Finn’s Tomato

Finn wanted some dessert after dinner tonight but we didn’t have anything. So he started throwing out ideas: Z-Bar (no), frozen yogurt tube (no) … and finally “how about a tomato?” Well, I can’t really argue with that, especially from the boy who never met a carb he didn’t like. He usually likes to snack on cherry or grape tomatoes but I only had Roma tomatoes. That was fine with him.

Finn tomato 2

Finn tomato 1

Weekend Away

We’re finally done with Spring Break and both kids are healthy enough for school — just in time for my one weekend available to sneak away and recover from the last few months. Thanks to Jamma, my friend Cari and I spent a lovely, relaxing couple of days at her condo in Palm Springs. We sat by the pool and read books for hours on end with no one to take care of but ourselves. It was wonderful. How could it not be with this view?

My view

My three boys had a great weekend, too. They hit the carnival at the local Catholic church down the street and ate too much bad food and went on some rides. Kid paradise.

Rocket men

This roller coaster was “a little scary” according to Ezra. He looks kind of petrified in the picture.

"It was a little scary"

And they built, among other things, this wine cork and tape launch pad.

Tape and wine cork launch pad

A good time was had by all.

Sick Finn Week

Last week was Sick Finn Week. It started with a fever the previous Thursday night — nothing too high (around 102) but I never gave it much of a chance to get any higher on account of the whole febrile seizure incident a year ago. The fever stuck around over the weekend and by Monday he was still coughing and full of green goopiness. As a coincidence it was time for his annual checkup on Tuesday, so the doc prescribed some antibiotics to combat the rattling in his lungs and the yellow stuff in his ears.

But, without the fever his spirits were up. He enjoyed the hearing test and looked pretty cute doing it.

Hearing test at 5 yr checkup

Other than the infection, he’s a normal growing boy: he gained almost 6 pounds bringing his current weight to 50.6 and he grew just shy of 3 inches bringing him to 43.25 inches. He got a TB test for Kindergarten, which didn’t bother him at all, and a finger prick for a blood test that caused him to melt into a pool of tears. He was so distraught he didn’t even want the sticker the nurse offered him.

He finally recovered some time in the middle of our trip to Target to get his medicine. We went on to spend the rest of the week where we’d spent the previous few days, with his sick friend Charlie.

Here they are at our Thursday lunch date. They look terribly sick, right?

Umbrella fun

And so it was back to school for them on Friday. All is right with our little world again.

Sunday Morning

I took an early-ish walk this morning and was struck by all the beautiful flowers. It’s definitely Spring. I could have taken 50 pictures, but instead, I took just one of this monkey flower that I really love.

Altadena monkey flower

I got home and at the end of breakfast Ezra said, “Mommy, come quick! You have to see this! It’s an E!” His corn flakes had apparently spontaneously made an E.

Ezra found an E in his corn flakes

Pictures from the Week

A few random things this week. Finn got some Darth Vader stuff for his birthday and took some time to show it off. First, his new shirt.

Finn shows off his new shirt

Then the helmet.

Darth Finn

On Wednesday we had a park play date that turned into dinner at the Heffs (with the Smiths) and then a group bath with Holden, Avery, Charlie and Finn. And Barbie.

Bath time

Charlie and Finn cozied up on the couch after the bath.

Finn and Charlie cozy up

On Thursday we did some chalk drawing on the driveway. Lucy drew a rainbow and a butterfly (I tried to get her in action but wasn’t fast enough).

Lucy's rainbow

Ezra drew the Titanic.

Ezra's chalk Titanic

And then got out the big lens so he could try lighting some stuff on fire. Yes, it’s a cigarette butt; he found it in the grass next door.

Ezra burning something on the driveway

Yeah, boys and girls are different.

Mallets

We didn’t have enough mallets for the woodworking class on Friday, so Bruce made some. (Note to Jamma, he used some of your dad’s wood.) I thought they looked very cool all lined up when they were drying.

Bruce's mallets

Yesterday, Finn got one out of the garage and was playing with it while we were sitting on the front porch. He was pretending to be Thor.

"Mommy, I want to be Thor"

Woodworking Class 2

We had the second woodworking class / potluck yesterday and another good time was had by all. The task for this class was a little more complicated — the kids were to draw something on a piece of wood and then use chisels and mallets to carve it out. Here’s Bruce demonstrating the technique. (He makes it look much easier than it is.)

Bruce explains

Bruce explains

Then the kids started working.

Class

With 90 degree heat, a more difficult project, and even more kids than last time, things were a little more chaotic and some kids lost interest. But in the end they all ended up carving, sanding and painting their projects. Here is Ezra’s E F. (He said he tried to make a plus mark but ran out of room.) Ezra did his completely on his own.

Ezra's E F

Here’s Finn’s. He had a little more help.

Finn's F

After the class we had dinner.

Dinner

And more chaos ensued.

Chaos

The kids loved the slingshots left over from Finn’s party. Here Finney and Ashlyn push (or rather pull) the surgical tubing to the limit.

Slingshotting

Slingshotting

Ian and Jenner took a few tries, too.

Father and son slingshotting

Some kids took some time to dig in our garden-to-be.

Kids like to dig

And there was a water balloon war.

Bruce makes more water balloons

Basically it was everyone against Ian and Rob. But they held their own, in part due to a great hiding spot.

The insurgents

At the end, most of the kids were soaked and exhausted … but still smiling.

Cottage

It’s possible that I’ve worked my last shift at Cottage. But we’ll see. We are on the schedule for one more shift as snack parent (which Bruce says he’ll take), but we also have two Alternate shifts. Hopefully the odds will be ever in my favor.

Anyway, I decided to take a bunch of pictures during my shift on Monday.

Finn

This pack of kids (Finn, Charlie, Marietta and Ollie) had some meetings before they ran around for a while.

Meeting

Meeting

Holden’s little brother, Avery, got in on the Rainforest action.

Avery

Finn and Ollie built a structure inside. They were very proud.

Finn and Ollie and their building

Finn, Charlie and Kai dug this hole for about an hour.

Busy boys

Then it was music time. Teacher Art tried desperately to regain some control over the situation, which was apparently total chaos on Friday.

Music time

Finn kind of zoned out.

Finn zones out at music time

And I took this picture when I was parking my car across the street in front of Arlington Gardens. The poppies were striking!

Poppies at Arlington Gardens

Stretch!

I pulled this gem off of Cottage’s Flickr page. It’s Finn, Holden, Charlie and Kai stretching before going to the Big Yard last December. What a bunch of cuties.

Finn & friends stretch before going into the big yard

Finn’s 5th Birthday Party

Finn’s birthday party this year was a large (19 out of 21 classmates plus siblings) and successful affair with an Angry Birds / Ninjago theme. We had two Bruce-made slingshots and water balloons in the Angry Birds area.

Angry Birds

And an arsenal of cardboard (also Bruce-made) Ninjago weapons for the dads … er kids to decorate.

Ninjago weapons decorating

We also had a nice spread of food, including Angry Bird, King Pig and Ninja food. (Yes, that is a plate full of bacon. And yes, it was gone by the end of the party.)

Spread

We also had an oobleck table, an Angry Birds Pig piƱata, and of course, there were cupcakes. The kids ran around like crazy people. Some of the time the adults got to relax and visit. Here’s the birthday boy with his Ninjago sword.

Finn

And here’s a slideshow of the rest of the pictures.

Party Prep (Moision Style)

We’re preparing for Finn’s 5th birthday party tomorrow. We’re expecting 25-30 kids (Finn insisted on inviting his entire class) and Bruce has had all sorts of nutty ideas. It’s gonna be crazy.

Party Prep
(Ninjago weapons prep)

Party Prep

Party supplies
(party supplies)

Happy 5th Birthday, Finn!

My sweet baby Finn turns five today.

Baby Finn

We had a morning celebration as is becoming our tradition. First, Ezra read the card he made.

Ezra reads Finn his card

Then they opened some presents.

Ezra's present for Finn

Wookie card

Ninjago Lego

And we had cake.

Birthday morning cake

Blowing out the candles

Cake!

Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

Big 5 year old

Wednesday Morning Hair

We had some pretty awesome morning hair today, so I had to take pictures. Of course, the boys had to goof off but you get the idea.

Finn’s Alfalfa ‘do.

Finn's morning hair

Ezra as Edward Cullen.

Ezra's morning hair

Easter 2012

We had a very laid back Easter (as usual) with the boys just happy to run around outside, work in the garage with Bruce, and later in the afternoon start readying the area in the way back for our vegetable garden. When I came out to empty the compost bowl about 4:00, this is what I saw.

Crazy boy

Burying Finn

Wait, who’s supervising the boys?!? Oh, right …

Who's in charge here?

After a good soaking in the shower, the boys were ready and anxious for cousin Thomas (and Bob and Vanessa) to arrive. Vanessa and Bruce set to studying their Physics (they’re taking an online class together) and all three boys just played and played.

Three Moisions playing

After dinner we had a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard. I tried to get pictures of all three boys at the start, but couldn’t quite make it happen.

Crazy poses

Ready, set, go!

Here are some shots from the hunt.

Looking for eggs

Looking for eggs

Thomas got one

Finn finds one up on the ladder

Since the eggs were all filled with candy, the boys then got sugared up while watching Tom & Jerry cartoons. And so it was another very traditional Easter celebration.

That Crazy Bunny

The Easter Bunny visited our house overnight, much to the boys’ delight. Instead of just leaving the baskets out, the Bunny left notes taking them on a scavenger hunt. At first they weren’t sure if they were supposed to open the envelope.

The first note

But finally they got into the swing of things.

"Let's open it!"

And set to decoding the message.

Go to ... the bathroom?

Clue #1 took them to the white bathroom.

Clue #2

Clue #2 showed the fireplace — tricky because the next clue was behind the screen.

That crazy bunny was in the fireplace!

Clue #3 sent them to the gnome. Apologies for the blurry photography; it was quite early.

Clue #4 behind the gnome

Clue #4 had them upstairs in the office.

In the computer?

And the final clue …

What does it say???

… outside on the upstairs patio for the big payoff!

The payoff out on the balcony patio

What?!?

Happy boys

Then they went inside because it was a little chilly.

Happy boys

Note to self for next year: don’t leave the boys unattended with their Easter candy.