Too Far Behind

I have gone way too many days without blogging and now I have SO much to write. I will start where we left off.
On Monday morning I was planning on leaving the house before everyone and I was going to have Danya walk to school and have Josh stay home with Jordy while I went to pick my mom up from the airport. I was surprised that Jordy woke up before I left and when I told him I was going to pick up Savta he asked if he could come with. I decided that there was really no reason he couldn't since she had already had the pox and he would just be sitting in the car. So I took him with me and we went to go get Savta. Of course I accidentally took the wrong lane at the airport and drove into short term parking rather than arrivals, so it took a few minutes longer than it should have. We finally got to Savta and Jordy was very excited to surprise her. We loaded all of her luggage and headed back. We went to Savta/Lisa's house first. Since Michali was asleep and Lisa's other kids were at school Jordy got to come into the house. He stayed while Savta unpacked some of his chanukah presents(Thanks to all the Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents who sent gifts!) until Josh came to pick him up/take the car. Once Jordy was gone we decided to begin our shopping expedition. We loaded Michali into the car and we headed to Petach Tikva to Kolav Sagol, the fantastic hat store. We spent WAY too long there and what I am guessing my Dad is going to consider WAY too much money as well! Then we stopped at the Aleph grocery store which is more than anything, something to see because it is the biggest grocery store that I have ever seen in Israel. We bought a few things there and headed back. After Danya came home from school she headed to English and then got to go to the Balsam house to see Savta. At dinner time Savta came to our house since we couldn't all get together due to the pox. On Tuesday morning Lisa, Savta and I all headed to the mall after getting all the kids to their places. We spent a nice morning strolling through Malcha and browsing the stores. No visit to the mall is complete without a stop at Pizza Hut, so we had lunch there. In the afternoon Danya returned to her swimming lessons which she is still loving! Tuesday evening Danny came over for his Tuesday night visit(have I mentioned that he teaches in Modiin on Tuesday afternoon so he comes over every Tuesday night to visit/do laundry/raid the refrigerator?). Shortly after he arrived Josh left to pick my mom up and the 2 of them headed to the funeral of Shirley Rothner. Wedensday morning Lisa, Savta, Michali and I headed to Yerushaliam. We stared at the Coffee Bean, then to Shkaliam, a store in Mea Sharrim, Marzipan, Chafitz Chaim butcher to buy corned beef(yum) for Shabbat and back home again. We got a large amount of stuff done in a short amount of time. Wednesday afternoon Danya ended up going to play with Savta and Meira after her English class and stayed there for dinner. Poor Jordy, all this time, had really been behaving really weel, watching Madagascar over and over again and playing the boat and motorcycle games on the computer. He really didn't complain too much. Thursday morning Lisa, my mom and I picked up my friend Devorah and we headed to Shital to hit the bead stores. Lisa and my mom had learned about my jewerly making skills on one of our outings and wanted me to make them some jewelry(why they didn't know about it from reading the blog is beyond me:). Since Devorah is the professional jewelry maker and is always looking for an excuse to hit the bead stores I thought she should join us to give her expert opinion. We spent a loarge amount of time deciding what to buy. More time had passed than we had realized and we didn't have as much time left after we were done so we eliminated most of our planned errands in the area. We did seem to find the time to go to the store that has the new sushi chef. We got some sushi to go and headed home. Thursday afternoon I took Jordy back to the doctor who finally gave us the OK and said he isn't contagious anymore. To celebrate us Cohen girls took the kids out to dinner in Modiin. We had a good time and the kids behaved most of the time. At one point in the meal one of the kids asked Savta if they could have ice cream for dessert. I pointed out that it would be cheaper if we stop at the grocery store in the shopping center and buy a box of ice cream bars on our way out. We were hoping the kids had forgotten since it was late and cold but kids never forget these important things and so we had to go buy the ice cream. I ran into the store while Lisa and Savta had to stand outside in the cold waiting. I know they will tell you they got the worse part of the deal on that one but while they were watching yelling kids I had to stand in line behind yelling Israeli's while the cashier couldn't make change in the 6 item or less aisle. I think it took me a half hour to pay. The kids were happy in the end because I bought a bo of ice cream comes and they really liked them! Michali was begging for one like the rest of the kids and while I know Lisa didn't really want her to have one how could a good Aunt leave a cute 1 yar old crying for ice cream while everyone else was getting one?? It's a good thing I gave it to her too because she had the most fun with it(I have some good pictures of her eating the ice cream but and way to lazy now to upload). We finally got home at about 8:30. The kids headed right to bed. Friday morning I was pretty happy to be sending Jordy off to school for the first day since last Friday. He woke up at his usual 7am and I gave him breakfast and got him all ready for school. A while later when I was all ready to take the kids to school I couldn't find Jordy. I told Danya to get him assuming he was in the attic playing computer but she returned saying he wasn't there. I looked in the living room and there he was sleeping on the living room couch. He woke up when I sat next to him an he said he was really tired. I figured if he was that tired maybe he needed another day off. He stayed home and of course didn't go back to sleep. I made a few things for Shabbat and broght them to the Balsam's. While I was there I made my mom the 2 bracelets she wanted along with 2 pairs of earrings for Lisa. I also made a chulent there. Friday night we went there for dinner. The kids were hoping to sleep over there but since Moshe seemed to be coming down with something and Jordy was just getting over something we decided it wasn't a good idea. We had to take our kids home crying and yelling that they wanted to sleep there. Ironically, Shabbat mornign the kids didn't want to return. Of course once they did they had a great time playing all day long. We had a really nice lunch and did something that I think was a first, ate almost the whole chulent! I think part of it was the fact that we didn't have any other main course so that was the focus, the other factor was we bought flanken at Chofetz Chaim and it was so good!! We ended up staying until Shabbat ended and again had a hard time getting my kids to leave. This morning Jordy finally returned to gan. He said everyone was excited to see him(lets see how happy they are when they all come down with the pox next week)! I went to my class and then picked my mom up to head to the Rothner Shiva house. We stayed there for about an hour and on the way back stopped to buy food for dinner. While we were gone Josh atteneded parent teacher conferences with Danya's teacher. She said that Danya is really doing well and is on the same level as her Israeli counterparts. She said her reading, writing, comprehention etc are all great. She said the only problem is that Danya is late to school sometimes(completely our fault!). When Danya got home from school she informed me that he class is having a Misibat Kriyah to celebrate the completion of learning all the letters, vowels and their sounds. I was aware there was a party from past notes but was under the impression that it was taking placw during the school day. Of course the party was called from 5 to 7pm! Yikes! So I picked Jordy up from Shiras and he, Danya and I walked to Savta/Balsam house. At 5 I took Danya and we went to the school(Josh was at a stone dedication for Rav Teller in Yerusaliam and would return after I left). We spent the first hour going from station to station doing different games, one station for each letter of the aleph bet. Most stations had activities that required reading. It was actually really cute and Danya had fun but I felt that they alloted too much time for these activities. It worked out well because since we were done I went to go get a seat at for the show they were going to do and ended up in the front row(pictures to come soon). The kids sang some songs, a Rabbi spoke and the teachers handed out certificates to all the kids. Then they let the kids loose on the dessert table and that is when the pushing and shoving began! It was after 6:30 and these kids were hungry! After Danya managed to get some cake we walked back to Savtas/Balsams where we ate dinner. At 7:25 I remembered that I was supposed to take Jordy to the Dr.'s office to get him a flu vacinne between 6 and 8pm. The kids put on their usual cry and scream becuase they didn't want to leave. I dropped Josh and Danya at home and Jordy and I continued to the doctors office. When it was our turn Jordy had no clue why we were there. We also both needed to get the second half of the hepatitas A vacinne we got before moving to protect us from stomach viruses. So we sat down and the nurse told him he was going to feel a mosquitoe bite and he happily sat down. I distracted him from his arm and pointed out the zebras on the other wall. Had he not turned around to see what was happening I don't think he would have realized that this was a shot but he did so he cried. I was pretty impressed because he only cried for a second. Then he enjoyed watching me get a shot. Had we left then it would have been great but then they came with the second shot for him. He tried to fight this one but again didn't really cry and took it like a man. We came home with about 700 stickers. Jordy even offered me one of his since I didn't cry but I told him he could keep it.
Is anyone still reading????

The Pox

Last night after Jordy was asleep Josh mentioned that while changing him into his pajamas he noticed red spots on Jordys back. He also said that Jordy told him they itched. Josh suggested that he has the chicken pox. I told him I doubted it because he had the vaccine. This morning when Jordy got up I noticed that he not only had the spots on his back but also on his torso and a few on his neck, arms and legs. I took him to see Dr. Akiva(which Jordy thought was funny) and sure enough he has the pox! Akiva said it will probably be a light case since he had the vaccine. He prescribed some calamine lotion and benedryl and sent us home until they dry out. Jordy was quite content spending the day on the computer and watching TV. Danya went to Rachel Neumans house after school and was out most the day. I went to the grocery store in the afternoon and was there at the perfect time since it was empty. Before going to bed Jordy asked if he was going to school tomorrow and I told him no. Then he asked "Well can I least go play at Covi's?" I thought it was cute but told him that he needs to stay home until all the pox go away.

Shabbat in Raanana

Friday was a pretty quiet day. The cleaning guy came and I cook a few things for Shabbat. I also folded what felt like 300 baskets of laundry, although it was probably closer to 3. When the kids got home we got them ready for Shabbat and packed up and headed out to Raanana. We arrived at the Kirschenbaum home pretty close to Shabbat. The kids were all so happy to see each other. They spent a lot of time jumping on the beds and making a mess. For dinner Emily and David's neighbors joined us for dinner. This was really good for Danya since they have 3 girls and before dinner Danya decided she was mad at Simon and Jordy. The kids all played pretty nicely except for a few fights(mostly between Jordy and Simon). Shabbat morning I joined David in taking the kids to shul(Josh had already gone to a different shul and Emily was napping along with Eli since she got up with the kids close to 7). The walk to shul was quite entertaining as Jordy and Simon kept fighting about who was first. We got to shul well after the kiddush began. I met a few people and then we headed back, stopping at 3 parks along the way. When we returned we had to go on a wild goose hunt for Challah(David and Emily forgot to buy challah and they had 2 frozen challahs in the freezer, 1 of which we used at dinner). It took a while to locate a roll from a random neighbor but once we had it we sat down to a ton of food. Did I mention how much food they made??? Nobody was hungry! After lunch Josh volunteered to take the 3 older kids to the park while the rest of us napped. We got up a few minutes before Shabbat ended. After Shabbat we tried to help clean up as best we could(as much as Emily kept cleaning the mess, the place was trashed by the end of Shabbat) and then we headed home. Jordy was asleep in the car and Danya went to bed right after eating something.

What the Hail???

Wednesday was a low key day. The kids did their usual school and activities. Thursday morning Josh and I headed to Yerushaliam. We had a few errands to run and figured we may as well go early and go out to breakfast. We went to a cute cafe that had really good coffee. After Josh picked up a computer part he needed we headed to the Ben Yehudah area so Josh could meet a guy at the bank. While he went to his meeting I decided to peek into a few stores. First I ran into Devorah Katz who I hadn't seen in a while. Then I headed up to the Shekalim store and I ended up buying a couple skirts. On the way home it started hailing like crazy! This is by far the coldest it has been this year(nope, don't miss the Chicago weather one bit!). After we got home I picked up Danya so she wouldn't have to walk in the hail. Daniella came over for a play date which kept Danya entertained most the afternoon. When I picked up Jordy he asked if Moshe Schreiber could come over to play, so both kids had friends over. After the play dates left the kids ate dinner and Josh took them to the makolet because they wanted to buy gum. At 8 I went to the shul with Sharon and Akiva to see the Crossroads Comedy Show. A group of American comedians come to Israel to bring laughter and to raise money for the Crossroads center in Jerusalem. Unfortunately Josh couldn't come because he had to work but there was a large crowd and the show was great!

Water Water Everywhere

I can't remember what happened on Monday. I know that in the afternoon Danya went to her exercise class but I had no other recollection of the day...weird. Anyhow, on Tuesday I went to my aerobics class and then spent some time cleaning up around the house. Danya went to her new swimming lessons after school and was dropped off at home after. In the afternoon we had a guy come to install water filters for us. We got one on the house that eliminates 90% of the stones for the whole house. In addition, we had him install a reverse osmosis drinking water system that basically purifies the water so we can drink it. We now have a separate faucet with room temperature, drinkable water. Plus we have a water dispenser on our counter with cold water and hot water. I know it is lame but I am really excited about this. For those of you who don't know, we have been buying bottled water since we have moved here. It isn't all that expensive but it is a pain in the butt because we have to buy the cases of water and schlep them into the house. Then when we drink the water we have to take all the empty bottles to the recycling place. We are big water drinkers so we are constantly buying and recycling bottles of water, but no more!!! Danny came over last night for dinner in his usual Tuesday night visit. The kids were happy and made him play with them for a while.

Hot Flaming Dude

At 6:30 I woke up to a strange sizzling sound accompanied by a very bad smell. I looked towards the wall where the dud shemesh switch is(where the sound was coming from) and noticed that the light was flickering, which it shouldn't be doing. I woke Josh up just in time to see flames shoot out of the box! Josh was able to turn off the switch and extinguish the flames but not before the box melted. We shut of the electric and tried going back to bed to no avail. The room stunk of melted plastic. In attempt to make the room smell better I opened the window, slamming my finger between the screen and the window, ouch! Our day was off to a great start! I got Danya ready and out the door with Josh and lazy Jordy and I walked over to his school a little later. After my aerobics class I came home and couldn't stand the smell! Josh had called the guy who installed the water tank but he said that this is not related to that. I was surprised to hear that since they are part of the same system but I guess coincidences happen, right? After showering in cold water I went over to the Mintz household to meet their new baby girl who is adorable! Then I came home and after a little while developed a major headache that I am attributing to the smell of melted plastic. I took a nap and woke up when the electrician was changing the switch for the dud shemesh. He said it was most likely faulty wiring in the original switch, making it just a major coincidence.

The end of Chanukah and Shabbat

On Wednesday I took the kids along with Lisa and her kids to Kibbutz Beerot Yitzchak to check out their Chanukah festivities. Josh had seen an ad about their activities and suggested we go, so we did. The kids had a great time petting animals, including a snake, jumping on moon walks, making pita, going on donkey rides and much more.



Jordy got to be part of a demonstration about bees and how they make honey. After we spent most the day there we took the kids to Burger Ranch before heading home. We tried to get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour as we knew Thursday morning was not going to be easy. Jordy ended up going back to bed after I woke him Thursday morning and Danya complained the whole morning that she didn't want to go to school. Eventually the kids did make it to school and Josh ran a few errands. In the afternoon the repairman came to replace our Dud Shemesh(for those that don't know we use solar power to heat our water and when the sun doesn't get it hot enough we flip a switch to use electricity to heat it-the whole system overall is referred to as the dud-pronounced dude-but here I am specifically referring to the tank that holds the hot water). It had a leak and was shorting out the electricity on Sunday night and we found out that it needed to be replaced. It took them all afternoon to change the tank but we finally had hot water again on Thursday night. Friday morning the kids still didn't want to get up for school. I rushed Danya out and dropped her off and then headed to the grocery store. Josh and Jordy slept a few minutes later and Josh took Jordy to school. Friday afternoon Danya went to play with Meira and Moshe and Ezra Silton came over to play with Jordy. That play date went south very quickly and Josh had to take both boys home not too long after they got here mostly because Jordy was being bossy. Danya stayed at the Balsam house for dinner and a sleepover and Josh and I had a nice, quiet dinner with Jordy. Saturday morning when Jordy woke up we realized our mistake. Usually Jordy and Danya play all Saturday morning together. Since Danya wasn't here Jordy needed someone to play with him. So I played a dozen games of Zingo and we built train tracks together until Danya and Meira showed up. We all had a much louder lunch together and then all the kids decided to go back to the Balsams. I was a bit apprehensive about Jordy going to play with Moshe but Lisa said they played really nicely. They stayed until after Shabbat which means that Josh and I got to nap.

More Chanukah Videos

Here is a video of Emily going down the Zip line. If you listen closely you can hear her screaming!

Some Chanukah Videos

Here are some videos I took over Chanukah....more to come....

Oranges

This morning Josh had to get up VERY early(aka. before 7am) so he could take his driving test. I fell asleep after his alarm and finally got up closer to 9. I quickly got myself and the kids up and out and we headed to Ra'anana to meet Emily, Simon and Eli to head to Shvil Tapuzim(Orange Path). We had heard that it is a great place where we can pick oranges and it has many kids activities. It took us a lot longer to get there than we originally anticipated but it was well worth the drive. First we bought bags to fill with oranges.


Then we headed to the other activities which included trampolines, moon walks, a car track andother climbing things.

We were there all day and the kids were having so much fun that they never stopped to ask for food. We didn't have much with us and the restaurant wasn't kosher so we finally got them ice cream and planned on heading to a restaurant in the neighborhood when we were done. We didn't anticipate staying until the place closed at 4! Emily then took us to their favorite restaurant that is attached to a gas station. Aside from the fumes it was a really nice restaurant. We can never go back though because a minute after we ordered Eli threw up all over the place. In typical Israeli fashion, nobody flinched and most people didn't seem to notice. Danya was a little grossed out but aside from the puke we had a nice dinner. We then hit 2 hours of traffic home(ouch) returning at 7:30, making for a VERY long day. We lit the last night candles and then got the kids to bed.

**I added pictures to yesterdays post so if you want you can take a look.

Passports and Bowling

Friday morning was pretty quiet. Jordy went to play at Ariella's house and Danya stayed at Ruthie's house where she had slept over the night before. Otherwise it was a quiet Friday. Friday night we headed to the Davis house for dinner. The kids were pretty decently behaved and we all had a good time. WE stopped over at the Balsam household to say hello on our way home(and enjoyed a second dessert too). Shabbat morning we all slept pretty late. We went to Glenwood for a Chanukah Shabbat lunch. It was really nice plus I didn't have to cook! On the way home we stopped at the Balsam house again so Jordy could play with Moshe. We ended up leaving both kids there and headed home to nap. After Shabbat Josh picked the kids up. Danya and Jordy were excited that Lisa and Nafi got them a small Chanukah gift. Jordy for some reason was very mad that he got 3 cars rather than 1. We didn't really understand this one but Josh quickly showed him that we can have car races. We all took part racing the cars around the dining room and Jordy forgot about how mad he was! Michelle came over later and she and I watched a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy to catch up with the current season. Sunday morning we had planned to get out early and get to Misrad HaPanim to get our passports before they closed at noon. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that we took this day to sleep nice and late. The kids were in bed until about 10! We rushed out the house at 10:45 and walked into Misrad Hapanim at 11:47! We then were given #244 and they were on #176. So we sat down and waited over an hour. We did eventually get our paperwork in and taken care of. Then we decided since we were in Yerushaliam already we should take advantage. So we headed to a falafel stand where I was impressed that Jordy ate a falafel sandwich with humus and pickles. Danya was a little more boring and had plain shnitzel in a pita. After lunch we walked towards Mea Sharim to go to Brooklyn Bakery. We ran into Becky Strapp who we worked with at Moshava about a jillion years ago. We stopped at a clothing store that was having a sale and bought Danya a few things she needed. Then we got to the bakery followed by the toy store to get a couple chanukah gifts.
We got home at around 6. The kids had a quick dinner and then headed to bed. This morning the kids did a reverse of the day before and woke up at 6am! Eventually we got dressed and out of the house. We went with most of the Silton family to the bowling alley for Danya and Jordys first game of bowling.

They had bumpers so the kdis did pretty well, Danya finishing with a 72 and Jordy with a 70. Danya will tell anyone who wants to listen about how she got a strike but really it was a spare. They were really cute and I loved watching then get all happy about knocking any pins down. After bowling we went to get pizza and ice cream for lunch. It was a nice day and we got to sit outside and enjoy the weather.

After we came home Danya went to a friends house and Jordy hung out at home. We all went to Lisa and Nafi's to eat their leftovers from a Chanukah party they had. After that we headed home to light candles and get the kids to bed.
Pictures of bowling to come tomorrow.

Party, Pictures and Shabbat Shoes

Yesterday was the kids last day before Chanukah vacation. I really wanted to be lazy and sleep but I fought off the laziness and went out with Lisa to run some errands(basically I was too lazy to drive so I made her take me to run my errands). After all the errands I picked Jordy up from Gan and then drove Danya to her English class. I stopped over to say hello to Michelle who is VERY pregnant and to drop off some carmel donuts I bought for her. I ended up staying and chatting with her and her mom for a half hour and then picked Danya up from English. Then we headed home to get ready for the Chanukah party we were hosting. Josh's cousins Toody, Ronna and Moshe and their kids, Seth and Lori and their kids, Danny and Lisa and Nafi and their kids(even though they aren't Yudkowskys) came over and everyone ate a lot of pizza! We had a really good time and the kids played nicely. Towards the end Josh, Dov and Danny went outside to play pinners, which is a game involving a tennis ball and stairs.



Once everyone left Jordy had a bit of a meltdown and was screaming until he fell asleep. This morning the kids woke up kind of crabby this morning. I convinced them that it would be fun to organize the attic and their toys. For some reason they fell for it and we got started on a HUGE job. The kids got their movies straightened out while I started sorting out the toys. We continued this for a while until we got bored. Then we all got dressed and headed out to get our passport photos taken. You can't get an Israeli passport until you have lived here for a year and we hadn't gotten ours yet. If you are getting your kids passports you have to bring them with you so we figured when better to do that than when they are on vacation? After the passport pictures we stopped at a shoe store and got Danya new Shabbat shoes. Jordy needed some too but they didn't have any good boy shoes so of course we had to go to another store afterward to get Jordy shoes too. By then we were all tired and headed home. I really wanted to crash but Danya insisted that we continue organizing the attic(I think she was amazed to see how many toys we had hidden in the boxes. How could I say no to that??? So we did for another couple hours. Then Danya wanted a friend to come over so we called Rachel Neuman to come over. Jordy wanted to go to a friends house but insisted on wearing his Shabbat shoes, which we wouldn't let him do, so instead he cried and yelled for an hour. Before lighting candles Danya got a call from her friend Ruthie to see if she wanted to sleep over. Last year Danya had a sleepover there and I had to pick her up at 11pm because she was to tired and couldn't sleep. I didn't think it was the best idea but she went anyhow. Jordy went to sleep at a decent hour and I am hoping he sleeps a little late tomorrow but and doubting it will actually happen.

Happy Chanukah!!!

On Friday morning, after taking the kids to school, we packed up for Shabbat. My in-laws tried picking up Danya from school but I had the time wrong so they waited for her to come home. They left with Danya to head up North and Josh and I headed out a little bit later with Jordy in tow. We drove way up north to Kibbutz Lavi(near Tiveria). They have a recently renovated hotel where we spent Shabbat. Josh took the kids swimming in their indoor pool before Shabbat which was a highlight. The food was good, the weather was good and the hotel was beautiful. On Shabbat day, after lunch, we went on a personal tour of the Kibbutz thanks to my in-laws friends Marc and Kay Betsy Flanzer who live there. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the animals and watching the cows get milked. On Saturday night we went to Tiveria and walked along the boardwalk. The kids got pizza and ice cream and then we headed back.
Jordy went right to sleep and Josh took Danya back to the pool for another swim. After Danya went to bed Josh and I headed back to Tiveria for dinner. We lucked out and ended up at a restaurants opening and got free wine and appetizers. Sunday morning we packed up and headed out to Beit Shean. My in-laws brought us to an archaeological dig site where the ancient city of Beit Shean was recovered. It is about 200 years old and is amazing to see. It had a beautiful HUGE amphitheater and a lot of bath houses. The kids actually seemed interested and enjoyed themselves.

After that my in-laws headed to Yerushaliam while we took the kids to the Kosher McDonald's for lunch. After that we headed to Terat Tzvi. We really were only going to stop for a few minutes to shop at the meat outlet but decided to stop in and say hi to Josh's kibbutz "mom" from when he was there. Luck had it that she was at her art studio and she was really excited that we stopped by! The kids played some computer games with her daughter while we looked at all her beautiful artwork. She gave us a beautiful stained glass picture that she made(she has windows in shuls and artwork at Yad VaShem).
We crammed it into our car and then geared up for the long drive home. We got back around 6:45 and got the kids dinner and into bed. On Monday Josh and I ran a few Chanukah related errands in Kiryat Sefer. The kids were in and out most of the afternoon and I went with Danya to an activity at her school where the kids went from classroom to classroom doing Chanukah related art projects. It was really cute and I am sorry I forgot to bring my camera. After that I came home and helped my mother-in-law with her Chanukah feast! She really knows how to make a party! The Kleimans came over and Danny joined us and boy did we eat! The best part was that Bubs made her delicious latkes(yes, I am still glad even though I can still smell the latke smell from outside the house!). The kids were very excited that they got so many Chanukah presents and it wasn't even Chanukah yet!!! Unfortunately, when the kids went to bed they had to say goodbye to Bubs and Pops since they were going to be heading out before the kids woke up. Jordy wouldn't say goodbye for some reason but Danya did very tearfully. We were glad they were able to come spend time with us but are sad to see them go-I see more laundry in my future. Hopefully they will come back again soon! Jordy woke up this morning very worried that Pops took him Chanukah present back(I am guessing since Jordy wouldn't say goodbye he threatened to take the gift back?) but was relieved to see it was still there in the attic. We got the kids out and I went to my aerobics class. Otherwise the day was pretty lazy today. We lit Chanukah candles and Danny came for dinner . He brought the kids walkie talkies for Chanukah. They had a little difficulty getting a hang of them but finally caught on and had fun. Danny hung out here for a while and he and Danya were having fun drinking their tea together and cracking up but I am not sure why. Danya went to bed a little late, after Danny left.
HAPPY CHANUKAH EVERYONE!!!!

***I tried uploading pictures but Blogger isn't working properly so I will try to add them tomorrow.