Family

I’m totally behind on my blog and out of chronological order here, but I’m going to do some catch up in the days ahead. First up, woodworking class which started again this month after a hiatus for the winter months where we don’t have enough daylight and people are generally too busy. Even this class was a little low on light but part of that was due to bad weather. When off-and-on rain was predicted for the day of class, Bruce decided to set up a tarp off the garage rather than cancel the class. It was a little crowded but it worked! Here’s the beginning of class with Bruce’s explanation of the project — making a T-Rex.

I couldn’t get the whole sign in the shot and didn’t even see the best part until the next day when the kids were playing with the sign.

This project entailed a lot of sawing. I mean a lot.

There was some drilling, too.

Ezra chose not to participate in this project. I think the crowded garage was just too noisy for him. He went on a bike ride instead.

Actually, Finn didn’t make a T-Rex either, come to think of it. Hopefully they’ll participate in future classes.

What they did enjoy was the dinner afterwards, which was moved inside because it was cold and drizzling outside. Ezra and Bruce built a fire and these crazy kids (the Moision and Detterich boys and Ruby, who always jumps right in) played a game of going outside to get cold and running inside to warm up by the fire. Pretty soon, they were all in their underwear and covered in wet grass from rolling around on the lawn.

I guess you can take the kid out of Cottage but you can’t take Cottage out of the kid!

Thursday, March 14th was Pi Day, an unofficial holiday. Finn discovered that there was no graphic for Pi Day in our calendar, so he made one.

Here’s a closeup. Pretty good Pi symbols, if you ask me!

After much deliberation, I also decided to make a pie. The deciding factor was that Bruce was bringing home a colleague from work — a student who is here from Sweden working with Bruce for two months. So, you know, I guess we need dessert. My pastry skills are lacking since I usually pawn off crust-making to Bruce on the rare occasion that we make a pie. But as no one else was home, it was all up to me. It was comical, I have to say, watching that pie crust slide right off the rolling pin before I had a chance to center it over the pie plate. But pieced-together crust tastes as good as perfect-looking crust, and it was a good pie. A little wonky-looking, but delicious.

The boys picked out matching outfits for school today. They are allowed to wear green, orange and purple to school. Today, well, all three together.

Rockin’ the camo shorts with the tie-dye shirts. Cuz that’s how they roll.

Last Friday was Read Across America Day, or Dr. Seuss Day, and Aveson celebrates by having kids dress up as their favorite character from a book. We were super busy last week and Bruce was sick, so we hadn’t really talked about whether the boys wanted to dress up or not. Until Thursday. Evening.

So, at 7:30 p.m. I was at Target gathering supplies for two costumes. We had worked through Ezra’s big emotions about not being able to be Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes) because they didn’t want characters from comic books. And Finn’s reluctance to go as one of the pea shooters from the Moomintroll books because they wear skirts and he didn’t want to wear a skirt.

It was settled, finally, that Ezra would be Fingers McGraw from The Getaway and Finn would be The Groke from Finn Family Moomintroll. Here were the supplies — thanks goodness Target had everything we needed.

It was well past Finn’s bedtime when I got back from Target and Bruce got started doing his creative magic. First, The Groke — black sheet, pillow case turned into a mask, white poster board for the mouth and black poster board for the big nose. So flippin’ cute!

Fingers McGraw was next. White poster board for the ears, part of the black sheet for the mask (multi-purpose purchase!), black balloon covering a dog’s toy ball for the nose and an elastic hairband to hold it in place. He also used the little black bag the sheet set came in as his loot bag. He found a red and black striped shirt in his closet and was all set!

I was on campus to do an article about the day and all the costumes, so I got to see all the creativity on display. It was great that many of the teachers dressed up as well. Finn’s teacher Jessica was Pippi Longstocking.

Ezra’s teacher Thea was Madeline.

And his advisor Diane was the Cat in the Hat.

Here’s a group shot of Ezra’s class.

And my favorite — the little Groke walking to class.

Last week was Celebration of Learning week at Aveson, so Wednesday and Thursday evenings we spent some time at school discovering what the boys have been up to at school this semester. First was Ezra’s COL which took on a different format this year. Instead of small groups of kids taking their parents on a tour of the classroom, it was held in the auditorium with all of the first and second graders in his block. And, because their studies this semester have focused on food and access to food, it was also a potluck. The kids had made posters of healthy foods by color, which were hanging on the walls.

Ezra’s largest contribution was this awesome blueberry.

And these blackberries.

I like how his fruit have feet. And glasses, in the case of the blueberry.

Part of the evening was spent discussing their field trip to Vons and the food bank, and some of the kids read their stories about that day. Ezra did not want to get up in front of the crowd to read his. But I think he did enjoy the evening, despite it being a little chaotic for his temperament.

Finn, on the other hand, had a COL closer to the format we’re used to. The Kindergarteners had been working on their All About Me Boxes and a book about themselves. They also did a circle project showing increasingly larger circles to symbolize themselves, their house, the city they live in, their country, etc.

The big difference with this COL was that instead of just showing off their stuff to their own family, each student started by presenting their All About Me Box to other families in the room. It was done in small groups, so it wasn’t overwhelming. Clearly Finn was in his element.

I didn’t have a chance to snap many pictures of him because I was listening the presentations of the other students. They all did really well. Here’s the group Finn was with — they’re getting a pep talk before the presentations from their lovely teacher, Ms. Jessica.

For the second half of the evening, the kids returned to their own families and showed off their work. Here are some pictures of Finn showing us his box, his book and his circle project.

We helped him fill in the states he’s been to.

For his favorite part of his city, he chose to draw “Christmas Tree Alley.” He thinks we live in Altadena. Well, close enough.

Not surprisingly, Ezra wasn’t all that interested. But he did find his friend Ben (whose sister is in Finn’s class) and they looked at a book together.

After Finn’s celebration, Bruce took the boys out to dinner — their pick was Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles. It’s become sort of a tradition.

I, on the other hand, went home and straight to bed. I’d been out with a fever all day and had just dressed myself up to make it to the COL. Luckily, the fever only lasted one day, unlike Ezra’s the previous week which lasted for 2-1/2 days. It’s pretty miserable, but luckily we’re all on the mend now.

And, we’re looking forward to what the second semester will bring!

Some time last year, our local Altadena Farmers Market put out a call for anyone interested in hosting a farmer each week. Apparently, lots of the farmers who come into town for our farmers market like to stay overnight and attend another market the next day. It sounded perfect for us and our rarely used guest room so we expressed our interest. At first there was no one to take us up on our offer, but last week I got a call from the market coordinator saying she had a husband and wife team from Fresno who would like to stay with us. So, this Wednesday were welcomed June and Ja Moua for an overnight stay.

The kids were excited to have guests in the house and made some welcome signs for them.

Finn drew the two farmers (the ones with the hats) and himself, and he wrote out Welcome Mouas. (Look how his letters are coming along!)

Ezra drew Pikachu.

They brought us lots of goodies from their farm — potatoes, onions, garlic, bok choy, carrots and more. I think this is going to work out swimmingly!

We had some fabulous hair going on this morning. I guess the trick is to put them to bed totally exhausted and with slightly wet hair.

We scored some last minute free tickets to the Rose Parade, so we actually saw it live this year! After going almost every year growing up, I haven’t been to a Rose Parade in ages and the boys have never been so it was high time we took them. The seats we got were great — right on Orange Grove before the turn onto Colorado. I’ve never been so close to the beginning of the parade — where all the participants are super enthusiastic and energetic. And because the TV cameras are there, everything happened right in front of us — the military reunion, the wedding, Mater jump-starting the Cars Land float.

The only drawback was the ungodly hour we had to get up and get out of the house in order to be on time. But our earliness paid off with a great parking spot a few blocks from the route which afforded us a pretty easy time getting in and out.

It was also pretty chilly (for Southern California) so we decided to bring some hot chocolate for the boys. We couldn’t find a thermos, so Bruce fashioned a MacGyver version from some fleece pants and rubber bands. It worked!

Before we went to our seats, we took a walk down Orange Grove to get an up close look at the first floats. The boys were actually quite taken with all the flowers.

Finally we went up to our seats in the bleachers and waited for the parade to begin.

Here are a few of our favorite floats.

Rocket blast:

Volcano (with real fire!):

The Cat in the Hat:

The HGTV float with real live penguins (they’re to the right of the castle):

Another penguin-themed float resembling the game Learn to Fly that the boys play:

And the flyover by the B2 Stealth Bomber was also quite impressive.

Not to mention the surprise reunion of a military family. Not a dry eye in the place.

We even got a little sun to warm us up.

Ezra said it was “awesome” and even Finn came around to love it after his initial assessment that it was boring. Finn liked the bands the best. Of course, now we’ve probably ruined them with such good seats. Next year, we’ll have to take them down to the end of the route where all the floats are being towed and the bands and wavers are all exhausted!

Happy New Year!

Christmas has now come and gone and this year was definitely a mixed bag. The good news is that the boys had a great Christmas filled with friends, family and lots of Legos. Bruce limped through with a head cold that was less than ideal. I, on the other hand, got my butt kicked by a stomach bug on Christmas Eve and spent that miserable night and Christmas Day laid up. Thank goodness Jamma stuck around much of the day to keep me company after Bruce and the boys left to celebrate with the rest of the Moisions at the Becks’ house.

But lets back up to the good parts before my stomach rebelled. Bruce and I were fighting off the colds the boys had so lovingly passed along, but things were going fine. We’d finished shopping, I’d made dozens of Christmas cookies, and we were happily preparing for Christmas Eve with Jamma and the Bannings. The boys made place cards for the tables (Ezra insisted on a kids table); Finn did most of the pictures while Ezra wrote the words.

Finn drew something everyone likes on their place cards: Ruby has a horse, Chapin has a penguin, Rob and Bruce both have wood because they do the woodworking class. When he went to do Jamma’s he said, “You know, Jamma just really likes us,” so he drew himself. Then Ezra drew himself on mine since he wasn’t included on Jamma’s. Super cute.

Once Jamma got here we did the annual parade of new Christmas ornaments symbolizing our year: Finn got a No. 2 pencil since he started Kindergarten.

Ezra got a snorkeler.

Bruce got the very hard-to-find (can you say Ebay?) Curiosity rover which was such an exciting part of our lives when it successfully landed on Mars in August.

I got a wolf to remind me of my trip to Washington with my girlfriends. Jamma is so thoughtful!

Pretty soon the Bannings arrived and the kids all went crazy running around, eating cookies and generally having a great time. They settled down for dinner, but still had a good time.

We had a pretty good time at the adults table, too. And pretty soon the kids joined us with the prizes and jokes from the holiday crackers/poppers that Cari brought. Bruce’s crown was, as always, ill-fitting.

The kids also decorated cookies for Santa (thanks to Cari) and wow was that a fun and messy project!

Finn went pretty crazy with the sprinkles.

Ezra was a little more precise.

We opened a few presents — new pajamas for all the kids and books and gift cards — but by then I wasn’t feeling so hot so I didn’t have the energy to go get my camera. Luckily Bruce was a good host, doing a scavenger hunt for the kids and entertaining everyone. I fear I was not.

When it was time for the Bannings to go, we saw them off hoping they would have good luck getting their kids to sleep. Finn was very concerned about Santa coming and therefore went right to bed; Ezra, on the other hand, wandered around the house for at least an hour. I think he did it just to torture me.

Finally, with Bruce’s help the Santa gifts and stockings were prepared and placed by the fire and I crawled into bed miserable but still not anticipating the rotten night to come. By morning I was at least able to reach for my camera and take some pictures from my perch on the comfy brown chair. Finn tore open his stocking and anything else with his name on it.

Ezra was thrilled with the giant Lego set Santa brought. (“Mommy, now you don’t have to get this for my birthday! Santa brought it!”)

They couldn’t wait to show everything to Jamma.

And start building all those Lego sets.

Finn was pretty taken with the Furby that Santa brought him.

And that’s about as far as I got before I crawled back into bed. I send out a big thank you to Bruce and Jamma for entertaining the boys and managing to do some clean up, too. About noon Bruce and the boys headed out for the Becks’ house. He said they all had a good time and he even managed to take a few pictures.

It’s now the 27th and I’m up and about and on the road to recovery. And in the future I’d like to reclaim my title as the member the family who always manages to avoid the stomach bug.

Cari and I took the kids over the Americana for their [fake] snow fall Thursday evening. The kids didn’t give a hoot that it was soap and we all had a great time. The place is, of course, all decked out for Christmas and really quite lovely. The kids made an early stop here to admire the view.

First stop was dinner and when we were done we had some time before the first snow fall at 7:00, so we took a short trolley ride.

After a good game of chase …

… some playing in the mulch …

… and watching the fountain …

… the snow started falling. The kids had a great time jumping up to catch it and just generally running around.

After the snow, we hung out a little longer. Finn met Frosty.

We rode the glass elevator.

Watched Tangled at the Sony store.

Or Toy Story, as the case may be.

We rode the trolley again and decided to wait for the 8:00 snow fall. Again, fun ensued. When it was over we dragged four very tired kids to the car, listened to how they were so thirsty they were going to die (!) and, luckily, provided them with a little water thanks to Cari. The boys crashed when we got home and actually slept until a little after 7:00 — quite a luxury!

I think a trip to the real snow is in order this winter.

We were over at the Altadena Farmer’s Market with some friends yesterday and the kids had a wonderfully good time playing with all the fallen leaves. Ezra also found a perfect climbing tree. When I first saw him from my vantage point up the hill, he seemed incredibly high up and I decided to go down and check out the situation.

He was very happy to be sitting up here.

And I realized that the smaller branches provided perfect notches for climbing and he was safe, so I snapped another photo and let him be.

This morning as I was trying to find a place that could print these square Instagram photos properly, I uploaded a couple of other good ones, so I’m adding them here. First, Finn and his crab and blue ninja.

And second, bath time.

I ordered some prints online, so we’ll see how they look when I get them.

One of my favorite parts of decorating for Christmas is pulling out the bags of old cards I keep and looking at all of the photos of friends and family through the years (I probably have 20 years of picture cards). Of course, it’s also fun to look at my own old cards and seeing how Ezra and Finn have grown, so I decided to scan them in and do a little retrospective.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

The 2012 version is in the mail!

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.