finally

Steven, being Steven, has set up a mailbox where he likes us (mostly daddy) to leave him mail. I have to have a record of some of these letters to Steven from Jason.

If you recall, last week I reported that Jason had a bad case of the pig pox cured, in part, by Dr. Steven.

We love the Lego Movie.

Star Wars, of course.

Gabby is great at engaging the kids in game. I love this one. I picked it up when I was in Copenhagen last year. (Remember when people traveled?) There are 6 dice, with 36 different pictures among them. You roll the dice and then tell a story based on the pictures that show face up. It’s fantasy based so there are castles and dragons and witches and cauldrons.

Go Fish with Bobes

Via text from Gabby, “Amaya says, ‘I love you mommy <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3′”.

Tuesday was a sad day. I had to run over to Thornton Creek to pick up the kids’ stuff. I think it will be a while before I can go through their stuff, though another TC kindergarten mom said her daughter loved it so maybe I’ll bite the bullet for their sake. It was just so sad to be in the building – empty and packed up. The last time I was there was the day before school closed – 3/12 – to read in the boys’ class as the week’s mystery reader. The book I read is still in my car, like an artifact from “before”. Seeing the CDC recommendations for the fall is depressing but I’m hoping the school district can figure out a way to keep the school experience as normal as possible for the youngest kids.

Because here we are… back on our laptops.

Sammy: “There is a tree in space. The tree [was] destroyed by a meteor.” The kids always want to know if they spelled words correctly and I try to find a balance between encouraging their awesome effort and helping them see where it wasn’t right. I mean, English is so silly that sometimes there’s no way they could figure it out. But all three kids often forget vowels so that’s an easy on to provide guidance on.

Amaya: “The bears sing by the light at the moon.”

I am so happy that we (they) can be outside for so much of the day.

Mr. Olive Hand! I love that simply saying, “Yes, you can put olives on your fingers” can create so much joy.

Last week I mentioned that I started a pillow for Steven. This week I finished it and also completed pillows for Amaya and Sammy. Knowing what I know now, I’d have probably left the sleeves on Steven’s but he loves it which is legitimately all that matters.

A little post-work conversation. You know a guy wants some Daddy time when he skips an episode of Clone Wars. (Star The Clone Wars Wars)

Lake Day Thursday! The kids have three more weeks of school, after which I bet they can get to the lake even more often. (Everything with camp is still up in the air. The overnight Jewish camps all canceled for the season. The local Northville school district camp is open at $500/week/child. Nothing yet from the JCC Day Camp. I’m sure they’re trying to figure out a) when the JCC will open again and b) how to best operate the camp safely, if at all.

On Friday I took most of the day off, which was really nice. The kids did some of their Kiwi Co stem kits and Amaya made this cool kolidascope.

Lots of time for cuddles when I’m home for the day, even with a long afternoon nap.

So far, we’ve been really lucky with Memorial Weekend weather. On Saturday, Steven and I took an hour long ride though every street in our sub. He chattered away the entire time, as expected. <3

Playing Super Mario Run

Amaya, Sammy and I went for our own ride around the neighborhood where they collaborated on chalk drawings.

Sammy took my phone and snapped a picture of how I spent time during their chalk adventures.

A castle with a path to a spider and, along the way, is a princess and more spider friends.

They also drew a birthday message at a home where someone was celebrating his 18th birthday, planet earth, and a forest with some birds.

Sammy made a kite in his Kiwi Co kit, which got a bit of air, but not quite enough. So Jason promised to get the kids some bigger kites to try.

Saturday evening Jason grilled burgers and corn and we had our first outdoors family meal of the season.

This is such a nice weekend but it’s not what it’s meant to be. Bitcherie Weekend 15 was canceled due to coronavirus, which was an awful decision to have to make. We had an awesome two hr zoom on Saturday night but it’s nowhere close to 4 days in Bitcherie isolation. Hopefully by August we’ll be traveling again and we can take an extended weekend in Oregon to celebrate Erin’s wedding.

Today the kids and I headed over to Maybury Park. The original plan was a bike ride but they wanted to geocache so we adjusted along the way. We’ll have to get back out for just a regular bike ride, though, and I really need both a bike of my own and a bike rack for the van.

Sammy found the first geocache. We took three treasures and left three treasures.

Once we headed towards geocache #2 we had to head onto an unpaved trail and Steven and Amaya called it quits on the bikes but Sammy was game the entire time. He’s totally ready to ditch the training wheels.

Geocache #2! Steven really hoped to find one so I pointed him in the right direction, which did not go past him. Inside was a fairy charm which Sammy really wanted and Steven and Amaya were happy to acquiesce.

It was really, really nice to get back out in the world with SSA.