Oh, this week. I don’t think I realized how much I rely on routine until routine falls by the wayside.
Monday started with a forecast for a doozy of a snow storm. Jason and I decided to keep the kids home rather than risk driving them home from school in the thick of it which turned out to be a good choice. By 11:30am even my office was cleared out for the day which is a first for most of the people I work with.
I pulled over on our street to take this photo on my way home, Happy Meals in hand.
I think this short little video of Steven is particularly adorable. He was eating and singing/dancing along to one of his favorite My Little Pony songs on Pandora. <3
I was working from home for the afternoon but found times to pop down and see everyone – even dance with them to my favorite My Little Pony song while they watched the MLP movie. (Ponies, ponies all the time in our house. And legos.)
It was a perfect snow day. Light and fluffy and just right for sledding. While I shoveled, Steven, Sammy and Amaya had one of their best days out in the snow.
Such a great sledding hill. They really got the hang of it after a few runs.
Joyfully throwing snow at her poor mother. 🙂
Steven was excited to help me out with the shoveling. Sweet boy.
Steven and FaceTime lol. Tonight I checked to see if he was ready to go to bed and he said, “I can’t go to bed yet. I still haven’t talked to Grandma Sunshine or Aunt Ouize.” Then he called me back 2 minutes later and said, “Grandma Sunshine and Aunt Ouize weren’t available so I guess you can put me to bed now.”
Tuesday was a normal day! Yay! Amaya had swim and took a lesson. The boys, unfortunately, haven’t had swim for 3 or 4 weeks because of snow and illness.
Wednesday was day one of the polar vortex. The real feel was in the minus 30’s. (Which has the odd effect of making 5 degrees feel warm.) Madison couldn’t make it to work that day so Jason and I tag teamed. He was home with the kids in the morning and I got home a little after noon to take 2nd shift. Claudia was at our house cleaning so we spent a bunch of time upstairs trying to stay out of her way. Fortunately, as I tried to work, there were birthday presents from Uncle Austin that had just arrived and it was great timing to keep SSA busy. Steven got legos. Amaya got a Twilight Sparkle hoodie. Sammy got a new microphone. A loud microphone lol.
Steven put this lego set together entirely by himself. He’ll ask me for help with the stickers and the wheel spokes but he can just sit down and follow the directions straight to the end. The age 5- 12 lego sets are perfect for him right now.
At one point, Amaya asked me if she could put on my make-up. I said yes, but only blush and eye shadow. She and Sammy ran to my bathroom before I could even finish my sentence.
A few minutes later she came by to show my her work in progress telling me that she wasn’t done yet.
The finished product lololol. It’s amazing what a five year old can do with eye shadow, blush and two make up brushes.
The boys made similarly interesting creations. It was the Cline Clowns around here for a short while. 🙂
More legos. It’s as much fun to see them create from scratch as it is to watch them follow a plan.
Thursday was another stay-at-home day but Madison was back in action. Amaya was excited to see that I slept in the same pants she picked out to wear for the day. This was the best I could do for a photo without forcing myself too more than I wanted to.
Little Mama was rocking an 80’s vibe with the hair and cropped sweat shirt.
Games all morning!
I wonder if Sammy needs more sensory input than we realize. He’s often lying off the ottoman like this. He says it’s comfortable.
It warmed up enough to get out of the house and go to dance class! Yay! Tap had 3 of 5 kids show and their jazz class was pretty full. Michiganders are hearty.
Hat hair, don’t care.
I love this picture of Steven watching Sammy and Amaya.
Hmmmm. Maybe Sammy even likes this sensory input while he’s asleep. 😉
Friday was back to school and work and routine. Whoo hoo! After school, Madison put Amaya’s hair in tight braids for a fancy hairdo at the next day’s Daddy/Daughter dance. Here, Amaya had been crying about something that wasn’t actually a problem and Madison was helping her problem solve. <3
FunnyFaceTime with Daddy
I got some new art from Steven this week. The first is a rainbow with Princess Celestia on one side (in yellow) and Princess Luna on the other. There’s the sun and the moon and, my favorite part, a waffle and a pancake.
“From Steven. To Joanna. I love you Mommy.” Nana helped him with the spelling via FaceTime.
On Saturday, Jason gave the kids a big box of ball cards that he’s been saving up – 2014 Rookies, just like them!
Steven got to work on some model emergency vehicles that he received for Hanukkah.
Playing around, trying to keep Daddy from going to The Container Store lol. Honestly, if Jason has reason to go to The Container Store, I don’t think anything will stop him from his mecca. 🙂
The first Daddy/Daughter dance! Amaya has been talking about this for weeks. <3 <3 <3
She’s wearing the same dress she wore when she was Jason’s +1 for a wedding back in June, only a size up. Same for her shoes. This is Amaya’s official “fancy outfit”.
The hair!
These two…
This weekend and back in June. Such a special bond.
While Amaya and Jason were off Daddying, Daughtering and Dancing, Steven and Sammy got to work on new legos – compliments of birthday money from Savta. (Side note: Amaya and I had a philosophical conversation about the nature of this gift. Amaya confidently asserted – after I made a comment about her “legos from Savta” – that the gift is the money she received, not the legos. I protested at first but she and Jason convinced me otherwise.)
This set is rated 6- 12 and Steven did a very nice job managing it mostly on his own. It’s 323 pieces and took him a looooong time. Sammy worked on it early on and then asked me to do the rest – which I was happy to help with once I was sure he really didn’t want to do it.
When Amaya got home, she dove right into her new set purchased with birthday money from Savta.
Last night Nana read a book to Steven! He held it up to her and she read it page, by page. Such a clever idea!
We started today painting.
Sammy painted a playground.
Steven painted a farm.
Amaya painted a heart.
While Amaya was coloring in a picture of Mulan, Steven decided he wanted to draw a “champion”. I did some googling with him to figure out what he meant and we landed on this character from the movie.
While Jason was at work, the kids convinced me to take them out for sushi and then for frozen yogurt (ice cream).
The sushi place doesn’t have kids menus so I always bring some pencils and paper with me.
I’m so proud of how Sammy wrote here! Even just 6 weeks ago he wasn’t this proficient.
Steven will eat sushi now! Amaya, on the other hand, had a bad run-in with the seaweed and is nervous to heat her rolls.
Fro yo! It was in the high 40s and the place was packed. Practically balmy compared to early in the week.
We wrapped up the afternoon jumping in puddles left by the melting snow. There were some good ones! And it was a huge attire change from earlier in the week when we were playing in the snow.
We had a bit of a rough end to the day. Sammy and Amaya were slow coming down to dinner. When they came downstairs, it looked like their hair was wet but, after discussion, they eventually disclosed that they put “soap” in their hair. The soap turned out to be most of the shampoo, conditioner and body wash in our master shower. Later in the evening Sammy also seems to have gotten to my razor and cut his hand and leg. He was beside himself. That, too, took a while to disclose which I can understand.
While all of this was going on, Steven showed up in his EMT uniform. Not necessarily the right time, but it was a sweet thought.
Sammy’s okay and the cuts aren’t terrible but he was in an emotionally rough place at bedtime. He and Jason had a long, supportive talk about everything that happened and I promised him I’d take him to bed with me when I go to sleep tonight. I’ll give my Bubba some extra love. <3
Oh, yeah. Poor Strawberry the 2nd died this week. He’d been with us since late summer. He was a good fish. The kids and Madison had a funeral and everyone said their goodbyes. They’re already talking about Strawberry the 3rd but I think it’s time for a break from fish in The Land of Cheltenham.
Have a great week! Steven and I are off to San Diego and Legoland this week. We can’t wait!