple Israel has a beautiful outdoor sanctuary and the service is geared to families with kids ages 6+. I think there were probably 200- 300 people there. Such a nice community!

Afterward, the kids and I baked apple bread – another Raddish Kids recipe.

Mrs. Bates, the boys’ teacher, sent another end-of-week video of the class. I love looking for Steven and Sammy in the pictures. It looks like such a great classroom environment. I’m so happy for the boys! (Unfortunately Amaya’s teacher lost her mother this week so was out for a few days so, while communication isn’t as consistent, Amaya seems very happy as well.)

We’re very proud of Steven for coming home with this Bravo card from music. The back says, “Your child went out of his/her way to be cooperative in music class today. This “Bravo” award is to show my appreciation for such fine behavior!”

We are about to have a string of tooth fairy visits in the Land of Cheltenham. All three kids have loose top teeth (their first) and the boys’ are about ready to fall out. I am really going to miss their little baby-tooth smiles. I know it’s time but this is a hard one for me.

This weekend we had another visit from Nana! She’s back on a monthly schedule!! Since the kids are in school it’s a quicker trip – Friday afternoon to Monday morning – but we can have a lot of fun in that time.

The kids were showing Sally a book about a cat that goes to NY. Sally has been so great with SSA. She loves to be pet and is super patient with the kids. I love it.

A first for us – on Friday night Steven and Amaya slept in one of the beds in our basement guest room with Nana.

Tradition continued on Saturday morning with a Starbucks visit for breakfast. <3

It was a busy Saturday. After Starbucks, we went to Aquatots for a make-up swim lesson for the boys. After going to Amaya’s lesson on Tuesday, it was nice to see the boys at swim, too.

Amaya was hard at work coloring, working to earn a discount on swim lessons from a coloring contest. I promised SSA that any discounts earned would be shared with them.

Nana, the kids and I spent the early afternoon in Northville. They have a small little heritage festival to support Northville High School so we checked it out.

For the first time, we stopped into the Northville Art House. Each of the kids picked out their favorite paintings.

Nana and Amaya’s favorite

Sammy’s favorite

Steven’s favorite

Steven also really likes American flags

Checking out some gourds. All 3 kids left with pumpkins, compliments of Nana.

They had a petty zoo with goats, sheep, llamas and a pony. Sammy loved feeding the little goats.

Lunch outside

The kids really liked this 3D chalk drawing and had fun posing inside the art.

We all rounded out the afternoon at the playground by Novi high school. Such a nice day!

Steven and his pumpkin

Amaya has been so busy with art this weekend. She cut and painted memory foam for squishies and painted her new little pumpkin.

Sammy got a rocket slingshot at the festival. It was a huge hit until it landed on our roof. 🙁 Should have seen that coming.

Bedtime story books. We just started a new Legend of Korra graphic novel.

This morning Nana took the kids to Hebrew School and we had a quiet early afternoon at home.

Sammy and his giant pumpkin.

Jason helping Amaya carve her mini pumpkin while Steven paints his.

Carved hearts!

Nana helping Steven with “The Hardest Hidden Picture Book Ever”.

Early afternoon, the kids, Nana and I headed to Maybury Farm for their corn maze. This is our third year and the kids were determined to get through it without relying on photos we took on the map. Fifty five minutes and we did it!

A map of the maze.

The biggest dead ends have maps to get you back on track. We hit two of them along the way. The kids are holding scavenger hunt sheets. Along the maze were stations with the answers to farm-based trivia questions.

After the corn maze we went to the “next-door” playground at Maybury park for a bit and then Nana and SSA tooled around Northville while I waited for takeout.

Steven rounded out the weekend by completing his vision for his pumpkin. I think it’s awesome!

Have a great week!

And off they went! Steven, Sammy and Amaya set out for 2nd grade on Tuesday and had a great week!

For comparison, here’s the first day of 1st grade. They’ve grown so much!

Inspired by our trip to Charlevoix, when Steven grows up he wants to be a draw bridge operator.

Sammy would like to be a chemist. “I want to be a scientist. What’s the name of the kind of scientist that works with chemicals?”

Amaya wants to be a singer, and will soon start working on that stage fright. <3

Back at the bus stop! Yay!! Their bus comes around 8:10 AM which is perfect for our morning schedule (on most days). As long as I don’t have meetings before 8:30 AM, which is the norm, we’re golden. If I need to be in office, my short commute gives me the time I need to get there after the kids board the bus.

Same bus driver as in K! He couldn’t believe how much they’ve grown since he last saw them (in March 2020).

Getting on the bus on the first day of Kindergarten. I was so glad to see the march right on the bus just like they had back then.

It was weird to go back into the house when they left. It was so quiet! Fortunately, two other second grade moms came over from brunch which helped with the transition.

Steven and Sammy’s teacher, Mrs. Bates, sent us this first day of school photo. Sammy is in the front left of the photo. Steven is in the middle.

It sounded like a great first day (and great first week). I only get dribs and drabs of their day, which is definitely a change for me after getting regular reports from Penni but, like I did in K, I’ll get used to it. I was happy to learn that, at least for now, the teachers have discretion to take the kids outside for extra recess as they all acclimate to a full day in the classroom. About 1/3 of the students in the school were virtual last year and I appreciate the awareness that this is a big shift.

Since this was Penni’s last week as our nanny, on Monday the kids gave her this ceramic piece that they made for her. <3 Penni is amazing and we were so lucky to have her with us for the past 18 months. We spent a lot of time together between our days in the house, two trips to FL and a trip to NY. I’m going to miss her as much as the kids will!

This week was a lot of bus pictures – going to school, coming home from school. I tried hard to arrange my schedule for the week to allow me be outside when they get home. (They’re first on the bus and first off, so it makes for a longer morning – which is better for our work schedule – but a shorter time on the bus getting home. The morning bus has been very timely so far but the afternoon but has been running 10+ minutes late. I’m guessing they’ll get into a routine as the year goes on.)

Mrs. Bates send a video of photos from the first week of school and I grabbed this picture of the boys playing together. They’re not joined at the hip so it’s fun to see when they do interact – though I have no idea if it’s by choice.

On Wednesday afternoon, Penni took the kids out for a “See Ya Later” dinner at Applebees. It’s definitely “see ya later” because, as the kids call it, we’ll make sure that Penni is a kid-sitter for us going forward.

Showing off her new school sneakers! Steven got those cool Adidas Lego sneakers a few weeks ago, which he was saving for the first day of school. Sammy ordered the exact same sneakers he had previously, but in a bigger size. Amaya went for these sparkly kicks.

Friday – still eagerly off to the bus!

And home from the end of their first week of 2nd grade. I’m so happy for the kids. <3

Sammy was really excited to share this Gator puppet he made at school. (They’re the Thornton Creek Gators.)

As Penni departs, Sophia joins our family. Sophia’s first day was Thursday but, so far, it seems like she’ll be a great fit. She seems excited to work with us and the kids also seem to have a good, early connection. I’m hopeful!!

For bedtime stories, the kids and I are making our way through another Avatar the Last Airbender (ATLA) graphic novel. This universe is so rich with media that we can stay engaged for a long time – perfect for all of us because I’m a fan, too.

Bubba and Sal. This picture makes me so happy.

On Saturday morning, I headed to the airport for a dual birthday celebration for Uncle Bob and Aunt Denise. (Poppy Steven’s brother and SIL.) The kids were very excited for a movie night with cheesecake/red velvet cake. 🙂

Why not watch tv under the table?

Meanwhile, Nana, Aunt Sara and I headed to Armonk to celebrate with the Goldsteins. To commemorate a party from 20 years ago, the theme was Vicar and Tarts – very British just like Aunt Denise.

Cousins!

On the drive home, we could see Manhattan. It was a big low moon hanging right by the 9/11 memorial lights.

I took an early flight home so I could spend some of the weekend SSA and Jason. While I was in-flight, the kids had their first day of Hebrew school!

This afternoon, at Sammy’s request, we had a Lego Egg Drop challenge. The kids and I all built containers to hold an egg and we dropped it off the side of the deck. The prize for the winner was not having to help clean up.

We all took turns and Amaya was the winner! Her egg stayed intact!

It’s football season and Steven enjoyed some of the Lions game with Jason.

Upside-down girl!

We were hanging out outside when I remembered how much Steven liked the playground in Maybury State Park when we were there on Monday so the kids and I hopped in the car and headed over. Steven predicted that Amaya would love the zip line and he was right. They all loved it!

We wrapped up dinner at Garage. First time I’ve been there since the pandemic started! (Not the first time Jason and the kids have been there, though!)

Have a great week!

That’s a wrap! After nearly 18 months at home, tomorrow Steven, Sammy and Amaya head back to Thornton Creek and start 2nd grade. I can’t believe it. Despite a fully, successful year of first grade at home, it doesn’t quite seem for 2nd grade. 2nd grade!

It was a wonderful, full week where we tried to balance setting the stage for the return to school and enjoying one last week of downtime. Even for me, the routine of school mornings feels like a lifetime ago. At home, the kids didn’t have to be ready for school until 8:50am. Now we’ll be heading to the bus stop shortly after 8. New routines abound.

Monday and Tuesday were quiet days. Library books. Art projects, Magnatiles. Parks. Swim.

Amaya made cardboard relief art.

First day of level 4 for Steven and Sammy!

On Wednesday evening, the kids and I headed over to Thornton Creek for open house / meet the teacher. It was great to be in the busy school though, with no visitors allowed, I’m not sure when I’ll get to return. There are four 2nd grade classrooms with two by the K and 1st grade rooms (where Steven and Sammy are) and two over by the upper grades (where Amaya is). We found our classrooms, handed in our supplies and got to meet our teachers.

Steven and Sammy’s room with Mrs. Bates.

Amaya’s room with Mrs. Boomer.

Popsicles afterward!

On Wednesday night, both Amaya and Steven had trouble falling asleep so down they came while I watched TV. I think this was a first, and another first was that we let them sleep through the night downstairs together. They were both very surprised to wake up downstairs!

At lunchtime on Thursday, the kids and I packed up the car and started the drive up north for a weekend in Charlevoix and Petoskey. We went to Petoskey early July 2020 and I was so excited for another weekend away.

We made good time and, by 4:30pm, were at our cabin on Oyster Bay / Lake Charlevoix. Truly a rustic little spot off a dirt road. No wifi, no AC, no water & dryer. The kids looooved it.

We checked out the lake and dock before even going inside.

After we got settled, we headed to downtown Charlevoix. I had only been one time before, five years ago, for a wedding. We wandered around town and got the lay of the land before grabbing dinner.

Steven named this gnome, “Papa”. 🙂

There’s a drawbridge going into Charlevoix and it was a huuuuuge draw for the kids, especially Steven. It’s active, too, so over the course of three days they got more than their share of draw bridge openings.

Steven and a map.

A late dinner outdoors.

While we were eating, we got our first draw bridge excitement. Can you see it open in the distance?

The kids really liked that the house was a log cabin. It had a loft that Amaya immediately claimed. She did offer to share with the brothers on a rotating schedule.

We had a lazy Friday morning and then headed to Petoskey. We ate at a restaurant we visited last time, which was a fun memory to revisit.

After lunch we headed down by the pier in our wet suits and carrying metal detectors. I was almost deserted when we first arrived. The kids had a great time searching for metal, finding rocks (Amaya found a petoskey stone) and swimming. It was cool, but the wet suits kept the kids warm enough. They were a great investment this summer.

Walking out to the lighthouse, the kids were on “gnat patrol”, swatting away the little bugs in the area.

From there, we went to Petoskey State Park where we spent the rest of the afternoon. The water was so calm and it got progressively warmer.

Steven and Sammy were the hit of the beach with their metal detectors. Steven even found a tent hook~

This older guy came by with his metal detector and talked with the kids for a bit. He said that the key is patience and more patience. You can find great stuff but you have to put in the time. I think he really liked seeing a bunch of kids who were the same age he was when he got started.

Sammy spent a long time building this castle. Then he had a great time destroying it.

The night before we tried to get an outdoor table at a waterside restaurant in Charlevoix but the wait was too long so we tried again on Friday and got seated right away. Prime spot to watch the draw bridge open 3 times over the course of our meal.

Saturday morning was another lazy morning and I woke up feeling sick. (Though later recovered.) It was rainy, with rain in the forecast for Sunday as well, so the kids and I decided to enjoy the day and then start making our way back to Novi a day early so we could get to the State Fair on Sunday. It was easy to come to the decision together knowing sunshine was in the forecast back home.

We walked around Charlevoix and had lunch.

We passed by a flower store with this beautiful doorway.

Steven staged the photos of the three kids together. I just executed his vision. 🙂

One last trip out back to the dock. You can see Amaya is wearing my Charlevoix sweatshirt.

Before we left, Steven took pictures of everything.

Little cabin on the lake.

On our way to Petoskey, we stopped at Roadside Park on Lake Michigan. One last chance to find beautiful rocks.

Detour to buy pottery for my rocks!

The main goal of our stop in Petoskey was to visit a toy store. The kids remembered it from last time and, to be fair, it’s a good one.

Steven left with a new friend – Flying Morminer.

None of us wanted to get home late so we decided to stay the night at a hotel on the way home. Our Panda Express was waiting for us when we arrived. Perfect.

“Surprising” daddy on Sunday morning with our earily arrival!

And then it was off to the state fair. Jason had a fantasy football draft at 2pm so the kids and I headed over around 1pm. Jason finally made it around 5pm, after a ton of traffic and long long lines to get in. The crowds got heavier and heavier as the day progressed. It took us over 30 minutes just to get lemonade and corn dogs.

But it was worth it. We had so much fun.

There was a limit of 3 people in each ferris wheel car so Amaya and Steven went off on their own while I rode with Sammy. He wasn’t thrilled about the height.

Once Jason arrived, Sammy and I were able to ride The Tornado. The first pic is before he went and still a little nervous. The next is right after. We would have taken another turn on this ride if time had allowed. But Amaya had her eyes set on the fun slide.

Bounce house! Amaya and Steven had their turn while Sammy and I were on The Tornado.

We had an intentionally lazy day today, with tomorrow kicking off a new school year. (I still can’t believe it. Back to school! And second grade!)

While i did some work, the kids and Jason spent a lot of time looking at ball cards.

Sammy, the avocado picker

A hair touch-up in preparation for school tomorrow.

Steven and I enjoyed the great weather with a trail walk at Maybury State Park, down the road. It’s perfect for him because the trail is interspersed with many, many maps. (But they’re also full of mosquitoes, who love Steven.)

We wrapped up the long weekend and “real life hiatus” with burgers and hot dogs from Daddy.

And that’s it! Off we go!