summer break!

This blog post feels like a doozy. School’s out for summer (!!!) and it kicked off with a bang!

The kids had a short week with school just through a half day on Thursday and their was big end-of-the-year energy. This was their first time ending a school year at Thornton Creek with Kindergarten interruped by COVID and virutal first grade!

Both boys went to school in the “Trouble” shirts I got them from The Music Man.

The second graders had popsicles on the playground on Monday afternoon and parents were invited so I worked my schedule to be able to pop by for 20 minutes.

On Tuesday, I had an early work meeting (and a late work dinner) so Jason saw these cuties off.

I wasn’t at the game (work dinner) but I got these great pictures of the boys at bat from another mom on the team. This was Sammy’s last game of the season.

Deer on the playground!

Sophia was sick on Monday and we weren’t sure she’d be back on Tuesday. Both Jason and I had work commitments that were preventing us from being home when the kids got off the bus so, as a precaution, we hired a new high school age sitter (who sits for a friend’s kids) to come on Tuesday afternoon. Sophia did make it to work that day but Lily was able to come anyway to get to know Steven, Sammy and Amaya. The kids loved her – especially Amaya – so hopefully she’ll be able to sit on her own in the future.

Wednesday!! Second to last day and last full day of 2nd grade.

Through June Amaya is still doing gymnastics twice a week. She’ll transition to one day in July. She has just two skills to learn to make it to the intermediate level.

Thursday was Steven, Sammy and Amaya’s LAST DAY of second grade! They had such a great year. They learned a ton, made great friends, had fabulous teachers and all agree that school is better in person.

Here they were on their first day of 2nd grade.

Off they go!

To kick off summer, the plan was a trip with all of the kids to Lakeside, OH to visit my friend Hannah and her family. It’s a wonderful gated vacation community right on Lake Erie that has a very small town feel to it with narrow streets and tons of golf carts and bikes. There are activities – organized and freeform – all day every day. It turned out, though, that the boys’ baseball tournament conflicted with the trip so Jason and I gave the boys the choice to stay or go. Sammy opted to take the trip and Steven opted to stay home to play ball. He was really excited about a 1:1 weekend with his daddy.

Air hugs from Steven as we were getting ready to leave. <3

“Meet the Counselor” event at camp. I can’t believe the kids are finally back at camp! They haven’t been since the summer before Kindergarten and will be returning to the JCC this summer. They picked a variety of theme camps – Minecraft, Baking, Ninja Warrior, Around the Town… hopefully it’s as awesome as it sounds!

Last game of the season before the tournament and Steven got stung! 🙁 He was a trooper though and still played the game after a little ice.

Meanwhile, after a two hour drive, Sammy, Amaya and I arrived at Lakeside. We were staying at an old hotel – Hotel Lakeside – right on the water. The building must be at least 100 years old.

Real keys!

View of the lake from the front of our hotel.

Golf carts were fun and helpful. I ended up renting my own so we could get wher we needed to go easily.

The highlight of Thursday night was jumping into the lake fully clothed. Amaya and Sammy were thrilled that I said yes.

In she goes! And that’s Sammy on the left.

Our hotel in the background on the right. (Changed into new dry clothes.)

There’s a beach volleyball court where kids meet up for spontaneous games of newcomb / Nuke ‘Em. Amaya joined in right away.

Basketball with Bubs while Amaya played with the other kids. (He joined in before the visit was through.)

Gotta have ice cream. (Glad I only asked for one scoop! These cones were huuuuuuuge.)

We stayed out until the sun set over the lake. The pictures don’t do it justice.

Before we left for OH, Steven gave us all blank journals with “Lakeside Ohio” written on the covers. He asked us to write about our trip so he could learn about what it’s like at Lakeside. Amaya understood the assignment.

Steven had his own journal so we could learn about his weekend, too. He got busy writing in it on Friday morning.

Grocery shopping with Sophia in footwear he calls “Slide Shoe 3000,)

We all had a fabulous Friday morning in Lakeside. After breakfast we headed to Hannah’s house, Sammy on his scooter. Amaya had to meet up with Hannah’s daughter Lucy for a 9am friendship bracelet making class. While they did that, Sammy had his eyes set on playing chess with me. He met another boy who was better than both of us. Levi both helped Sammy beat me and then beat Sammy himself. It was fun watching them conspire against me.

Amaya’s bracelet class

We spent the entire afternoon at the Lakeside pool. It was hot out, sunny and the water was perfect. Big bonus were two waterslides that both Sammy and Amaya loved. (Amaya also passed the deep end test which was pretty difficult! Tread water for 30 sec, swim on her front one Olympic length and then return on her back. The kids aren’t used to swimming that far on their backs.) Even applying suncreen three times, Amaya’s shoulders got burned. Need to be even more careful with our fairskinned girl.

While we were at the pool, back in Michigan Sophia and Steven did a nature walk in Maybury Park with Sophia. Sophia brought her camera so Steven could get great photos along the way. He was in heaven.

Steven had his turn for an oversize cone – one that ended up half on his pants. 🙂

Steven working hard on his journal and accompanying photo album. (I don’t know what “friltru” is supposed to say.)

Bobes and Sophia, before his big game. Sophia asked him if he wanted to watch TV and relax before they left and he asked what they were going to watch. Sophia said, “whatever you want” to which he responded “this feels so weird.” Kid is used to perpetual compromise with his brother and sister!

Unfortunatley, the Astros season ended after their Friday night game. They lost by 1 run after a great showing and near comeback. Steven had two hits and an RBI. He was really, really disappointed to lose the game but Jason helped him rally for a fantastic Saturday.

See? Happy boy on a Saturday after a downstairs sleepover with Jason. He says he’s a cucumber.

Saturday was cooler in Lakeside so it wasn’t a pool day but Sammy and Amaya had a ton of fun around town and playing with the other kids.

On Friday we rented a golf cart and, on Saturday, we popped back over to the rental shop to rent Amaya a bike. Kids ride everywhere. It’s really cool.

Sammy’s big ask for the day was a game of shuffleboard. If I ever played before it’s been years and years. We were pretty bad at the game but had a great time. Amaya and one of Hannah’s daughters, Bonnie, also played together. (Hannah’s triplets are identical girls – and she has three older girls. Abby has shorter hair so I know her easily but I always confuse Bonnie and Betsy.)

Back in Michigan, Jason took Steven to an art show in Northville and then to home depot. He truly loved, and appreciated, this time at home alone with Jason.

Amaya was having a great time with the girls at Hannah’s house so she stayed there while Sammy and I went out to eat.

Let’s talk about mayflies. Sometime after we got there they hatched and were everywhere. I mean everywhere. It was wild. I’ve never seen anything like it. Sammy wasn’t thrilled by them but Amaya thought they were adorable. We read up on mayflies and learned that they hatch by water, can have up to 400 offspring each, and average lifespan is one day. They’re believed to have been around for over 350 million years and have clearly perfected their reproductive process.

The last activity of the day was entrepreneurial. Amaya and some of the girls made beaded earrings and headed to “town square” to try to sell them. They walked up to people and asked if they wanted to buy jewelry. Amaya sold hers for five dollars and I’m pretty sure all of her money was reinvested in candy. She and Sammy are already making plans for next year’s jewelry business.

On Saturday afternoon/evening, Jason and Steven went to the Tigers game. Perfect weather and it was Negro Leagues Replica Jersey Giveaway day. They had seats right by the Tigers dugout and got to see the Tigers score fourteen runs.

We all got home around 7:30pm on Saturday. Gives were dispersed and then Steven got to the business of reading Amaya’s Lakeside journal before everyone went to bed.

This morning we kicked off Father’s Day with our annual family photo shoot. It definitely gets easier and less stressful as the kids get older! This year I didn’t have the bandwidth to buy coordinating outfits for the kids so I looked in their closet and dresser this morning and managed to find an option that worked out. I was ready for a total mismash of outfits but I’m happy it looks (falsely!) like there was real intention behind the choice. It was a beautiful day so we got lots of photos outside.

The kids had some “kids choice” photos. (Steven wore his shorts backwards – his idea – to hide the white logo on the shorts and make it look like they were solid black.)

Amaya and her babies! We came in and she was all set up on the couch with them.

It was a quiet family Father’s Day. Jason and the kids had a nice long game of Monopoly, one of the kids’ favorite things to do with their dad.

Steven and I took a trip to pick up his new glases and then I went to the playground by Novi highschool with the kids. Steven really wanted to practice batting so I pitched to both Steven and Sammy for a while, with Amaya helping out in the field.