New Grill!

We’ve been hankering for a new barbecue for a while now — something easier to use than our old school charcoal version. We finally picked one out and got lucky that a local store was having a 25% off sale this weekend. So Bruce picked it up Sunday afternoon and we embarked on the task of putting it together.

First we had to clean off the patio where there was a pile of wood and a gazillion oak leaves. Finn helped.

Finn sweeps

It took a couple of hours to put it together (and we had a lovely break for dinner with Mike, Carla, Emily and Kendra who were on their way to Disneyland for the week) but here it is!

Bruce shows off his handiwork

Trip to the Huntington with Friends

We took our guys and the Heff kids to the Huntington on Sunday. First up: the bamboo.

With the Heff kids at the Huntington

While the other kids played in the fountains at the children’s garden, Finn made a beeline to the big magnet to make a bridge.

Finn plays

Pretty soon the other kids came to help.

Kids play with iron and a magnet

It was pretty hot and not at all shady, so we took refuge in the areas with misters. We tried the fog room, but at first it wasn’t working. Bruce enlisted the kids’ help in a fog dance.

Fog dance

Fog dance

Finally that worked. We cooled off and then headed for lunch at the cafe. Then we worked our way out, playing the statue game and visiting the science exhibits. And then home.

Cuties

Slowly getting back to reality here. Last week was pretty mellow — laundry, clean up, one gymnastics class on Thursday and that’s about it. So, few pictures. But here are a couple.

Ezra shows off his new Belize t-shirt from Jamma. He is all about birds right now.

Ezra's new Belize shirt from Jamma

As for Finn, I walked past his room on Saturday and he was standing on his bed with his sunglasses and construction hat on swinging a rope around. I ran as fast as I could to get my camera. I’m not sure what or who he was trying to wrangle.

Finn: wrangler

My favorite thing may be how the kids’ construction hat is so small on him that it sits on the top of his head.

Art Unveiling at Whole Foods

Our preschool works in conjunction with Whole Foods Arroyo in Pasadena for our big fundraiser in the Fall, the Apple Sale. It’s been marvelously successful for the first two years, and in an effort to solidify our relationship with the store, yesterday we presented them with an art piece. This has been in the works for some time — it was Ezra’s class last year that did the piece — but we are just now finding the time to coordinate the unveiling. The project was led by one of the Cottage teachers — beloved Teacher Ana — who is an artist. Here’s Ezra with the piece, a door that the children glued found and recycled objects to for a mosaic. He’s pointing to the piece he put on.

Ezra and the door

Here’s a close-up of his piece.

Ezra's piece of art

I like that it’s the tallest item on the door so I’ll always be able to find it when the piece is permanently installed in the store.

To add to the festivities yesterday, Whole Foods provided an ice cream social. Here are the kids lined up in anticipation.

Kids line up for ice cream

Mostly the kids sat together to chat with old friends.

Finn wanted to be alone ... with his ice cream

But Finn was very serious and wanted to sit alone. He does not take ice cream lightly.

Finn enjoys his ice cream

Then they even had a scavenger hunt for the kids — they each got a reusable bag and instructions to find items throughout the store, which they got to take home.

Cindy explains the scavenger hunt

Here’s Finn getting his bag checked by Cindy after he finished the hunt.

Finn gets his bag checked after the hunt

Of course, most of the items were quickly consumed by ravenous kids but we did manage to take a few items home.

All in all it was a fabulous event, which made me happy as I was Fundraising Co-Chair last year and will head up the Fundraising team in the Fall. So, get your checkbooks ready — I’ll be hitting you up to buy apples in September!

Weekend Fun

We had a good (and busy) weekend which included a visit from Grandpa Bill and Grandma Therese. The kids were in heaven. Finn, in particular, talked their ears off. Here they are at lunch.

Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa

I neglected my photographer duties, but if I get some more photos from Grandpa I’ll add some.

Also this weekend, Ezra discovered he can read the comics … well, some of them. I’m not so sure it’s a good thing, but I did enjoy how much he and Finn were entertained by them at breakfast.

Reading the comics

Late Sunday afternoon, Bruce was feeling the need for an activity with the boys and decided on an “experiment” with the big lens and some newspaper. Boys and their fires.

Boys make fire

On top of this, Bruce finished one more project for the house – adjustable shelves for the office closet.

Adjustable shelves!

They rock! And now we can actually see the floor in the office!

Office organization

How to Completely Wear Out Four Children

Start by sending three of them to school, two for their last day of Kindergarten and one for 4-1/2 hours at Cottage. Make sure no one has a nap.

Then provide six hours of constant play including …

Sand.

Sand!

Water.

Oops!

Ruby's slide

Cold!

And playing school.

Playing class

Not to mention, swinging, bike riding, scootering, playing house, etc.

It is advised to provide snacks, preferably on floating tables.

Snack time

Make sure they have plenty of time to formulate and execute plans.

Then feed them dinner and drive them around until they pass out in the car. Voila!

Field Trip #2

Ezra’s second Kindergarten field trip happened this Monday — a trip to Mother’s Beach in Long Beach. This one Finn could go to as well, so I pulled him out of Cottage summer camp for the day and we headed for the beach. It was a little crazy because it included all of the Aveson students in Kindergarten through second grade — about 200 kids — plus many siblings and a whole lot of parents and teachers.

The beach is great for little kids — very calm waters and a large sandy area, plus a grassy area (where we had a picnic) and a park with play structures. The kids had a blast. Here’s a brief slideshow of my pictures.

Random Cuteness

I’ve been woefully slow at blogging this month but I’m trying to catch up. Here are some random shots.

Finn at Cottage last week on the day I worked. He liked that giant helmet for about 2 minutes.

Ready to ride

The boys trying on their new goggles and showing off their aqua racers. I got them for our trip but they couldn’t wait to try them out.

Goggles and aqua racers!

Finn’s garb one morning last week when we took Ezra to school — a Batman cape and his umbrella because it was sprinkling.

Finn walking Ezra to school

The boys riding a pink motorcycle at the mall.

Fierceness on the pink motorcycle

Finn fell asleep at the dinner table Sunday night. He must have needed the extra rest — he slept from 5:15 that evening until 6:15 the next morning. Wish I could do that.

Sleepy Finn

Be Free!

Yesterday, it was time to say goodbye to our little ones. No, not the boys — the tadpoles and toads that have graced our dining room table for the last couple of months. We’d all become attached to them, but I was grateful when Ezra and Finn agreed to Bruce’s plan to take them back to the Arroyo this weekend since they’d balked at the idea a few weeks ago. Finn said that now the tadpoles could make friends and get married, since they’d find other tadpoles that weren’t in their family. I’m not sure where he learned that concept.

Anyway, we loaded them up in the van for their final trip.

Bye!

And took them here.

The big picture

I skipped out on this trip, but Bruce enlisted some friends — Cari with Ruby and Chapin and Jon with Kai and Caleb.

What on earth possessed them to do this I’ll never know, but Ezra, Finn and Ruby jumped in that gross water and started dragging out the algae.

Ezra, Ruby and Finn gathering more algae

Ezra's in heaven

Yuck

They eventually had this giant haul.

Giant haul

Kai and Caleb preferred to play on the shore.

Kai and Caleb on the shore

And Chapin caught a lot of toads.

Chapin, super toad collector

Here’s a video to show the toads. Bruce said it was hard to really get them because they would scatter when he got near. It’s hard to believe there were more than this.

Even though I didn’t get to go on this trip, I felt like I was there thanks to Cari’s awesome texts and pictures while they were there. Here’s a sampling:

“Our kids r going 2 come down w algae disease. They’re in heaven!”

Algae

“U might want to toss ur plastic containers. I’m just sayin’.” (They went right in the trash when the boys got home. Yuck.)

And my favorite: “Half step from Lord of the Flies.” I was on a nice walk up in Altadena when I got that one and laughed out loud.

All in all, it was a successful — if gross — trip. And my dining room is now tadpole free.

Bruce as Kindergarten Guest Speaker

Every Wednesday, the Aveson Kinders are treated to a guest speaker, usually a student’s mom or dad, sometimes a grandparent. The talks vary widely — they’ve had a veterinarian, an actor, a high school teacher, a special effects guy, a doctor, a coin collector, a rock star, and many more. This week, much to Ezra’s delight, was Bruce’s turn.

First, here’s the audience (46 or so Kindergartners).

The audience: 46 kindergarteners

He started off by talking a bit about Mars and showing, with his helpers, the size difference between Earth (the blue balloon) and Mars (the red one). Finn’s holding a Mars globe on loan from JPL’s outreach office.

Mars/earth size difference

Ruby helped to demonstrate how far apart Earth and Mars are.

Ruby assists

He brought some things to pass around, including a wheel just like the ones on the Mars Exploration Rovers.

Rover wheel

Turns out, Kindergartners aren’t really able to pass cool things around AND pay attention, so after a short bout of chaos it was decided they could look at those things later.

After watching the video of the MER launch and landing on Mars, he started talking about how the JPL engineers communicate with the rovers and how the rovers send data back to Earth. He talked about using something like a megaphone to broadcast data and a “big ear” to hear the whisper from outer space. Here’s the big ear. (He was listening to Ezra’s whisper from across the room but I was too distracted by one child losing a tooth and another child having a bloody nose — within minutes of each other — to remember to take a picture of Ezra. I swear, I don’t know how his teachers keep their sanity.)

Big ear

After the communication portion of the talk, he told them a little about the math he uses for his job. He told them that math is used to figure out how the world works, especially when you can’t do an experiment to figure something out. As an example, he showed them how to calculate how much water would fit into a glass. Then, to demonstrate his confidence in the math, he had one of Ezra’s teachers (Ms. Jessica — the math and projects teacher) pour 500 ml of water into a cup on his head.

Jessica assists

But, of course, he’d switched the glass out for a smaller one and got drenched when it overflowed.

Oh no!

The kids were cracking up.

That was funny

“So what went wrong?” he asked.

What went wrong?

One little girl shouted out, “It was the wrong glass!”

And they all watched in anticipation as he poured 500 ml of water into the correct glass. Math prevails!

Math prevails!

After a brief question and answer period, his time was up.

Questions

The kids split up into their blue or purple groups and went on about their day.

Workin’ at the Car Wash

When Mom’s in charge of washing the cars, the boys’ feet stay firmly planted on the ground.

Car wash

When Papa’s in charge, not so much.

Clean car

No standing! Oy.

No standing!

Sunday Morning Hike

We took the boys up part of the Altadena Crest Trail on Sunday — a short loop starting around Mt. Curve/Maiden Lane and ending up at Lake/Loma Alta. The beginning is an old road that passes by the backyards of the neighborhood houses (including our gardener, Vivien’s house). At one point, there is a rock sculpture that the boys thought was pretty cool. Bruce decided to do some “repair” work and put some rocks back that had fallen.

Rock formation

As he touched things, of course, more rocks fell. Ezra got a little worried and asked Bruce to STOP!

Stop!

Along the path, someone has put a swing which both boys enjoyed.

Swinging

Swinging

This is the only real climb — which is a good thing because Finn was about done at this point.

Hiking

All in all, this hike was very successful and just the right length for little Moision tolerance levels.

June Jubilee

The Saturday fun continued at Aveson’s June Jubilee. Sadly, I have only one picture — Ezra, Finn, Ruby and Chapin cracking confetti eggs. A perennial favorite.

Confetti eggs

Fun at the Heliport

The Pasadena Police had an open house at their heliport on Saturday and the boys and I had to check it out. Mostly, they had just been acting crazy at home and with Bruce busy relocating the sprinkler system, I had to get out of the house. We got to see a few helicopters, Pasadena’s SWAT strike vehicle (who knew we had one?!?), and two simulated arrests. Here are the boys in the SWAT truck.

In the SWAT truck

And here is the calm before the storm of the second simulation — cops pulling over a truck and calling in the K-9 unit for backup. Very exciting. And scary.

Watching the simulated arrest

More pictures and a story here.

Tour of California 2011

We met Bob, Vanessa and Thomas today in Thousand Oaks to see the final stage of the Tour of California. It was a much-needed fun day after a tough week.

We got a spot not too far from the finish line. The cyclists rode five laps around so we got to see a good bit of riding. Here are Ezra and Finn anxiously awaiting their arrival.

Anxiously awaiting the cyclists

Finn is an avid Team Radioshack fan. Obviously.

Avid fan

These were the leaders in the first lap, although there was at least one rider ahead of these guys but my iPhone camera was a little too slow to catch him.

The first lap leaders

Thomas wore his helmet the entire day which caused a lot of smiles from the other onlookers. Here he is with Ezra waiting for the final lap.

Ezra and Thomas wait

And here’s a video of the peloton riding past us in a blur and their support cars. I liked the Jelly Belly car at the end the best.