Amaya came home from NY with a cough and was still asleep at breakfast time on Monday morning. I didn’t have any meetings until 9am so I decided to let her sleep in. I bribed the boys (with Hershey kisses) to get on the 8am bus and woke her after the left. She was very surprised to hear that the brothers were already on their way to school!

I was glad to have a mom-friend to text to ask about parent drop-off because we’ve never done that before and I wasn’t sure what the process is for kindergartners. Their pick-up is different than the rest of the school so I thought it might be the same for drop-off. (It’s not.)

As I drove away from the school, I saw the boys getting off the bus! We’re the second stop which means a long morning ride but a short afternoon ride.

Amaya felt well enough after school for me to put some pink in her hair. <3

Story time!

Daddy time!

When your daughter makes you a Princess Tiana necklace you wear it out to the bar.

Sammy loves slime and got a few different slime kits from our Goldstein cousins. On Tuesday night, he and Amaya made some pink metallic slime.

Steven is loving the legos he was gifted.

The kids mentioned to Jason that lots of other kindergartners have scarves and thank goodness for that or we wouldn’t have though to get them scarves! Jason got the kids these awesome kid-sized options that they love.

I adore this picture of Amaya in her scarf and one of her new Star Wars dresses.

On Thursday I had the opportunity to volunteer at Steven and Sammy’s class holiday party. (Which was at the same time as Amaya’s.)

We got these wonderful gifts from the boys.

Both classes had a dreidel game station and I was in charge of overseeing it for Steven and Sammy’s room. I wasn’t sure if it would be popular but we had a full table for the entire party. In fact, a few times I had to ask kids to rotate out so others who were waiting could play. I don’t think the hershey kisses hurt the popularity. One boy said to me, “I know how to spin the dreidel because I practiced with the one you gave me.” [From my visit to the boys’ classroom last week.] What was fun was how quickly the kids learned what the symbols meant. By the end of the party, anytime someone would land on Gimel (you get the whole pot), they’d all yell, “GIMEL!!”

I had a chance to pop over to Amaya’s room before I left and some other moms also took some pictures for me.

Amaya and the ever-loved Abby B. (Amaya just saw this picture and said, ” Write this – Do you know why I love Abby B so much? Because she pushes me on the swings.”)

Musical chairs!

I’ve been sending dreidels to triplet moms around the country and one wanted to return the favor so she sent us chocolate advent calendars. Obviously SSA were thrilled.

Friday was the last day before winter break and it was also pajama day in kindergarten.

Steven was one of 2 kids in his classed picked to read at an all school assembly! That’s in front of more than 500 kids! He’s been practicing with his teacher for a week or two and was really excited. I didn’t get to hear much about it but he said that it was great and he read everything he was supposed to. Also that there are new speakers in the gym and he hopes everyone in the back could hear him. I’m so proud.

Here are his lines. Kiera is the other girl from his class who read. The other two kindergarten classes also had two readers apiece. (Plus Amaya who told us that she also read on stage lol.)

Amaya got a staying-in-bed prize on Saturday morning and picked press-on nails – because of course she did. It was very disconcerting to see.

Sammy’s prize was a rainbow play-doh maker.

Sammy and his friend Owen have a race after winter break which led to a lot of strength training and conditioning this weekend. According to Sammy, “Owen has been training for FOUR years. And one time he kicked down a tree. That’s how strong Owen is. I need to be able to kick down a tree to beat Owen.” So there were laps and more laps and even adventures on the treadmill for all 3 kids.

Saturday night we had our second annual trip to drive through the lights at the Wayne County Light Festival. SSA had their own cameras to use to record what they saw and I think they had even more fun this year. I hope it’s something they’re excited to do for a while to come.

Today is the first night of Hanukkah and Steven’s first activity of the day (after he and Sammy and Amaya let me sleep until eight) was to organize the gifts by person. He wanted to organize by wrapping paper style but Amaya had other ideas and this was a reasonable compromise.

More training. 🙂

This afternoon we went to a Chanukah Wonderland party in West Bloomfield put on by a local Chabad. When we got there one of the kids said, “All of these people celebrate Hanukkah?!?!” I was so glad we were there and that I could tell them, “Yes. All of these people celebrate Hanukkah, too!”

There were a number of different activities but the favorite was t-shirt decorating. True to fashion, Sammy spent about 5 minutes splattering paint on his and then he was off to the next thing while Steven and Amaya spent at least 45 minutes on their shirts.

Frosting face after decorating a donut (which she doesn’t like so she just licked off the frosting).

We lit the candles which is still one of my favorite traditions with Steven, Sammy and Amaya.

Here’s this year’s video for anyone who’s interested. The actual candle light starts at about 2:45.

And then presents! What a pile! Thank you to everyone in our family who’s helped make this such a special holiday season for the Clines. <3

Have a great week, a Happy Hanukkah and a Merry Christmas!