With Hanukkah around the corner, we needed to be ready to roll before Thanksgiving. Sophia’s been a huge help wrapping presents as the arrive and I’m going to give myself a little pat on the back for the very, very early preparation. And, trust me, I looked ahead to make sure it isn’t this early again for a while.

On Tuesday afternoon, the kids and I headed to NY for a Thanksgiving timed visit. We’ve got such a good routine down. I’ve started having the kids take point in the airport – leading us to our next step and ultimately getting us to our gate. It was an easy, on-time flight to NY but the 1:45 drive back to the house is making me re-thinking 4pm landings at LCG.

Cousin hugs at our Airbnb, across the street from Nana and Papa’s house.

Wednesday night family dinner. ❤️❤️❤️

On Wednesday morning, while I worked, the kids went to Nana’s house where they baked, built legos and visited with Savta.

I took the afternoon off and, after Nana and kids picked up Charlie from school, we headed into Manhattan for a visit to MoMA.

The big draw of the visit was Starry Night. It was really amazing to see this painting in person.

How it’s displayed in the museum. There’s a small rope at calf level keeping people a small distance away and a guard who’s keeping a relatively watchful eye.

We spent a little over an hour wandering galleries. I only saw a fraction of what I’d like to see so I’ll definitely need to get back there. I’m guessing it’s been more than 20 years since I visited and don’t want to wait until my mid-60s to return.

The kids saw this Chagall painting and recognized it from a project they did in art class. So cool! It was a really great moment during our visit. I sent this photo to their art teacher with my thanks.

Water Lilies

Steven had me take a pictures of him in front of all of his favorites.

The kids each picked out a souvenir from the museum and Steven selected this wooden duel chess/checkers set. It was his first time playing checkers and my first time in years and years and years.

My Wednesday night sleeping buddy.

To manage schedules, we postponed our big Thanksgiving meal until Friday which made Thursday a very lowkey day. The kids spent most of the day at Chase & Charlie’s and took advantage of the gorgeous weather with lots of trampoline time.

A bump into Charlie’s head took care of two of Steven’s more stubborn baby teeth. One was hanging on for dear life as the adult tooth came in behind it. It was good timing because the dentist wanted to pull it if it wasn’t out by January.

Joanna, Sara and Nana hands, with our matching tattoos and bracelets Nana gifted us.

Reindeer – Turkey!!

It was so nice that Sammy, Amaya and I walked to the Hall’s Pond playground later in the afternoon, while Steven stayed home with Nana and Papa.

The kids, Nana, Papa and I had a small and lovely Thanksgiving dinner but not until after Steven beat Papa at checkers. (And, prior to that, beat me at chess. After I beat him at checkers.)

This morning, early, we crossed the street to Nana and Papa’s house so Sammy could prepare the turkey. Last week, Nana asked what he was going to stuff it with (meaning stuffing, veggies, etc.) and he responded “my bare hands!” Bare hands it was. 🙂 Plus butter, parsley and bay leaves. The top was buttered, salted and peppered.

We spent the morning back at Chase & Charlie’s which was a nice way to break up the day and SSA are always happy to be at the Goldberg’s.

Amaya and Charlie set up Pengui with his own booster seat and seatbelt for the ride back to Nana and Papa’s house.

Back at Nana and Papa’s, Sammy posed with his turkey. Such a proud guy. <3

Lots and lots of lego time for the kids. We were all excited to have Allen & Syvia Goldberg join us for the evening.

Auntie came for dessert!

Nana and her Five ❤️❤️❤️

We capped off Friday night with a sleepover.

This morning the kids got a lot of time at Nana and Papa’s house and a visit to Savta’s with Auntie.

Our afternoon / evening event was a Hanukkah party at Jamie & Spencer Goldstein’s house with the Goldstein Cousins. Spencer & Jamie with Cooper, Jordan and Tessa. Glori & Mark with Miles & Sailor. Heidi & Craig with Ben, Issy and Seb. Alex and Chadwick. And the Clines and Goldbergs. It was a wonderful night!

Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I were ready to party in our Hanukkah shirts.

Chess!

Cousins’ kids! (Technically, also cousins. 🙂 )

Each family was “assigned” another family to gift. Spencer and Jamie had the Cline kids. Sammy got a new controller for his Switch. Amaya got a jewelry making kit. Steven got Pin Art. Remember that from back in the day? He saw it in the DIA gift shop a couple of months ago after our museum visit and really wanted one. It was a huge hit.

Cookie decorating for the kids!

I’m very impressed with Amaya’s gimmel.

We had a 12:45pm flight today which gave us all a little time at Nana and Papa’s house this morning. While Steven and Sammy had paper airplane contents, Nana and Amaya looked through clothes from Charlie.

Then it was off to the airport!

Steven has been nervous about moving sidewalks but, today, he mastered it! He said, “I don’t know if it want to but everyone at the party last night said I can do it so I’ll try.”

On this flight Amaya had a seat in the row behind me. A first for her and she did great!

We got home in time for the first night of Hanukkah! Yay!! We definitely have excited kids.

First night presents!

Amaya’s #1 request was these baby dolls who she named Chip and Minty.

Sammy got a Gravitrax set

Steven got an ultimate hot wheels garage. Right on brand for all 3 kids.

I’ll wrap up this week with this wonderful letter that Steven wrote to Jason.

“Dear Daddy, Every day I check on you in the night and now sometimes I will hide candy in our room. You will have to find it if you want it. I love you so much and I know you love me, too, but I love you more. Yes I win. I love you so much. By, Steven”

Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates!

I had more work travel this week and was gone from early Monday until after dinner on Wednesday. Sophia came early to get the kids on the school bus and stayed late on Tuesday which was really helpful for the family.

This playroom… good grief. A lot of necessary work happened in here this week.

Pizza dinner on Tuesday! The kids even got to sleep on their beanbags in our master bedroom on Tuesday night.

It was a big day at swimming on Wednesday – Amaya graduated level 7 and is a level EIGHT swimmer! After level 8 she moves on to either swim club or swim team. This girl looooooves to swim.

With Hanukkah fast approaching (one week!), the kids did some last minute toy catalog reviews. Amaya circles half the catalog but Sammy is very discerning so we really need him to look through them all.

Mommy and Bobes <3

Amaya busy with her loom. It’s all orange and I think it’s for Milan but these are Mama colors!

Sammy, taking a little rest before school on Friday. Silly boy.

At school this week, all the kids had an outdoor scavenger hunt. I love seeing SSA in moments like this.

Thornton Creek had a raffle where the kids got tickets to put in buckets of Teacher Features. Prizes are things like, “Lunch and crafts with Mrs. Bates.” Amaya won two Teacher Features and Steven won one. Sammy was bummed he didn’t win any and, since you can take a friend, Amaya agreed to take Sammy for one of her two. Steven did a hilarious (and only half coherent) telling of how the raffle worked.

Sammy and I had a long overdue sleepover on Friday night. In his sleep he reached out for my arm and I didn’t want to move for a good hour. <3

My colleague Abe and his wife Tanjia (mostly Tanjia) got the kids a Hanukkah decorating kit. It was so thoughtful and SSA were excited to check it out on Saturday morning. The timing was perfect because, right before this, we put up all of our Hanukkah decorations for the season. Super cute Hanukkah dogs and cats (plus Steven’s Dog-Cat-Elephant).

A few weeks ago, Sophia and the kids started clearing out their toy bins. On Saturday, Jason picked up the work and they cleared out a ton. They kept the stuff the love, trashed the stuff the don’t need and the “just like” pile is in basement storage for now. They did a great job and are ready for the influx of new toys.

For lunch, the kids and I made a Raddish Kids recipe- Green Bean Fries with homemade ranch dressing. They were so good and the kids are getting more and more proficient following the recipes on their own. Cooking is great for practicing (learning) fractions!

Steven had the idea of a contest to write all the words they could think of ending in “ing”. All three kids and Daddy got in on it! (Scores have not been tabulated.)

On Saturday evening, the whole family went to the Detroit Zoo for Wild Lights. It was cold, but not too cold, and a really fun way to start off winter and the holiday season. Unlimited hot chocolate was probably Amaya’s favorite part but everyone truly loved the lights. At one point Steven said, “I love this place.” He’s so expressive so his wonder just oozes out of him.

Steven wanted to be sure I got a picture with the giraffe.

I love having kids tall enough & old enough to ride alone.

I think all five Clines agreed the under water section of the experience was our favorite.

It was a pretty quiet day around here. The kids had Hebrew school in the morning and we got home around lunch time. Afterward, we took time to vacuum and wash the carpet in the playroom. Long overdue! Amaya also did some great organizing in their bedroom. Her stuff was a bit out of control and she made room for some Hanukkah gifts she’s hoping for.

A picture that was sent home from Hebrew school – writing about the 8 nights of Hanukkah. (I don’t know why they’re in their jackets. Steven says he just forgets.)

During Lions’ halftime, Jason and the kids played touch football. Glad they’re hearty enough to get out in the cold! (I’m not.)

I’ll wrap up this week with a note that I got from Amaya’s teacher, Mrs. Boomer:

“I wanted to let you know that today your BEAUTIFUL daughter shared a piece of her writing with the class about Chanukkah.  She has been working on this piece for 2 days and asked if she could read it to the class.  Not only did she write it and read it but, she explained the holiday to her classmates in a wonderful way so that they all could understand.  Many of her classmates knew a bit about the holiday because they remember you coming in to show, share and explain in Kindergarten. They were so excited because they remembered.  Does Amaya have a dreidel and/or menorah that she could bring in and show sometime?  We’d love it! You should be very proud of Amaya for her work today!”

I am so proud of Amaya and love that her classmates remember my visit in Kindergarten.    I can’t visit this year but my plan is to send in little mesh bags with gelt, dreidels and instructions on how to play the game. I’ll also send in an electric menorah so the kids’ can show how we light the candles. The boys’ teacher, Mrs. Bates, connected with Mrs. Boomer and are both interested in this lesson for their class – led by Steven, Sammy and Amaya.

I don’t have Amaya’s writing but this was something she wrote last weekend.

“Chanukah is a Jewish holiday. I am Jewish. On Chanukah you eat latkes. I love latkes. You light a menorah. Chocolate coins called gelt are delicious and spinning dreidels is fun. Presents is too. I love Chanukah.”

That’s it for this week! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

*Blog title by Sammy

I had work travel last week for, I think, the first time since March 2020. And I have work travel this coming week, too. It’s really starting to feel more like the before-times. I put off telling the kids about my trip but they were actually great about it. Maybe now that they’re back in school it’s easier for them when I leave, compared to this summer when they were used to us being in the same place nearly all the time.

Amaya started off the week with a “bang braid”. Our compromise was that it was covering the side of her face, not straight down the front of her face like she originally wanted. Good compromise.

With the time change, it’s much brighter when we go to the bus stop, and so pretty this time of year. Snow is coming, though. I think the kids are looking forward to it, so at least someone is.

A (fortunately) rare occurrence, but Amaya had homework this week. She had to write about ways she was respectful. Her list included:

1. Helping Milan
2. Playing with Harper (I think she said that Harper didn’t have anyone to play with that day)
3. Raise my hand to speak
4. Listen to Miss Boomer
5. Saying Thank you

Gotta love the little hearts over her i’s. <3

Amaya also had her 2nd week of gymnastics. She left school with her friend Claire and Claire’s mom dropped her off after class. This week it was bars and beam.

I left for NY on Wednesday morning and Sophia helped us hold down the fort. Off they went to swim on Wednesday afternoon!

Loved getting bus stop photos from Sophia! (So helpful that she can come mornings I travel so Jason can still get to work on time.)

Steven’s killing it with his patch. A totally seamless transition for our boy. In fact, on Saturday he wore the patch for 6 hours! Even though he only needs to wear it for 2 hours, the extra time is helpful so we’ll roll with it if he does.

Fall Friday at the bus stop!

And some pictures of the boys at school this week. It looks like the boys have such a fun, engaging classroom!

Saturday was a BIG day for the Cline Kids – COVID vaccine day!! Steven, Sammy and Amaya had their first dose of the COVID vaccine as part of a school district vaccine clinic. They all did great! Sammy, who gets the most nervous, sat on Jason’s lap with his head buried in Jason’s shoulder and was a total rock star. So proud of these kids and so happy that they’re on their way to protection, protecting others, and much lower risk of disruptive quarantines.

Amaya is writing a book about Chanukah and I’m so tickled by how she spelled “Jewish” as “Joowish”. There has also been a lot of debate over how to spell Chanukah. For the record – despite the Cline Kids’ insistence on a leading “C” and, perhaps, a good argument for it – there’s no one right way. Chanukah & Hanukkah (and some other variations) all work!

The kids, for the first time, played a game of Monopoly on their own. Amaya ended up dividing her money up between her brothers and the boys played to the (long) finish. It was so cute to watch and it made me really appreciate the value they get out of same-age siblings because they’re truly on a level playing field when they play games together. Sure, they all have their individual strengths and games they win more often than others, but developmentally they’re equal competitors.

Amaya and her Daddy

It was a quiet, snowy day here. The kids had Hebrew school in the morning where they focused on Hanukkah and even made their own beeswax candles.

At Amaya’s request, we had pancakes for lunch.

The kids and I played Ticket to Ride. Sammy was the “kid winner” – his 4th time. He seems disorganized with his cards but has a great strategy.

Chess with Daddy

And Amaya spent some time making squishies. She had the idea to use toothpicks for finer elements of painting and it worked really well.

That’s all for us! Have a great week!

With daylight savings upon us, this was our last week of heading to bus stop as the sun was rising. We saw some beautiful skies this week.

I still love seeing the kids get on that school bus. Last year feels almost like a dream! First grade in our house, working and schooling from NY and FL. What a wild experience. Now that we’re two months into the school year, I’m getting used to the quiet house and, for part of the day when I work from home, Sophia is here for a bit of company when I come out for air.

And I always have Sally as a companion. <3

Daddy’s shoulders are a fun place to hang out!

The kids didn’t have school on Tuesday while the teachers had professional development (Election Day) and they had a great day at home. Even when the day started with the cleaning the playroom. With Hanukkah and birthdays coming, it’s time to clear out the old to make room for the new. There’s a ways to go but they did a great job focusing and really cleared out a lot from their cubbies.

For a good part of the week (Sunday night through mid-day Wednesday) we had a boil water advisory due to a water main break. It gave the kids a chance to have sushi for dinner on Monday and on Tuesday, for lunch, the kids went to The Early Bird with Sophia.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Jason and I love getting texts from the kids. It’s just so cute. On Tuesday, Jason and I both got texts from Steven about his rubix cube. He told us later that he loved his “joke” about finishing the rubix cube in the distant future. 🙂

Tuesday was a big day for Amaya – she started gymnastics! Another mom I’m friends with has her daughters signed up and offered to do drop off and drive home for Amaya. (This particular studio is a little frustrating bc we have to re-register and get our spot every month, but they require masks which I prefer and it’s nice that there’s a friend there with Amaya.)

Ready to go! She even took off her chokers to follow the no-jewelry rule.

Laura (mom friend) send videos of Amaya. She dove right in, which was no surprise to any of us.

Steven, Sammy and Amaya made up a “principal” game. They pretend that one of them did something wrong, one of them was wronged and one is the principal. The one in “trouble” has to convince the principal that it was an accident. Whoever did something wrong in the game gets to create the scenario. The one that was wronged has the convince the principal it was intentional. Inevitably, the principal in the game uses cameras in the school to find out the truth. It’s pretty fun to listen to.

Here, Steven is the principal. Amaya (allegedly) used her super strength to knock down trees on top of Sammy.

I thought this was a cool drawing Amaya did of the bones in her hand.

SSA can take out two books from the library each week. (“Now that we’re in 2nd grade we can take out 2 books. In kindergarten we could only borrow one book.”) Steven borrowed a Star Wars cookbook and, for dinner on Thursday, Sophia made tie fighters from chicken sausage and breadsticks. They were a huge hit.

Sweet Bobes and Sweet Sal

Amaya’s class filled the compliment jar and their teacher let them have a pajama day on Friday. Amaya was able to wear her brand new flying squirrel pajamas. Now, with Sammy, we have the two cutest flying squirrels ever. Amaya reported they needed 16 stars in the jar to get a class treat and Mrs. Boomer let me know they get a star if she, or another teacher, compliments the WHOLE class for working quietly, walking down the hall together quietly, etc.

And here are some pictures of Steven and Sammy from the week at school. In the first picture, Sammy is showing the class rocks that he brought in from his Nat Geo rock collection. (A gift last year from Penni!) Later in the week, Steven showed some shells to his class.

At school on Friday, Sammy got a “Be More” Buck for helping to clean up in another classroom! Next week he can turn it in for a chance to win a prize in a drawing. We’re very proud of him!

And Amaya got this eraser from Mrs. Boomer from helping a classmate clean something up. We are also very proud of Amaya!

On Saturday, Grandma Sunshine and Aunt Annette came to spend the day. We made paper airplanes, played lots of games, went out to eat and watched Sparty football together.

Saturday night, for fun, the kids had a fort sleepover in their room. It was pretty successful and not horribly messy to clean up, either.

This morning, instead of regular Hebrew school, there was a family program that we attended. It started with a kid-appropriate discussion on food insecurity followed by an activity packing sandwiches and snack bags. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Amaya borrowed a cookbook from the Thornton Creek library and wanted to make rainbow mini pies – so we did. She is getting more and more independent in the kitchen.

The finished product!

Jason and the kids got in some touch football today. They are so cute strategizing.

Last minute, early evening, the kids and I popped over to the TC playground to meet up with some friends. It was a beautiful day – maybe the last warm day of the season – and it was a great way to wrap up the weekend.

I’ll leave you with a video of Amaya speaking in a NY accent. <3

Have a great week!