The boys made some great crafts at camp yesterday; I quickly snapped a few pictures when we got home before they had a chance to destroy them.
Finn made a drum.
And a picture frame.
He drew a picture of him and Charlie but it didn’t fit into the frame. (I’m not sure what all the extra limbs are about.)
Ezra made a box.
And, my favorite of the day, this toilet paper roll penguin.
The boys started summer camp this week and are having a blast. No photography is allowed at the camp, so I have no pictures to share, but rest assured that at the end of the day after the last “campfire” meeting they stagger up the hill like a couple of drunks, filthy, exhausted and [relatively] full of stories. There’s swimming, hiking, frisbee, Star Wars and water wars, crafts, camp songs, etc. The camp’s website says “the #1 rule is to have fun.” I think it’s working.
I love this picture of Finn enjoying his ice cream cone. We went to Baskin Robbins after the first day of camp.
One morning this week the boys asked Bruce to get the giant box of stuffed animals down from the closet. He did and Ezra and Finn proceeded to divvy up the contents.
I wasn’t really paying attention to their game because I was getting everything ready for them to go to camp. At one point, Ezra asked me what time we do books each night. Since our schedule is sort of a disaster as of late, I just threw out 7:00 but didn’t ask why he wanted to know. He confirmed that I meant 7:00 p.m. and went about his business. Later in the day, I found this sign he’d made and taped to their bedroom door.
He is such an enigma, that kid.
Ezra did a little chalk art on the gate in the backyard the other day. I thought it looked pretty cool.
He went back the next day to finish filling in where he’d colored some of the wrought iron.
Our garden is overrun with zucchini and yellow squash this year. We almost always have an excess of zucchini, but the yellow squash is more prolific this year than ever before. They’re gorgeous and delicious!
I think we’ll skip eating this one, but it sure looks cool. It was growing crooked but the split side was underneath, so I didn’t know it would look like this until I cut it off the plant.
Now if the tomatoes would start producing I’d be really happy!
One of the Aveson dads is a photographer who took great pictures of the class for 1900s Day. I’ve finally had a chance to scan them in and share them so here goes. Here’s Ezra with the old-fashioned telephone, which he loved.
And the lovely Ms. Thea looking very proper in her 1900s teacher garb.
And here’s the whole class.
Lastly, here is a picture of Ezra’s yearbook page where he filled in a few of the items. He lists 1900s Day as his favorite school event.
Bruce and I hosted book club this weekend. The book was Jerri’s pick: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague. Who doesn’t love a good plague book, right? Of course, this is our book club so only two people had finished reading it, two more were about three-quarters of the way through, one bought it but hadn’t started it, and two … well, let’s just move on.
Anyway, just because Bruce and I weren’t the two people who’d finished the book, doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with plague-themed food. Actually, the food wasn’t so much plague-related, but the effects were. Bruce made a delicious cioppino but served it with dry ice. Here are some pictures.
First, he had to work out what to put the dry ice in so as to not cool down the soup super fast or break the pot. Finn’s aluminum cup saved the day.
Here he is getting ready for table presentation.
And voila!
Later, he brought out a bowl of dry ice just to keep the mood going.
It’s really more impressive in video form, so here’s a 4-second video.
Towards the end of the evening we broke out a bottle of champagne to toast Craig (and the absentee Laura) on their recent engagement. The men-folk put dry ice in their champagne. Here’s Craig.
And Bren.
And, of course, Bruce.
I’m determined this year to have a little more structure to our summer. Not a lot, mind you, but I think some time each day to build up their skills is a good thing. To that end, I got them journals and these workbooks.
So far, so good — they’ve each been doing some of the activities. Finn is pretty enthusiastic about it.
Here’s his purple cow.
Ezra’s not so excited about the process, but today he did a few pages and also some IXL math on the computer. I’ll call that a success!
Yesterday was [finally!] our first day of summer vacation. They’ll be starting summer camp next week, so I decided to seize the opportunity of a free day to take the boys to the beach. We went to Mother’s Beach in Long Beach where the Aveson field trips have been, and we had some friends come along. The Nuccio/Dyes brought boogie boards which were a huge hit.
Here’s Finn and Gigi negotiating a ride.
Gigi won.
Ezra liked the boogie board, too.
Here are both boys. We may need to invest in some boogie boards.
After the beach I took the boys to my favorite pizza place, Domenico’s. I used to drive down all the time for their pizza, but it’s too much of a trek for us anymore. Luckily, it’s just down the street from Mother’s Beach! Mmmmmm … ground pepperoni pizza!
Thursday was Ezra’s last day of first grade and there was a potluck and celebration at school. First, the potluck.
The kids had to walk by the dessert table to get to the regular food. Ezra was in awe.
After he grabbed a few desserts, he did make his way over to the fruit and sandwiches.
And finally sat down to eat with his friend, Ben.
After lunch the kids went to recess and the adults cleaned up. At the end of recess the kids assembled on the rug to receive certificates and leis from Ms. Thea. All was going so well …
When it was Ezra’s turn, instead of walking up to Ms. Thea, he crawled up.
She asked him to stand, which he did. But then he crawled back to his place on the rug.
And then he hid under the table.
When it came time for a class photo, he hid in the back.
After a while he came out and jumped around. We got lucky in that toward the end all the kids got crazy and Ms. Thea told them to shout “Second Grade!” So, finally all the crazy matched Ezra’s crazy.
Wednesday after school, at Ezra’s insistence, we tried out the new Slip ‘N Slide. We invited his friend Jack and the boys had a blast.
At first, Finn and Jack were the only participants. (Ezra was upstairs building a train track with Jack’s little brother Theo.)
Finally Ezra joined in, too.
And here is my favorite shot of the day — Finn going end over end.
Finn and I had a few errands to run this morning, one of which was a trip to the bank. He likes to throw pennies in the fountain and make wishes. Today he sat for a while to contemplate his wish.
Finally, he decided. “I wish that Kindergarten starts soon so I can play with Ezra.”
It’s five months since our baby plants went into the ground and most of them are thriving. We’ve lost a few (monkey flower, in particular, seems to be very unhappy), but we have a variety of blooms and tons of growth. Here are a few shots of the front yard.
The boys made Bruce some gifts for Father’s Day. Finn did a couple of drawings.
And Ezra brought home lots of good stuff that he made at school.
And I made a blueberry buckle cake.
The boys had a lot going on this weekend, especially with Bruce home on Friday for his regular day off. First up was Finn’s robot, Robyo.
He and Bruce also made a blunderbuss.
And Ezra made wings and rocket boosters for his penguin, Pengladoo.
Then set him to flight.
