Family

We took Ezra and Finn to Japon Bistro for dinner last night and ended up being blown away by the adventurous spirit of both boys. They’ve had and liked Japanese food before and they are generally pretty good eaters, but last night’s meal went beyond our expectations. It started with Miso soup and salad — nothing terribly unusual. Finn ate most of Bruce’s salad, and Ezra loved the soup.

Next up: deep-fried soft shell crab appetizer. They loved it. In fact, they were still talking about it today and asked if we could have it for dinner.

California roll.

Shrimp tempura.

Tamago.

Something unidentifiable from my plate that looked so unappetizing to me that I wouldn’t even try it. Ezra ate the whole thing.

In fact, the only thing they didn’t eat was the white rice. I realized at some point in the meal that they hadn’t eaten anything since lunch except for a pear and an apple. Perhaps starving the children is a good way to get them to try new foods.

Much to Finn’s excitement, we got our Christmas tree this weekend. He had asked me every day last week when we were getting our “kissmas tree” so he’s finally satisfied. The boys went crazy looking at all our ornaments and loved putting them on the tree — generally in clumps along the bottom half. We couldn’t agree on what to use as a topper until Ezra made one from Lego. It’s a star.

There is something so extremely satisfying about popping bubble wrap, especially when it’s the kind with the giant bubbles. I like to do it with my hands. The boys have a different approach.

I took the boys to see Santa on Thursday night, not really sure of how it was going to go. Ezra seemed excited but Finn was apprehensive. He wanted to go but wasn’t so sure he wanted to sit with Santa. Luckily, the Santa at One Colorado in Old Town Pasadena and his photographer are very patient. Finn initially balked at the idea, and stayed a good safe distance away from the sled.

So, the first pictures were just Ezra and Santa.

But after a few minutes, Finn decided Santa was an OK guy and he cautiously climbed up on the sled. We didn’t get a lot of smiles from either boy, but afterwards they assured me they had a great time taking pictures with Santa.

Ezra was mostly concerned with making sure his Belize t-shirt showed in the pictures. And, after it was over both boys told me they forgot to ask Santa for anything for Christmas, but Ezra had told Santa he went to Belize. That boy is obsessed; I think I see a second trip in our future. Hint, hint, Jamma.

The Christmas season has officially started for us with the annual construction of the Trader Joe’s gingerbread house. Bruce and the boys built it yesterday morning while I was at a meeting for Cottage.

Here the boys are admiring their work. (Finn was also having a conversation with the little people.)

The systematic disassembly and consumption will probably begin today.

My boys (all three of them) are completely obsessed with playing the game Angry Birds on the iPad thanks to Aunt Vanessa’s introduction a month or so ago. Who can blame them? The animation is pretty cute.

The gist of the game is that the pigs have stolen the birds’ eggs and the player has to slingshot the birds into whatever structure the pigs have built. Yesterday, Bruce got the idea to build our own game and fun ensued.

Here’s the target.

Here’s how the slingshot worked.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving celebration at our house yesterday with Jamma, Grandpa Bill, Grandma Therese, Uncle Bob, Aunt Vanessa and Thomas. Bruce — always looking to switch things up in this traditional meal — spatchcocked the turkey and made a cranberry molasses glaze. It was really good. Here’s the money shot.

Uncle Bob, of course, made a little bread.

The boys had some outside play time while the meal was cooking. Finn and Thomas played on the digger, while Ezra did his own thing.

Finn, who had gotten the one-day random fever Ezra had the day before, started to fade just before dinner and ended up sleeping through the whole meal. Poor little guy.

The best moment of dinner came early. While Grandpa Bill was saying grace, Thomas (who was holding hands with Bruce and Vanessa) couldn’t wait any longer and put his face right into his dinner. He managed to stay pretty clean and just got a few bites of something delicious, while the rest of us laughed through the prayer. Sadly, no one had a camera ready but here are a couple of pictures from later at the table.

And then there was pie.

Finn and Ezra have been very busy in school this year. Finn has only had a few things make their way home from Cottage, but then again, he’s missed several weeks of school due to the never-ending colds. His masterpiece, which is what Teacher Art called it, was this magic wand he made a few weeks ago. The picture doesn’t do it justice — it really is spectacular and probably took him quite a while to make.

Ezra, on the other hand, comes home on “take home” Fridays with arms full of papers, drawings, paintings, etc. from the week. Here are some of my favorites from the past few weeks.

He’s not so concerned with the order or placement of letters — he usually writes them in the right order, but all over the paper. Here he’s got Ezra and Finn and Brothers (which is creatively spelled).

He also made some Indian corn and was very excited about the pattern of the corn.

And a Happy Thanksgiving note complete with a handprint turkey.

We had Thomas, Vanessa and Reba over last Sunday afternoon and had a little mini-celebration for Thomas’s birthday. I’d gotten cupcakes from Polkatots and Vanessa brought cupcakes she made, so we had a cupcake tasting extravaganza. The kids were pretty happy. Thomas was initially unsure of the candle and cupcake (or maybe it was our singing). I think I have a very similar picture of Finn on his second birthday.

He warmed up to the idea and had some of the cupcake, but really he just wanted to play with the truck.

Ezra and Finn enjoyed the cupcakes, too, but as usual pretty much just ate the frosting.

Later in the week we had another afternoon play date. The boys took the sidewalk on bikes and a scooter and did a lot of running around on the lawn. There was some chase and a pretty cute Moision dog pile.

I’ve been too sick to have done anything blog-worthy lately — we canceled every single plan we had over the weekend, including a rare date night, a birthday party, and a school park date. With Bruce sick, too, we were a barrel of monkeys around here the last few days. But I feel like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel (although I’ll probably be coughing for weeks). This morning, not only did I take a shower and put on real clothes (no more sweatpants!) but I actually washed and dried my hair. It was no small miracle.

Finn and I hit Trader Joe’s after we dropped Ezra off at Aveson. He found Captain Jack and got a lollypop; I replenished our empty refrigerator.

After that we went to the mall (eek!) to buy him some new super running shoes. He’s got the widest feet known to man, so we went to the Stride Rite store. Success! We found a pair of 10.5W Sauconys that had orange on the bottom, so he was thrilled. And I no longer have to struggle to get him into his shoes. We got a snack and had a ride on the carousel, too. The picture is blurry, but he had a great time.

After a long day of “Mommy, is it trick or treating time yet?” we finally went out just as it was starting to get dark. I stopped them at the edge of the driveway for a quick picture (knowing the Iron Man mask wouldn’t last long).

Ezra decided he only wanted to go to houses that had decorations, so we started here. (They also had a very cool row of jack-o-lanterns.)

Ezra was very excited to turn on the light-up triangle on his costume since he’d been saving it for Halloween only.

We probably went to five or six houses, and then Finn got tired.

So we headed home.

I think they had just as much fun handing out candy at home.

And raising and lowering the pumpkin spider to scare people. (Version 2 of the pumpkin spider has eyes that glow orange from Jerri’s cool flashlights!)

We had another Aveson dining out fundraiser tonight, at the Islands at Paseo Colorado this time. After a long meal, a rousing game of duck, duck, goose, and some general running around with friends, we were finally ready to head home. But on the way to the escalator, Ezra, Finn, Ruby and Chapin discovered the fountains. At first, they kept a safe distance, choosing instead to yell at the water.

Then they got serious.

And then they were soaked. At least Ezra and Ruby were soaked. Chapin and Finn were much more cautious.

A couple of weeks ago, we joined some Aveson parents at a “sports blitz” class. Finn didn’t want to participate but Ezra had a blast. They played soccer — it was Ezra’s first introduction to any sort of “organized” sports.

It rained last week and the class was canceled, but this week class resumed and Finn wanted to join in the fun. He loved it, and, frankly, I could watch him run around playing sports all day. He’s hysterical. I took some video.

Here he is dribbling the soccer ball.

The obstacle course relay race.

Then they moved on to baseball. Here’s Finn’s first at-bat ever.

And Ezra’s.

A new generation of superhero freaks.

AKA how to keep two boys quiet at a restaurant.

Play dates are always more fun (and involved) when Bruce is home. Today the kids were pretty stir-crazy because it’s been raining and they’d been cooped up all morning. So, we finally let them outside and Bruce ended up letting them try out his woodworking tools. Jerri and I stood by, waiting to call 911 when someone cut off a finger, but there were no emergencies.

These are my two favorite shots.

And here’s a slideshow of the rest.