Week two of school! Amaya says it’s boring and she doesn’t like it but she still gets dressed and gets on that bus which makes me comfortable that her dislike is mostly superficial. The boys seem to enjoy being at school. At least they haven’t said otherwise.
I put a little pink in Amaya’s hair on Sunday night and she wanted a side pony to show it off.
Steven had an orthotics appointment on Monday morning and wasn’t getting on the bus which made Amaya a bit sad and jealous. Steven took these pictures of us hugging it out before the bus came. <3
Bye Sammy! Bye Amaya!
Mommy / Steven time!
The highlight of my morning was dropping Steven at school. I got to walk him to his classroom (and had to fight the urge to peek in and see Sammy because I knew it would just cause distraction and chaos).
Bedtime story books – somehow the kids convinced me to spend 45 minutes reading them a My Little Pony graphic novel. Time well spent.
On Tuesday morning Amaya found a centipede outside and ran to get a paper so she could pick it up and carry it around. Just like her cousin Charlie! (Only Charlie would carry it in her hand.)
Somehow standing on the manhole cover is a morning thrill. (And a regular morning fight between the kids.)
More bugs on Wednesday. This time we saw a cicada, too, that I thought was dead until I kicked at it and we all ran screaming lol.
Look at these waves, courtesy of the humidity. I love it. She’ll do beach waves well when she’s older, if she wants to.
Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I are back at dance! It’s a little more hectic this year because it’s a quick turnaround from the bus to dance class but we’re figuring out a good process. This year, like last year, Amaya and Sammy are taking jazz and tap and Steven is taking jazz. They all expressed interest in ballet, too, but there’s a lot of change right now and one night of dance class feels like enough, at least for now.
The zipper on Sammy’s new backpack broke (1-star amazon review, thank you very much) and he picked out a new backpack with flip sequins. He loves it and Amaya and Steven are jealous enough that I had to tell them that breaking their backpacks on purpose is a surefire way not to get their own sequin flip backpack.
Yet another bug for Amaya. Though they seem to escape her paper traps pretty easily.
Artwork came home with the boys on Friday.
Sammy drew a picture of himself at the north pole. “See all of the ice, Mommy?” On the left is a frozen tree. All of the blue is ice. The person is Sammy in a cool hat. (Sammy says that Steven drew his hat.)
Steven drew a picture of the two of us on the helicopter ride at Legoland. It’s a really nice representation of the helicopters that went up and down and around.
We got more pictures from Amaya’s teacher this week.
First up, Mrs. Shuart’s class at lunch.
And free choice time.
Grandma Sunshine came for the night on Friday. I snapped this sweet photo of mommy & son cuddling. (See boys??? Even grown men can cuddle with their mommies.)
Grandma got up with SSA on Saturday morning so both Jason and I could sleep in. I came down to find the kids playing with legos and the new magnet STEM kit from Grandma that arrived this week.
Jason worked with the kids to show how you can close a circuit to create magnetism, just like we do with electric circuits. Such a cool kit!
Lego time.
Amaya asked for beads in her hair.
The kids and I took advantage of a gorgeous afternoon at Maybury Farm. They all insisted on bringing their money with them and, for the first time, used their own money to make purchases. It was so cute to watch them count their quarters. They were so proud to buy something on their own.
Sammy really enjoyed watching the ducks.
Sammy was trying to make fire by rubbing two wood chips together.
Steven said, “The farm even has a sandbox now!” I had to explain that it was always there but I never let them go in it before. Sandboxes are a big mommy thumbs down.
When we left, the kids were insistent on finding toys they could afford with their money. It was slow going based on the prices in the shop but eventually they all found something they wanted. It was really cool to talk about what they could afford and whether or not it was something they really wanted to spend their money on.
Steven: Do a lot of sons and daughters have crushes on their mommies?
Jason eventually rescued me from the sweet boy lying on top of me and I found them both fast asleep a short while later.
It was a great Sunday. Lots and lots of play time.
“Look mommy! Steven is doing a handstand!”
Jason spent a good portion of the day going through our books and had three helpers ready as runners. “Mommy! Do you want to keep this one?” About 90% of the books I chose not to keep ended up in piles for them. I mean, sure, why wouldn’t a 5 year old want to keep a book on energy & economics? (And, to be clear, before they kept a book they were sure to ask what it’s about.)
The JCC had the Shofar Factor Festival today so we hit it up this afternoon. Steven’s highlight was a trackless train ride. Even after his ride he watched for a long time, waving to the conductor each time the train came around.
Amaya gave this bungee jumping activity a chance. The boys stepped up but were too nervous to ultimately go for it. Amaya was anxious at first but got comfortable once she learned to control the height of her jumps.
While Amaya and I waited in line for lunch, the boys spent about 20 minutes talking to bee keepers. Sammy even convinced me to buy some of their honey. Later in the day I went over to thank them for being so attentive to the boys and they said that my sons are “cute, smart and well-behaved – the perfect combination.” Proud mom moment for sure.
Photo of the boys. Credit: Amaya
Photo of bees and honey. Credit: Steven
Crafts to make Rosh Hashanah cards and tzedakah boxes.
First order of business when we got home was diving into the fresh new honey.
Steven and Daddy watched the Lions.
We wrapped it up with a family dinner and I had the best helper prepare. Sammy has always loved to be a kitchen helper and he’s so excited to graduate to real work like slicing cucumbers. What a sweet boy. <3
That’s it for us! Have a great week!