Where are the posts?

I have been such a slacker. I actually have not been a slacker, I am far to busy to be a slacker, I do have four children after all. I have not been sleeping. I have not been sleeping during the day or at night so my mind has not been on blogging, it has been on trying to sleep. When I am not sleeping I am doing laundry. We generate a lot of laundry. I have been cooking for parties and Thanksgiving and I have been working with the kids everyday for an hour. We are doing a craft, a small circle time activity highlighting a linguistic concept and reading books on a specific topic. The kids love it and are asking me what we are going to do the next day. I love doing it with them but it has left me no extra time.
I need some more hours in the day. Anyone care to add a few so I can blog every day, wash, fold and put the clothes away, cook dinner, sit and nurse the baby, clean, read to my kids anytime they want, play games, exercise, and spend time with my husband. Is that so much to ask for?

Our boy

Our boy is getting very big very quickly. Just the other day I found him laying on the floor trying to drink one of the girls sippy cups. This prompted me to give him a water bottle, just to see what he would do. He picked up that bottle and held it, like he has been drinking a bottle his entire life. I should have reminded him that he has never had one before so I could have pretended that he needed my help!
I put him in the crib in our room on Thanksgiving and decided to see if he would stand, he could. He drooped to the side a little bit but he stood there and thought he was so funny. Both Matt and I were snapping pictures of our big boy. I know it is just a matter of time before he is standing without any help.
Do you know what else he is doing? Refusing to eat off the spoon.He has that "I can do it myself" attitude and does not want food that he has not shoved into his mouth himself. I manage to get a spoon full or two in as he is cramming in Cheerios. I need to start making more finger food for him because right now he is eating way too many bananas. He is just growing up so fast!

A visit with the pilgrims

On Wednesday we went to the girls school to celebrate with the Pilgrims. We spent an hour on the playground playing like Pilgrims. We strung beads to make necklaces, played with unpopped popcorn and corn meal, washed clothes and hung them up on the line to dry, served up some cranberries and ate. It was a spectacular day and a really nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids had fun (even Jordan got in on the action) and so did we!

It is that time again

It is strawberry picking time again and the girls could not be happier. The remembered everything they did last year. They ran outside and wanted to wash their hands, grabbed their scissors and their baskets and were off to find really red strawberries. Jordan was really trying to use those scissors. I think if they were sharper she would have had more success.
Sydney did not want or need any help!
They had a great time picking those berries and Lior quickly discovered that pulling the strawberries off was far more efficient!
Akiva says "Wait until next year when you have to chase me around!"

Playground shenanigans

Last weekend we stuck close to home and outside because the weather was fantastic. A trip to the playground proved once again that our children are fearless. They climbed everything they could with ease and confidence.Yes that is Jordan in the pink stripes! She is simply amazing and really skilled.Can you see Sydney climbing up the ladder in the back? She really wanted to do those monkey bars all by herself.

They went up and down the slide with complete joy.
Even Akiva got to try out the slide and liked it!All Lior needs is a bar to hang from.

My new hobby

I guess my new hobby is not so new, I have been doing it for years. Mow I am just talking about it because I am getting good at it. What can it be? I am obsessed with coupons and sales. I am not a shopper who buys anything full price. I buy things on sale and I try not to buy things we do not need. Now that money is tighter than it has been I have trying to save money on food and household supplies.
Most people look at our tower of Cheerios and think "these people are nuts and have a lifetime supply of Cheerios". I look at that tower and my heart beats a little faster because I paid two dollars a box for them. That is right, you heard me, two dollars a box. By combining coupons and buying a lot of cereal I saved almost twenty dollars on the cereal that I would prefer my family eat. When we were walking around the store with our cart full of cereal we got several strange looks. Matt found himself explaining "we go through a lot of cereal" to everyone who looked at him funny. Normally I only buy diapers in this volume but I could not pass it up. Just today I saved us over sixty dollars in coupons alone.
On a typical food shopping trip I save at least twenty five percent by using coupons and taking advantage of the buy one get one free deals. I stock up on everyday items like canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, pasta, and bread when they are buy one get one free. I also plan our weekly meals based on what is on sale. I have decided to reduce the amount of meat in our daily diets and focus more on fresh fruit and vegetables. Since we have decided to keep kosher, we are not buying organic meat and I want to make sure the kids are not ingesting meat or chicken with hormones. We are eating chicken about once a week, which is saving us a lot of money on the grocery bill.
So my new hobby has me clipping coupons and using them and my kids eating healthier. I love my new hobby!

The tent

The tent is a HUGE hit. The girls had so much fun in it last night that they napped in there this afternoon! I should say that Sydney and Matt napped in there this afternoon, Lior would not calm down and Matt wound up bringing her inside because she was keeping him awake. Jordan was not even given the choice.
Tonight they all wanted to sleep in the tent again, especially Jordan. It took a lot of patience to get Jordan to go to sleep tonight. After I put Akiva down I came downstairs to Matt holding Jordan by her ankle and screaming. It seems that Jordan head butted Matt one time too many and he lost it. I calmly reminded him that she was only two and not used to sleeping in anything other than her crib. That earned her another try so I carried her back into the tent and cuddled her for close to an hour while she tossed and turned, tossed and turned, and tossed and turned. It took a lot of patience for that little monkey to go to sleep but she finally made it and I know that when she wakes up in that tent tomorrow morning she will be thrilled. Now she can tell everyone that she slept in the tent, actually she told that to everyone today but now it will be the truth!

Camping out

When you live in south Florida and the average temperature is one hundred in the shade, you learn to embrace the cold weather, the three days a year we have it! It is not really cold if you are from Maine or New York but when you are born and bread in Florida it is down right chilly.
It is so chilly in fact that my husband was inspired to take the girls camping tonight! He did not go far, they are sleeping in the backyard but they are camping out in a tent complete with sleeping bags and flashlights.
We started off the evening with our usual Friday night Shabbot dinner but instead of heading off to the bathtub after dinner we headed off to the backyard where we searched for firewood,started a fire and made s'mores. We even sang a few campfire songs!
After our very sticky campfire the girls came inside to get into their very cozy PJ's,
to brush their chocolate and marshmallow covered teeth, and to gather up some books for the night. There they sat reading book after book, hoping that the girls would calm down long enough to pass out cold. That is where I checked out because my Floridian husband is under the impression that it is far too cold for Akiva to sleep outside
and because I like my bed and my pillows I did not disagree. If truth be told it is probably warmer in the tent than in our bedroom so Matt must be very comfortable right now.
After about ten books, the troops came in for a potty break and Jordan came in for good. Our little Minnie likes her Minnie bed. I think she was having a hard time calming down, maybe next time and I think there will be a next time!
Meanwhile everyone is sound asleep and I am enjoying some peace and quite, until someone needs to come inside to pee.

A beautiful day

It was a beautiful day for playing outside and taking pictures, especially if it was your first time in the swing.
Do you know how hard it is to get all four of those wiggle worms to look at the camera?
It is not easy!
Akiva loves trying to crawl on the grass.
Sydney is such a great big sister, she wanted him to sit in the bucket with her. She takes great care of him. I have to tell you he did not like it one bit when Jordan was in there with them, he likes his space.

Minnie's party

Today was Jordan's birthday party or should I say Minnie's party. Jordan has made it clear that she IS MINNIE MOUSE. I think Minnie had fun at her party. We had entertainment in the form of Miss Carolyn, the girls music teacher, lots of chocolate(which I made myself, with a little help from Matt)and cake.The picture may not be great but the cake looked like Minnie and Jordan was thrilled with her MINNIE!!! cake.
She is such a big girl that she did not need any help blowing out her candles (or eating her chocolate covered pretzel).

The kids loved playing with the instruments.

The weather cooperated and the kids even got to play outside and enjoyed the "cool" November day.
It is incredible to see how she has grown in the last two years. It feels like just yesterday she was crawling around on the floor chasing after her big sisters. I hope little miss Minnie enjoyed her birthday party!

Another milestone

The other night while we were out celebrating Jordan's birthday Akiva made an important discovery. If his sister ran interference, he could steal his bowl of food, skip the middleman and dive right in. So while Jordan was being adorable, Akiva was chowing down on his bowl of "mush".

Who me?
I did not steal anything!
His days of mush might be coming to a close because our boy has finally cut two teeth. He has been teething for about four months and today I finally felt the teeth right there on the bottom. Now I know why he has been stuffing everything under the sun in his mouth. Today mush, tomorrow chicken nuggets!

Noam's Birthday

Noam is no officially six years old and I baked the cake to prove it. He picked out what he wanted and he was not afraid to tell me that the soccer ball on his cake looked NOTHING like his soccer ball. I think he liked it anyway!
Happy birthday Noam!