our ninth year

The kids had a great first full week as 8 year olds. It wasn’t even horribly anticlimactic after all the build up and excitement.

During TV time these days we’re rotating between Wipeout and Jeopardy. Two wildly different shows. Sally is still in the mood to hang out with us whenever we’re gathered downstairs. Steven likes when she walks or sits on him but only with a blanket barrier.

Tuesday was a super busy day for Amaya. All three kids had after school art on Tuesday until 5pm and Amaya also always has swim on Tuesdays at 6:50pm. This week she also had a gymnastics make-up class at 5:25pm. While Sophia picked up the boys at school after art class, I picked up Amaya and too her straight to gymnastics. From there it was right to swim and definitely a “sandwich in the car for dinner” night.

This was my first time watching one of Amaya’s classes. (I haven’t seen the boys yet, either.) Sophia’s videos are awesome but I loved to get to watch her myself. Amaya asked me to watch her from the doorway for the whole class and I loved knowing she wanted me there, too. She’s got great focus and clearly loves being in the gym.

Amaya is in the white and pink leotard and colored leggings.

Off to swim! No issues with energy for this girl.

The kids made dot art at their art class, using q-tips. Boats in the water with a little island. It seems like a wonderful program.

Steven’s art. He said his boat is on fire.

Sammy’s art.

Amaya’s art. It’s hard to see in the photo but she added glitter.

Nana had a weekend trip scheduled so, as an extra precaution, we all did a rapid test on Wednesday night. One of the boy’s friends tested positive on Sunday so I was a little nervous but all clear! Yay!!

This girl needed some daddy cuddle time after bed. She fell right to sleep, just like this. <3

Thursday was gymnastics day for the whole crew. The boys are working on supported hand stands. So much of what they do is focused on balance, coordination and strength. It’s great.

Sammy

Steven

Thursday night Nana arrived, with treats in hand! <3

My girl loves her baby dolls, even asleep. She’s got Chelsea, Rose, Minty and Chip.

Nana came in on Thursday night because the kids had a half day on Friday and would get extra Nana time that way. She was ready when the kids got off the bus and took care of their lunch. Then SSA called a meeting and got busy planning an obstacle course through the house.

While the kids were planning the obstacle course, Sammy said that Amaya is a “big liar” and she couldn’t be trusted. Amaya was outraged at the accusation.

The obstacle course! I was glad to hear it was cleaned up before my work day ended because it was hard to see beyond the wild m-e-s-s. It sounds like they had fun, though.

Bedtime books – Steven reading about anacondas. I don’t think I read much non-fiction at this age. He seems to love reading about predators.

Nighttime hugs for Nana!

Saturday morning, Nana, Steven, Sammy and Amaya took their usual trip to Starbucks for breakfast.

All smiles, even in the very, very cold weather.

It was a nice, quiet afternoon at home. We’re masking when we’re within 6 feet of Nana so you’ll see some masked and some unmasked photos throughout the weekend.

Sally joined us for Blokus. She didn’t even try to knock the pieces to the ground.

Amaya got busy with a bunch of science experiments and, when she needed adult supervision, Nana jumped in to help.

She created a volcano eruption, made CO2 to fill a balloon and made a rainbow “explosion”.

I got to take a nap with sweet Sal.

And Nana and the kids got busy with foosball and air hocky.

We had very limited plans for today but most of those went by the wayside when Sammy got sick in the middle of the night. Poor Bubba. Rapid test says no COVID but he has a fever, too, so it was a lot of naps and very little food/drink for this guy.

I mean, this face…

Cuddles with Daddy and Sally

Birthday presents from Nana and Papa which included gift cards to Dave & Busters and Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum. Can’t wait!!

We had a family date to watch Apollo 13 with the kids. This movie has to be in my top 10 and it still holds up so well. Midway, Sammy needed to rest so he and Jason headed upstairs for a long nap together.