It’s been a long week. A good week, but it feels like it was a long one.

Penni was off on Friday, 8/6, and returned from her trip with gifts for the kids including some maps of MI for Steven. After all this time, she knows SSA so well. It’s crazy to think that our time together is coming to an end in just a few weeks. I know we hope Penni will still babysit but it’s definitely a change from ~18 months of all day together.

Tomorrow (Monday) is Lindsay’s last day with us. The three months went by so fast! It feels like we all just met! We’re hoping we can stay in touch with Lindsay, too, as she heads back to OH for school.

Somewhere, the kids heard about a “Stay in the Kitchen” challenge and Amaya & Sammy staged one this week. The brought enough supplies to last hours – including pull-ups in case they needed to use the bathroom. (Lindsay put a quick stop to that and insisted that bathroom breaks were allowable.)

Face paint!

Sweet Steven needed some Daddy love at bedtime. It’s really difficult for us to say no to these kids when they want to sleep with us.

On Monday I’d emailed the kids’ principal, Mr. Jewett, to share that there was some anxiety about returning to Thornton Creek after so long away and asked if there was going to be any opportunity for last year’s virtual kids to visit the building before the start of school. He responded right away and invited us to tour the building with him – which I was able to do at lunch on Tuesday.

Mr. Jewett was a wonderful tour guide. He showed the kids everything that was new and let them visit all of the multi-purpose spaces. We talked about wearing masks at school – which now seems inevitable despite what the district had hoped back in May – and he let the kids know they can email him any other questions they have through the rest of the summer.

I’m so glad Steven, Sammy and Amaya were able to reacclimate a bit. At their age, 18 months away from school is significant.

Lindsay was a real sport at Amaya’s hair salon. 🙂

On Wednesday afternoon, Steven and I had a flight to NY. Sammy wanted to get in as much Mommy Time as possible so he spent part of the day hanging around with me while I worked. One of my colleagues saw him and they had a really cool conversation about his time in the Army Rangers. He showed Sammy so me of his memorabilia. Sammy was absolutely enthralled. It was really sweet. (This room looks so messy with the wires and fan and crap. New project to take care of this week.)

Sammy and Sally. Sally is such a gentle girl. This month she turns seventeen.

And my girls. <3 Jason sent me this photo while Steven and I were away.

Steven I headed to the airport a little before 4pm, to catch a 6:10pm flight. We were glad when it was delayed by 15 min because it gave us more time to get through the airport. Little did we know… Weather in NY held up air traffic and it was actually after 11pm when we eventually left Detroit. Steven was a total trooper through the 5 hr delay.

Around 8pm

10:30pm. Still hanging in there! At one point I consider changing our flight to the next morning but Steven had a very clear POV on our plans. He told me, “We are staying here today until they tell us we are getting on a plane or not getting on a plane. We are only getting on a plane tomorrow if they tell us we are not getting on a plane today.” So that was our plan.

YAY!!

It wasn’t long before Steven was fast asleep on my lap.

1am and Steven had his suitcase (Peso) and was ready to get to Nana’s house!

It was a good thing we made it to NY on Wednesday night (Thursday morning?) because we had BIG PLANS for Thursday – Legoland New York!! To be honest, I think I was excited as Steven was – who only learned about our plans on Monday night.

We didn’t get a full night’s sleep but the excitement of the day 100% powered us through.

Steven, at Legoland CA, almost exactly 2.5 years ago. <3

The Legoland gang!!

It was an amazing day. We were at the park from 10:30am- 5pm and, because it was extremely hot out, the crowds were low which allowed us to do everything we wanted to – some multiple times – with very short lines.

Need a map!

Miniland! I remember literally spending hours at the miniland displays in CA.

Driving school. Back in CA, Steven was too young for the big kids driving school and had to ride the Jr track. This time, he was old enough and loved it. He and Charlie rode twice.

Lots and lots of Lego vehicles to interact with.

The corn was my favorite.

Rides with Steven were a lot of fun. He’s really expanded his tolerance over the past year or so.

The Dragon’s Apprentice!

Nana got in on the fun, too <3

This is another ride that Steven didn’t love in Feb 2019 but loved this time, enough to ride twice.

His ninja moves.

After a spot at The Big Store, Steven wrapped up his day trading minifigs at a trading post.

It was such a great day!

Back in MI, it was a quite end to the week for Sammy and Amaya but they had fun and got outside for a bit, too. They even got to join Penni for her niece’s high school orientation tour.

I worked on Friday so Nana picked up Steven around 10am and kicked off Fun Friday. He helped bake and also spent a while visiting with Papa, Savta, Auntie and Dod Shuki.

Then it was a late afternoon trip to the beach. Sara, Charlie and I met them there at 5pm when we were done for the day.

Nana, Steven, Mommy shadows

They pretty much had the beach to themselves

I’m pretty sure it’s been a Sammy/Amaya/Daddy sleepover since we left.

Most of Saturday was a pretty lazy here in NY. Steven and Charlie seemed to have a great time playing together making up games together. Sara and Dave just remodeled their kitchen and back room – here’s a great view of the final result!

Out for lunch with Steven and Charlie – playing Uno while we waited for our food.

The big event of the day was a birthday party for Nana who turns 70 on August 28th. The Honigs and Blooms joined us, along with Auntie, Savta, & Syvia and Allen Goldberg.

Super Mario Party kept Steven and Charlie entertained…

Steven surfaces to say hi to everyone.

Birthday Girl

Steven and I had a nice final morning in NY. We went to a playground and Starbucks with Nana and Charlie and some last quality family time before heading to the airport.

On our way home! Fortunately this flight was on time.

Manhattan, from the plane

Steven loves the flight tracker

Steven took a whole bunch of photos as we were landing

“I always wanted this spot on the airport train!”

Back home! A big activity this weekend for Jason, Sammy and Amaya was a big bake-off! Yesterday, at the grocery store, they each had 20 minutes to shop for ingredients and then made their own unique creations. When Steven and I got home, we were the judges.

Winner for most interesting combination of flavors: Sammy

Winner for best presentation: Amaya

Winner for overall taste: Jason

By the time we were done with the tasting, it was time for shows and then bed. Amaya spent the time coloring a Lego pouch from Nana while Steven got in some Daddy cuddles.

And that’s it for us! Have a great week!