We made a mistake

We made a HUGE mistake tonight. The girls really wanted to go for a walk tonight after dinner and without thinking we said sure! We even gave them a small bag of marshmallows for the walk. We were outside for maybe three seconds when the girls heard a firecracker, Matt asked if they were OK, they said yes so he walked away. About thirty seconds later I walked over to find Sydney screaming and crying "I don't like fireworks, I don't like firecrackers, firecrackers scare me, firecrackers scare me!!!" Needless to say we turned around and went right back inside to watch a movie.
Every thirty seconds or so Sydney would remind me that she did not like firecrackers or fireworks and that they scare her. She even told Jordan how much fireworks bother her. When she saw Cinderella's castle on the television she turned around with panic in her eyes and said "I don't like fireworks Mommy!" It is unfortunate that our neighborhood LOVES to blow their weekly salary on fireworks on the fourth of July and on new years eve. Sydney was not happy and she was not afraid to tell us about it.
I hope that she is able to walk out the door tomorrow night for a walk to see the lights without feeling stress. Sorry Sydney we will not make the same mistake next year!

Cleaning house

Some people might say that I am nesting. I have an unbelievable urge to throw things out and organize our house. On Saturday Matt put together two book cases my parents got for us at Costco for all the books the girls have. He also put together the toy/bookcase we got right around the time Jordan was born. He hung our "art line" to showcase our daughter's beautiful art work . We also threw some things away in the garage, this is not an easy task as our garage is packed with junk. We probably need to spend at least four more days working in that garage.
Once we are done with the garage we need to move inside and empty drawers, closets and shelves. I want to get rid of the heavy pieces of furniture in our dining room because they collect clutter and they are just too large. Once we are done with that we need to move upstairs and re-paint the big girls room, paint the new babies room/guest room and buy some furniture. It is amazing how even though we have two beautiful cribs for the new baby to sleep in, we need to buy MORE furniture. It seems we need more stuff now than we did when Jordan was born.
We have been spending the last few days looking for and investigating children's furniture. It is amazing how expensive the furniture is and I do not even know if the quality is any good. I went to several stores and was less than thrilled with what they had. The colors were all dark and the actual size of the furniture was huge. We are looking for beds that the girls can grow up with so we do not have to re-buy beds when they get older. I might have found a bunk bed (which we can use as single beds), dresser and night stand on-line that will grow with the girls.
I have picked out the linens that I want to use in the girls room and Matt can not believe how much sheets cost. He wants to know why quilts are so expensive, especially when you have to multiply it by two. I told him to look at the bright side, at least we are able to reuse the bumper, dust ruffle, and window treatment for the new babies room.
The good news is that we have another fifteen weeks before the baby comes to get our house organized and clutter free.

Summer time blues in december

One day last week we received a letter from our preschool informing us that they would not be having summer school. I was sad, I was beyond sad and began racking my brain for possible activities for the girls over the summer that would not require me to follow them around. I thought that I would sign them up for swimming lessons, maybe a cooking class and the little gym but all of those things require one hundred percent of my attention. With a new baby and Jordan to watch in addition to the big girls I was in a state of panic. Well not quite panic but I was really concerned that the kids would be stuck in front of the television all day while I nursed the baby and broke up fights.
I called my brother Danny and asked that he send me his oldest daughter for the summer so that I could have an extra pair of hands. He agreed to give me Liel for the summer but also tried to give us his youngest son, Noam. Chances are not good that we will take Noam as he still needs help and parental supervision. I need the kind of help that can go see a PG-13 movie and asks me to get her into a movie that would make her parents angry. Matt and I are very excited that Liel will be spending some extra time with us this summer, we really enjoyed her visit last summer and can't wait to spend time with her again.
Imagine how excited I was when the school called me on Friday to let me know that there were other parents who were upset about the lack of summer school and there would be a meeting today to discuss it. If there are at least ten kids interested in camp they will have a program for the kids. The program will be five days a week from nine to three which is more than I wanted to send them for but now they will have a safe place to go where they can play with other kids their age. So keep your fingers crossed that there will be plenty of interest and that Lior and Sydney will have a great time this summer.

Baking

Every year I bake tons of cookies and send them to our friends and family. Apparently I did it last year when Jordan was about a month old. For some reason I have not gotten my rear in gear and not one single cookie cookie has been baked, until today. Today we baked. We did not bake our usual amount of cookies, I baked one batch of sugar cookies for the girls to play with. I had plenty of help sifting the flour, pouring and beating.
The girls were having so much fun I had Matt get them their own bowls so they could put their hands in the flour without contaminating the whole recipe. More of it wound up on the floor and on their heads.

After dinner they got the chance to frost, decorate and eat their cookies. Yummy!!!!

We are not sending any of our delicious cookies out this year- sorry. Those who are coming to visit will have lots of treats while you are here but I am going to play the pregnancy card and take the year off.

Sisters

Lior and Sydney have been very affectionate lately. On Thursday they napped together. I should say that Sydney had a nice time laying down on top of Lior while she slept. What she doesn't know will not hurt her.

Today Lior discovered my cookies and cream shake (don't tell my doctor!) and decided to share with Sydney.
While Sydney took sips Lior kissed her on top of the head.


It doesn't get much cuter than that!

Gifts from abroad

Tanya sent over some presents for the girls and we gave them to the girls tonight after their bath. Sydney opened up the horse first and loved it until my dad turned it on.
Lior opened up the giraffe and thought it was fantastic the first time it walked by her but the second time it passed by I thought her head would pop off.
We sent the giraffe down towards Jordan who was very happy until this giraffe came close and she started to scream.
The elephant was not allowed out of the box because Sydney started to scream every time we went to take it out. Kaya looked at it walk toward her on the bed but the elephant kept tripping on its snout and Kaya just went back to sleep. Cyrus was funny when we put it on the floor he walked backwards every time the elephant moved towards him. When it stopped he would crane his head and try to sniff at it, he is such a big chicken!
We got some great gifts from the family including a fantastic menorah made dreidels from my niece Adina. Each dreidel has a picture of a member of our family, including a question mark for the new baby! I intended to take a picture of it and post it but I am just not that organized! Adina is so talented, she always makes the best gifts for us. When they came over this summer she made these wonderful fish for the girls. The trip before that one she made the big girls t-shirts that created one picture when you put them together. I was very sad when they outgrew those shirts! I can't wait to see what she has in store for us on her next visit. Thank you Adina!
Thank you for the wonderful gifts, even though the girls are terrified of their new toys I am sure they will enjoy them when we remove the batteries.

Guess who is coming?

The phone is fixed and so our Internet is back. I really did not miss the phone ringing. I did miss the Internet so I am glad it is fixed.
The girls are as cute as ever and very excited that Grandma and Grandpa are coming home tomorrow. Actually it is Sydney whose eyes are lighting up and smiling from ear to ear when I ask her who is coming home soon. The other day she finally got on the phone to say hi to my dad and she said "Hi Poppa, I wan talk Gammaw". Thank goodness he thought it was as cute as I did. When she spoke to my mom she told her all about Minnie at the playground and told her to "hab fun on airplane". Knowing the way they fly, I am sure they are having more fun than those sitting in coach, as long as my mom remembers the sleeping pills!