On Monday, Madison had a “make your own pizza” night with the kids. Sammy has been going through a phase of refusing to eat dinner and Madison had the good idea of letting him participate in the cooking. The week was up and down with Sammy’s meals. There were one or two nights this week when Sammy went to bed without eating at all. I’m hoping we turned a corner but tomorrow will tell. Fingers crossed.

This is Sammy’s fit on Tuesday morning because I touched his shirt and now it was dirty and he couldn’t wear it unless it was washed first.

Amaya, showing off her outfit. Earlier this week Steven commented that, “Amaya has some really nice styles.” <3

My company operates the iCare Foundation and, on Tuesday, we had a charity golf outing to raise money. I played foot golf!! Soccer balls and larger holes on the course. I’ve actually never been out on a golf course before and it was a lot of fun for a great cause.

The weather was crappy and fields were flooded so the kids’ soccer practice was canceled. Instead, they went hunting for puddles to jump in.

Wednesday afternoon was the annual Snack in the Sukkah event at school in honor of Sukkot.

Sammy was excited to get to hold (and shake) the lulav and etrog.

I have tap class on Wednesday nights and getting out of the house is challenging. My mornings often look something like this, too. Amaya, of course, can’t be bothered. 🙂

Kids – your mommy plays with legos!

Steven decided that this tissue box is Morminer’s bed. Tight fit but Morminer seems happy.

Madison wanted to mix things up a bit for lunch on Thursday so she made a deck fort for the kids!

I mentioned that Steven has been resistant to soccer. On Thursday he refused to get into his dance clothes. In fact, when everyone was getting in the car, he took his backpack with all of his stuff and hung it back up in the hallway. I spoke to him about it and he said he really didn’t want to dance. I explained that he’d still have to go with Amaya and Sammy and the only thing to do would be sit and wait, which is pretty boring. But no one would force him to dance. Ultimately, he decided that he didn’t want to do tap anymore because “it’s too loud” but he still wants to do jazz. The teacher was nice and let him participate on Thursday barefoot in his street clothes. We’ll take it week by week for now and see how it plays out.

Sammy looooooves tap. He told us that he did “dig, brush, stomp.” Sounds right to me!

Steven, back in the mix!

The excitement for Friday was a weekend visit from Papa and Uncle Austin. While the kids waited for them to arrive, they did this fun scarecrow craft with Madison.

Sammy, waiting eagerly.

I tend to bring home sushi when we have out of home guests on a Friday night which makes Sammy very, very happy.

Uncle Austin drew some snakes and Amaya wanted to try to copy them. Madison patiently gave her step by step guidance to try to draw them on her own.

Success!!

More help from Uncle Austin.

Uncle Austin was also an excellent story book reader on Friday night.

Saturday was the final game for the Airtime Tweeters and it was our best! Steven, who asked me not to sign him up for soccer again, went onto the field every time he was called in by coach. Sammy made a great block! And Amaya was set up for the chance to score a goal.

Sammy’s block! Keep in mind, every other time he tended goal the opposing team went right by him to score. This was HUGE!!

Post game huddle with the coach.

Wearing his medal, making a quintessential Steven face.

As always, we hit up the playground afterward and the kids roped Uncle Austin and Papa into pushing them on the swings.

Amaya got some real height!

After the game we unlocked our flu shot achievement – kids and mom. Our pediatrician’s office lets parents get them at the same time. It was pretty brutal. I had to hold down three sets of arms to get the job done and there were many, many tears but, afterward, everyone agreed that it didn’t actually hurt. Plus, there were lollipops and stickers as prizes. And, hopefully, no flu.

Nervous, pre-poke face.

We all had lunch at Garage and then added Yogurtpalooza to the list of post-poke treats. It’s perfect for Steven because he can fill his cup with all the toppings, no fro-yo.

Checking out Uncle Austin’s pipe.

This morning Papa was up early and watched Coco with the kids.

This morning, Amaya was SO proud to have put her hair in a bun by herself. She’s been very into doing her own hair lately which has it’s plusses and minuses. 😉

Who likes lemons???

The last time we went to Bricks, the kids went to the bar to ask for lemons. When we arrived, Steven mentioned that and the hostess heard. When our waitress arrived with our drinks she was carrying a whole bunch of lemons for the kids.

This afternoon we went to Maybury farm and took our first trip to their corn maze!

Petting a friendly cow.

Heading to the corn maze in the wagon.

9 acres! We spent about 30 minutes in the maze. We made it through the pig to the pumpkin up through the words to the corn and back own around to the pumpkin and out the pig. We were lucky I took this picture before entering or we’d have been in the maze for a lot longer.

We had a lazy evening at home watching the Giants and wrapped up an awesome weekend with Papa and Uncle A!

Here, Sammy and Daddy are building jewelry together.

The day ended with bedtime stories from Uncle Austin. <3

Before bed, Steven told me, “If my eyes are shut when you come to check on me, that just means I like dreaming. Even if my eyes are shut, you can still kiss me.” Sweet boy.

Have a great week! Amaya and I are off to CA together on Thursday so we certainly hope to have one for the story books.