“Camping”

Bruce set up the tent on the balcony Friday night so the boys could do some camping. Here’s what it looked like from the backyard.

Camping

And here Bruce and Finn discuss logistics.

Camping

Bruce was going to sleep with them but Ezra stole his cot so only the junior Moisions ended up in the tent. They fell asleep pretty quickly with no shenanigans (but an hour after regular bedtime), but they woke up (and woke us up, of course) at 5:30. Ouch.

Carnival!

No, we didn’t go to that Carnival (although Ezra now dreams of going to Rio since seeing the movie). On Saturday I took the boys to Sierra Madre Community Nursery School’s annual Spring Carnival and they had a blast. They played some kids’ carnival games like the ball toss.

Ball toss

And the sucker toss (tossing rings onto suckers).

Sucker toss

They really liked this bouncy slide.

Bouncer

Bouncer

Bouncer

But they mostly liked eating sno-cones and cotton candy. And, of course, smashing the confetti eggs. Ezra had a crocodile technique.

Confetti eggs

Confetti eggs

But mostly they just tried to get as much confetti on each other (and me) as possible.

Confetti eggs

Confetti eggs

Change

Goodbye sporty and fun.

Goodbye Mini

Hello roomy and practical.

Hello minivan

Happy Birthday, Jamma!

We made you a card, but not in time to mail it. So here’s the next best thing …

Everyone say "Jamma!"

And a video of them explaining it.

Much love from all the Moisions! We hope you had a great day!

Easter

We spent the afternoon of Easter at Bob and Vanessa’s, where we had a delicious dinner and Vanessa saved my unprepared butt by providing baskets, egg dyeing and an egg hunt for the kids.

Finn got a new fire truck for his birthday; here he and Thomas bond, sort of, over trucks.

Fire trucks

Egg dyeing.

Egg dyeing

At dinner, Thomas cracked me up by man-handling some lamb. I think he liked it.

Thomas enjoys the lamb

Then came the egg hunt and all three boys started inhaling sugar. Thomas liked the jelly beans.

There's candy!

Ezra and Finn showed Papa and Uncle Bob what they’d collected (always a dangerous proposition as the older Moisions enjoy sugar, too).

Showing off their loot

Ezra made quick work of his chocolate bunny.

Ezra devours the bunny

And then we hit the road with two little boys jibber-jabbering the whole ride home.

Meanwhile Back at Home …

… I had two days to fill with the Moision junior hooligans. Friday was a pretty standard school day, but Saturday we needed an activity. So, we took a trip to the local “wilderness” of Kidspace. Here Ezra plucks a plastic lemon from the stream.

Ezra gets the lemon

The lemon provided about an hour of entertainment; Finn especially was very interested in putting it at the top of the stream and watching the current carry it down. Here he points out where it is.

Get it!

He originally was waiting for Ezra to help but finally rolled up his pants and waded in himself. He was very proud of his catch.

The prized lemon

They also like this water gun drum contraption.

Finn's happy place

And Ezra did a little archaeology.

Archaeology

Then we got to have Finn’s pre-departure meltdown followed by him passing out in the car about two seconds after I started the engine. A successful trip!

Mulch!

We got a mulch delivery this week. It’s a LOT of mulch.

Mulch!

And it’s hot and steaming.

Wow

First thing Ezra did when he saw it was climb right up on top.

Didn't take long for Ezra to climb the mulch pile

First thing Bruce did? Yep, you guessed it.

King of the pile

They are two peas in a pod.

Weekend Warriors

Over the weekend, Bruce finished building Finn’s shelf for his closet (actually, this time he’s building two units so they are easier to maneuver into the closet). The boys got to paint, which they love.

Ezra rollers

Finn paints

And use the shop vac, which they love even more.

Finn vacuums

Ezra vacuums

Here they are conferring over whose turn it is.

Discussion

This Weekend in Busytown

We had one of those weekends that seemed to be over before it started and kept us moving the whole time. After a long week of 12+ hour days (including working on his supposed day off Friday), Bruce was itching to get the shelf for Finn’s closet put together, so he worked in the garage for most of the day. The boys were pretty good about playing while I made some preparations for Finn’s upcoming birthday party.

By Saturday afternoon, frustration was running high — Bruce because the shelf was not coming together as nicely as he had planned and me because, well, 12+ hour days for Bruce mean the same for me and I was needing a break from the madness. Bruce decided to take the boys off my hands and get started on our vegetable garden. It meant he got to use his tiller, which makes him happy. Finn helped out with the digger.

Bruce finally gets to use his tiller again

The ground was pretty well prepared by Sunday, but we had a native garden tour to go to (trying to get more ideas for our yard) and our friends Rob and Juliet had given us their tickets to the Angel game so we had a busy day ahead. The garden tour was really good; the last house, in particular, was spectacular. The boys were not all that interested, but they did find some entertaining things. Finn made himself right at home at this house in La Canada, for instance.

Finn makes himself at home

Then we were off to Anaheim for the game. The seats were great!

Great seats!

Ezra and Finn don’t know much about baseball, but they did enjoy the peanuts and ice cream.

Finn likes peanuts

Ice cream at the game

When asked if they had fun at the game, Ezra replied, “Yes! The ice cream was so yummy!”

When we got home, I took off for Trader Joe’s and the boys started working in the garden. They had to put up a little fence as a reminder that there are plants trying to grow.

Starting the vegetable garden

By the time I got back, they had planted everything and made signs where the seeds were. These are Ezra’s signs.

Ezra's signs

And this one is Finn’s (it says Radish). He hasn’t really written letters before, so this is very exciting!

Finn's sign -- Radish

Ezra was also hard at work on a mud pie.

Ezra's mud

Once the pie was formed, he gathered sawdust from the driveway to use as sprinkles.

Gathering "sprinkles"

Ezra makes Finn a mud pie (with sprinkles)

He was making a cake for Finn.

The Occasional Vegetarian

Finn has been going meatless lately, except for hotdogs and chicken nuggets. Actually, even those items haven’t been a big hit recently. Tonight I fixed dinner for the boys separately — and quickly — and so they ended up with apples, carrots and chicken nuggets. Here’s my pre-dinner conversation with Finn.

Finn: What’s for dinner?

Me: Chicken nuggets, because I think you still like those, right?

Finn: Yeah, I like chicken nuggets. I don’t like plain chicken [long pause] without the nugget part.

He went on to ask me if it was called “nugget” or “nuggin” and then told me to stop laughing at him. I couldn’t help myself; he’s just so damn cute.

In an unrelated story, Ezra lost his third tooth today. I hope the tooth fairy remembers to come tonight.

Two Boosters

My little people are growing up way too fast. We now have two matching booster seats.

Two boosters

And superheroes to fill them.

Superheroes

Spring Break, Day 3

My energy is waning this afternoon and I’m pounding the caffeine while the boys play with the new Dirt Devil hand-held vacuum. We managed to make it to Trader Joe’s this morning and then came back to wait for the wrought iron guy to bring our new fireplace screen in for some measurement and adjustment.

Later, we discovered a couple of woodpeckers apparently making a nest in the palm tree. They climb all the way in the holes they’ve created which is kind of funny.

Woodpeckers in the tree

And the boys “helped” Vivien do some gardening.

Gardening with Vivien

Ezra picks some lavender for me

We’ll be looking for an outside activity tomorrow …

Spring Break, Day 2

Busier day today as we ventured out with the Bannings to the Science Center. Here are some of our activities.

Finn fished.

Finn fishes

Ezra and Ruby raced boats.

Ezra and Ruby race boats

Chapin knocked down some walls.

Chapin gets ready to knock down walls

Finn and Ruby made waves.

Ruby and Finn make waves

Ezra gardened.

Ezra gardens

Later, Alex and Kyan came over for a play date and Ezra and Kyan bonded over the iPad.

Ezra and Kyan

Best Quote Ever

On the way to our outing this morning, Ezra and Finn had a pretty great conversation:

Finn: Ezra, do you want to be a worker when you grow up?

Ezra: No.

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Ezra: A dad. Because then I don’t have to do anything.

There may have been more to the conversation, but I’m going to leave it at that.

Spring Break, Day 1

For the last few years, I’ve heard my friends with older kids talk about their excitement when Spring Break or any other school break rolls around. As a parent with kids in a co-op preschool for a max of three days a week, three hours a day, and at least two work days a month, the breaks were torture. My precious few hours were gone! But, now that I have Ezra in kindergarten and he’s gone from 8:10 to 2:45 everyday, I completely understand my friends’ sentiment — I was really looking forward to the break. We’ll see how I feel at the end of two weeks.

So, today was Day 1. After watching a couple of shows (a treat they never get on school days), they played in their room for a couple of hours, shooing me away when I suggested we go on an outing.

Happy playing in their room

We had a picnic on the front lawn for lunch. Here Ezra takes a rest before tackling his quesadilla.

Picnic in the front yard

Then they discovered that Ezra can lift Finn. No small feat since Finn actually weighs more. (This is Finn giving Ezra a “Finn Hug” — one of my favorite things in the world.)

Finn gives Ezra a "Finn hug"

Here’s a video of “The Finn Lift.”

I finally tore them away from the house for an impromptu play date at a neighbor’s house. There was mud involved.

Three peas in a pod

We walked home muddy, wet and happy. Finn refused to wear his clothes any longer.

Running home from Owen's

And finally, their new swim shirts arrived so they had to wear those for a while.

New swim shirts

And practice their swimming.