Super Ezra!

Portland friends Jason & Kirsten get major props for the cape, mask & wristies that they sent for Ezra's third birthday!



Watch out bad guys!



Lightening bolt wrist detail.

Ezra's 3rd Birthday Adventure

For Ezra's actual birthday we headed down to St. Paul for 2.5 days FULL of fun. Our first stop was Como Zoo. I bought Ezra this iguana snapper head which we gave a Spanish accent and delighted in including in our day.



He got a little thirsty from all his chit chatting with his amigo.



These are the only photos I took at the zoo (the animals are too depressing to take pictures of), but this is our birthday picnic lunch, cashews, a turkey sandwich, an orange, rice crackers, grapes and a juice box. The iguana enjoyed the grapes as you might imagine.



Next we hit up the Science Museum where Ezra was amazed by the dinosaur skeletons as you might have imagined. Here he experiments with a giant T-Rex head that can open and shut.



Posing with the Stegasaurus, nice nice.



Next up was the Children's Museum the following day. There was a whole child-size town where Ezra enjoyed delivering the mail,



and shopping at the local grocery.



The check-out lady was very polite and efficient, although other shoppers immediately put Ezra's purchases in their own carts causing some conflict.



It took a little coaxing but Ezra finally got into painting his own face. Other kids in the museum had painted their faces super crazy, but Ezra was quite content with a few well-placed markings. He even drew a blue circle around his belly button because he claimed "There's no more room on my face."



He slept the whole way home, I'm sure you can understand why. Best birthday ever!

Ezra's 3rd Birthday Party

I'm pretty sure he had fun...



Singin' to the Birthday Boy!



He did much better blowing out his candles this year than last year, although that was partially my fault because last year I put about 10 candles on his cake and it overwhelmed him. He liked to blow out candles so I thought he would like it, but not the case. This year there were three candles and he got 'em!



Close-up of the cake, complete with volcano (constructed from three peanut butter cups) and dinosaur nest with eggs.



Ezra and his friends sisters Esme and Amira gathered their tools for the next activity...



... a real dinosaur dig! Ezra and his friends uncovered the bones of a T-Rex. The man in the funny hat then assembled the bones. Fun!



Ezra's friend Finn in a party hat looking adorable with his rosy cheeks, dino tee and belly.



Uncle Nate hung out with Ezra quite a bit during the party, as well as the dinosaurs.



Finn helps Ezra open presents.



Special guest cousin Merritt offers a hand as well. This one turns out to be a Buzz Lightyear action figure (I resisted the temptation to say 'doll') who talks. Thanks Grandpa!

Ezra is Three OMG

I spent approximately 4 hours making this cake. It took no more than 15 minutes to eat it. The look on Ezra's face when he saw it was worth the hand cramping frosted perfection. More photos from his birthday extravaganza soon!

My Little Man is Two!

As promised, here are some photos from our lovely weekend on the Oregon coast. Sunshine on the coast is rare, so we really got lucky. Not quite warm enough to go swimming (or take off your coat), but warm enough to hang out for a couple of hours without your limbs getting numb. We'll take it! Our friends Cayce and Justin took these shots of me and my guy prancing around in the surf.

It's hard to get him to look at the camera. Why look away from the glorious ocean?

Now he's looking and I look freaky. O'well.

Here's a video of Ezra approaching the ocean:

The sand feels so nice between your fingers (and in your mouth, he's still into eating sand...).

Kate and Usiah brought a really nifty kite to fly on the beach.

Ezra took a turn, and I did a lot of running down the beach to catch the kite after he let it go. He found this game highly amusing.

This is Ezra and Maya at the breakfast joint where we ate that morning. It was called the Pig n' Pancake, and there were these little stuffed pigs that were holding frying pans with bacon in them. You could buy the pig frying pig while you ate pig. It was darling.

Gabe and Koali got Ezra this really cool dump truck! It's made from recycled milk jugs. Amazing. Here Ezra and Maya fill 'er up with rocks in front of our yurt. You can see the port o potty in the background. Ezra was a little scared of it. Understandably.


On Sunday morning it was a little gray so we went into town to the free science museum. There were little model tide pools that had sea creatures that you could touch. Ezra did not want to touch them, but the option was there. In the above picture he is looking at what is in the below picture (a really flat fish that likes to be pet, the say).

He liked the clown fish a lot. So do I.

Here's a video of Ezra and Maya checking out the interactive elements:



Yes, Ezra did get a turn:



On the car ride home he fell asleep with this bag of white cheddar popcorn on his lap. When I tried to remove it he would wake up and sleep eat a kernel or two before closing his eyes again. He ate almost that entire bag of popcorn. Yes, not the best thing, but for a 3 hour car ride I just want him to be content and if that means a bag of white cheddar popcorn, so be it.

I snuck this while he was sleeping. It's his super cool sea horse tattoo that I put on his leg upside down so that he could look at it right side up.

In all that fun and excitement we never got around to lighting candles, singing happy birthday or eating cake (much to the disappointment of Usiah who kept asking "Birthday cake?"). Fortunately our good friend Roberta had a potluck that night so we brought over Ezra's tiramisu birthday cake and they helped us complete the birthday necessities, even putting on party hats. In the above shot Ezra sits with Grace, who was the real reason for the potluck. She's Roberta's sister who is visiting from Atlanta. Grace and I used to work together at the Tin Shed oh so long ago... She's a great gal.

Ezra had A LOT of fun.

Here's the candles, the cake, and the singing:

Here's a video of him making short work of the candles:

What a success! I am so thankful to all of the people who could join us to celebrate Ezra's second birthday. Also, those who could not make it, we really appreciated the phone calls (he got to listen to 3 people sing him happy birthday on speaker phone while he was in the bathtub), and birthday cards (and cookies!). What ever will we do next year... Chuck-E-Cheese?

Lots of Updates

We have been doing so many fun things! Aside from school and work we are maximizing our time. Sleep shmeep! First off, here are those promised shots from my birthday party. It was a formal event, so you'll notice that everyone cleaned up quite nicely. We had fondue and listened to records in the backyard. Everyone brought one to share, and then at the end I got to keep them! Hooray for new music. Some of my favorites include: American Folk Songs for Children, The Supremes and The Temptations on one disc, Grizzly Bear, and a nifty Paul Simon. I got some randoms too that I'm not sure about yet. Ever heard of Lil' Wayne? Hmmm.

Maya, Ezra's girlfriend, was partying a little too hard. Cinderella was intent on losing her slipper, you could say. (I found both in the yard the next morning.)

Here's the DJ. So good at pushing the button. By the way, this is the guy with the stick up hair that emulates Ezra's style.

These two really cleaned up nice. So happy!

Ezra had a lot of man time that night, as you saw in the previous post with all the dudes.

Ezra, Mama and Jack.


Gone Wild!

Usiah got pretty spiffy, and then made off with all the blueberry kabobs.

Tom was dashing in his suit.

Even more so when he smiles.

Nimbus the wolf dog eyeing my cake. Back off buddy.

***

That sums that up. So the next update comes from this past weekend. On Saturday morning Ezra and I were having a casual breakfast listening to a bluegrass program on the radio. The announcer came on and said that there was an old time music festival that day, and that there was a free shuttle out to it! We quickly gathered our things and headed out to the wonderful Pickathon Festival. Now, of course I am partial to the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and that's still my favorite, but this one had some nice features. There was one stage tucked away in the woods and people were sitting in tree crooks listening to the lovely music of Laura Gibson and Horse Feathers. It was shady and cool and magical. I didn't take any pictures of that stage, but I did take some pictures of the really cool shade making device that they had for the stages that were out in the field.

These spandex kite things were tied all crazy to the surrounding trees and tall poles. It added a really nice break from the bearing down of the noon time sun. Winnipeg, you might want to look into these.

Ezra applauds the Hackensaw Boys, who were insanely spirited regardless of the 90 degree temperatures. They were pouring with sweat as the crowd danced themselves silly.

When the Hackensaw Boys finished their set Ezra was upset. He wanted them to continue playing and kept signing to me "more, more, more" and when I failed to deliver he gave me this look as though I had failed him. Boy likes his bluegrass.

It was a very dusty, sun soaked day, and we both had some major tan/dirt lines on our feet upon returning home. Other musical highlights included: Justin Townes Earl, Vetiver, and Joe Pug.

***

We have been relaxing at home too of course. Here are a couple of videos to show the quieter, more practical side of life.



He's getting so good with the spoon! When he points his finger into his hand that's his sign for give me more.

Piano virtuoso is a fine occupation, son.

That's all to report tonight. Hope you and yours are well, and finding time to spontaneously go to music festivals!