Family

Finn hit double digits this year!

His birthday fell on a school day, so I made cookies (lemon, at his request) for his class and then we celebrated with dinner of his choice at The Counter. He opened one present early (just after school) and the rest in the car after we picked up Bruce from work.

He got a few sets of LEGO minifigures which we opened and put together at dinner.

After dinner we continued the celebration with ice cream cake.

No party this year — he chose to go on a snow trip with Bruce instead.

I don’t remember this happening when Ezra was in fourth grade, but this year the District held several events for fourth graders to try out and choose what instrument they’d like to take next year. Finn is interested in either the trumpet or trombone, and despite the ridiculous lines at the event, he got to try each of them.

We’ll see which one he ends up with, and start preparing the sound-proof practice room.

On March 9th, Finn and I went on the annual fourth grade field trip to Sacramento. I was happy to get to go again since I had a great visit with Ezra’s class two years ago. It’s an early day though! We were on the bus at 6:30 am! Here’s Finn and his friend Floyd setting in for the ride.

There was some confusion at first when our bus tried to drop us off at City Hall instead of the State Capitol building, but soon enough we were where we were supposed to be. We started off with a class picture in front of the building.

Once inside, we waited for our tour time by walking around a bit. Here are a few shots.

Los Angeles County’s display case (every county has one):

Finn in front of the bear that guards the governor’s office:

Our tour guide later told us that Arnold Schwarzenegger bought the bear from an art gallery when he was governor. He also said they call it “germ bear” or “bacteria bear” because everyone touches it. Yuck!

Here are a few shots from our tour. We weren’t able to see the Senate room because there were too many other tours happening but we did see the House. (As an aside, it did seem to be quite a bit busier tour-wise than two years ago. I’m attributing it to everyone’s increased interest in government since our last debacle of a presidential election.)

While our tour guide this time didn’t harass the kids about how they are responsible for taking part in government (a good point with poor execution), this year’s guide wasn’t that great either. He did a pretty good Schwarzenegger impression though. But, he didn’t point out fun things like the tiled California poppies on the floor. Luckily, Finn’s teacher, Mrs. Johnson, did.

After the Capitol, we still had two more stops on our Sacramento tour. Next was Sutter’s Fort, which had another school doing an overnight field trip in costume. Our kids got to see rope and candles being made, as well as the cannon being fired which was a huge hit.

After lunch, our final destination was the Railroad Museum.

Once again I had a little nerdy moment to myself while I admired the place setting display from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe line.

Finn asked me to sit next to him on the way home. I think he had a wonderful day but was just done interacting with friends. Or maybe he just wanted to play games on my phone. (Sad news for him as there aren’t any games on my phone!) It didn’t really matter because about 20 minutes in he was out.

Great day!

On February 24th Finn’s class teamed up with their second grade buddy class for this year’s buddy assembly. They did a version of the book Click Clack Moo which was super cute. They also sang a song — here’s a video.

The video is a little far away, so here’s a picture from after the performance.

After weeks of research, writing, and creativity, Finn turned in his mission project on February 9th. He was very proud of his storyboard, which was the required part …

… and his model, which was the optional part.

He and Bruce did a bang-up job, even creating the inside and installing a light. Here’s a peek through the front window.

He was also excited about Fiesta Day and his new sombrero which he wore all the time.

Sophie liked it too.

We are very proud of Finn for doing such a great job on his project!

Fiesta Day was Friday the 10th and the kids learned a dance and got dressed up to perform.

Here’s video.

Here’s a post-dance picture of the whole class.

I left after the dance, but they also had a taco feast, so all in all a great end to the week for Finn!

Finn was assigned Mission San Miguel for his project, so on February 4th we made the 2+ hour trip south to pay it a visit. I was hoping to make it into an overnight adventure, but we just couldn’t make it happen. It turned out to be fine as a day trip, and on the way back we stopped at Mission San Juan Bautista so Bruce could see it. Here’s Finn just after we arrived — he was super happy.

There was a wedding about to happen inside the church so we spent some time outside first.

Here’s the bell tower.

On the side of the church was a small cemetery. This was the entrance.

Inside the side yard …

They had a small museum and store, which we saw next. Finn liked this cannon outside of the store.

After we saw the grounds and the museum, we went inside the church. (The person at the store told us it was OK, that people who get married there understand there will be tourists visiting.) I snapped a couple of pictures.

After the tour we had lunch at a local diner, which was surprisingly good, and then we hit the road. The stop at San Juan Bautista was fairly brief but Finn was excited to show Papa all the things he saw on his field trip. Here are the three of them standing on the original El Camino Real.

At the historic park, they were doing a monthly reenactment and we ran into a couple old-timers at the end of their day. They were very nice and had the boys stand in one of the vats for a photo … which was a little weird.

Finn took a bunch of pictures that day too, which are in a separate album here.