Monday was an out-of-the-ordinary New York Monday as Steven, Sammy and Amaya settled into virtual school from our Airbnb. Sammy was the most out of sorts about it – not wanting to have to do school in NY – and I totally felt him as I got ready for a day of work. Sammy’s blues where chased way by Nana, though, who sat by his side for his first zoom lesson of the day. That’s not an everyday treat!

Amaya set up and ready in her school spot.

I told Steven I wanted a picture of him in his school spot before class started. He said, “I’ll look at my computer so it looks like I’m at school and you can take a secret picture like Penni does.” lol

Jr. Astronaut Sammy, ready to Zoom

At lunch, the kids had a special treat and went to Nana’s house to cook a Raddish Kids recipe. (La Leche Cake) We aren’t spending much time inside Nana and Papa’s house on these visits but decided we were all comfortable with a short, masked visit by the kids to do some baking together.

SSA love looking at the pictures on Nana’s fridge.

In the afternoon, Savta came over to visit with the kids during a break. With Penni, they negotiated that Savta could stay through a lesson as long as everyone was able to remain focused. Mission accomplished!

Finishing up the baking…

After school it was right to Chase and Charlies house for cousin time. Nana took the kids as soon as school was out and I met them there later in the evening. The weather was terrible so everyone was stuck inside. The kids loved seeing C & C play their video games. Which makes sense. Sammy can spend hours watching someone named “Zebra” play video games on his table, of course he’d like to watch Chase play live.

What’s the saying? The cousins that share screen time together…

I think Nana would want you to know that she quickly took of her face shield and mask, and held her breath, to take these pictures with her grandkids. <3

Sammy has a remote control robot that he brought all the way from MI to show Chase. Chase was suitably impressed. (Thank you, Chase.)

Tuesday was even smoother sailing into the school day. It’s pretty cool that SSA could dive right in to school in NY the same way they would in MI. (Thanks, in large part, to Penni and to the loads of gear we brought with us.)

Savta came back on Tuesday afternoon during a break and, again, had a chance to watch the kids afternoon classes. She even helped with some schoolwork.

Working on writing numbers by 10s.

After school on Tuesday it was back to Chase and Charlies house for the evening. The last step of Monday’s La Leche Cake was whipped cream ghosts which Sammy proudly took care of for everyone.

I mentioned last week that the kids and I were sharing a room for the week. They took turns rotating between air mattresses and sleeping with me and it worked out just fine. We all slept really well, which wasn’t what I expected.

Wednesday morning, Amaya and Steven got cozy watching some baking videos.

Back to school on Wednesday morning. We’ve got a routine!

Nana and Papa’s neighbors were really kind and offered to let Steven, Sammy and Amaya play in their backyard during the day if they wanted to get out so, on Wednesday, the kids went over there at lunch recess. So cool!

In the afternoon the Spanish work was light (work on counting to 20) so everyone took advantage of the beautiful day and Nana, Savta and Auntie took the kids to the Halls Pond playground. I was busy working but I see these pictures and it makes me so glad we took this trip. This is what it was about. <3

And then, in the afternoon, back to the Goldbergs and back to the trampoline.

The class has a Star of the Day and, as prep, everyone has to make a Seesaw video about themselves. Part of the video includes drawing and explaining (via audio) what they picked. I love these.

Amaya’s favorite food is ice cream. She also loves cookies, Charlie and Hoppy.

Steven’s favorite food is peas. (Not his daddy’s favorite food as a kid!) He also likes music, painting and pigs.

Sammy’s favorite food is pizza. He also likes cats, dogs and watching TV. (Sammy was star of the week on Thursday. He got to pick the Go Noodle activity, the class watched his video and they asked him questions about himself. He loved it.)

Thornton Creek uses the 7 Habits of Happy Kids as a social-emotional foundation of learning and it’s woven into weekly classwork starting in Kindergarten. The kids are writing about scenarios associated with each of the habits.

Steven loves Habit 4. He and Penni were disagreeing about something and when they came to a compromise Steven said, “That’s habit 4! It’s win-win!”

Steven’s answer to the question: “First play a game of kickball and then go on the slide.” Win-win!

Amaya loves working on the Habits but might need a tutorial on this one. “First would do art and then I would play gaga ball.” Win-win for Amaya! lol

The kids have two hours between Zoom classes on Thursdays. Usually that time also includes their music special but, since we were in NY and it was a beautiful day, Nana, Papa and Savta took the kids to Long Beach to play. So much fun.

The beach! It’s amazing that SSA got to visit the beach in NY in October.

Aaaaaaand, back to the Goldberg’s. 🙂

The NY Airbnb has a jet tub (hot tub, to the kids) so they had a long, FUN bath on Thursday night. We had to drag them out, and I don’t blame them! So. Many. Bubbles.

Before the fun started… (Interesting to me that they wanted to keep their underwear on to bathe together. Which is, of course, totally fine.)

Higher…

And higher!

Friday afternoon, after school, was a trip to pick pumpkins. It was on Amaya’s to-do list and were determined to make it happen. My mom found somewhere covered to go do their “picking” in the rain.

Friday night (our last night, booooooo) was back to the Airbnb for cousin time and then Shabbat.

Wrapping up the week, Amaya checked off the last of the activities on her list.

Accomplished: trampoline, tattoo, bake a cake, fashion show, IHOP, pick pumpkins, make up and nail polish.

Not accomplished: bracelets, sleep over, art, make pancakes.

Not bad!!

Saturday morning we packed up (for hours) and then stopped by Savta’s house before we hit the road for MI, by way of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

We made our way out of NY slowly, thanks to the usual Queens and Bronx traffic, and took our first break at Big Pocono Mountain State Park. It was so pretty. The fall colors are amazing. It was so much nicer than a rest stop pit stop.

While Steven was trying to get photos of race cars on the mountain (don’t ask), Amaya had a chance to facetime with her Daddy. 🙂

We drove until ~10:30pm and made it 6.5 hours of drive time in just over 10 hours. Not my best time but it was one of our more relaxing drives, split between the two of us, save a situation where Steven got car sick. Poor Bobes. 2/2 with puking on a MI/NY road trip.

This morning we headed out around 9am and were back home by 1:30pm. Safe and sound in the Land of Cheltenham!

I caught up on some work and the kids caught up on some Dad time. A highlight for them was looking through new ball cards of Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Very cool cards.

The boys also had a chance to carve the pumpkins they got in NY. High on their to-do list!

Now we’re settling in for the night so we can back to our regular Monday routine. It was a great, great week.