Author: Christy

We did some decorating over the weekend and I’m just now getting around to putting up some pictures. First up was the Christmas Tree shopping.

I was thinking … you know … a green tree would be good. The boys had another idea.

I won. And on the roof it went.

I got lots of help decorating it this year from Finn. Coincidentally, we had a record number of broken ornaments. Luckily, nothing precious.

These two are my favorites. No one touches them except me. This one is from Aunt Claire and is dated 1980 which sounds about right.

This one Janice gave me after my dad died and I inherited his old Rolleiflex, which I loved as a kid.

After a few hours, we were done.

Overnight Bruce put up my dad’s old train which delighted the boys in the morning.

They tried loading up some of their toys on it with varying success.

Sunday we focused on the outside and strung our eight strands of lights between the palm trees. It was another challenge of engineering and math but we made it.

This is my favorite picture of the bunch — a California Christmas.

Friday marked our last woodworking class of the year and it was a blast. This month’s project: Snake Sticks.

First, though, there was some pre-class goofing off while Bruce and Rob pulled things together.

We got started right on time at 4:00 because we knew we were going to lose light. The kids settled down to listen … sort of. Here’s a perfect contrast of the girls and boys during Bruce’s instruction.

But everyone figured out what they were supposed to do one way or another and started working. They had lots of good sticks to choose from. (Thanks especially to Laura for a great supply!)

Here are Amelia and Silvia shaping the heads of their snakes.

Ruby and Ezra, too.

Kai has great concentration.

Sofia chose to use the chisel instead of the rasp.

Finn decided not to make a snake. He just wanted to pass out masks. Safety first.

Next up: sawing the sticks into pieces. It’s a lot of sawing.

Next they needed to drill holes in all the pieces so they could string them back together. After eight classes, the kids are remarkably comfortable using the drills!

With kids at all stages of the project, it was a busy garage!

The last step was to assemble the snake by threading it together with string and beads.

Everyone was finished by about 6:00 and dinner and play time followed. Most of the adults sat around chatting and testing out the various bottles of wine (of which I have no pictures) but Bruce spent most of the evening playing with the kids. My pictures don’t do the scene justice — the kids love him.

Here’s Ezra’s final product. I was happy to see him so engaged in this project, especially since the sawing and drilling were kind of difficult.

I took a lot more photos, so I’m including them all here in a slideshow. What a fun class!

We got the boys’ school pictures back yesterday. While the individual ones are a little painful — would someone please teach these kids how to fake smile?!? — the class pictures are adorable.

Yesterday the boys participated in the fundraising jog-a-thon at school and I went to take some pictures. First up were the Kindergarten classes.

The kids did a combo of running and walking and got their hand stamped with each lap. Here’s Finn going in for a stamp.

He did ten laps.

After 20 minutes they stopped and were handsomely rewarded with popsicles.

The first and second graders were up next. Ezra did not seem to be enjoying himself; he walked around the field, spitting water from his water bottle. Charming.

He doesn’t seem quite as miserable here.

Friends were having a better time. Jack:

Lucy:

Ruby:

Of course, these pictures were taken on the first couple of laps. They looked much less happy after 20 minutes of running. Here’s Amelia, for instance. She did 21 laps!

Finally the running time was over and the big kids got popsicles, too. Finally, Ezra was happy.

And here’s a row of second graders resting up after their hard work.

Since we were entrenched in remodeling this time last year, yesterday marked our first big holiday hosting gig since moving into our new house. It was a pleasure to cook in the new kitchen and fun to host this very Moision holiday. All seven cousins were together which will liven up any party. The food — a group effort — was delicious and a good time was had.

Such a good time, in fact, that I neglected to take any pictures. Well, I have one from early in the morning when Bruce was prepping the turkey. Finn thought it was hysterical that “Papa is touching a very, very, very fat turkey!”

It turns out, though, that my favorite little documentarian was taking pictures I didn’t know about. When I mentioned that I hadn’t taken any, Finn said, “I took pictures!” He had apparently walked around with an iPhone and taken a bunch. I will say that his vantage point is not always flattering, especially the picture of my backside (which, obviously, will not be published here). So, without further ado, here is Thanksgiving 2012 from Finn’s perspective.

Alek working on the nearly impossible wooden puzzle from Belize.

The table all set and almost ready for diners (more chairs needed).

Finn’s selfie.

Uncle Nick playing with Winston, perhaps the cutest puppy ever.

Uncle Bob’s bike.

Ezra and Grandpa Bill using their electronics.

Alek and the little cousins working on the stomp rockets.

I think he took about 50 pictures; these were the least blurry and most flattering of the bunch.

Later, I took a photo from my perspective — laying on the couch contemplating getting up to get some Advil. The boys were playing with the little bug Bob had brought.

And even later, Ezra found a new sleeping spot.

Yes, he’s in the hall closet. It all started when Bruce pretended that Ezra, Finn and Thomas were folding chairs and put them away with the other chairs. The boys thought it was hysterical. Ezra also thought it would be a comfy place to sleep. And so he set up his bed. Stuffed animals and all.

UPDATE! Grandpa Bill took some pictures and sent them to me today! Here’s some pre-dinner running around in the backyard. I missed all of this since I was in the kitchen, but I’m so glad to see the kids were having fun out there!

Here’s the grownups table.

And here’s our mini birthday celebration for Alek (13 next week) and Thomas (4 last week).

Mike, Carla and the girls are down in So Cal this week for a three day (!) visit to Disneyland. I would die, but they are true Disney fanatics and invited us to join them one of the days. So, yesterday the boys and I went to Disneyland! (Big shout out to my friend Jay who got us in for free saving me a gigantic amount of money!)

After a nice visit with Jay, our day started off with lunch since the Gottardis had skipped breakfast and my boys were starving as usual. Off to Tomorrowland we went.

Next up was the giant marble that the kids enjoyed pushing around.

Even though it was wet.

Since we were right there and it was time for Jedi training, we headed over to the stage to see what that was all about. Despite their best efforts, the boys did not get picked to be among the lucky few future-Jedis.

But we stayed to watch anyway and it was fun. Darth Vader showed up.

Then we went on perennial favorite It’s a Small World. The line moved quickly and the ride was fun, especially all done up for Christmas.

Autopia was the next ride on tap — luckily we had fast passes so we didn’t have too long a wait. Finn drove me; Ezra drove Uncle Mike.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was also a hit, although it took the boys a little time to get the hang of shooting the laser guns. Here they are listening to Buzz’s instructions.

After that we headed over to California Adventure to check out the new Cars Land. It didn’t disappoint — it was a great re-creation of the movie and the rides were fun. The lines were long though …

(I Instagrammed this photo because I thought it looked like a 1980s U2 cover.)

Here are a few pictures from the Mater tow truck spinning ride and Luigi’s tire ride. It’s hard to take pictures while you’re spinning, so excuse the blurriness.

We had dinner there and then waited in a very long line for the Soaring over California ride which is one of my all-time favorites. Everyone loved it and the boys said, repeatedly, that it was worth the hour-long wait.

Here are a couple of pictures of the cousins in front of the big Christmas tree.

It was a very fun, very long day that included a last minute trip to the Lego store at Downtown Disney and a near meltdown (on my part) trying to find the car. But eventually I made it home with two sleepy, happy boys.

We went to the Pasadena Waldorf School’s magical Elves’ Faire this weekend — my first time since I was not available to go with Bruce and the boys last year. It lived up to the hype — it is magical for children and your money disappears like magic, too! I didn’t take pictures of everything we did, but I got a few. First was this game that Ezra won best 2 out of 3.

Then there was jousting on zip line horses. Ezra:

And Finn:

Next Finn and Bruce played a giant game of Jenga.

It didn’t last very long.

Ruby and Rob played a LOT longer.

While they were still playing, we went and had ice cream (Carmela was there!), perused the map and planned the rest of our visit. Finally, Rob had had enough and pulled the plug, so to speak.

After Jenga we roamed around and did lots of other activities — fishing, digging for treasure, food, crafts, etc. We also saw a ton of other Pasadena-area families we know which was fun. And then we were off to the next event — Finn’s soccer party. More on that in a bit.

I have a few extra photos that don’t fit in anywhere but I thought I’d share them anyway. This first one is Ezra after grabbing a couple of books from our little library and finding a cozy spot to read.

Next, I took this one after voting in the presidential election last week. I just like how the sun is streaming in. It was a total photographic accident.

On Friday night, with Bruce out of town on a hike, I took the boys out to dinner and let them order the (turns out — huge) $1 sundaes. They were in heaven.

After a couple of chilly days here, we decided to have our first fire of the season last night. The boys helped by throwing paper airplanes into it.

Aveson is switching up their conference/celebration of learning schedule this year to give parents earlier feedback on how kids are doing. So, last Thursday we had the first of two Student Led Conferences where the boys took us around their classrooms to show us their work and introduce us to the new Mastery Learning Portfolio assessment tool. I’ll feel better about the assessments in the coming weeks when I can view them from home as neither of my boys was patient enough to let me read through several pages of “I can” statements. But I did thoroughly enjoy seeing them in their classrooms showing off their work and skills. Here’s Finn doing the puff ball sort job.

And some of the math he’s been working on. I love his three bears.

His skull from Dia de los Muertos was hanging up.

And some evidence of Kindergarten science.

After the first session with Finn, Bruce, who had been with Ezra, and I switched up and I got to see Ezra’s advisory. Here’s all the stuff we were meant to do.

Ezra was very focused on getting to all of it (and did not appreciate any interruptions from me). He did get a little distracted by his friends’ conferences at times, but that’s par for the course. After making sure we logged out properly from the online assessment system, he read me a page from his Moomintroll book.

And showed me the quilt project he made.

Obviously, his trip to Legoland in September is still having a huge impact.