What a great week for Steven, Sammy and Amaya. It started with a day off school for MLK Jr. day and ended with big birthday celebrations.

On Monday, Sophia came early to spend the day home with SSA. Unlike Winter Break, which was non-stop activity, this was a much-needed quiet day in the house.

It started with Sorry – a game I can remember playing with my own dad as a kid. Sammy was excited here because he was in the lead.

Amaya made delicious brownies with Sophia. In fact, even though I offered to bake them with her on Sunday, she specifically asked to wait to do it with Sophia because she and I “can cook together all the time.”

They were delicious.

Watching MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech

Where there’s Steven, there are Hot Wheels.

Amaya made bathroom stalls for her baby dolls.

My two best girls.

On Tuesday, Sophia made dinner that included crab. Sally approved.

Wednesday night was Steven, Sammy and Amaya’s last sleep as seven year olds. Really crazy. As has become tradition, after they were asleep we put balloons in their room so the celebrating could start as soon as they woke up.

Happy EIGHT to Steven, Sammy and Amaya!! They were full of birthday energy all morning long. To make the early hours extra fun, I drove them to school so they could skip the bus and have more time at home. It was special for me, too. Everything about their birthday feels special to me. <3

Eight! I feels so right but I also feel like I was just pregnant.

A picture rom the boy’s teacher. The kids told me their classes sang happy birthday and Amaya got an extra rendition in music class. Mrs. Bates gave the boys birthday coloring sheets and pencils and Sammy got some beautiful tissue roses from Cici, a girl in his class.

I picked the kids up early, at 2:30pm, so we could go out for a family dinner in a Deadwood igloo at 3:30pm. But, first, presents from Grandpa Homey and Auntie & Dod Shuki, plus gift cards from Uncle Austin and Krissy. <3

The Clines, celebrating eight! We had an igloo reservation last year, too, when we weren’t eating in restaurants and it seemed like a fun tradition to continue.

Amaya turned her cookies into an 8.

An early dinner meant we had time to play Super Mario Life after dinner – a gift for Sammy from Auntie and Dod Shuki. Even Sally wanted to celebrate.

Happy Birthday time! The kids got to enjoy a cookie ice cream cake that Sophia made for them.

Inside 8 balloons

On Thursday night, after the kids were asleep I headed to the airport to pick up two special birthday visitors – Aunt Sara and Charlie! Yay!! It’s been two whole years since they visited.

Remarkably, the kids headed off to school on Friday morning even knowing that Charlie was asleep downstairs. Steven said he never looked at the clock so often during the school day.

I was upstairs working when the kids got home from school and the screams were loud enough that everyone in my meeting heard the commotion. Big, BIG energy in the Cline House. <3

Even with the excitement of seeing Charlie, Amaya still took a break to make a plaster volcano from the science kit the Goldberg’s gifted her. This child is incredibly independent. She did the whole thing herself, with typical Amaya focus.

I Hop dinner! Love having these two in the house with us.

About two years ago, when we got bunk beds for Steven and Sammy, we got Amaya a single bed. She was a little jealous until we explained that her bed has a trundle for a mattress for special visitors. After a long covid wait, Friday night was her first chance to use it with her most favorite visitor.

These two…

We had a loud, but calm, morning before heading to Steven, Sammy and Amaya’s birthday party! We wanted something that could be “covid safe” which was particularly prescient thinking with the current omicron concerns. The choice was pottery painting at The Bee’s Knees – a place I’ve shared in the blog a few times before. Kids wore masks and we sent home cupcakes instead of eating them at the party.

Three weeks ago, the kids and I visited to pick out the pieces they and their friends would paint. Steven picked an ATV. Sammy picked a puppy. Amaya picked a penguin. I picked the fourth, a fairy.

With SSA and Charlie, we had 19 kids attend and, fortunately, the place reserved for just our party. I was a little nervous about 20 young kids in a ceramics place but they all did great! No catastrophes. 🙂

The birthday kids, before their friends arrived.

Picking out the paint colors. They each got to pick 2 colors, plus grey and white. Sammy was so cute. He wanted to be sure there was a pink color to use for the inside of the puppy’s ears.

A fun part of a Bee’s Knees birthday party is putting your thumbprint on the wall, which is turned into a bee with your name and age. (SSA all remembered that there was a 90 year old with her thumbprint on the wall.)

I think they’ll love seeing their thumbprints when we go back in the future.

One big table for all the kids, mostly segregated by gender. All of the kids sat next to their closest friends – Amaya with Milan and Charlie, Sammy with Nolan and Steven with Jack.

Amaya and Milan – with their penguins.

Birthday boys

The party was 90 minutes which was more time than the kids needed for the craft so we opened presents – something that the kids loved. I can’t believe how much kids like watching their friends open gifts! But they do and it filled the back part of the party time well. Steven, Sammy and Amaya have very generous friends who’ve left them with toys to build & play with for a long time to come. (Amaya was particularly happy to receive a special multi-color pen from Milan, that Milan knew she wanted, and a little rainbow “BFFs” sign. Steven got a ton of new Lego sets and Sammy got a bunch of Pokemon stuff.)

All of the pre-glazed / pre-fired pieces.

After their party, Charlie subbed in for me and the kids finished Thursday’s game of Super Mario Life. Steven was the winner.

Cousins!

Steven, Amaya and I left the house early this morning to take Aunt Sara and Charlie to the airport and then swung back home to pick up Sammy for Hebrew School. The afternoon plan was a birthday party but it was canceled due to COVID so, instead, the kids spent their afternoon playing with birthday presents.

Sammy and Amaya making a Snow Globe craft that Amaya was gifted. I love when these two work together.

Daddy, getting ready to temporarily step in for Sammy in Super Mario Life.

I’ll wrap up this amazing week with some pictures from the Thornton Creek STEAM class Instagram page. I found our trio in action, designing and sharing their ideal schools.

Steven mentioned that, by chance, he and Sammy were paired together. I guess it’s bound to happen sometimes!

And that’s it for us! The Land of Cheltenham has EIGHT year olds!