Happy New Year!!

Here's to 2016!

Nothing like the enthusiasm of small children with noisemakers to make us optimistic for the future!

Or deaf enough to not mind whatever comes...

Happy New Year everybody!

Halloween!

Boo. :)

So we prepared the pumpkins

And set them out (not sure what happened with the kids here)

Met up with the neighbors... 

Then conducted our yearly ritual of eating pizza

Trying our best to get a group photo

And wrangling the trick-or-treaters

It was a great night!

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.

Exodus, by Eva

Eva made a mural of the passover story at Hebrew School today

Starting from the right: 

Egypt

"the parted sea"

"Moses leading the girl people down the long path" 

 And finally, Mt. Sinai

 She said she still needs a few sticks to make a Torah on top of mt. Sinai, but for the most part I think she's got it down.  We weren't in the room when the instructions were given out, but all of the other children came out with just one plate and a cup.  But really, we weren't surprised when Eva come out trailing the entire book of Exodus.

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. :)

Valentine's day

Mommy and Daddy received some wonderful things this Valentine's day.

chocolates for daddy, flowers for mommy

It is especially fun with kids who are starting to write

I love you mommy from Eva

To Daddy Love Noah (the picture is the king of hearts)

Eva's valentine for Daddy

This is the inside of Eva's Valentine, featuring the queen of hearts

From Eva to Mommy, featuring a boy "with boogers in his nose.  Also he is allergic to the boogers."

The sweetness, it keeps me warm even in the snow. :)