Family

Yesterday the boys participated in the fundraising jog-a-thon at school and I went to take some pictures. First up were the Kindergarten classes.

The kids did a combo of running and walking and got their hand stamped with each lap. Here’s Finn going in for a stamp.

He did ten laps.

After 20 minutes they stopped and were handsomely rewarded with popsicles.

The first and second graders were up next. Ezra did not seem to be enjoying himself; he walked around the field, spitting water from his water bottle. Charming.

He doesn’t seem quite as miserable here.

Friends were having a better time. Jack:

Lucy:

Ruby:

Of course, these pictures were taken on the first couple of laps. They looked much less happy after 20 minutes of running. Here’s Amelia, for instance. She did 21 laps!

Finally the running time was over and the big kids got popsicles, too. Finally, Ezra was happy.

And here’s a row of second graders resting up after their hard work.

Since we were entrenched in remodeling this time last year, yesterday marked our first big holiday hosting gig since moving into our new house. It was a pleasure to cook in the new kitchen and fun to host this very Moision holiday. All seven cousins were together which will liven up any party. The food — a group effort — was delicious and a good time was had.

Such a good time, in fact, that I neglected to take any pictures. Well, I have one from early in the morning when Bruce was prepping the turkey. Finn thought it was hysterical that “Papa is touching a very, very, very fat turkey!”

It turns out, though, that my favorite little documentarian was taking pictures I didn’t know about. When I mentioned that I hadn’t taken any, Finn said, “I took pictures!” He had apparently walked around with an iPhone and taken a bunch. I will say that his vantage point is not always flattering, especially the picture of my backside (which, obviously, will not be published here). So, without further ado, here is Thanksgiving 2012 from Finn’s perspective.

Alek working on the nearly impossible wooden puzzle from Belize.

The table all set and almost ready for diners (more chairs needed).

Finn’s selfie.

Uncle Nick playing with Winston, perhaps the cutest puppy ever.

Uncle Bob’s bike.

Ezra and Grandpa Bill using their electronics.

Alek and the little cousins working on the stomp rockets.

I think he took about 50 pictures; these were the least blurry and most flattering of the bunch.

Later, I took a photo from my perspective — laying on the couch contemplating getting up to get some Advil. The boys were playing with the little bug Bob had brought.

And even later, Ezra found a new sleeping spot.

Yes, he’s in the hall closet. It all started when Bruce pretended that Ezra, Finn and Thomas were folding chairs and put them away with the other chairs. The boys thought it was hysterical. Ezra also thought it would be a comfy place to sleep. And so he set up his bed. Stuffed animals and all.

UPDATE! Grandpa Bill took some pictures and sent them to me today! Here’s some pre-dinner running around in the backyard. I missed all of this since I was in the kitchen, but I’m so glad to see the kids were having fun out there!

Here’s the grownups table.

And here’s our mini birthday celebration for Alek (13 next week) and Thomas (4 last week).

Mike, Carla and the girls are down in So Cal this week for a three day (!) visit to Disneyland. I would die, but they are true Disney fanatics and invited us to join them one of the days. So, yesterday the boys and I went to Disneyland! (Big shout out to my friend Jay who got us in for free saving me a gigantic amount of money!)

After a nice visit with Jay, our day started off with lunch since the Gottardis had skipped breakfast and my boys were starving as usual. Off to Tomorrowland we went.

Next up was the giant marble that the kids enjoyed pushing around.

Even though it was wet.

Since we were right there and it was time for Jedi training, we headed over to the stage to see what that was all about. Despite their best efforts, the boys did not get picked to be among the lucky few future-Jedis.

But we stayed to watch anyway and it was fun. Darth Vader showed up.

Then we went on perennial favorite It’s a Small World. The line moved quickly and the ride was fun, especially all done up for Christmas.

Autopia was the next ride on tap — luckily we had fast passes so we didn’t have too long a wait. Finn drove me; Ezra drove Uncle Mike.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was also a hit, although it took the boys a little time to get the hang of shooting the laser guns. Here they are listening to Buzz’s instructions.

After that we headed over to California Adventure to check out the new Cars Land. It didn’t disappoint — it was a great re-creation of the movie and the rides were fun. The lines were long though …

(I Instagrammed this photo because I thought it looked like a 1980s U2 cover.)

Here are a few pictures from the Mater tow truck spinning ride and Luigi’s tire ride. It’s hard to take pictures while you’re spinning, so excuse the blurriness.

We had dinner there and then waited in a very long line for the Soaring over California ride which is one of my all-time favorites. Everyone loved it and the boys said, repeatedly, that it was worth the hour-long wait.

Here are a couple of pictures of the cousins in front of the big Christmas tree.

It was a very fun, very long day that included a last minute trip to the Lego store at Downtown Disney and a near meltdown (on my part) trying to find the car. But eventually I made it home with two sleepy, happy boys.

We went to the Pasadena Waldorf School’s magical Elves’ Faire this weekend — my first time since I was not available to go with Bruce and the boys last year. It lived up to the hype — it is magical for children and your money disappears like magic, too! I didn’t take pictures of everything we did, but I got a few. First was this game that Ezra won best 2 out of 3.

Then there was jousting on zip line horses. Ezra:

And Finn:

Next Finn and Bruce played a giant game of Jenga.

It didn’t last very long.

Ruby and Rob played a LOT longer.

While they were still playing, we went and had ice cream (Carmela was there!), perused the map and planned the rest of our visit. Finally, Rob had had enough and pulled the plug, so to speak.

After Jenga we roamed around and did lots of other activities — fishing, digging for treasure, food, crafts, etc. We also saw a ton of other Pasadena-area families we know which was fun. And then we were off to the next event — Finn’s soccer party. More on that in a bit.

I have a few extra photos that don’t fit in anywhere but I thought I’d share them anyway. This first one is Ezra after grabbing a couple of books from our little library and finding a cozy spot to read.

Next, I took this one after voting in the presidential election last week. I just like how the sun is streaming in. It was a total photographic accident.

On Friday night, with Bruce out of town on a hike, I took the boys out to dinner and let them order the (turns out — huge) $1 sundaes. They were in heaven.

After a couple of chilly days here, we decided to have our first fire of the season last night. The boys helped by throwing paper airplanes into it.

Aveson is switching up their conference/celebration of learning schedule this year to give parents earlier feedback on how kids are doing. So, last Thursday we had the first of two Student Led Conferences where the boys took us around their classrooms to show us their work and introduce us to the new Mastery Learning Portfolio assessment tool. I’ll feel better about the assessments in the coming weeks when I can view them from home as neither of my boys was patient enough to let me read through several pages of “I can” statements. But I did thoroughly enjoy seeing them in their classrooms showing off their work and skills. Here’s Finn doing the puff ball sort job.

And some of the math he’s been working on. I love his three bears.

His skull from Dia de los Muertos was hanging up.

And some evidence of Kindergarten science.

After the first session with Finn, Bruce, who had been with Ezra, and I switched up and I got to see Ezra’s advisory. Here’s all the stuff we were meant to do.

Ezra was very focused on getting to all of it (and did not appreciate any interruptions from me). He did get a little distracted by his friends’ conferences at times, but that’s par for the course. After making sure we logged out properly from the online assessment system, he read me a page from his Moomintroll book.

And showed me the quilt project he made.

Obviously, his trip to Legoland in September is still having a huge impact.

Another fun Halloween has come and gone. Here’s how it happened. First things first, we had to figure out something to do with the library for the night, especially since we got this nice write-up on Tuesday. We decided to take the books out and replace them with some dry ice. We also covered the light with red tissue paper for a nice effect. Of course, we had to test out the dry ice first — the kids’ favorite part.

It really was fun for the whole family.

When it finally started to get a little dark we put it in the library.

It was very hard to get a good shot of it, but hopefully you get the idea.

Next up: trick or treating with the Heffs!

My friend Julie and her family (and her neighbors) joined us as well, and about 6:15 we were off.

One of my favorite moments was when Finn got a Pixy Stick at one house and asked Julie what it was. He was sure he wanted it, even though he had no idea what it would be. She told him it was like “sugar sand” and he was sold.

The boys’ “hand bags” filled up pretty quickly.

After a long loop around Topeka and Atchison we were finally home.

The spider web looked great, especially with some additional lights and the jack-o-lanterns.

The kids enjoyed handing out candy on our porch while the grownups had dinner.

Later, more dry ice fun ensued.

Finally, it was time for bed. Ezra wrote a note to the Candy Fairy who would come to take most of the candy (they kept five pieces each) and replace it with something else good. Here’s Ezra’s note, along with the Candy Fairy’s responses.

And the loot she brought.

Of course, this morning when the boys discovered it, Finn lost his mind because he thought he was leaving the five pieces for her and the rest of the candy was for him to keep. Um, no. You’re totally missing the point of the Candy Fairy, Finn. But Ezra generously offered three of his pieces and Finn snapped out of his meltdown pretty quickly. Now they’re at school with the rest of the sleep-deprived kids on a major sugar crash. Good luck to their teachers!

Last night we finally got around to carving our giant pumpkins from our trip to the farm a couple of weeks ago. Ezra had long ago decided on his design (a bat from the booklet that came with the set of carving tools) and Finn set about drawing his (a scary man). As usual, Papa was on pumpkin duty.

Ezra went an alternate route and cut off the bottom of his pumpkin. Then he had some exploring to do.

Finn’s level of concentration was unparalleled.

Ezra enlisted Bruce’s help to cut out his design.

When Ezra’s was done, he couldn’t wait to try out the black light he chose at the farm.

Finn and Bruce, meanwhile, continued to work on his pumpkin.

Finally, it was done.

Here they are all lit up.

Then Bruce had an off-the-wall idea to light them on fire using rubbing alcohol.

Needless to say, the kids loved it.

The boys took a while deciding on their costumes this year. At first, Ezra wanted to be a Hattifattener and Finn wanted to be a vampire, so we were looking at homemade costumes again this year, which is a bit of a problem since I’m creatively-challenged and Bruce has been working very long hours. But in the end, they both decided they wanted to be bats, so Amazon’s extensive inventory let us off the hook. Here’s a preview from the other day when they wanted to try on their costumes.

Note that the hat barely fits Finn but fits Ezra just fine.

Last week Aveson had an odd day off — Friday the 12th — so some friends and I took our kids up to Underwood Family Farms for pumpkins and general Fall fun. Cari and I carpooled and stopped at In n Out for lunch before going to the farm. The kids got hats, which the boys loved. Ruby, on the other hand, was having none of it.

First up, as usual, was the always-fun combine slide.

The play area in general was a big hit.

Then we moved on to the animals.

And the giant hay pyramid.

Kelly, Mark and Olivia now joined and we headed for the corn maze. Here are the kids checking out one of the not-very-helpful maps along the way.

(Cari’s caption: Children of the Corn.)

Finn finally got frustrated and thirsty, so we found our way back to the start and headed for water. I think everyone else eventually found their way out via the proper exit.

After a rest and some water, there was renewed energy. For the tractor.

And the measuring stick.

All the kids wanted to ride the “cow train” so we headed over to await its arrival. There was some pre-ride entertainment.

Then they boarded the cows.

Pretty fun ride!

Finally it was time to head to the pumpkin patch. We couldn’t coax Olivia into this photo, unfortunately, but we got the other four.

Ezra and Finn got to pick out a pumpkin each. Ezra did the heavy lifting.

And then we took some photos on the giant pumpkins.

And here’s a contrast — Ezra at the same pumpkin patch at seven months old and seven years old.

We took the summer off but started up woodworking classes again two weeks ago. We now have the Bannings as hosting partners, so the first Fall class was at their house. Sadly, I took no pictures at their event but it was very successful — the kids made little cars and a good time was had by all.

I was much more on the ball Friday afternoon when the class was at our house. Project number 6 was stools.

For the first time we had a full house, which amounted to 23 kids (20 making stools) and 18 adults. It started, as usual, with Bruce’s instruction.

And then they were off and sawing.

Or marking and drilling.

And laughing. This is Ashlyn and she was cracking up at Bruce who kept spelling her name wrong. He’s so silly.

There were lots of screws, which were kind of hard to get in. But they persevered!

And, finally, painting.

Ezra decided on another form of decoration.

And here are some of the final products.

Then it was time to eat, drink, and be merry. The kids played until pizza arrived.

Then ate a boat load of pizza.

And watched Ezra perform some crazy stunts in the backyard.

Or maybe he was just looking for a quiet place to eat.

Whatever the case, it was a super fun party and a great way to celebrate a Friday. We are blessed to have such a fun group involved in this project.

Oh, one more thing. Ezra and Ruby reprised their dual story telling with a couple of new scary stories. Couldn’t have been cuter.

After everyone else had gone home, they went up to the reading porch and read for Finn. Super cute.

It’s been almost two weeks since I last posted, so I’ll play a little catch up here with some random photos.

After a bath the other day, Finn wanted to comb his hair. Ezra decided to help him smooth his hair down further, and then said, “You look very handsome, Finn.” It was a surprisingly sweet moment.

After a fairly long hiatus, the costume boxes have made several appearances lately. Here is Ezra’s hybrid police officer/Batman costume.

Legos are also a daily source of entertainment. Here are the boys and Jack after school one day.

A couple from Finn’s soccer game last weekend.

Here’s one from Finn’s soccer practice last week. His coach does a great job of making it fun for this group of five year olds. This is the crab game.

Ezra also had a fun time at Finn’s practice — making angels in the grass.