Ezra

After the joy of Halloween candy, Ezra had to pay the piper and get his errant tooth extracted. It was a doozy that required oral surgery but he came through it like a champ. He looked a little worse for wear that first day …

Good thing we have comfort kitties.

That is a big tooth.

I was worried about his recovery having had a tooth extracted myself and it was the worst, but he did just fine. He was allowed unlimited screen time, and between that and a few Advils, we barely heard a peep out of him.

Ezra has really been enjoying science class this year, and in October they put their knowledge of cells into action by building models. All of the models were assembled in the cafeteria and families got to come and take a look. I didn’t take many pictures but here are a couple. As usual, Ezra enjoyed explaining the part he made — the vacuole.

And here’s a longer shot of more of the cell.

On the day before school started (August 14th) Ezra got his second set of braces on after a break of about 18 months. He’s got a lot going on and will need oral surgery to coax an errant tooth into place, but for now it was just the top and a little bit on the bottom.

More than anything, I just thought this scene was funny.

Bruce and Ezra got home from their snow camping trip in the afternoon of Ezra’s birthday. They were tired, but not too tired to clean up and have a small birthday celebration. All Ezra had on his birthday list was Anki Overdrive paraphernalia, so that’s what he got!

For dinner we had Ezra’s choice of Howie’s pizza delivered and then ice cream cake.

Happy 12th, sweet boy!

Last month, Ezra and his classmates completed their unit on Egypt, which culminated in an evening where the kids presented their projects to all the parents. Ezra had been determined from the start to build a full-size chariot. Luckily Bruce was available to facilitate the process because I wouldn’t have known where to start. He had two classmates who were supposed to be helping, but they each only showed up for one day, so it was really Ezra’s thing. Here are some photos of the building process. As usual, he had a very clear vision that needed to be brought to reality.

He was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here’s the debut ride.

They also made headgear. Ezra wanted to pose with Emmy for the picture.

And here’s a shot of everything together once we got it to school.

On the night of the presentations, he and his teammates gave rides to other classmates. It was a big hit. I’m not sure how much he learned about Egypt in this process, but his enthusiasm was nice to see!

Ezra’s class spent the second day back to school after winter break at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose. They were just beginning their unit on Egypt (which, as you’ll see in future posts, proved to be quite successful!) and they seemed to be pretty interested in the Egyptian artifacts on display. Personally, I liked this mummy. Creepy cool!

They had a replica of a tomb which was pretty interesting, and our guide for the day was funny and kept the kids interested which is always appreciated.

I didn’t take very many pictures, but there are a few more here.

On November 15th I drove Ezra and four other boys to San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences. I don’t have very many pictures because I was mostly trying to make sure the boys did the worksheet they were supposed to do and that no one wandered off which was a real possibility with our group. We spent the first part of our visit in the earthquake area learning about tectonic plates and experiencing the quake room they have there. Here’s Ezra at a game about how the continents have moved around.

We also spent some time in the room with the penguins. They were definitely a hit.

We made a quick stop to see the albino alligator which was, thankfully, pretty far away.

We visited a couple of other areas, and of course, the gift shop, and we had lunch there before heading back to school. The boys were all bummed that we were back in time for their last class.