Monday was a beautiful, beautiful day and we took full advantage of Labor Day with a nice long bike ride around the neighborhood. Down the block is a family with another kindergartner, in Amaya’s class, and the mom joined me for my walk with the kids which was nice just prior to the start of school. She has two older boys and it was helpful to get a little extra perspective.

I’m not a huge fan of all of the segregated communities. I prefer to be able to ride/walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. But one nice thing about where we live is the kids can ride a pretty far distance without having to cross any streets thanks to some well placed courts.

How many Clines does it take to change a lightbulb?

We had some burned out bulbs in this high chandelier so Jason got some scaffolding to help with the job. I had so much fun I want to rent out my lightbulb changing services.

Photo credit: Steven

Sammy shucked his very first ear of corn.

Tastes even better after a little labor.

The rest of Monday was prep for the first day of school. (!!!!) Amaya wanted a curly ponytail so we prepped her hair with fancy braids. Braided braids, in fact!

Steven’s Lego creation

This is what lunch and two snacks looks like. We’re getting into a groove!

Ready to go! For the first week, SSA wore name tags with their names, teacher, grade and dismissal plan. Amaya wasn’t thrilled but survived the four days with her “ugly necklace”.

First day of Kindergarten!! It blows my mind that we’re here.

They walked onto that bus without a concern and now I wait hours and hours to hear about their first day. They’re totally ready but I still worried about the little things. Will they use the bathroom? Will they have enough to drink? Will their teachers be able to see them in a class of 22 kids? (What I don’t worry about at all is Amaya choosing to be in her own class. She’s ALL for it.)

When they grow up-
* Steven wants to be an EMT.
* Sammy wants to be a popcorn seller. (Two years running.)
* Amaya wants to be a princess mermaid queen. (Which Sammy says can’t happen because “mermaids aren’t real and you weren’t born to royalty. 😂)

Silly Steven

Sweet Sammy

And our poised fashionista, Amaya

Waiting for the bus! The timing works out well. It arrives around 8:05am which still leaves me enough time to get to 8:30am meetings. We knew the bus stop was on the corner that you can see peeking through the top left of this photo but weren’t sure of the exact location. We had to hustle over to the bus on day 1 when we saw where it actually stopped but it’s in a great location in front of the house next door.

Bus Driver: Turn around a smile for mom!

Steven, Sammy and Amaya hopped on that bus without missing a beat. It was great that they were able to get some practice the last four weeks of camp. The bus driver was great, too. He has the kindergartners sit right behind him and, since we’re the second stop, SSA are right behind him. Nice and safe!

Here you can see how close our house is to our bus stop.

Passing by their school on my way to work, while the kids were still making their way via the bus.

Jason and I were eagerly awaiting news from Gabby that the kids made it home. The bus was late on day 1 which caused me a touch of anxiety but at 4:15pm, here they came! Thanks to Gabby for catching this moment for us. (The bus driver even made a point to confirm that Gabby is an approved adult picking up the kids each day.)

I couldn’t help stalking the front door via the Nest cam while I was waiting for the kids to get home on their first day.

There they are!

It was difficult to get much info out of the kids. How quickly they resort to shoulder shrugs when describing their days! I heard the most about the lunch process and the bathroom. I’m trying to learn what questions to ask to get more details.

Amaya was the toughest because she told me she didn’t go to kindergarten, she went to 5th grade. She didn’t make any friends because all of the kids are older. And her favorite activity was swimming. That about sums up our girl lol.

Later in the week, Sammy told me, ” It’s way way way different than preschool. They don’t have toys!”

Here’s a picture Amaya’s teacher shared of her class on their first day.

Day 2! I was so glad they were still willing to get on the bus.

Day 3!

Thursday Sammy fell on the playground at recess. He had a rough bedtime, worrying about lying on his stomach and irritating his knee. When we finally got him to settle down he was asleep in 5 minutes. (Overall it was a week of emotional nights and kids who were quick to fall asleep.)

Friday – Day 4!

Some “First Friday” pictures of Amaya. She and her friend Emma are nearly inseparable.

Silly class!

The boys had art class on Friday brought home pictures of turtles they drew. I asked how they did these and they said they watched a video that showed them how to draw the turtles step by step. I’m really impressed, especially with Sammy who doesn’t always have a tremendous amount of focus for artwork!

Steven’s turtle

Sammy’s turtle

Amaya wanted to dress me and, foolishly, I said yes. This outfit followed me to CVS, to my office to drop off food for folks working on a weekend project, to the playground and out for lunch. Yikes. (Photo credit: Amaya)

The kids watching the copier lol.

Amaya posing after dropping off treats for my colleagues.

We all went to the kids’ school so they could have space to drive their car.

Amaya was happy to just scooter and play on the playground.

Back out for sushi!

Amaya and Sammy are obsessed with gum.

This weekend Amaya roped me into making hair tie bracelets – one for her and one for Emma.

She’s looking so old these days! And always posing.

I’m hoping to make the most of nice weather while we have it.

Collaborating with a huuuuuuge stick.

Until someone doesn’t like how they’re collaborating!

We started off the morning with breakfast at McDonalds.

Amaya and Sammy wanted to go swimming. Amaya, in particular, has been worked up over not having swimming at school this year and kept saying, “Can we go swimming since I don’t swim at school?” Honestly, they wore me down pretty easily.

The indoor kiddie pool is zero entry to two feet on the left and then 4″ on the right, starting with a 2″ ledge. It’s still a bit too deep for Amaya to swim much without her puddle jumper but she was having a blast. It took Sammy a while to get comfortable floating around in his puddle jumper but eventually he got the hang of it. In these two pictures Amaya is pulling Sammy though the water. 🙂 He kept saying, “I don’t know how to make myself move!”

Before we left they checked out the big pool, which actually starts off 6″ more shallow than the deep end of the kiddie pool.

While we were off at the pool, Steven played a round of golf and then hit up a playground with Jason.

We’re loving our new couch. The red one has amazing memories but, wow, we have such great space for lounging now. All of us at once!

I wrapped up my day with a game of Chutes & Ladders with Steven. After losing to both Sammy and Amaya earlier in the day I was hoping this was my time to shine but, alas, the Cline kids were 3 for 3 against their mom today.

Hopefully week two is equally successful. Fingers crossed!

Have a great week!