Xander's 8!

His birthday was mildly overshadowed by the hurricane, but 8 years old he is.

The birthday boy's request?  Did he want to go swimming, go out, have a playdate, a party?  No.  He wanted to stay in his pajamas, not leave the house all day, and play MineCraft for hours.

So he did.

We took a break in the afternoon for cake.

Then on Saturday, when things in the city were open again, we went to SubZero Ice Cream, which makes the ice cream through nitrogen flash-freeze.  You pick the type of liquid cream, the flavoring syrup, and the candy bits to mix in, and the bowl is full of liquid until... nitrogen steam!  and then ice cream happens.

Overheard from the older boys at bedtime

A: indeterminate whining

X: "Ari, I've even gotten compliments from Daddy saying that I was good at arguments, and I am.  You're not as good at arguments yet.  I don't think you can argue out of brushing your teeth!"

Safe and sound

All clear!  Now we're working on putting all the patio furniture back where it belongs.

First hurricane

So far, we've been overprepared and underwhelmed.

Praying for all those in the Caribbean who weren't so lucky.

All prepared

Hurricane Matthew arrives tomorrow.

All the hatches are battened down, so to speak.

We have plenty of food and water.

Our eldest is very nervous. Our middle child is excited that school is cancelled.  Our youngest doesn't understand why the patio furniture is in our bedroom.

We're expecting power outages, so might not be able to blog for a while.

Stay safe, everyone!

Rosh Hashanah weekend in pajamas

A true family photo, for they all worked on it.  Shot of the night light, courtesy of Connor.  Edited/writing feature at the top courtesy of Xander.  Names at the bottom courtesy of Ari.

My friend Aviva sent us an Edible Arrangements for Rosh Hashanah.  Here everyone is with their glorious fruit.  Judy and Darryl made amazing chocolate toffee too, that we got the next day.  There is no picture of the chocolate because I was too busy eating it. :)

Train tracks for the win.

And last but not least... Ari asked us to buy hair gel so he can make his hair spiky.  Here it is, albeit worn off a bit by the end of the day:

Shana tovah, Happy New Year!

Apples and honey. Dinner with friends last night.  Snuggles from kids.

May it be a sweet new year for all!