Happy Holiday

On Monday morning after the kids went to Gan my parents arrived. They spent the first hour of their visit showing us all the stuff that they brought for the kids(including a slip and slide)....apparently my Dad had a good time at Toys R Us. Then they jumped into house stuff. My Mom came with me to pick Danya up at Gan early. It ended early since it was Yom Hazikiron and the country was preparing for Yom Haatzmaut. At 2:30 we picked Jordy up from Daycare and soon after we returned and opened some new toys Saba and Savta headed in for a nap while Danya and Jordy headed out to the Slip and Slide.



At 8:15 we headed to the basketball court for the Yom Haatzmaut celebration. The gan kids, Danya included, were going to be preforming and Danya was all excited/nervous. The basketball court was jam packed but we shoved our way in and enjoyed the speeches, videos, music and mostly the gan performance. I had a bad view but Danya is the one kid in front wearing the blue shirt. She was really into the show and danced and sang with gusto.





Jordy fell asleep in my arms at around 9:30. At around 10:30 we headed across the street to get food. Danya (and Savta) got hot dogs and cotton candy(none for Savta). While we were buying the food the fireworks started. I took a video of a part of the show but this was an unbelievable show they put on.



It reminded me of Disney World! The fireworks woke Jordy and he was completely freaked out by all the noise and Josh took him home. We followed minutes later.
The kids slept a little later on Tuesday morning but not as late as we would have liked. Saba made eggs which Danya gobbled up. We kind of hung out and did nothing all morning. Then at we headed to Shoshana and Norman Abells for a BBQ. We had a great time there with a mostly Chicago crowd. We were supposed to not eat a lot since we were heading to another BBQ later but we ate a lot anyhow. After the Abells we stopped at Bracha and Neil Rothners to say hi. We left my parents there to chat while we headed to Jerry Yudkowsky's for BBQ #2. We had a great time there and got so see a bunch of cousins. The kids had fun watching movies and eating hot dogs while the adults ate more than necessary on the Marpecet. We stayed until after 8:30 and got home too late.
This morning we were tired but still made it out the door to get the kids to gan. My parents went to do some house stuff while Josh and I went to Kfar Ruth to take care of some bike stuff. Then we went to the lighting store and bought a light for the outside of our house and one to go above our washing sink. We stopped in Shilat to go to home center but didn't get anything there. Jordy came home from Gan with his girlfriend Ariella and they played nicely most the afternoon. We got Chinese take out for dinner and the kids and grandparents are all asleep.

Lots to Report

Friday was a day of progress. Josh and I went to Home Center and purchased a shower stall for our guest bathroom. This could have been good timing for my parents visit next week but of course the one we wanted wont be in for a few weeks, so our next guests can enjoy it! We also bought a rug for the living room. We got home and spent the next few hours rearranging the living room. We loved our L shaped couch in Chicago however our living room here would look better with 2 couches facing each other. So we keep trying different locations, angles etc until we figure out the permanent placing and can get bookshelves. After the kids came home there was a knock on our door. Our next door neighbors who moved in around the time we did were having grass put in and their gardener brought too much and asked if we wanted the leftovers. We of course took it because our grass is dying and needs to be replaced. It is amazing how much better it makes our front yard look. Hopefully if we water it enough it will take and we will have some nice grass! The kids took advantage of the watering opportunity and put on bathing suits so they could spray each other while watering the grass. Friday night Jordy fell asleep before dinner. Danya went to the Kaplanskys and Josh and I had a nice quiet dinner. I went to bed but was woken by Danya screaming. Apparently when Josh went to pick her up she left as they were putting out watermelon for dessert but since it was 11pm Josh made her come home. She was completely over exhausted, but man did she scream! She woke me and Jordy and that didn't make me too happy. Shabbat morning the kids didn't sleep as late as I was hoping. After shul we went to a kiddush at someones house on the other side of the Yishuv. It was a beautiful day and a nice walk. We also stopped at the Rotters so Jordy could say hi to his girlfriend Ariella. He of course had a tantrum when we left and he was screaming and crying the whole walk home. He continued through the beginning of lunch which was very pleasant. Finally he calmed down and Danya told him a bunch of stories. Jordys friend Amitai came over and the kids all played while Josh and I tried to nap. After a while Josh took them all out and Amitai went home. Jordy went to bed before Shabbat was over and Danya not long after Havdallah. Dov came to babysit so Josh and I could stop at a birthday party for a friend of ours tonight.

Lazy Day

After getting the kids out to school I returned and after a little while I decided I should take a nap and then slept for 3 hours. I woke up and continued my lazy day by watching TV(mostly FOX News). I picked Jordy up at 4 from daycare and he and Danya went to the Makolet again. Then they played baseball outside with Josh and then headed to bed. A very uneventful day here!

Home Center

This morning Josh and I went to Home Center with big plans of getting a few things taken care of in the house. Of course we realized that for some reason or other we couldn't get any of them done and came home. We have to measure a few things and maybe go back tomorrow. The kids had playdates all afternoon and didn't come home until 5. While I was making them dinner Danya took Jordy to the makolet(DO NOT TELL MY GRANDMOTEHR that we let our 6 year old take our 4 year old to the store) and then Dov came over to babysit for an hour. When we returned Dov didn't want to leave but stayed with his friend to continue playing Playstation. Jordy was confused by this as he wanted to know if I was leaving again since Dov was still there. In other news I am happy to report that our pet snail Cheerio is still alive. I think he is trying to climb out of it's container and I am going to try and convince the kids to set it free tomorrow...wish me luck with that!

A New Pet

Today after Gan Danya chose to come home over 2 offers for playdates. She watched a DVD most of the afternoon. At around 5 she asked Josh if he would take her to the makolet to buy a treat. He told her she could go herself. She was hesitant but we reviewed rules about walking there and making sure she looks both ways before crossing the parking lot. We also discussed money and how much she had. She headed out and returned about 10 minutes later with an ice cream and some candy for Jordy. She was very proud of herself and wanted to know if she can go back tomorrow! After daycare Jordy went to his friend Yehoshua's house. He was dropped off at 6 after having had dinner there. He came home showing off the Hilzon(snail) his friend Amitai gave him at gan. He told us that we need to put it in water, so we did and we found that it was alive. The kids named it Cheerio and we made it a little box with a potato(that Danya had leftover from dinner) and a few pieces of leafs and grass. We spent a while watching it move and drag it's heavy shell across the container. Apparently tomorrow we need to get it some dirt. Danya and Jordy said goodnight to Cheerio(Danya says she knows snail language and the snail is tired) and went to bed.

Lazy Day

This morning the kids slept pretty late and Jordy dragged us out of bed in search of breakfast. Unfortunately for him there weren't too many options. The kids didn't have school today, but they are going back tomorrow. I had to go to Modiin for a doctors appointment followed by grocery shopping. The store was no where near as crowded as I had anticipated it being. When I got home Dov and Elisha were upstairs playing in our attic. They stayed for a while and before Elisha left he offered to take the kids to the park. We took him up on that offer and the kids had a great time. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry. Jordy went to Amitai's house around 4 to play. He stayed until dinner time. I made pancakes for dinner that were that much better since I found Aunt Jemima syrup in the store this morning(the Israeli syrup that we had until now was disgusting). Jordy went to bed on time but Danya is still awake saying she can't fall asleep, I guess that is what we get for letting her sleep late!

Pesach Videos

Here are two videos of Danya at the amusement park on Thursday(there are no videos of Jordy because he and I were buying new clothes).

The End of Pesach

On Sunday morning we headed back to Haifa. First we went to the Science Museum where the kids had a good time. They really enjoyed the area with puzzles and the part that had different optical illusions. After the museum closed at 2 we stopped for ice cream and Josh ran into a store to buy a few shirts. Then we decided to go to the Bahai Temple as we were told they have beautiful gardens. That information was correct. It was so unbelievably gorgeous there. We have a few pictures but it doesn't do it justice. After that we stopped at a grocery store to find something to eat since we missed lunch. We headed back to the hotel where they had a clown show that the kids went to and then got ready for the last day of Pesach. We had dinner with The Aronsons and the Knapels again and then we all went to bed early. Our last day they changed the schedule on us. We had been eating breakfast until 11 and then lunch had been starting at 1:20. Problem was that at lunch nobody was hungry. So the last day they had coffee and cake until lunch time and then at 11:30 we had lunch. After lunch Josh and I napped while the kids played. Then Josh joined them outside playing Frisbee and baseball with them. We pretty much hung out outside until dinner time. Dinner was dairy which was nice since every lunch and dinner of Pesach had been meat and we were all a little sick of that! After Havdalah we packed up and said our goodbyes to the Aronsons and Knapels. It took us 2 hours and 7 minutes parking lot to driveway and the kids were out cold most of the ride and went right into bed.

In case you are interested I have added pictures to Fridays post.

The Weekend

Friday morning we headed to a festival that was sponsored by the Jewish Agency to support the people of the North. The kids had fun doing art projects, jumping on moonwalks and eating ice cream. Unfortunately the wait for a paddleboat was too long, so we skipped that. We came back for lunch and then the kids played until 3:30 when there was a puppet-making workshop. They had a good time there and made cute puppets. Then we all got ready for Shabbat. Friday night dinner was noisy! All week we had been eating in the same room with the same people however not always at the same times. Friday night dinner it was so loud! Jordy went to bed in the middle of dinner and Danya and I headed back after dessert. Shabbat morning I took the kids to breakfast while Josh was in shul. He made Kiddush when he joined us and we ate breakfast together. After that we hung out in our room and read and rested. Lunch was at 2 after a nice nap. Then I took a semi-real nap while the kids played outside with friends. We had dinner even though we weren’t hungry. We heard havdalah and headed back to the room. Jordy went to bed and then Danya, Josh and I headed to the lunchroom where there was a Chinese circus performing. Danya loved it! Now she is sleeping and we are trying to decide what to do on our last day of Chol Hamoied.

The Grand Canyon

Today after breakfast we headed to Haifa with big plans. We were going to go to about 3 or 4 different places while we were there. The first scheduled stop was at a mall named Grand Canyon (Kenyon in Hebrew is mall). In this massive mall was an amusement park that we thought the kids would enjoy. Danya jumped right in but Jordy was still not feeling 100% so he was sitting on my lap while watching Danya play. A few minutes I noticed a wet spot on my lap. Apparently his stomach was not feeling better yet. I have to say of all places for something like this to happen a shopping mall isn’t such a bad one. We left Josh with Danya and we headed into the mall. First we bought some new clothes for Jordy and cleaned him up. Then we bought me a new skirt. When we got back Danya was still having a blast. Jordy joined in the fun and they didn’t want to leave…so we didn’t. We stayed until 4, which was when we were planning on heading back so the kids could be back for the animal show that was scheduled for 4:30. We were a little late getting back but Danya went to see the remainder of the show. At dinner, Jason and Mira had arrived and joined us at dinner. We had a nice dinner and put the kids to bed. Now Josh and I are trying to enjoy a Simon and Garfunkel Show (I say trying because we left Danya with a cell phone and my number and she keeps calling to say she misses us…she is in a room a second away). That is it….not anywhere as exciting as yesterday was!

An exciting day

Tuesday was an eventful day here. It didn’t start out that way though. We had a nice breakfast and it took us a while to finalize our plans for the day. The plan was we were going to go to Rosh Hanikrah then return for lunch. After lunch we scheduled a boat ride and then would either go to Kibutz Regba (I know my parents are reading this and wondering….yes, it is where they build the kitchen cabinets) and Avi and Eva could go horseback riding while we took the kids on a jumping castle or we would go to Haifa where there are numerous things to do. So off we headed to Rosh Hanikrah. We went on the cable car ride and then walked through the Grotto. Rosh Hanikrah is as far north as you can go on the western side of the country. On the car ride back Jordy announced that he didn’t feel good and was going to throw up. Then he threw up. We got back and while Danya went with Avi and Eva to find out about lunch Josh cleaned the car and I took Jordy to have a bath. After his bath, while I was getting him dressed he started to have a seizure. He had one once before but it was still scary. I ran to call an ambulance. He had stopped seizing by the time I got back and was sleeping. We left Danya with Avi and Eva and Josh drove behind the ambulance where I was with Jordy. They took us to the hospital in Naheriah. Basically it was a reaction to a virus that he had in this case. The good news is that it really isn’t dangerous and most kids grow out of them by the time they are 6. Once we were done at the hospital we tried to locate Avi, Eva and Danya to catch up with them but they went to the beach and it was getting cold so we came back. We got back just in time for the kids activity, which was a show involving balloons, bubbles and a few other things. Danya returned with Eva and Avi during the show so she joined in and the kids really enjoyed it. A while after the show we headed to dinner. Jordy was feeling warm to me so I gave him some more Tylenol and about 5 minutes later he threw up again….then again 15 minutes after that. We said our goodbyes to Avi and Eva and were sad to see them go. Hopefully they will return soon courtesy of Alitalia airlines (who said today that their luggage is now in the airport and they can get it on their way out of the country). We headed to the room and both kids went to bed. In other news The Aronson/Knapel families went on a tiyul and Dori fell and broke his ankle. Apparently we just missed him at the hospital. Unfortunately for him they weren’t able to set it at that hospital for whatever reason so they had to take him to Tzfat. So like I said, an eventful day.

One Seder

Monday night we went to the main building when we were all dressed and ready. Josh went to Davening and the kids and I went to the dining room where they were serving an early dinner for the kids. Jordy ate 2 pieces of Schnitzel and Danya ate Schnitzel, salad and potatoes. They were starving! After they were done eating and davening was over we joined Avi and Eva and we headed to the dining room where we were having our seder. There are about 150 people at this place and there were 7 private seders in other rooms and in the main dining room there were about 6 tables where people were having their own seders in the same room. We were the first ones to start but pretty soon the room got noisy. We had a fun seder with some really bad Israeli grape juice, lots of wine(we brought our own) and way too much matzah! For some reason Avi, Eva and I ended up eating spoonfuls of horseradish while Josh ate lettuce…it was really strong horseradish and my sinuses are still clear a day later. The dinner was very good, especially a Waldorf salad that we called a whipped cream salad since it basically was desert. After we were overstuffed Danya and Jordy (who were still up) found the Afikoman. Danya had been waiting to do this for a long time since she knew Pops sent Afikoman gifts for her and Jordy (he sent those gifts because she called him and asked if he was going to). Danya found Avi’s which was hidden so well right where he was sitting. Jordy had to search a little harder as Josh hid his under the tablecloth under his elbow. We finished the seder pretty quickly but spent a long time trying to get through Eichad Me Yodah. Apparently it was a difficult song for Eva, maybe the instructions weren’t clear? We finished the Seder very late and the kids were still awake and we were over stuffed and had way to much wine/grape juice and matzah, but it was all ok because we didn’t have to have another one! Of course after we got to the room Danya was complaining that her stomach hurt her. I told her it was probably because she was so overtired. She said we should never stay awake this late again! She went right to bed. Jordy woke up about an hour later from a night terror (he’s been having them a lot) but it only lasted a few minutes and didn’t wake Danya. I was hoping that after going to bed so late we would sleep until at least 10, but no such luck. We got up around 8:30 and by 9:15ish I was in the dining room with the kids for breakfast. Jordy had Matzah with butter while Danya had some eggs, tuna, gefilta fish, matzah with butter and matzah with jelly. We hung out in the breakfast room until shul was over and Josh came and made Kiddush. He and I ate and Avi and Eva joined us. After a breakfast, which required many plates, we were told that lunch would be in 2 hours. At 12 there were group scheduled for the kids and a walking tour of Nes Ammim for the adults. Danya headed to the groups and Jordy joined me and Josh for the tour but during the introduction Jordy decided he wanted to go back to the room. The little I got from the introduction and from Eva filling me in was that it is a Kibutz that was purchased by Europe(or some Europeans?) because they felt guilty about the holocaust and they wanted to strengthen ties with the Jews. Volunteers who are mostly Dutch run it. The surrounding area is Christian. Anything else you want to know about it, you are on your own It is a very beautiful place and the atmosphere for the chag was so ice and relaxed. After they returned from the tour we found out from Danya that there were no groups since she was the only one who wanted to participate. She and he new best friend/3rd cousin, Ayelet Knapel were playing outside. Josh and I went to sit outside where he ended up playing catch with some guys and then he and Avi joined as a group of Brits played American football. We headed to lunch at 2:15(it had been delayed which was fine since we got up from breakfast at 11:45). Lunch was a BBQ, grilled chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers along with all the salads. We were stuffed at the end! The kids played with all their new friends while Josh and I tried to nap(Jordy would come in every 15 minutes about something). Finally at 5:30 Josh went to Jason Knapel’s shiur while I joined the kids outside. We headed to dinner at 6:30 and stayed there until after havdalah. We got the kids into bed and spent some time discussing what our plans are for tomorrow with Avi and Eva. Then Josh and Avi and Eva went to the show in the dining hall(I joined them once the kids were asleep). They had a guy who does mind reading tricks. The little bit I saw was pretty entertaining. We then spent a little while longer trying to determine what we are going to do tomorrow (they offer tiyulim however none of them seem that appealing. We are trying to find something that is nearby that both Avi and Eva will enjoy and our kids will enjoy). I left Avi, Eva and Josh to make a plan and came back to the room since Danya was crying. Hope everyone is enjoying their second seder!!!!

Chag Sameach

Sunday I spent most of the day cooking while Josh and the kids cleaned a little for Pesach. Most of the day was spent with Danya and Jordy asking us when Avi and Eva were arriving. It got to be too much for Josh that at one point he told them they will be here in 5 minutes. They stood patiently in front of the window for a half hour asking if it has been 5 minutes yet, but we had a half-hour without us asking if they are here yet. Unfortunately they spent a lot of time at the airport begging for their luggage that they arrived close to 5:30. Before they arrived Thea, Abby and Nina arrived. As did the Gersons, Mira and Jason and kids and Sandy and Dori Aaronson. Everyone seemed to have a good time although they didn’t eat enough. After everyone left we should have packed and went t bed, but instead we sat on the couch and talked to Eva and Avi for about 4 hours(at least we did some laundry in there). We went to bed VERY late! We got up and had the last Chametz. Avi cooked breakfast, making use of the eggs we had left. We went outside to burn our Chametz along with the neighbors and Avi and Eva headed on the road as they had to stop and buy more clothes. Then we finished packing and headed out. Jordy fell asleep pretty early on in the ride but Danya was up the whole time. We had some bad directions and at one point realized that if we turn around and go back to the road we came from the ride would be shorter…so we thought. Josh ended up making an illegal U turn and got pulled over, which I am pretty sure didn’t save us any time(or money). I am not sure why, but I found the whole thing very funny. I think the funniest part was explaining to Danya and Jordy why Daddy got in trouble. Danya pointed out that now that the policeman explained the rules of driving to Josh he wouldn’t get in trouble anymore. We eventually got here and got to our room. We saw Dara and Jason on our way in. Of course once we got a little settled Danya and Jordy began asking where Avi and Eva were (seems to be a theme to their visit). We went to look for them but didn’t find them. Turns out they haven’t arrived yet. We came back to the room for Danya and Jordy to watch a video and wait for them to come. Josh and I are going to get ready for Pesach and our 1 seder (sorry, had to mention it!) soon but I wanted to post and wish everyone a Chag Kasher V’Samaech! More soon!