Clean/Dirty

I'm not sure how I feel about bath paints...

Kiwi Crate

Auntie R, Uncle J and Cousin V gave Ezra a great present this year for Christmas. It's called a Kiwi Crate and we will get one per month for the next three months. Inside the box are supplies to create an art project or two. In our first box there were two, one simple project to make rockets and another more complicated project to make a space mobile. Ezra really enjoyed both projects, and is very excited to get more crates in the future! Thanks R, J & V!


He was so proud when he accidentally made green paint from the blue and yellow provided. Then he mixed them all together and was extra proud with the muddy brown that resulted.


Finished! He was happy and smiley, it's just hard to capture that.

Sailor Circus

Ezra, Grandma and I went to the Sailor Circus on Thursday night. It was fantastic! All the performers were youth ages 8-18 and there was unicycles, juggling, high wire, acrobatics, rings, tissue, and even the flying trapeze. It was really cool to see kids performing, feeling so proud and knowing the dedication that it took to put on such a show. Of course now Ezra wants to be in the circus, which is fine with me.


He might just want to be in the circus so that he can eat cotton candy everyday. We bought him a bag and he ate it SO FAST.


I gave in and bought him this ray gun (I know, a gun) and he delighted in it's obnoxious noise and light the whole way home.

Sorry no shots of the circus, but they said no photography.

Christmas, Briefly

Here's the tree post-Santa. The elves must have been pretty winded after blowing up all those dinos!

Here he is, Christmas morning, surrounded by all his goodies. He got lots of great presents this year, thanks so much family and friends for your kind generosity!

The dinosaurs all died at some point. Not to worry, they've since come back to life.

This is my present to Ezra, a build your own monster puppet kit! There's eyes, horns, ears, noses, arms, fur and teeth that are velcro so you can make many different monsters. It was hard for him to get this toy away from me. I love it!

Hope y'all enjoyed a lovely holiday!

Christmas Eve Scene

Ezra and Grandma watching the Polar Express after eating pumpkin pie.

Our little tree pre-Santa.
I'll do a post-Santa tomorrow, watch out, Ezra's been a very good boy and I expect some surprises from the fat man.

Christmas Eve Lunch

We went out for lunch at Sharky's with Grandma. It was delicious. Coconut breaded shrimp and macadamia grouper, yes please!

Ezra got a fancy drink that he enjoyed immensely if you can imagine.

Shots from our Christmas Eve Bike Ride

This tree is just perfect.

This is known as the "Penguin House" and it is absurd. A domed cage full of penguins. There was also Christmas music blaring. People have such interesting ways of celebrating...

This huge palm was all lit up with flood lights. I'm not sure if it's a Christmas thing but at least it's more tasteful than the penguins.

Here's another blingin' display. I didn't get it in the shot, but there was a sign that said "Send My Electric Bill Across the Street". The house across the street had no decorations, only a simple sign that said "See My Christmas Display Across the Street". Neighborly jests, mwah mwah mwah.

I just liked the twinkly colors on this one.
I got a bike trailer to pull Ezra around and this was a really fun activity. Florida Christmas does have a lot of things going for it after all!

Meat

Ezra likes meat. A lot. So many males do. What's the deal?
While Ez was eating the meat of his dog a friend of Grandma's showed up and although Ezra had never met him before he introduced himself by telling the new friend about his love of meat. The man told Ezra that he liked meat too, and pulled a piece of jerky out of his shirt pocket. They then both realized that they shared another mutual preference, that of having "happy feet". Watching Ezra interact with people cracks me up to no end.
This all took place at the North Jetty beach, although we refer to it as the "hot dog beach" easily distinguished from the "ice cream cone beach".

Mote Aquarium

On Wednesday Grandma and Ezra headed to the Mote Aquarium while I had to work. Ezra had a great time seeing the dolphin, deceased giant squid, sting rays, manatees, and sharks. He was really excited to tell me all about his visit and show me on the map where he went. He also brought to the map to school and told his teacher and friends about his trip. Grandma took a couple shots while they were there, none of the squid unfortunately. I'll just have to go there myself to see the beast!


The (poor) penguins.


Ezra caught in a shrimpin' net.

Packing Peanuts

Wise Man

Ezra's preschool put on a lovely Christmas program last Friday and Ezra got to be one of the wise men! (A step up from last year's role as shepard I think.) I wasn't able to go because I had to work but at least Grandma got to go and take some pictures of my little star. When telling me about the above shot he told me "There's Baby Jesus in the box."


He definitely got the sparkliest outfit- love the crown too.


Behind the angels on the right you'll see the "donkey" that Mary rode in to the manger.


I'm pretty sure he's bearing the frankinscense.


He's a serious actor.


So sad I missed it but I'm so proud that he was a part of such a fun, well orchestrated production.

New Habits

We are spending a lot of time at the beach, or at least that's the only place I seem to take any pictures. We always go to the same beach and sit under this pier.



After playing in the sand and surf we go up to the pier and Ezra gets an ice cream.



Then we take some pictures of ourselves, displaying various facial expressions.



Not a bad routine, although we probably should check out another beach one of these days (and curb the ice cream habit, of course).

So Where Are We Then?

Florida! It's a long story, but we ended up in Venice, Florida where we are staying at Mom & Rick's darling house, they are so generous and kind. It is in a lovely spot only 3 miles from the beach. We go there often. And Ezra's routine is as follows:

Buried in sand.


Emerge from sand.


Make way to water and rinse off (some) sand.


Repeat.


He also likes to pester the seagulls. Which is fine because they do a lot of pestering.


Florida sunset. Not bad.

Florida!

Two Month Limit

For whatever reason between this year and last year Ezra and I seem to have a two month limit as to how long we can be in Guatemala. This year it came down to money mostly, as much as I hate it you really do need it to do stuff. So here is a little collection of photos from the last week or two of our time there.


Guatemala is so very mountainous and lovely.


Smooches.


Cristian and his mother, Ezra's abuelita. (Don't you love Cristain's curly unicorn?)


Droofy, the one kitten that we chose to keep of the original six. He sleeps, a lot.


We bought our milk fresh every morning from the neighbors who had milking cows. Ezra drank and drank and drank the milk. Classy moustache.


The turtle came to check things out.


Watch out! He says he's a fish superhero!


Here are the kittens right before we gifted them to the neighbors, who by the way were fighting over them. Everybody thought that they were angora, even though they are not, and for this reason every one wanted one, two, or three. Apparently you can sell angora cats here because the people who live in the mountains eat them. Sorry kitties.


Ezra loved being in the hammock and spent a lot of time there. We will miss you Guatemala.