A few pictures from the week …
Meeting on the rocks.
Cookie ‘n milk dunking.
Finn at Cottage practicing his lightsaber technique while wearing his Obi Wan garb (AKA a brown much-too-small sweatshirt he recently discovered in his cubby).
Ezra’s Friendship Day folder full of cards from his classmates.
And the “cards” that he gave out — he also made one for Finn.
And finally, my Friday lunch date with Ezra while Finn was at Cottage. Yoda and Chewbacca came, too.
On Wednesday we had Ezra’s first Celebration of Learning for first grade. Last year there were three of these but they’ve cut it down to two this year, and we’ve been anxiously awaiting this first one.
We started in his Literacy classroom. He read to us from his journal.
Showed us the book he wrote about Belize.
His Important Poem — he wrote it about Finn (sniff, sniff).
And his quotes from the Caring & Courage bulletin board.
Over in the Math/Projects classroom, he showed us some jobs (this one is the Beaded Stairs Frame).
This one is the Listening Match (Bruce had a good time with it).
He brought out his folder (continuing the Angry Birds theme that runs throughout his life).
And he did a little math.
Little brother was quite cooperative during the festivities.
Ezra came home from school with a card for me this week. As far as I can tell, there’s no particular occasion which makes it even better.
We’ve been clearing out the guest room, which had doubled as a storage locker for all the kitchen stuff (and was generally just a repository for a bunch of other stuff we hadn’t put away). Among the things that needed to go down to the basement was Bruce’s old bag of hockey equipment. Finn saw the helmet and couldn’t resist.
The crazy thing is, it’s not that much too big for him.
I got a new Crock Pot on Friday and decided to try my hand at a hearty beef stew today. I have to say, it was delicious!
It was a all-day, all-in-the-family cooking day for us. The boys made bread.
Finn was a little sad that it didn’t take longer to stir.
It came out great.
We even had dessert — cinnamon coffee cake — which was a big hit.
Clearly, we are very happy to have our new kitchen!
Bruce wanted to have a fire tonight, so earlier today he and the boys cleaned out the fireplace. I was in the kitchen and didn’t realize what they were up to, when Ezra came in yelling, “Mommy, come quick! Do you want to communicate through the ash hole?” Needless to say, I had to go see what was going on.
Finn and Bruce took the outside job.
Ezra took the inside job. He was quite thorough, I might add.
I hope Ezra doesn’t get in trouble at school tomorrow when he uses his sharing time to talk about this activity.
Ezra and Finn were playing some sort of game the other day involving Angry Birds, their eggs (yellow cardboard building blocks which are put away in the larger box), and, of course, Ezra’s penguin, Mumble. They put everything in place and then demanded I take a picture.
Today they were pretty excited with the installation of the new grass in the backyard. Ezra was home from school with an ear infection and, apparently, some pretty bad wheezing, neither of which had any effect on his energy level. (He’s on antibiotics and an inhaler to try to clear things up.) As soon as Finn got home from school, the three Moision Jedis took to the backyard.
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hit with the broom.
After a couple of weeks of not a lot happening, we had some major progress in the backyard today. In fact, we’re all done except for a tiny patch of missing mulch.
We also got this lovely camellia (“Nuccio’s Gem”) to go in the newly empty corner planter area in the patio.
Here’s a close-up.
Finn was playing with his lightsaber yesterday and asked me to take some pictures. I used Instagram and he liked picking the filter to make the shot look different. He also liked naming the pictures.
“Jedi moves”
“Jedi master”
We took the boys to have dim sum in Chinatown over the weekend — something Ezra got to do a while back and he hasn’t stopped talking about it since. He couldn’t wait for Finn to try it. I had my doubts that my finicky four (and three-quarters) year-old would even take a bite, but he surprised me!
Ezra, of course, loved it again.
And they had a great time riding on the Metro as an added bonus.
They’ve also been enjoying the new chalkboard in the kitchen, as well as Bruce’s Star Wars drawings. It’s all Star Wars, all the time around here lately.
Last but not least, a couple of days ago they hunkered down in the dry pond in the front yard with a potato gun and some lightsabers.
I was at Cottage a little longer than usual this morning because I had a parent-teacher conference with Finn’s beloved Teacher Sahar until about 9:30. Good luck for me since it turned out it was fire truck day!
The kids loved seeing the firemen and, of course, their giant truck. They had one of the firemen put on the fire-fighting gear and then encouraged the kids to come closer for a better look.
At one point, the guy’s alarm went off — a safety mechanism I didn’t know about that alerts fellow fire fighters when one of them hasn’t moved in some amount of time.
It was kind of a loud alarm.
Finn spoke up during the question and answer period. The fireman had said earlier that in the event of the fire it’s best to be on the floor but not go under the bed. Finn pointed out that in an earthquake you are supposed to go under the bed — “Do you know …?” The fireman was impressed by his brilliance (“that’s a smart boy!”) and Sahar and I wanted to go squeeze him. But we didn’t.
A few shots from the weekend. Our Saturday morning snuggle time turned into a stuffed animal fest.
Later, the boys took the Magna-Tiles out to the front porch to build an airport for their paper airplanes (one of Ezra’s many obsessions).
Then came Water War.
Then the birds made an encore performance.
On Sunday we couldn’t take it any longer and because the cabinet guys were done with the kitchen we disassembled Camp Moision and put most of our stuff away in the new kitchen. Finn helped by cleaning all the shelves.
Ezra built Rokenbok Lego City this morning. He was very secretive while he was working on it, but once he was done he made a sign to make sure everyone would come see it.
Translation: Please enter. See Rokenbok and Lego City. It’s awesome!!! From Ezra. And remember see Rokenbok and Lego City!!! P.S. Lose your teeth!
Here’s his creation.
Lots of progress on the kitchen this week. We’re getting so close that it’s hard to be patient. This week, we got electricity and lights, as well as final cabinet fixes, knobs and drawer pulls.
Then on Thursday I oiled the soapstone to bring it to a lovely black with green highlights.
The painters came today and while they didn’t finish, they did get the ceiling done and they worked on the outside.
The walls look finished, but the window definitely needs another coat. Next up: appliances and plumbing fixtures should be installed on Monday.
In the yards, there wasn’t a ton of progress. We got mulch in the front yard which really gives it a nice, finished look.
We’re only waiting for the palo verde tree now; everything else is done in the front yard. The back yard is close too — Laramee brought plants this week and once he and Bruce confer they will be planted and we’ll get our lawn.
