Sweden: Moose!!

Shortly after arriving in Denmark we left again to visit Auntie D in Sweden.  And apparently did a terrible job of it, since I realize now I don't have a single photograph of her with the kids, or us with Daniel and Tellus.  I guess we were too busy enjoying ourselves to photograph it, but it is disappointing.

What I did manage to photograph, however, was the moosepark.  Auntie D gets the aunt of the century award for surviving the trip there with a carsick Noah.   It was really a disaster.  But eventually we arrived and sent Auntie D and the kids to the playground so we could clean out the car.  And that's when it started to rain.  And the kids' jackets were both, let's say, contaminated.

But we soldiered on, because after all that, goddamnit, I was going to see a moose.

And we did!!

Some adults, some calves, and also some teenagers

And also some horns

It was great. :)

Family Jam

Please enjoy my favorite thing from our visit to Grandma's house for Rosh Hashanah, a family Jam session led by Noah and Eva.



This was only a narrow winner of the "favorite thing" title, the close second place finisher being when Eva found Grandma's conducting baton and proceeded to direct us on multiple instruments.  Apparently she is going to be a "music conductor" when she grows up so it's good to have some practice.

Back!

Ok, so we've been back for a month and a half.  And it's been a crazy one, with no blog posts (sorry about that).  I'll try to catch up.

So.... Noah started first grade

And while he was nervous it wasn't going to be any fun because there weren't any toys in the classroom it is really going great so far.

Eva started another year of preschool

And she wasn't nervous at all and has been basically owning being back where she is comfortable.  Apparently last week they had to wait a few minutes while some visiting firemen got their presentation ready and Eva taught her entire class a dance (unprompted, apparently she just decided to do it and they all followed her).  

It's been great being home and re-discovering all of the things we enjoy doing here

arrgh, our pirate garb has also been rediscovered... 

And our backyard and our neighborhood and we are riding larger bikes now... 

And we had the smattering of fall Jewish Holidays, we had a lovely visit in Tully/Ithaca for Rosh Hashanah

And then came back and ate in our sukkah and the kids made some lulavim

shaking practice

So here we are in October and I haven't even told you about our vacation or about Noah losing another tooth.  Ah well, life goes on and it's difficult to both enjoy it and blog at the same time.

drawing

In between all of these cultural activities we also like to take some time to draw pictures of haunted houses.

Down on the farm

I am not sure this farm is exactly like what Grandma remembers from her childhood... 

From the kitchen we could hear some intense negotiations about where Grandma's cow was allowed to go... 

But it seems they had fun anyway...

Thanks, Grandma

As part of their afikomen prize Noah and Eva got some new beanie babies from Grandma.  Thanks Grandma!

And because they love them, Noah and Eva insisted Squirmy, Dot and Bruno got to play in our family Chinese Checkers game today.

I really mean they insisted the beanie babies played.

And Eva using her toy dog's paw to move a Chinese Checkers piece is exactly as effective as you might imagine.  And by that I mean not at all.

This was a good opportunity for Chad and I to practice our patience.  THANKS A LOT, GRANDMA.

Happy Passover!

We hosted our first Passover seder!  Thank you Dad, for taking all the pictures!

Two kids, ready for Matzo!

With creative tabling we managed to sit 19 in our dining room (or really more like 18.5, as baby William had mixed feelings about remaining seated).  Or 21.5, if you count Sarah and the girls who joined us from Wisconsin.

Go Badgers!

Eva read the four questions

And everyone looked for the afikomen

Success!!

Turning in the afikomen for prizes... 

(I think Christian is a little excited about his prize there)

Happy Passover,  Happy Easter Everybody!

Hamantashen

Forgot about these for the Purim post, but I did get a few pictures of making Hamantashen with the kids.  

(Hamantashen are the three-cornered cookies we eat on Purim, they are supposed to look like Haman's Hat)  

(I suppose I should also mention that Haman is the bad guy in the Purim story)

Anyway, back to the cookies.  Every year they get better at pinching together the corners

Noah can pretty much do it, and Eva can come up with plenty of stories about how she meant for that one to be a crumbled up mess, because it is not a hat it's a bear cave.  Or whatever.

Noah has also graduated to other cookie-related jobs.

And then we ate a lot of cookies.  The end.

Chag Purim

Oh hello, Harry

Uh oh, looks like I'm about to be cursed.

Also, Daddy

(family portrait of James and Harry Potter)

And now, for another (colder) type of magic... 

Oh dear, now I've been frozen

(dramatic Elsa Ice Pose)

We had some excellent costumes for Purim this year

(in case you can't tell by my space dress, I am Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus books)

(maybe you should take a closer look at my space shoes)

Happy Purim Everybody. :)

Mexico: Happy New Year!!

We attended a fancy party at the hotel on New Years Eve.

(Eva and Noah in face paint from Kids Club earlier in the day)

We ate a fancy dinner sitting with a lovely family from Ecuador, and then we got to watch a show. Noah and Eva both danced on stage with the rest of the kids.  There was a lot of confusion about the actual dance steps, but it was still exceedingly cute.

Noah and Eva near the right, ready for something but not quite sure what

Ok we're clapping and dancing now...

Time to boogie down!!

Then they had the kids play musical chairs on stage.  Eva was the first eliminated, and immediately burst into Eva-tears to the great amusement of the audience.  In her defense, she fell asleep on my lap about 5 minutes later in the middle of blaring music, so I think she was about done by that point.

Noah did not win musical chairs but apparently loved it and will definitely be playing it at his birthday party.

Eva and I went to bed after that, Noah and Daddy lasted until about 9pm.  Basically, this was the most exciting New Years Eve ever. :)

Mexico: playtime

Our hotel was on a sandy beach, and also had a pool and was attached to a waterpark.  I don't have pictures of the waterpark, too wet to bring the camera.   I don't really have pictures of the beach either (too sandy), even though we spent a lot of time there.  Chad and I got to play beach volleyball several times over the duration of the trip, while Eva and Noah built sandcastles nearby.  Having slightly older, semi-independent children is awesome. :)

I do have some pictures off of the balcony, since the camera was always conveniently located in the room.

And some of the pool, since that seemed the least dangerous location for electronics

(these are of the shallow side of the pool, to the left of these images is a larger, 4-5 ft deep pool)

(and the swim-up bar, also critical)

Eva is the member of our family most sensitive to the heat.  So sometimes she needed to take a bit of a rest in the shade.

We managed to keep ourselves entertained pretty well. :)

Mexico

So we just got back from a trip to Mexico - we stayed on the beach just outside of Cancun.

sunrise as viewed from our balcony

I actually have surprisingly few pictures (though I will stretch them out for a few posts).  We spent most of the time just relaxing and playing and soaking it all in.  I had no cellphone or internet access so was actually unplugged.  It was really a great vacation.

I think the kids liked it too

Typical Nana

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