Baseball, Friends and the end of Gan

On Wednesday Danya went on a tiyul(trip)with her gan. They went to some sort of amusement park. She had a great time! Jordy went to Ariella's house in the afternoon for a playdate. At 4:30 I took Danya and Dov and we headed to another baseball game. We had front row seats right by first base so Danny, number 19, was able to come over and talk to us between innings.



Josh and Jordy arrived at the game right before the end of the 6th inning. Danya was picked to do the dizzy bat game between the 6th and 7th inning and won a Modiin Miracle t-shirt.



Danny unfortunately had a not so good game and his team lost, but we were still proud to cheer for him. Thursday morning was spent folding laundry and making phone calls. Danya went to Tamars in the afternoon while Jordy had his last day of daycare. After Danya's last English class the Kirschenbaum family came over. Poor Simon didn't feel so well and was kind of sad. My kids were so happy to see him and Eli and I think they overwhelmed him. David took the kids outside to play baseball and I am so mad that I didn't take a video because David was surprised by Jordy's swing. Jordy hit the ball and it went right into David's neck! I am sure it hurt, but Emily and I couldn't stop laughing!







We got dinner from Burgers Bar and then Jordy had a tantrum and I think traumatized Simon even more! Today was the last day of Gan and as I promised Danya, I brought the camera to take pictures of the kids with their teachers.





Now Danya is at Daniella's house and Ariella and Jordy are playing downstairs. Have a good Shabbat!

Ovens

Yesterday when the kids were at gan Josh and I went to an appliance store to look for a new oven. Our problem(or more mine as Josh isn't really doing too much cooking) is that we have a cabinet for a built in oven that is the size of a Israeli oven(small) and I would like a nice big American oven...oh well! So we ordered an Israeli sized oven(I insisted on the one with the slightly larger interior so that maybe my cookie sheets or more than one pan will fit in at a time but I am not getting my hopes up). It should be delivered this week. Nothing too exciting happened in the afternoon. In the evening Josh and I had to go to get some forms notarized and then I went to Lori's to help her stuff Bar Mitzvah invitations. Today was also a quiet day. Danya went to a friends after gan and Jordy had a friend over for an hour after daycare.

Play Ball!

This morning was pretty typical. This afternoon the Kirschenbaums returned to gather their stuff and move to Raanana. Before they left Simon and Eli joined Danya and Jordy in the pool and then Simon and Jordy played a very serious game of checkers.

Then we said goodbye and we headed out to Petach Tikvah for the very first Israeli Baseball League baseball game!!! We got there pretty early and got a chance to say hello to Danny
and watch the teams warm up. Josh also got a picture of Art Shamsky who is the manager of the Modiin Miracle.
While we were waiting around for the game to start we were interviewed by a lot of reporters mostly because we brought 3 posters with us. The first you can see here says "My Uncle Danny Plays For The Modiin Miracle" for the kids to hold.
The other 2 will be on the blog soon but were funny. We had a swarm of players from other teams taking our pictures and at one point one of them said to another "Aren't the fans supposed to be taking our pictures and not the other way around?". The game was great and Danny's team, the Modiin Miracle creamed the Petach Tikvah Pioneers 9 to 1! Danny was up to bat once and I took video but I am guessing nobody needs to see him strike out, right? He did seem to be very busy with his coaching responsibilities. He was coaching first base, talking to the umps and had a clipboard in his hands that made him look very official. The kids actually sat for a large part of the game but eventually went in search of Popsicles(they ate hot dogs before the game started)...did I mention that we had a heat wave today? It was around 100! We were also joined by Thea and Nina who got there a bit late but just in time to see Danny at bat. Melissa and Johnny also showed their faces. One of the funnier moments was the fact that all these kids were trying to get the players autographs and at the end of the game Danny was mobbed by kids getting his autograph!
It was a great game and we had a great time! We are looking forward to going to many more games and reporting back!

Shabbat

Friday morning I got up and out of the house early to head to Beit Shemesh to pick up the communitys Challot from Sderot orders. When I got back the kids were at Gan and Emily was awake but Simon and Eli were still sleeping. I spent the day home waiting for people to pick up their orders. The Kirschenbaums headed out to Yerushaliam for Shabbat around the time that the kids came home from gan. Josh took the kids to run an errand and then they played all afternoon. Friday night dinner should have been nice and quiet except I let Jordy stay up because he wanted to eat Challah and grape juice. Problem was he was so tired he had a few melt downs. He did go to bed pretty easily though. Danya want to bed too late also. Shabbat morning I slept late. We had lunch and then the kids headed out. Josh and I took a nap but Josh got up when the kids returned. Jordy ate dinner and headed to bed. Danya came home later and had already had dinner so she had a shower and then went to bed.

Oven Problems

Wednesday morning I went to the bank to try and sort out a prob with my credit card. Then I came home and picked up the kids. We pretty much hung out at home doing nothing. Josh cleaned out the pool and the kids played outside for a while. The Kirschenbaums returned and Simon joined Danya and Jordy in the pool for a while. Then 2 babysitters arrived and us adults went out for a nice quiet dinner. We ate WAY too much, basically ordering everything the menu! Thursday morning I took David to change money and then to the bank. When we returned I decided to make 2 batches of cookies(1 for the Levine's whose house we were going to last night for a barbecue and 1 for the soldiers we were bring coffee to later at night). I then picked Danya up from Gan and Danya and I were going to join the Kirschenbaums for a late,light lunch. On the way out the door I took batch #2 of cookies out of the oven and as I was walking to the stove to put them down I heard a bad noise and then is slow motion watched as the glass on the door of my oven fell out of place to the ground where it shattered into a billion pieces. Luckily nobody was nearby, so there were no injuries but it was quite surprising to see it. There is now a hole in my oven...it may be time to replace it now! Luckily, the cookies were fine(this was Josh's first concern!). We headed out to lunch and returned not too long before it was time for the BBQ. We went a little later so Josh could do a little more work but got there around 6:15. It was at the house of Karen and Judah Levine. Mic and Ayla Osband were there and Chani and Moshe Turk came for dessert. We had a good time and stayed until about 8:30. Then at around 10:30 Emily and I went with Lori, Dov and Yocheved to deliver the coffee and cookies to the Chayilaim. As usual, it was a great experience and the soldiers were grateful.

Yet again

Before I begin yet another update I just wanted to point out that when we have nothing exciting to report I usually don't update the blog because it is boring. On the other hand, when things are very exciting and we are very busy I don't update because I am too busy to do so. The later is my excuse this time!
Sunday, after the kids came back from gan we took them to Modiin where we were going to take them to this kids play place. When we got there it wasn't open so we went to Ace Hardware and got Josh a drill for Father's Day. Then we went to a bowling alley where they have video arcade(aka. a game store) and the kids had a good time playing there. When we left we stopped in at the kids play place(which we renamed "the fun place") and Jordy had a tantrum when he realized we weren't staying. We told the kids we would go back on Tuesday when Simon ad Eli arrive. When we got home we got a call from Lisa that it is official....they are making Aliyah this summer to Hashmonaim! Danya wasn't all that excited when Meira first told her, but when I explained that they would be moving here in a few months she became extatic! Monday was a busy day. I went grocery shopping and to Home Center in the morning. Jordy's gan ended at 11 since his misabat siyum(graduation party) was at night. I ran a few carpools in the afternoon. Jordy and I returned to his gan at 5:45 for the misibah. It was a great show and Jordy seemed to really enjoy himself. He sang the songs and followed the teacher for the dances and did a great job. A short while after we returned the Kirschenbaum family arrived. Poor David and Emily....all 7 of their duffle bags(they are here for a year) got left in the States! We were happy to see them and the kids hit it off right away! After some pizza everyone went to bed VERY late! Tuesday morning I got the kids off to school and kept expecting David Emily and kids to wake up and they ended up sleeping until 12:45! After I got Danya from gan Emily and I took Danya, Simon and Eli to Modiin so Emily could get some clothes and a cell phone. Later, David met us with Jordy in tow and we took to the kids to the "fun place". The kids had a blast and really enjoyed. After Emily was done at the cell phone store she stayed with the 3 older kids and I took David and Eli and we went to buy some food to grill. We got everyone home and had a great big dinner and some really good steaks thanks to David! Click on Simon's blog on the right hand side to see more about the Kirschenbaums experience and some pictures of Danya and Jordy with Simon and Eli.

Here is a video of Danya and Simon running through the cell phone store(we would have felt bad about their behavior except the whole process took 2 hours so we didn't care that they were running around):



Here is one video from Jordy's gan party:

A Close Call

Friday morning we got up nice and early since Danya had to be on time to her visit to Kitah Aleph. In gan nobody is on time but in real school you have to be. So I dragged myself out of bed but Danya and Jordy had already gotten up and gotten dressed(evident by Jordys army green shorts, navy and red striped shirt and multi colored striped shabbat socks). I dropped Jordy off at gan and then took Danya into Kitah Aleph. She was so excited! She sat down next to Daniella Kaplansky and put her backpack on the back of her chair and said goodbye to me. I then went to Beit Shemesh to pick up my challah orders from the Sderot Challot project. I came home and continued my Shabbat cooking. Later I picked Danya up who was so excited about Kitah Aleph. She had a great time there and can't wait to go back(we will see how long that lasts). Josh picked Jordy up from gan and took the kids with him to Modiin where he got his weekly falafel and the kids got pizza. They returned to clean the attic and then clean and play in the pool. I fired up the grill and finished my cooking and cleaning. After I lit candles and was putting the lighter away, before making the Bracha, our power went out. We very quickly(since we were already about 10 minutes into the 18) determined that the wall in the kitchen with the plata and crock pot was the problem so I had to very quickly move them to different outlets. Had that happened about 20 seconds later we would have been in big trouble! Jordy went to bed and Josh and Danya went to shul. We ate a quiet dinner and headed to bed. Shabbat morning Danya and Josh went to shul and Jordy and I stayed home and set the table and got lunch ready. We had the Siltons and Rotters(Ariella's family) and from about 7am Jordy kept looking out the window to see if Ariella was here yet. We had a nice lunch and the kids had a great time playing. The Siltons took our kids home with them to play with their kids. This worked out great for us an Josh and I got to take a nap. Josh got up at about 6 and went to pick the kids up. They all went to the park. When they returned Jordy went right to bed. Danya stayed up until after Havdallah and then went to bed.

Kitah Aleph

In the middle of the night last night Danya came to our room crying that she had a bad dream. I have no clue what time it was because I was too tired to lift my arm and look at my watch. I was also too tired to deal with her so I told her to get her pillow and she could sleep with us. She did sleep....I did not! In the morning we overslept. Josh got the kids to school and I got the grocery list together. I headed to Home Center to pick up the faucet we ordered a while back. Then I went to the grocery store. When I came home I began cooking and we called the handyman to put the faucets in. We had 2 faucets for the kitchen sinks and one for our bathroom. I picked up Danya from Gan and she played in the pool for a while until English. Then I got Jordy and we stopped at the makolet because Danya needed glue. Jordy requested a treat and he picked out a candy for him and Danya. After English Danya went to a make up karate class. Once it was over Josh gave the kids dinner and I headed to work. Danya was all excited tonight because she is going to Kitah Aleph tomorrow. All the kids were invited to spend the day there visiting. She has all her supplies in her backpack(hence the glue) and can't wait. I told her that if she wakes me before it is light out I am not going to be happy. Of course it is now 12:30 and I can't sleep because I made the mistake of drinking iced tea earlier...bad move!

True Love

Today I took the kids to Gan(late like usual) then Josh and I watched the finale to the Sopranos(we watched most last night but I was falling asleep so we finished it this morning). After that we hung out at home and I cleaned the kitchen. I picked Danya and Jordy up along with Ariella. The kids all went into the pool but Ariella was very disturbed that there were a few bugs in the pool, so chivalrous Jordy scooped them all out with a plastic cup before Ariella entered the pool...that's true love! They played in the pool until Ariella's dad came to get her. Saba came over while the kids were in the pool and was in and out and had meetings all afternoon. Then at 5 Danya went with the Gerson's to the "real" pool. The rest of us had dinner from Burgers Bar. Saba stayed with us until it was time for him to leave for the airport. Then I headed to work(aka. upstairs).
I forgot to tell you a funny story yesterday. When Jordy came home from Gan the sheets from his bed were in the washing machine. When he walked into his room he yelled out "Hey, how come my bed is naked?".

Gan Graduation

On Tuesday morning I didn't get too much done since I slept a little late and Danya got out of Gan at 11. I picked her up and we came home. Then Saba came by since he was doing stuff at the house. Danya and I joined him there to take a look. They are really making progress. They were laying the tile while we were there. Danya was excited because in order to lay tile they bring in sand and there were huge piles of sand everywhere. I had to break the news to her that Saba and Savta were probably not keeping the sand for her to play with. She was also excited because she went to the upstairs and basement(there are no stairs yet, just a bumpy cement slope that is a little hard to use). Then Danya and I came home and I made her an omelet that wasn't as good as Saba's omelets. Then we cleaned and refilled the pool(I had to patch the hole that was made last week) and Danya played in the pool for another hour. At 4 I picked Jordy up from daycare and then when I returned Danya and I went to buy some bissili that we needed to bring to her gan and then I dropped her off at gan. A half hour later I went to gan for the Missibat Siyum that was a little like a graduation. It was very cute. The downside was that they had each parent sit behind their child so you couldn't get good pictures. I took a bunch of videos but none of them are good because you can't really see Danya. Sorry! We came home and the kids headed to bed and Josh and I returned to work!

A New Kippah

This morning after the kids went to gan I went to Ramat Gan to work. I spent a few hours there and then headed back home. I came home just in time to pick up Danya and Tamar. They came home and played nicely. At 4 I picked Jordy up and we went to see the art/book fair at the shul. We were just on time but we should have gone an hour later since they were still setting up. We then stopped at a store and bought him a new kippah. I will try to get a picture of that tomorrow as it is a bucharian kippah but looks really cute on him. We came home and the kids played and ate dinner and I began working. I got the kids to bed and went to aerobics. I returned and worked some more. Here is a picture I forgot to put up a few weeks ago of Danya and her friend Eli in the pool.

Baseball in the news

I almost forgot....
My brother-in-law, Danny, the soon to be professional baseball player, had an article written about him in the JUF News. To read the story and see a picture of Danny click here.

More Gymnastics

On Friday morning I headed to Beit Shemesh. I volunteered for a project called "Challot from Sederot" through the organization Standing Together. What the project does(if you couldn't guess by the name) is help some businesses in Sederot stay in business, specifically bakeries, by having other communities purchase challot and then pick them up in their community. When I volunteered to be the pick up point for Hashmonaim I didn't realize that I would need to go to Beit Shemesh to pick them up, but it really wasn't a big deal. When I went to pick them up there were 2 other woman waiting(for the truck to come from Sederot) who introduced themselves. Of course I knew one of them from when I was about 5, she had lived in Des Plaines for a short while, so we did a little reminiscing. When the truck arrived I got my order and headed out. I stopped back at the Office Depot to buy the desk chair I wanted to buy last time. Then I headed back home. My Dad had a meeting in the area and stopped by and stayed until the kids came home. I spent the rest of the day distributing Challah and getting ready for Shabbat. Friday night was pretty quiet, Jordy was sleeping before dinner and Danya didn't last too long. Shabbat morning Danya went to Glenwood in search of friends while Jordy went to shul to find Josh and I slept. Danya returned to ask if she could go to a friends house and Jordy went to his friend Yehoshua for lunch, so Josh and I ate a quick lunch and went to sleep. We were woken up when Jordy returned. Later in the afternoon we went to our friends the Halperts for a tea and were joined by several other families. It was a very enjoyable afternoon. On Sunday morning I went to Kiryat Sefer to do a little grocery shopping. Then I picked up the kids plus Jordy's friend Yehoshua. Jordy and Yehoshua didn't last too long as he only wanted to watch TV and Jordy only wanted to play goldfish(aka. Go Fish). Thanks to Pops by the way who supplied the cards, we have been playing a LOT of goldfish lately! Yehoshua went home and Saba came over. He went with me and Danya on a ride to Modiin where I dropped Danya off for practice for her 2nd gymnastic show. Later, we all went to Modiin to see the show. Saba was impressed by Danya's abilities along with the level of professionalism that this place displays. While the show was the same as last time I still videoed it and put it up for you to enjoy!



After the show the kids headed to bed and Josh and I went down the block to a Bar Mitzvah party.

Anniversary and Birthday Parties

On Wednesday morning Josh and I headed to Tel Aviv to run a few errands. First we went to Billiard Center to see what they had and buy a rack to hang the pool cues on the wall. Then we went to the desk chair outlet store where we were hoping to find a cheaper chair but were disappointed to find that the outlet doesn't actually have cheaper chairs....weird, no? Then we headed to our Anniversary lunch. We went to this really nice restaurant where we sat at a table on the boardwalk overlooking the water. It was really nice. We didn't have too much time because we needed to head back to pick up the kids. We took Daniella and Ariella home with us as well so the kids had playdates. All the kids played nicely all afternoon. They went home and Josh fed the kids dinner and got them to bed while I was working. Today I went shopping with Lori in Yeroushalaim in the morning. Danya and I went to go buy a birthday gift and to the grocery store in the afternoon. Then, after her English class, I dropped her off at a birthday party for one of her Israeli friends(yes, we still make the distinction between Americans and Israelis). When she came home we ate dinner. While we were eating Danya was telling us about the party and who was there. She mentioned that Rachel wasn't there and I asked her why. She said that Rachel didn't want to go because it was going to be a "Hebrew party". I mentioned that she went and had fun even though it wasn't Hebrew, trying to point out that she is really getting past the Hebrew factor. She sighed and said in a really sad voice "Too bad for Rachel". I had to bite my lip from laughing at the drama in her voice! It was very sweet. The kids went to bed and I headed back to work.

Catching up again!

On Friday Josh went to play softball while I stayed home to get ready for Shabbat. Before I went to pick the kids up I got a call from my Dad, who arrived that morning, that he was going to come over in about 1/2 hour. When I picked the kids up I told them Saba was on his way over and we needed to clean up their toys in the living room before he came. They were all excited and enthusiastic, so you can imagine they were a little disappointed when he called 20 minutes later saying that traffic is horrible and he is going to go back to his hotel and he will see us on Sunday. I had to take the kids to the makolet to get a treat in order to distract them from their disappointment. After the makolet, and Josh's return, Johnny and Melissa arrived. They hung out and entertained the kids while I was cooking. Then Lori dropped Tamar, who was staying with us as well since Seth and Lori were heading to a Bar Mitzvah in Yerushaliam, off for Shabbat. Friday night Jordy went to sleep early but everyone else had a nice dinner and the girls stayed up VERY late at their sleepover. Shabbat morning all the kids were up and dressed by 8 and wanted to take Tamar's doll on a walk in the doll stroller to the big shul/park. I told them to go ahead and I went back to sleep. I got up again when they returned at almost 10, as did Melissa. We had kiddush at our house and then headed out to lunch. We ate at Michelle and Michael Aaron who live on the other side of the Yishuv. They also had Michelle and Nathan Mintz. We had a good time and all the kids had a very good time(it was very noisy!). We left the girls there after lunch to play and headed home. Jordy and I played checkers and pool and I Spy while Josh napped. Then I headed to bed but the girls returned wanting dinner so that was the end of my nap. I made dinner for everyone and then Shabbat was over. Johnny and Melissa headed out and Danya and Tamar headed to bed(until Seth picked Tamar up later). On Sunday my Dad came over in the morning. He was followed by the installer who was delivering/hanging our roman shades in our dining room(I will get a picture tomorrow). My dad was in and out doing work on the house but he joined me at picking up the kids at Gan. When they came home he made Danya(and Josh) an omelet. Then we headed to shilat to the butcher to get some food to grill for dinner. Danya headed to a birthday party while Jordy was home playing with Amitai. After Danya returned we had dinner and then my dad, who was falling asleep, went back to his hotel. On Monday Josh and I went to Beit Shemesh in search of a desk chair. I found a good one but it was a little expensive and we found out about an outlet store in Tel Aviv so we are going to try there before we purchase anything. We stopped at Holy Bagel for lunch and then came home. My Dad was at our house since he had an appointment at his house soon. Danya went to gymnastics and then home where Saba made her another omelet before heading back to his hotel. Not much else happened Monday. This morning went to an appointment I had with the eye doctor, but when I got there they realized they forgot to mention that they don't accept my insurance, so I left. I ran a few errands in Modiin while I was there and then came home. The rest of the day was fairly quiet with the kids in and out of the house between playdates. Now I am all caught up!