Wednesday after school, at Ezra’s insistence, we tried out the new Slip ‘N Slide. We invited his friend Jack and the boys had a blast.
At first, Finn and Jack were the only participants. (Ezra was upstairs building a train track with Jack’s little brother Theo.)
Finally Ezra joined in, too.
And here is my favorite shot of the day — Finn going end over end.
Finn and I had a few errands to run this morning, one of which was a trip to the bank. He likes to throw pennies in the fountain and make wishes. Today he sat for a while to contemplate his wish.
Finally, he decided. “I wish that Kindergarten starts soon so I can play with Ezra.”
The boys had a lot going on this weekend, especially with Bruce home on Friday for his regular day off. First up was Finn’s robot, Robyo.
He and Bruce also made a blunderbuss.
And Ezra made wings and rocket boosters for his penguin, Pengladoo.
Then set him to flight.
Neither of my boys has been much of a drawer. Ezra really didn’t start drawing at all until he was in Kindergarten, and Finn, up until recently, limited his artwork to colorful scribbles. But the tide has turned. Ezra’s drawing of the week is this replica of a picture from the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Here’s the original.
Finn has taken to drawing “feeling” pictures everyday. Usually he’s happy so we have a lot of smiley stick figures around.
He also drew a special picture for Jamma this week — one of him diving in the pool for a ring. He even drew himself in goggles, and he added an arrow to make sure we understood the orientation.
Then he signed and dated it. He was very proud.
The boys found an alternative use for our ice chest this weekend.
Tuesday we went on Aveson’s annual K-2 beach trip to Mother’s Beach in Long Beach. Finn got to go along again because he’s already out of school. We hitched a ride with Cari; Finn and Chapin had a good time hanging out in the way back and watching some Little Bear videos.
When we got there, Finn and Charlie enjoyed some quiet time in the water before the big kids arrived.
When the rest of the crew arrived, we started with a picnic lunch on the grassy area.
Soon they were off and running toward the water.
Somehow Finn managed to find a quiet spot, at least for a few minutes.
Ezra ran around in the water for about 10 minutes and then parked himself (and a shovel) in one spot for the entire rest of the time — at least an hour and a half. He and Jenner had some serious building to do.
Finn and Charlie got in on the action, too.
Ezra was covered from head to toe in sand.
Finally, the madness was about to end, and the kids got dressed, had a snack and some play time before lining up for the head count. (Yes, they are actually in lines here.)
On the heals of the success of the woodworking class and now that Mad Science is no longer taking place on Monday afternoons, Jack’s mom proposed Math Club and our first meeting was last week. We’re starting out with a small group and as many parents as we can get to stay so we can ease into things as we figure it all out. It’s basically just a chance for the kids to get together and play games that use math. There were several games of War and Uno happening, as well as this giant dice game that was meant for the younger siblings but seem to draw in all the kids.
We brought an ice cream game where the kids do either an addition or subtraction problem on an ice cream scoop shaped card and build up a giant ice cream cone with each correct answer. Ezra and Amelia started off with a quiet game.
Soon, Finn and Charlie joined in.
Most of the kids were pretty relaxed and had a good time with the games, although a couple of them got a little competitive.
The annual June Jubilee was last Sunday and the kids enjoyed all of the usual fair type activities. They only played a few games; here they are doing a goldfish game where you tossed the ball and tried to get it into any number of containers of either water or goldfish crackers.
The big hit of the day was this PVC pipe organ that the upper school built and played earlier in the day. When they were done, other kids (and adults) were able to have a try.
The end of the day brought kettle corn and a squirt gun/balloon fight with Bruce and Bren taking on the kids.
All in all, a very successful and exhausting day, as evidenced by Finn’s impromptu nap in the late afternoon.
Cottage has a great tradition of doing yearbooks for the graduating Rainforest class. I pull out Ezra’s every now and then and marvel at how tiny he looks. (And laugh at the full-page picture of him using the pretend iron with his quote, “My wife knows everything.”)
Finn, of course, got his yearbook last Friday at graduation. There is a page for each child and parents are asked to submit something for it. Most families write letters to the kids but some, like us, draw pictures. Or in Finn’s case, we (mostly Bruce with some input from me) made a collage. Here it is.
He loves it. And I’ve caught him more than once poring over all of the pages, filled with pictures of him and his friends this year.
We had a lot of outside time in the afternoons this week, with the sidewalk chalk playing a big role. Ezra was sort of obsessed with “sugar-free banana ice cream” one day. (He says he made it in Kindergarten and it’s mashed up frozen bananas and it “gives you a burst of energy.”)
He also made a secret code that he was going to teach Jack.
(sa = split up; saba = act like a normal kid)
Finn drew a map and then led me to the place in the garden where Ezra had peed. Quite a treasure.
Today, Ezra decided he was going to teach Finn to spell and have a spelling inventory. If I understand correctly, he does this in his literacy class. His teacher says a word and the kids write it down how they think it’s spelled. He had three words for Finn, but we got interrupted to do a concert. (More on that later.)
Finn did pretty well!
We enjoyed a great viewing of the solar eclipse on Sunday evening even though we didn’t have proper eyewear to look straight at it. We started out with two pieces of paper, one with a small hole. That was fine. But then Bruce brought out the old binoculars and that worked better. The boys were interested sporadically.
First, here’s Bruce’s visual explanation for the boys.
And here are some shots of our viewing.
Today was the third installment of Bruce’s woodworking class series; the kids made boats. It was by far the most involved of the three projects and we were both a little worried about how it would be executed. Due to some great organization and planning on Bruce and Rob’s part, it came off without a hitch.
First, there was the usual instruction from Bruce.
And this time a written list of the steps.
He made a sample of what the main part of the boat would look like after the first step, which I thought was funny.
He fit in a little demonstration about gluing wood. Here’s video in two parts.
There were lots of stations set up with a parent helping the kids at each one. There was gluing with Jon.
Drilling with Allen (everyone loves the drill press).
Sawing with Ian.
Nailing/sawing with Rob.
More nailing. (Finn’s here with Mark; lots of parents helped with this one!)
Of course, the hot glue gun made an appearance.
And general chaos.
Once they cut out their sails and had a grown-up help them attach it, they could decorate. Here’s Finn.
And here’s Ezra working on his string railing.
While the glue dried, we had lunch and the kids ran around, played with the hose and the trough (originally built for boat races but a little too narrow), and generally had a good time.
Finally, in a quieter moment, Finn, Chapin and Ruby floated their boats (and themselves) in the pond.
Before:
After:
Sorry, Jamma, but it’s getting way too hot for all that hair.
My sweet boys both brought home some lovely gifts for me today that they made at school.
Finn did the art card at the top with gold glitter, a little pink and a lot of orange (his description). Ezra did the letter and bookmark.
My heart melted.
Bruce has been playing the surgery game with the boys since they were tiny. They love the game — he basically pretends he’s doing surgery on one of them while the other one assists. There’s lots of pretend sawing, grabbing, sewing and poking with needles. And lots of giggles.
Last night we decided to take advantage of Neighborhood Night at La Grande Orange and go out for dinner, but the boys were right in the middle of the surgery game when we were trying to leave the house. Apparently, Finn’s Squirrelly and Penguiny were in desperate need of some emergency surgery. So, of course, we brought them with us and continued the game at the restaurant.
We had the added bonus of the Wikki Stix they give the kids there; Bruce and the boys made a host of tools for the surgery.
And, thankfully, it looks like Squirrelly and Penquiny are going to make it.
I also caught this very sweet picture of Finn snuggling up to Bruce while we waited for our food to come. What a sweetheart he is.
