Monday morning was another slow one in the Cline household so, for a 2nd Monday in a row, I drove these kids to school. If I don’t have an 8:30am meeting, I can get home in time to finish getting ready in time for a 9am start and the slower morning for the kids is definitely a welcome treat.

Amaya made this art at school. “I am pretty. I am kind. I am flexible. I am caring. I am loving.” All true!

The after school art program needed a parent volunteer so Sophia stepped up on Tuesday. Sammy had forgotten his freezer pack in his classroom so Sammy and Sophia went back to get it, which gave him a chance to show her his class’ mealworms.

Art class. 🙂

Steven’s art

Sammy’s art

Amaya’s art

This week the kids have student-led conferences. They bring home work from school and walk us through the materials. We will get to the bulk of it this coming week during spring break but Steven and Sammy got a start playing a math game and reading some of their favorite poems.

Really love this boy with his top knot. <3

Wednesday wrapped up the final zoom storytime for Thornton Creek’s March is Reading month. It’s such a fun way to engage the kids.

Amaya’s class was featured on TC’s twitter this week. Mealworms, butterflies… lots of fun opportunities to engage with nature in their classes.

The kids had half days of school on Thursday and Friday so the boy’s friend Brady rode home on the bus with them for an afternoon playdate. They had so much fun and Brady is a sweet, kind boy. They had pizza, played in the basement, played video games and wrestled outside.

Amaya and Sophia painted faces while the boy were busy.

Gymnastics time! The boys have just one more class before they take their baseball break. I haven’t heard about a start date for baseball yet so think they could have signed up for April, too, but I’ll be happy to have them home at the house while Sophia takes Amaya to gymnastics.

Tired girl after a busy day.

Friday was PJ day for the kids’ half day at school – with Encanto and popcorn on the agenda! This pictures sums up the three kids perfectly, in their approach to group photos lol.

Sammy earned a Be More Buck at school. Apparently he did something kind that earned him the buck (doesn’t remember what) and then his name was pulled from a drawing which earned him an extra certificate, his name on the announcements and possibly something else – but he doesn’t know. 🙂

A mom on our block volunteers at the library for Amaya’s class each week. Amaya borrowed a cupcake cookbook from the school library and, while she was taking it out, Mrs. Boomer suggested she bake cupcakes for Mrs. Festa and Nico. So that’s what she did and then hand delivered them to the family.

Jason and I got cupcakes, too, complete with glasses of milk.

Saturday was a nice calm day. Jason played chess with the boys in the morning – and won both games.

Steven and Amaya had make-up swim lessons. Amaya is almost through with level 8 at which point she said she might take a break from swim lessons. She loves to swim but is emphatic about not competing. There’s a swim “club” not to far away but it sounds like she’s ready for just some recreational summer swimming. And Steven is doing so well in level 5.

Sammy held down the fort at home with Jason, and got in some 1:1 time with Sally.

Sammy and Steven had remote control alligators tht they wanted to try in the water which, somehow, ended up with all 3 kids in the bathing suits in our master bathtub. It’s been ages since they piled in the tub together.

A levitating Barbie. Hard to see here, but she was floating vertically and the boys thought it was really cool.

Today Nana came for a visit! Before we headed the the airport we all relaxed at home, which included time for Amaya to finish a project – a wheelchair for her baby Chelsea who has a broken leg.

We picked up Nana at the airport and then, after lunch, Amaya, Steven, Nana and I wen to the Apple store to get Steven’s new iPod which he needed becuase someone (hi! me!) washed it with a load of laundry yesterday. Sadness for my wallet, but I was really proud of how well Steven handled it.

This afternoon, Sammy was a great helper in the kitchen. He really loves working with raw meat – which I appreciate because I don’t love it quite the same way

Nana, Steven, (and Sally) worked on the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle together.

We spent a little bit of time looking through a photo album that Sara made me for my 30th birthday. The kids couln’t get over the photos of Nana, Papa and Savta when they were younger.

I’ll wrap up this week’s blog with a photo of the day Sally and I became family. <3

That’s it for us! The kids are on Spring Break this week and Nana is staying through Tuesday. Hooray!

*Blog title by Amaya

Monday, Monday, Monday. It was a rough entry into daylight savings time for most of us. Sammy slept so late that, I looked at my meeting schedule, and decided I could take the kids to school which gives them an extra 25 min to get ready. It was a good call for all of us.

I promised the boys I’d take them to swim on Monday, while Sophia stayed home to pick up Amaya at Girl Scouts. Steven and Sammy don’t think it’s fair that I regularly take Amaya to her (6:50pm) swim class so I try to take them to their 5:10pm class on days it works out.

Our Bubba remains creative in his reading logs. Now we have “30ish” and “20ish” minutes. 🙂

After swim, I dropped the boys at home and went out for a dinner with work colleagues. As I was wrapping up I got this text from Steven. No question, I hightailed it out of there to get home to these kids. Who wouldn’t, if they could, after a text like this?

Amaya got two more badges at her Monday meeting – the snow adventure badge she earned from her snowshoe scavenger hunt and a cookie badge for this year’s cookie sales.

After school art is still going strong. I love seeing how the kids interpret the same project in their own ways.

Steven

Sammy

Amaya

A little bit of sweet Sal on Wednesday afternoon.

Post-swim Amaya, wrapping up her wet hair and excited to be one of the last kids at the place.

Wednesday was a weird one! Sammy said he wasn’t feeling well before school – his stomach hurt. He ate some breakfast, took some tylenol and got on the bus with my promise that I’d come and get him if he didn’t start to feel better. Sure enough, around 10am I got a call that Sammy was in the office and he felt sick, but didn’t have a fever. As promised, I left the office and picked him up.

This did not look like the face of a sick guy! In fact, after about an hour at home, he started getting bored and asked to go back to school. Sounded good to me! The school called again at 3pm because he was back in the office – still no fever but didn’t feel well. We spoke on the phone and he said he’d just wait until 3:45pm and come home on the bus.

Well, he came home on the bus, went to sleep and, by late evening, did have a fever!

Sick, sleepy Sammy with a fast-passing viral fever. (And a precautionary puke bucket handy in the bed.)

Meanwhile, Amaya and Steven got busy making leprechaun traps for St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t know when this became a thing but it’s definitely big now.

Amaya invited “Lepy” the Leprechaun to visit and tried to think of all sorts of foods he’d like. She sorted them in health order from green to red, the same way her Daddy organized the pantry.

Steven, on the other hand, built a legit trap for the poor green guy.

Sophia: What are you trying to do with your trap?

Steven: Kill a Leprechaun.

Sophia: What do you want to find in the trap in the morning?

Steven: A dead Leprechaun. (Duh.)

Sammy was home on Thursday, but these two were ready in green for school. (But sad that they didn’t have any live Leprechauns – or dead – caught in their traps.)

Amaya left this note, hoping Lepy would return.

Sammy’s fever was down by morning and this kid lived his best sick day life. He stayed in bed all day watching videos on his iPod along with 3 or 4 Star Wars movies throughout the day.

March is Reading Month has unlocked our readers! The goal of reading at least 20 minutes really pushed the kids into picking up books and, now, they don’t want to put them down – especially Steven.

Friday was “wear a shirt/hat with words” day at school. Steven made a word of his own with his Cheerios. ❤️

A couple of pictures from school this week.

We also got the kids’ class pictures. It just hit me that their alpha order is backwards birth order – which doesn’t matter but it’s the opposite way I always take their pictures. 🤷‍♀️

I’m realizing that they talk about most of the boys in their class. It seems like a really nice group of kids. Steven and Alex had some conflict at the beginning of the year but it sounds like that’s totally resolved itself.

Milan Pierce is Amaya’s BFF but she’s also close with Sara and really likes Maia, Hannah and Stella.

With dinner on Friday, Sophia served kumquats. I’ve never had one and it was quite the adventure for the kids. Sammy thought they were too sour. Steven flat out didn’t like them. Amaya liked showing how she could eat them with 0 reaction.

After dinner, Sophia took the kids to a playground. I love, love, love that it’s playground weather again.

Can you even handle this cat’s cuteness? She sure loves her people.

On Saturday, Grandma Sunshine and Aunt Annette came to visit. There was a re-watch of the Sparty ground one tournament game, board games, and Kiwi Co kit and lots of reading books on Epic. Lots and lots of reading books. (In fact, Amaya and Sammy both read for 2+ hours and Steven read for over 3 hours on Saturday.)

Five dollars for everyone, from Grandma. 🙂

Steven took a picture with Grandma in front of her door and wanted to recreate it in front of our door.

Sammy, cleaning up, and coming in for the bubble attack on his poor defenseless Mama.

The kids even passed up on bedtime shows on Saturday night to keep reading their books on Epic. And wanted to read at breakfast this morning! There’s a gamification element to it which is doing a great job triggering the reward centers of their brains. 🙂

Today, after Hebrew school, the kids geared up for a visit from May May, Taco and Eden. Those girls are getting so big! Five years old and three next week! Time is just flying by.

Steven and Sammy had some epic battles while they waited for Megan to arrive.

Enjoying the gorgeous day

Sammy and Taco in a bubble battle

Turtle Taco and Turtle Steven

Eded was a fierce air hockey competitor

Steven, Sammy and Amaya didn’t want to let May May go!

And that’s it for us! We had a taco dinner, got in more reading time, and watched a bunch of baseketball.

Have a great week!

It’s after 2:30pm on Sunday and I’m just getting this started which is really poor planning on my party. After all these years, I trust my routine and my routine does not love getting to the blog on Sunday afternoons. My routine likes as little to do as possible on Sunday afternoons. 🙂

This was week two of “March is Reading Month” at Thornton Creek. The kids had to turn in reading logs and also a completed form showing 4 books read. Sammy impressed me with his ability to complete the assignment while doing the absolutely minimum work possible.

“4x Gerald and Piggie books” with lines to the rest of the rows.

On Monday morning, Jason took Steven to an eye doctor appointment. She was really happy with his progress patching. He had consistent 20/25 corrected and a few letters at 20/20. He has to continue patching through the month and then he is D-O-N-E.

While the boys were at swimming on Monday afternoon and I finished up a call, Amaya got busy painting her face and then did her reading. Sally got comfy too.

Steven and Sammy read in the car on the way to and from swim. Car reading still isn’t something I can do.

Bedtimes story book with Mr. Connolly.

March 8th was a teacher professional development day so Amaya convinced me that the kids should build forts on Monday night. It was a pretty easy “yes”.

Lego and outside time on Tuesday!

Amaya was even able to play outside in her PJs.

The kids love when they get the whole day with Sophia

On Tuesday evening I flew to NY and was able to stay at Nana and Papa’s. I can’t think of the last time I did that without kids! It was an awesome mid-week treat.

Back at home, the kids played fire fighters rescuing animals. So glad it’s getting warmer!

Meanwhile, I had fried chicken with the grownups at Sara and Dave’s.

Auntie & Dod Shuki <3

Gotta say goodnight to my loves. Savta, too.

March is the boys’ last month in gymnastics for a while because baseball starts sometime in April. This has been really great for them this winter. Fantastic strength, coordination and balance training. There’s an actual Ninja gym not to far away that I’d love to get them into for fall. Classes book fast.

On Thursday the boys’ teacher, Mrs. Bates, read the bedtime story book.

Friday morning I was back at it, watching the kids traipse through the snow to the bus stop.

At school, it was “bring a blanket” day and the kids made forts for reading time.

Friday night “Make Your Own Pizza” night! Steven uses mayo instead of sauce. Digest that in your own way.

Sammy and Amaya worked on their balancing, while Steven took role of photographer.

Saturday morning, Jason and Amaya went shopping for ingredients for a cup cake recipe in a library book she borrowed. She did a great job following the directions with limited support.

Penni came by to pick up Girl Scout cookies. We definitely need to find opportunities to get together more often.

The kids had play dates in the afternoon – Jack for the boys and Sara for Amaya. It was a wonderfully loud few hours at the house.

Sammy couldn’t wait for Jack to arrive.

On Sunday morning, the kids had a rescheduled birthday party at an art studio. It was for Jack’s younger sister Nora, who’s in 1st grade and was on the boys’ baseball team last year.

Amaya’s art

Steven’s art

Sammy’s art

After Nora’s party, I dropped Amaya and Steven at home and took Sammy to another party at his friend Ben’s house. Ben invited 5 boys over for a small birthday party that included a video truck rental. He’s just getting accustomed to “drop off” parties (remember, they missed almost a year and a half of this stuff) but had a great time. I had to drag him away.

Steven, relaxing with Sally

Now Amaya and I are watching a baking show while the Cline men watch the Selection Show. That’s it for us! Have a great week!

*Blog title by Amaya

This was a pretty quiet week. Tuesday kicked off “March is Reading Month” at school which is both a lot of fun for the kids and a bit of added stress with the extra activities and responsibilities. If it’s taught me anything in our first week, though, it’s that the kids are interested in reading independently if the time is set aside. I think I’ve mentioned before that they’re all very good readers, it’s just not an activity they choose with all of the other options around them. So that will be something to think about when the month ends.

I’m not quite sure why Amaya made this but it’s super sweet. “D: I love you sooooooo much, Daddy.” “M: Thank you for signing me up for girl scouts.” (Maybe more independent reading will help with spelling. 🙂 )

Amaya had a rough day on Monday. In the end, she decided it would be better to stay home from swim and take it easy and, like that, her day turned. Instead of swim, she took her chromebook and did math exercises online. This child loves math.

Deep discussions for Steven, Daddy and Sally

Something I love about March Reading Month at Thornton Creek are the zoom bedtime stories with teachers. I think they started this last year when so many kids were virtual but kept it up this year, as well. Each night, a different teacher joins the zoom to read two story books. The kids absolutely love it. They’re also really independent getting it set up. They know where to go in Schoology and how to access the zoom.

Steven left his jacket on the school playground on Wednesday. Since it was a warmer day, Sophia took the kids to play after dinner so they could get it. Lots of energy to burn off and a nice sign of warmer weather to come.

It wasn’t until the kids were getting on the bus in the morning that I noticed Sammy was in shorts. I made him put pants in his backpack “just in case” but he wore these shorts all day – with his snow boots. ❤

Stills from slowmo videos of the kids jumping over puddles. Eight truly is great.

Amaya was scared at bedtime on Wednesday so she slept in our master. Sally was right there to say hello and keep her company. It’s still amazing to think about her family-loving transformation.

Friday was another awesome weather day so, after school, Sophia took the kids to one of their favorite playgrounds over by Maybury Farm. These pictures make me so, so happy.

Here are some pictures of the boys at school this week.

Sally, curled up on Jason on Friday evening. Best cat.

She had an annual vet appointment on Friday. We need to sedate her ahead of time but it’s made a huge difference getting her into her carrier and allowing the vet to do their exam, take blood, etc. She’s a feisty girl. She seems fine neurologically and doesn’t seem to be in any pain, which was a concern because her balance isn’t what it used to be, but it sounds like that’s likely just a symptom of aging. She’s dropped from 7lb 11oz to 6lb 1oz and has a heart murmur so they’re sending out some blood work to see if she has a thyroid issue – which is treatable with medicine. (Though good luck getting medicine in this cat.) I should have the results next week. If it’s not her thyroid, they might want her to come back in to be sure it’s not anything else.

On Saturday, Amaya had a 2.5 hour girl scout event at Northville High School put on by the NHS Robotics club.

This is how it was promoted: “Girl Scout STEM Workshop: Calling all Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts for the 2022 Girl Scout STEM Workshop hosted by the Northville High School robotics team, Robostangs Team 548.  Girl Scouts will work through the 3 robotics badges along with different crafts and activities. They will be learning how to build, program, and showcase a robot.”

Most of Amaya’s troop signed up for the event.

Before I headed out, I got a pic of the girl scouts and Robostangs. It was pretty cool to see all of these high school students ready to spend their day with K- 3 age kids. They were really engaged.

When I arrived to pick her up, Amaya was glued to the side of her “mentor” for the day. Girl had a crush and she let it be known. She’s still talking about him, 24 hours later.

Some of Amaya’s troop, after the event.

“My robot holds and gives you the stuff you need for gymnastics.”

If you ask Amaya her name, she’ll often say, “Amaya in cursive with a heart”. 🙂

Badges for designing, programming and showcasing a robot. (She’s also waiting on her badge for the snowshoe trail event and for her cookie sales.)

Showing off her new badges. She did a big reveal for Steven.

The boys had fun of their own yesterday. Steven made a mochi farm. Mochis are, it seems, the big trend in the boys’ class right now. They’re little squishy toys, not the Japanese food.

It was gorgeous outside so we sent the boys out around 1:30pm. They grumbled until they realized how nice it was and then pretty much stayed outside until we went for dinner at 5pm. Amaya joined them as soon as she got home at 4pm. (Steven was bummed we aren’t tracking outdoor time this year, after wracking up that many hours.)

Sally and Daddy held down the fort inside. That’s one comfortable cat.

Jason didn’t feel great but Sammy really wanted breakfast for dinner so the kids and I hit up a diner that delivered.

Amaya, talking about her crush.

Steven ordered fried shrimp and asked me to take pictures of these conjoined shrimp that looked like octopus.

We didn’t get in our reading on Friday and the kids wanted to try to double up last night so they read in bed for a while before going to sleep. I loved it, loved it, loved it. They need flashlights so they can read in the morning if they want to, before their siblings are awake.

At Hebrew School today, the kids got canvases with their Hebrew names and were able to paint them. Amaya’s is spelled wrong which is my fault going back to an email to Jason in July of 2014. I’m going to wait a while to tell Amaya. 🙂 The boys haven’t finished painting yet so they don’t want me to share theirs with anyone yet.

The boys had a make-up swim lesson today. Amaya joined us because Jason was at the office.

A fun part of Level 5 are piggy back rides on the instructor’s back at the end of the lesson.

Occupied by Minecraft.

The kids and I played a game of Sorry this afternoon. It takes me right back to playing with Poppy Steven when I was a kid.

Steven and I made some R2-D2 treats from a school cookbook. Four ingredient simple – white chocolate chips, kit kat bars, crushed peanuts and bananas.

Steven got his reading time in this afternoon.

Jason went out to watch the Sparty game so, while dinner was cooking, Steven, Sammy and Amaya played a “who can stay in the library the longest” game. It ended in a tie but Amaya and Sammy got their reading in and Steven did some work on a lego set.

Sally filled Jason’s vacant seat. 🙂

Finally – look who’s back! Season two of Star Trek: Picard premiered this week. I’m a happy lady.

That’s all for us! Have a great week!