Mom's visit

Mom came in for Ari's birthday, hooray!

We played Rummikub

And ate chocolate pudding.

And gave hugs.

And took selfies.

Ari's first sleepover

Ari went to Elijah's house for the night.  

He's growing up fast... but still, they're only four. :)

The next morning, on the way to soccer.

Watching his friend's game.

In the meantime, back at the homestead, the oldest and youngest brother bonded.

Ways in which I am a geek

Last night, I spent a good long time as I was falling asleep trying to ascertain if the shadow of the ceiling fan above me looked more like a Klingon Bird of Prey or a Star Wars tie fighter.

I ultimately decided on the Bird of Prey.

Word search

Title of the word search: "Marvel Heroes."  The note says, A puzzle for Xander, made by Daddy.

He made two this morning so he wouldn't be bored during spring break. :)

Ari's locks

I posted this on Facebook on Friday:

My middle child has beautiful surfer boy hair. (Bad pics below, but you can see the cut.) He however desperately wants shorter hair, and has told us so for weeks. After going through a ton of images tonight to see what exactly he wants, he chose the haircut from the stock photo below. Tell me, O Wise People of Facebook, at what age do we let kids decide their haircuts for themselves? I want to be supportive of his independence... but I hate cutting off his gorgeous locks!

And I got 45 comments on it!


We decided to let him get the cut.

Here's the before:

And after: we went but by bit, and he was happy as a clam to have it shorter.  And not a buzz cut! :)

Purim at religious school

Leading tefillah on Sunday morning

Xander was narrator in his religous school schpiel

Announcing the winners of the Carnival costume contest

Bar Mitzvah party photobooth!

Ari's world

I was getting into the car with Ari and Connor.

"I feel like something's missing," says Ari.

"A father or a brother?" I asked.

"No," he said. "A sister."

"We're not having a sister."  I told him. "No more babies for us."

"Well, we can give Connor away and get one!"

In other news, Ari spent all of religious school tefillah trying to convince Brookie to come and play at our house.  He's announced at dinner that they're getting married. I said that that was fine... but did Brookie know?

It's begun.

Connor is two years and a few months.

He's saying three word sentences all the time: "More water, Mommy."  Handing me the remote with "Watch Fwozen pweeze."  "Xanner [or Awi] hit me."

Along with the exploding language comes with the other part of the two's.

The bedtime drama.  The screaming, the crying, the calling for the other parent to save him.

All part and parcel, right?

X's larger world

I'm reading Xander's self-chosen bedtime story, a National Geographic Kids special publication called, That's Deadly!

One of the things mentioned as the most mild of extreme air sports is skydiving.

"I've never been," I told him.

"Of course not!" He responded. "Why would you?"

We agreed that there was absolutely no reason to ever jump out of a functional airplane.  If there was an issue, then sure.  But otherwise - we'll just read about them, not experience them for ourselves.



His taste of worldly experiences today: Field Day at school!  His class (the yellow team) competed against the other seven 2nd-grade classes.

He's second in line, wearing a yellow shirt with a soccer ball on it.  

Tug o'War

New math

I was wearing my favorite beat-up t-shirt to bed when I took a good look at myself in the mirror.

The shirt says "Whittier College."  I got it during my first week of college orientation in 1998.

Sometimes I feel young to have my job.

But then I did the math...

My shirt is old enough to vote!

I'm 35!

And it was a great day.

Someone else led services.  I slept til 11, then had cake and ice cream for lunch.  The older boys and I watched Hotel Transylvania 2 while Connor napped, then I officiated at a Bar Mitzvah in the afternoon.  Came home, put them to bed, then worked on paperwork with Jonathan and am now going through my Facebook well-wishes.

All in all, a lovely birthday.

Getting a dog... one day

Suzanne, our executive director, fosters puppies.

Ari and Connor went to visit her office.

Connor was terrified and clung to my leg.

Ari is the perfect kid for a dog.  He's Tom Sawyer for the new age.

You know you're a rabbi when....

Your phone autocorrects the spelling of your name, Michal, not into "Michael" - but into the name of a prayer, Mi Chamocha.

Mitzvah Day

Held through the temple.  Xander made challah with his class and participated in other projects.  All the pictures of him are also with tons of other people.  The two younger boys took part in "Planting and Popsicles" with the ECC.

Me giving blood.

Renaissance Faire... or "Ren Fest," as it's known in Florida

I am posting this because my mother says she can only look at the other post so many times.  :)



We had a ball.

We were too busy chasing children to take pictures.

Here's the only ones we took, of them going on the "jousting" ride.  Xander won!

Ewww

Jonathan and I overheard Ari and Xander having a fascinating conversation about the taste of boogers.  They agreed with each other that they taste good.  And are salty.

Well okay then.