Family

Our third set of woodworking classes came to a close on June 13th with chair making at the Bannings’ house. It was a complicated project but utilized many of the skills the kids have learned with other projects, and everyone loved the final product. Here’s Bruce’s instruction poster.

And here’s a look at how the class went.

I love this picture of Finn.

The kids really needed a break in the middle of class since the project took longer than others. Ezra and Jack built a little train track.

Back at work … Amelia and Bruce.

Sofia’s always focused on the task at hand.

The last step was sanding. Finn liked using the electric sander although with all that hair I’m not sure how he saw what he was doing.

Here are a couple of samples of the chairs. These are Jackson and Bella’s.

Our boys did a few enhancements on their chairs over the weekend that followed class. Finn decided to stain his and Ezra painted.

Final products:

And just like that we have our first furniture for the clubhouse.

The last day of school included celebrations/potlucks in each classroom, and big changes for both boys. The move from Kindergarten to first grade is big, and at Aveson the move from second to third grade involves a literal new level on the tiered campus. So, not wanting to miss photo ops in either classroom, I got Bruce to take the day off and join us. When we arrived on campus, Finn’s class was on the field.

After PE (or recess, not sure which it was) they had their potluck.

Here’s Finn and Charlie.

At this point I went to Ezra’s class and Bruce stayed with Finn. He got some more good photos of the morning and the ceremony.

Here’s Finn getting his certificate and goodies from Ms. Jessica.

And here’s a picture I took of the two of them later that evening at woodworking class. She’s taking next year off to travel with her family — we will miss seeing her everyday!

Ezra’s class, along with the first graders, performed a few songs for the parents. Here’s one.

Then they chowed down.

And finally got their certificates of completion.

Here’s Ezra with his teacher Mrs. Diane.

And here are my newly minted first and third graders!

We had the annual K-2 beach field trip on June 11th. It was Ezra’s last time on the trip and Finn’s first official one — he got to ride the bus instead of coming with me. It’s a crazy trip but the kids love it. My boys pretty much dig in the sand the whole day. Here’s Finn and his friend Henry.

Ezra made sand balls. A lot of sand balls.

And here’s a group shot of the nuttiness.

I generally like the trip, except for the part where we have to get the kids to stop playing and get showered off and changed into dry clothes. That part is no fun at all. But every year we all survive.

On the last Monday before school let out, we took an after-school road trip up to Somis to pick blueberries (and strawberries, but the blueberries were really spectacular) at Underwood Family Farms. It took a little bit of time to get the boys away from the farm animals and trucks.

But eventually we got to the berries. It was an oddly satisfying venture — I couldn’t stop picking them and neither could the kids! (Not eating them was also a challenge.)

Finally, when we had loads of blueberries, Ezra pointed us to the strawberries.

There were fewer ripe strawberries, but that didn’t stop these boys.

Ezra and Jack even went back for more blueberries while Finn and Theo played. We came away with two big boxes of blueberries and one of strawberries. Before leaving we had to get one last picture.

Despite the vast quantity of blueberries we brought home, they didn’t last long. They were just so delicious none of us could stop eating them.

Definitely a trip to put on the calendar for next June!

Our end of the year Celebration of Learning took place on June 5th and 6th. Here are some pictures of the boys showing us their work.

Finn’s class did a video of all the kids reading for Dr. Seuss day. here’s a still from Finn’s turn.

Here’s the whole video. Finn’s part starts at about the 5:30 mark.

Ezra’s class did a Read to Feed project where they raised money for all the books they read. They learned about ways to help other people — buying livestock, etc. — and ended up overwhelmingly beating their original goal and contributing quite a bit. They wrote about and drew pictures of the animals they purchased. Here’s Ezra’s water buffalo information.

They also learned a lot about life cycles this year. Ezra loved this unit.

And, of course, there was art. Here’s Ezra’s Georgia O’Keeffe.

A few more pictures here.

I took a few hundred photos at June Jubilee this year, but it turns out only a few were of my own kids. I take a lot of pictures now for the Aveson website and sometimes this kind of lapse happens. Anyway, I got two. First, Ezra doing his favorite game — the fishing booth. He came home with pockets full of trinkets.

And here’s Finn doing the tie-dye booth. His shirt came out great but I really just like his level of concentration here.

I also used the boys as models for the June Jubilee t-shirt. I took a series of pictures in various jumping positions. Here’s a sampling.

But when it came time to post it, I realized I needed to highlight the shirts, not the jumping and used this one. Still cute!

We were headed to Laguna with the Bannings for Memorial Day weekend and thought ahead for once to see if Dick, Claire and Alex were available for a visit. They were and as a bonus, Leah and her family were also there. Max’s wife Erin joined briefly at the end of our visit. Sadly, we were later than expected and Dick didn’t get to hang around very long. But we still had a nice visit. (And we got to see Max when we picked up yummy lunch at his restaurant!)

The three older boys (Logan is almost 4) bonded over the Ninjago iPhone game.

And some toys.

Later, much to my horror, Ezra taught Logan and Blake how to make farting noises. Charming.

They thought it was hysterical.

We got to see Erin for just a few minutes and meet their new addition — Banyan. So cute and tiny!

On the way out, I got this shot of Logan, Finn and Ezra just after they finished comparing Crocs.

Great to see everyone!

The boys bombarded me with awesome Mother’s Day projects today when I picked them up from school. I got a little verklempt when I read their lovely notes!

Translation from Finn-speak: “I love my mom because she loves me.”

Finn also made this “I love you this much” sign.

And Ezra gave me a pot with a snow pea seed and a flower marker he decorated. The pot says, “Mommy, you are the best mom!!! Love, Ezra.”

My heart is full.