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!

Happy birthday Grandma & Danny

October is a very busy month for birthdays. We celebrated Grandma and Danny's birthday on Sunday. It is really nice having a lot of family around for celebrations. It is always a party!
And we know the kids love to party.
They all loved the cake (even though I did not make it!).


YUMMY!!!

Happy new year

My kids love to celebrate Rosh Hashana. They love apples and honey and listening to the shofar. This year was the first time in twenty years that Danny was around to celebrate the holidays and I was too sick to share in the joy. I had a bad stomach virus and was pretty much out of commission for two days. Thank goodness my mom was available to sit with the girls last Monday because I could not drag myself out of bed. Matt took the girls to Dan's house for dinner without me!
The girls had a great time. They had candy before dinner to bring in a sweet new year, Matt loved that! The girls came home with new necklaces, which they loved! Sydney was so excited by the necklace that she was showing it to me as Matt pulled up on the driveway. When I asked her where she got it she told me Tanya gave it to me, she is a nice girl!" She's right!

Last sunday

Last Sunday we took the girls back to the infamous "vacation house" for a swim. This time their cousins were there to help entertain and entertain they did. Apparently, since the last time we all swam together, Eitan and Adina discovered how to jump from the edge of the spa into an inner tube floating in the pool below.

They spent a good hour showing my very impressionable three year olds this dynamite new trick.
Sydney liked the look of the stunt and spent a good fifteen minutes trying to master it, climb out of the pool, onto the edge of the spa, wait for the ring to be placed properly, and jump. Repeat. She made it a few times but most of the time she missed or hooked her leg onto the tube and grabbed onto it as hard as she could. Every time she came up her smile was bigger and brighter than the time before. She is quite the daredevil, our little Sydney!
Lior was not as interested in the new trick but enjoyed the day by the pool with her cousins. Jordan is becoming more and more comfortable in the water. Now we have to teach her to lift her head out of the water to take breathes while she is swimming and she will be a pro. Akiva is always very content watching the kids play as long as he has his feet to play with.

Adult supervision needed

This is why Matt needs supervision:

Example one- Sydney


Example two- Jordan
Example three- Lior


Example four- No'am

Need I say more? No wonder Tanya wants to go to Barnes & Noble the next time we take the kids in our swimming pool.

Fast friends

Jordan has a new boyfriend and his name is No'am. She has been following him around screaming his name for days. It is truly amazing how well they play together and get along. No'am is learning the lesson all of my kids learned at a very young age, "love hurts!" Jordan has given him a bloody nose twice since he has been here. It seems that every Saturday Jordan (a.k.a "the brute")has either head butted him or stuffed something up his nose hard enough to draw blood. We hope that she does not draw blood this weekend!
Jordan loves sitting on No'am's lap to watch television and sometimes lets Sydney join in the fun.

Bowling

We took the kids bowling for the first time today. Not only was it their first time but mine as well. I bowled three strikes and I had no clue what I was doing. We tried to take all the kids bowling on Thursday but there were no available lanes. When I told the girls that we could not bowl Sydney started to get upset. "I want dose people to share wit me!" "I want to bowl today, dose people not bein' nice, dey need to share!" It worked out well for me because Matt was able to join us today. He is really great with the girls and helped them each and every turn. Bowling with kids as little as ours is not a sport that they can be completely independent at. Since Akiva needs to eat every five minutes having Matt with us was a huge relief for me (and my feet!).
The girls had a blast. Jordan took a few turns to warm up but once she got the hang of it she was Miss independence. She insisted on carrying the ball by herself to the ramp.
Sydney really got into it and liked watching her balls roll down the lane. Matt told her to lean in the direction she wanted the ball to go when she was watching it so the ball would go in that direction. Of course she believed him.
Lior had a great time rolling the ball down the ramp and picking the balls up from the return.
Adina had a great day bowling and beat everyone the first game after she got two strikes in a row. Way to go Adina!!
No'am was very patient and had a good time making sure all the balls were ready for the girls when it was their turn.
Everyone had a great time and we stayed cool in this Florida heat.

Invasion

I know, I know! Where have I been? What have we been doing? What has been going on?
I actually do not know where to start or what to say except we have been invaded. The Israeli's arrived first, then our cousins from Colorado, and then the cousins from New York. Can you say full house? Last Thursday we had eighteen people for dinner and we had a great time.
The girls are getting to know their uncle Danny (better known as a Monkey's Uncle), their cousins Jenna and Rachel. Jordan is getting over her initial bought of being shy and reserved and sitting on Lisa's lap. Lior is also coming out of her shell and sitting on Eve's lap.It is funny she likes sitting on her lap but does not really talk to her. Akiva is growing by leaps and bounds and once again I find myself extremely grateful that he is nursing so I get to hold him every two or three hours. Every once and a great while Adina will let me old my baby!
Sydney is also loving all the attention and having a cousin who is close to her age.We are having a great time and best of all the kids are getting to spend time with their cousins.

Waiting game

I am compulsive. I told Matt to shut down the computer because I was going to take a shower and go to bed. But when I was in the shower my mind started to work and I began thinking and now I am forced to write.
Initially I sat down to e-mail my brother Danny to pass a message on to my nephew Eitan who is celebrating his Bar Mitvah this weekend in Israel and it turned into a blog! I can not believe we were supposed to be in Israel today helping him celebrate but I got pregnant and we decided to stay home. The good news is that they will be coming to America a week from today and we will have three weeks to celebrate with Eitan (and the rest of his family).
I know the girls can not wait because "Danny's kids are coming". Lior and Sydney actually have fights about who is going to sleep in their big girl beds "Adina will sleep in my bed", "No'am will sleep with me", Eitan and Liely will sleep in my bed". Poor Jordan has no idea what or who they are talking about but pipes in with "Me too, Adina!"
I know they are looking forward to eating ice cream, the messier the better!



I know the girls want their cousins to come to their house NOW and they will have to wait but they can have all the ice cream they want while they are waiting!