Ezra made a sign on the table with the Wikki Stix last night.
Let’s not dwell on the fact that says is spelled “ses” and just take a look at that punctuation! A colon, quotation marks and an exclamation point all used properly! That’s my boy!
Ezra lost yet another tooth on Friday, necessitating another visit from the Tooth Fairy. But this time, she just sent Tootho alone in her stead. I didn’t get pictures of everything, but Tootho apparently shimmied down a string through the attic access door in Ezra’s closet and then walked across the room to Ezra’s bed. He left some footprints.
He ripped the envelope Ezra had left for him and took the tooth.
He also left a short note.
And a new self-portrait.
I’m not sure who is more delighted with this whole Tootho thing, Ezra or Bruce.
The kids at Aveson have been working on a musical show for months now and the first performance was this morning. Each class sang a song; Ezra’s class did Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”
Ezra wasn’t easy to see because he stood behind two kids, but occasionally his face popped into view.
For the last part of the song he got to play a kazoo.
Of course I took a video of part of their performance.
And later Finn and I were treated to a solo rendition at home.
Ezra lost another tooth last week. And by lost, I mean really lost — we never found it. (We’re assuming he swallowed it.) The Tooth Fairy came, bringing the usual four quarters and a letter.
But what really caught Ezra’s attention was the envelope.
He was so excited about “Tootho” that he wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy and left it under his pillow last night.
And, of course, the Tooth Fairy responded posthaste.
Oh, and here’s a shot Ezra’s crazy mouth.
Ezra’s teacher, Thea, sent me a couple of pictures from her iPhone the other day. Apparently, he was feeling a little squirmy. First this:
Then this:
Bruce said he looks like an amoeba. Ezra got a kick out of seeing what he looked like. I like that Thea didn’t send the pictures in order to have us reprimand Ezra, but rather she sent them with a smiley emoticon.
Ezra’s been doing some fairly elaborate sticker projects the last couple of days. Here are some pictures.
Bruce liked them so much he asked Ezra if he could take one of them to put up in his office.
On another note, Ezra had his 7 year-old checkup last week. Everything is on track — 20/20 vision, 24th percentile in weight (46.9 lbs) and 25th percentile in height (46.75 in). He gained 3.5 pounds and grew 2.5 inches last year.
Aveson’s K-2 and 1-2 combination classes put on an art show on Wednesday night, the culmination of an 8 week art course. The kids were all so proud to show off their work and the event was wonderfully crowded. Here are some pictures.
Ezra shows off his self-portraits.
Ezra’s other artwork — the zombie is actually separate than the piece underneath, which is a fort, a cloud (the box), and the “mighty volcano.”
Ezra’s two heads.
And, finally, his drawing (the brown one on the bottom row) which is Bruce’s favorite.
We celebrated Ezra’s birthday this weekend by going down to San Diego for a trip to Sea World. We started out at Grandpa Bill and Grandma Therese’s house for Saturday afternoon and night. We had cake.
And, at Ezra’s request, we waited until Sunday morning (his actual birthday) for presents.
A little later in the morning we hit SeaWorld — Ezra’s pick because they have penguins there and he is penguin-crazy. Right off the bat, we saw these guys — the Magellanics that come from South America and (obviously) like a warmer climate.
Ezra was pretty excited.
Next we went into the Penguin Encounter area where the colder climate penguins live. They have about 350 penguins in there and it’s 25 degrees.
We also saw polar bears.
Beluga whales.
And the Shamu show, which, I have to say, is still as thrilling as it was when I was a kid.
After lunch and a couple of other attractions, Ezra and I split for the Penguins Up Close tour while Bruce and Finn headed to the Sesame Street area. While we were waiting, Ezra saw this seagull on one foot and said, “He’s doing yoga!”
He then proceeded to attempt the same pose.
Finally, we got to go “back stage” at the Penguin Encounter and meet this adorable little macaroni penguin.
We got to pet her.
And watch her wander around a bit as the keeper was talking.
Then we braved the 25 degree weather to go inside the penguin area. They really are particularly cute animals.
Needless to say, Ezra was thrilled.
After our behind the scenes tour was finished, we met up with Bruce and Finn and went to see the turtles.
Of course, we had bought some souvenirs.
Then it was time for the crazy dolphin show in a very warm and sunny arena.
Finally, it was time for dinner and the long drive home. Both boys took their penguins to bed with them and I snapped this picture of a very exhausted, newly-minted 7-year-old sleeping off a very exciting day.
I took a lot more pictures; a slideshow of the rest is here.
Friday of last week was Aveson’s 100th day of school, which meant 100th day projects were due Thursday. This year we were a little disorganized with planning the housewarming party and Bruce being gone on a hike in the desert last weekend. (Since he’s the one with the glue gun, he’s in charge of school projects.)
This year we skipped the glue gun and went for potato stamps. Ezra wanted to exhibit his penguin obsession for his project and after much discussion as to how we could do it (in a timely manner as we know he sometimes lacks focus), the stamps seemed to be the best bet. So, he drew a baby penguin and an adult penguin and Bruce carved them into two halves of a sweet potato. Here’s the adult one.
Ezra then used the stamps and some paint to stamp 50 adult penguins and 50 baby penguins onto a large piece of paper. Voila!
The oak tree in the backyard is perfect for climbing … except that the first branch is too high off the ground for the boys to get on it. Last weekend Bruce brought them a ladder to get them started, but on Monday the landscapers came and dumped a truckload of mulch right next to the tree. It still wasn’t quite high enough to reach the first branch, so Ezra piled up some more.
And tried again.
Success!
On Wednesday we had Ezra’s first Celebration of Learning for first grade. Last year there were three of these but they’ve cut it down to two this year, and we’ve been anxiously awaiting this first one.
We started in his Literacy classroom. He read to us from his journal.
Showed us the book he wrote about Belize.
His Important Poem — he wrote it about Finn (sniff, sniff).
And his quotes from the Caring & Courage bulletin board.
Over in the Math/Projects classroom, he showed us some jobs (this one is the Beaded Stairs Frame).
This one is the Listening Match (Bruce had a good time with it).
He brought out his folder (continuing the Angry Birds theme that runs throughout his life).
And he did a little math.
Little brother was quite cooperative during the festivities.
Ezra came home from school with a card for me this week. As far as I can tell, there’s no particular occasion which makes it even better.
Ezra built Rokenbok Lego City this morning. He was very secretive while he was working on it, but once he was done he made a sign to make sure everyone would come see it.
Translation: Please enter. See Rokenbok and Lego City. It’s awesome!!! From Ezra. And remember see Rokenbok and Lego City!!! P.S. Lose your teeth!
Here’s his creation.
I finally stopped slacking yesterday and went in to do some volunteer hours in Ezra’s classroom. And I’m so glad I did.
We started off the day in Ms. Thea’s advisory (like homeroom) with the “feelings ball.” The children rolled the ball to each other and took turns saying how they were feeling and why. Ezra was feeling happy because he had a loose tooth and tired because he stayed up late wiggling it.
After that the class split into the yellow and green groups and joined with the second graders. Ezra’s in the green group so he stayed in Thea’s class and it was time for Friday yoga.
During a break in between poses, Ezra’s tooth fell out! Thea brought him the special baggie they use for this occasion. He was pretty excited.
Then it was time for partner yoga, so he paired up with his friend Roman to do some more poses.
Once the yoga was done, the kids split up — some got a small group math lesson and some made dragons in honor of Chinese New Year. Jerri (also volunteering in the classroom) and I made gridlines on watercolor paper for next week’s lesson.
Aveson assigned an optional Family Project that was due this week. They’ve been studying American landmarks and symbols and they were asked to choose a country, learn about its landmarks and symbols and make a replica of one place there. Ezra, of course, chose Belize, and he wanted to make the Mayan temple we climbed this past summer.
We thought for a while about building materials, and on Sunday he built “El Castillo” from the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich made out of chocolate marshmallows. Here are some pictures of his process. (Finn got into the act and made a project of his own.)
On Monday afternoon, I put together some pages with a few facts about Belize and Xunantunich and he glued on pictures from our trip there and stapled it into a book. Today, he presented his project to the class.
He was very proud.
After school we were able to take a look at all the projects and I took a few pictures.
Ruby’s bald eagle.
Lucy’s Eiffel Tower.
And one of the second graders did Stonehenge! (Minus the band.)
