Ezra’s Rio Dance

We had family movie night last night to watch Rio, which we’d seen in the theaters but was just released on DVD this week. This movie has changed Ezra’s life; he’s now a HUGE bird fanatic. And he loves samba. As evidenced by this covert video I took of him dancing to one of the songs in the movie last night.

God, I love this boy.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

We had one of those Sundays where we never left the house. Well, that’s not entirely true. The boys and I drove five minutes up the road to do a little hike with the Heffernans. Bruce stayed behind to work on the pegboard activity thingamabob for Ezra’s Kindergarten class. Wait a minute, you might be thinking, isn’t Ezra going into first grade? Why yes, yes he is. We’re a little behind on that project.

Anyway, post-hike we had some restless little boys running around, so I decided to get some water on the almost-dead lawn in the backyard and let the boys do their running through the sprinkler. Finn was in heaven.

Sprinkler!

He even did this little wiggly happy dance at one point.

Finn's wiggly walk 1

Finn's wiggly walk 2

Finn's wiggly walk 3

Finn's wiggly walk 4

Seriously, they were out there for hours. Ezra had his own technique.

Ezra's technique

They even … gasp … worked together sometimes instead of fighting.

Filling the bowl

They picked the pumpkins that had come up as volunteers from the compost and made sure to wash them off before bringing them in the house.

Washing pumpkins

And Ezra watered some of the other plants, too.

Watering

Meanwhile, Bruce sawed, glued and drilled.

Bruce drills

We’re getting there …

Pegboard activity for Kinder class

We just may finish this project yet.

Ezra’s Sign

Ezra was having a difficult time this morning — feeling too grown up to play with Finn and clearly needing something. After a little tussle with Finn, he stormed out of the room, feelings clearly hurt, and went up stairs to make a sign. This is what he came up with:

Ezra's sign

Allow me to translate: “Please do not enter! Or else Ezra will smack your butt.”

Sigh.

Chickens

Much to the delight of the kids, Aveson has chickens in their kindergarden yard. They asked for volunteers to care for the chickens during summer vacation and we signed up for a week. Ezra was thrilled; he has fallen in love with birds of all types lately. He couldn’t wait to get to the chickens; here they are in the coop.

In the coop

Ezra really wanted to pick one up.

"I want to pick up a chicken!"

Look at how happy he is!

Happy Ezra

Finn, on the other hand, alternated between excited and terrified by the chickens. Here he is after he finally worked up the nerve to pet one.

Finn works up the nerve to pet a chicken

Unfortunately they didn’t produce any eggs for us this week, but we all had a good experience and we definitely see a chicken coop in our backyard in the near future. We’ll get Bruce right on that.

On the Way Home

Here’s my conversation with Finn on the way home from Cottage today.

Finn: When we get home I want to go in the little pool.

Me: OK. I think we need a rest, though, because we’re getting haircuts at 4:00 and we have to go up and feed the chickens after that. It’s going to be a long afternoon.

Finn: It’s OK, I don’t need a nap. I can stay up that long.

Five minutes later …

"I don't need a nap."