Bubbie, Zaidy and Ari fly home tomorrow night - late. Actually, they leave here on Tuesday morning at 00:50.

Abby, Zoe, Miri, Ari and I went to Superland this afternoon. This is an amusement park near the beach in Rishon LeZion. The girls had a great time. Miri is pretty easy to please at these places. We hit some extreme rides such as - the old-fashioned car ride, the junior bumper cars, the train around the park and the gondola over the park.

Bubbie, Zaidy, David and Nomi stayed home. Cousin Muli dropped in for a bit on his way home from Tel Aviv.

Categories: Kids

We are very excited to have Bubbie and Zaidy with us. Ari headed up north with her Aunts this morning and the girls miss her already. Ari will be back on Saturday and then we’ll head down to Eilat on Sunday morning.

Categories: Kids

Those of you who regularly visit our blog (all 3 of you!) have no doubt been frustrated by the problems we’ve been experiencing over the last 2 months. Sometime in late January we had webserver problems. The blog was up and down and then up again, but without the photo gallery (see Wahhhh! My Blog is Broken). Luckily, on March 1st my blog was upgraded to yet another server, which, hopefully, will run the photo gallery properly. Unfortunately, when they moved the blog files, they managed to find some very old files and thus, the photo gallery - along with several other things – is still not working. Of course I called the webhosting company – about 50 times – and they tried to fix it a few times, unsuccessfully. I am actually writing this post in anticipation of the blog being fixed. I was first writing this while waiting at the hair salon and now I am at home, on hold, waiting to speak to tech support at my webhost – hopefully, for the last time. Well, it wasn’t the last time - not even close - and this post is still waiting to be posted… Still waiting… And, FINALLY (several days have passed), all the right files are in the right places and the photo gallery is back online.

Categories: Kids

It has been a very long time since we made regular posts (since the photos stopped working). We will make some back posts when we get caught up, but, in the meantime, we’ll try to start making regular posts again.

The girls were off school yesterday (Friday) for Purim and so we went to Holon with our friends the Kurtzmans to see a parade “ad-lo-iodah” (which translated means “until you don’t know”. This refers to the tradition on Purim to get drunk until you no long know who you are, which I did the night before in Jerusalem after my talk in the Neurobiology Department at Hebrew U. (thank you Tamar and Nick). It was very very hot out (30°+), so we did not last too long, but the kids had lots of fun. Afterwards we went to Irit’s parents’ place (Zohar & Kedem’s Saba and Safta) and had a great lunch. Friday night Zohar slept over and the girls did not go to bed until after 10pm–they were up at 6:30 as usual, of course.

Today, I went swimming with Abby and Zoë at the Weizmann indoor (sort of) pool. We had a great time and then had lunch there. After Naomi’s nap we all piled into the car and went to the beach at Rishon Le’Zion. We built a great sand castle, went swimming in the very cool water and had a nice dinner at a beach restaurant.

Categories: Kids

After a leisurely morning - which Gramma needed after all the beach business of the past two days - she met Abby at school at 2:30 PM. After a quick snack they were off to the Weizmann. It was a beautiful 27 degree day. On their way they saw two turtles, a weasel/marten?? and lots of little birds. Abby picked a small bouquet of weed flowers plus one caloniot which she finally discarded as there were bugs on them.

They went to the Garden of Science and were informed it was closed as it was Sunday, but they were allowed in anyway. Abby thoroughly enjoyed showing Gramma how every exhibit works.

After an enjoyable walk through the citrus grove and other beautiful walkways they had a drink and cookies at Café Mada (mada = science). Before leaving campus they stopped at the playground where two stray? cats took a liking to them and one even got on Gramma’s knee. After a quick stop at the corner store for eggs they proceeded home after a side trip to Abby’s friend Tamar’s home to invite her to dinner. Unfortunately, she was busy so home they went just in time for challah French toast - yummy. Once the big bath night was over Daddy was off to Ben Gurion Airport to pick up Liane and take her to Jerusalem.

Categories: Abby

Today we took Gramma to see the Tropical Garden at Hayarkon Park in north Tel Aviv. The girls spent some time on the huge wooden climber whilst Gramma watched on from her barstool, cold beer in hand. The weather was very nice - up to 31. We packed up and headed over to a different part of the park in search of a mini-putt course that no longer exists. A big thank you to the owners for leaving it on their website. Instead, the girls got to jump on some trampolines for a while, so they weren’t too disappointed. A quick visit to Herzalia beach and then dinner in Herzalia and back home for bedtime. Gramma and Nomi missed their naps, but Nomi was fine with it.

Categories: Kids

After school (the girls get out at 11:45 and 12:45 on Fridays) Gramma and David took the girls (minus napping Naomi) downtown to choose Purim costumes. David just barely survived the ordeal. If only we had packed a few costumes… After Naomi and Gramma had little naps, we drove over to the beach at Rishon Lezion, where, despite our very warm weather, it was pretty chilly. The girls played in the sand a while and we had dinner at one of the restaurants right on the beach.

Categories: Kids

Gramma and Naomi walked over to the Weizmann to meet David for lunch. Naomi was the only child in the cafeteria and sat and ate like a little princess. David and Gramma - not so much like little princesses.

Categories: Dad, Nomi

Wednesday afternoon we all piled into the car and headed south through the desert to Eilat. Mommy drove for the first bit then Daddy took over and Mommy was wedged in the back seat between Abby & Zoe. It was a very long trip but the scenery was spectacular with multicolored mountains. We saw a shepherd with his sheep close to the road and saw 2 camels on a hill beside the road. We arrived at The Golden Tulip Resort after dark and were happy to get settled into the proper adjoining rooms on the ground level beside the kiddy pool. Gramma & Abby shared a bed and Zoe slept on the pullout and Mommy, Daddy Miri, & Naomi (in a crib) shared the other room.
The resort was all-inclusive with wonderful buffets and snacks and drinks available between meals. There were lots of activities for the children and they took full advantage of them. The waterslides were Abby & Zoe’s favorites.

Friday morning we went to Coral World . It was awesome such vivid colors of coral and all kinds of beautiful fish. You go below sea level in the tower then up 90 steps to the lookout. It’s located at the northern tip of the Red Sea. We turned around at the border to Egypt and Jordan is just across the sea. David was teasing Gramma this am by saying he had booked her for a 4 hr camel ride today, VERY funny!!!

Saturday afternoon Trudy, David Abby & Zoe went snorkeling in the Red Sea & Gramma stayed home with Miri & Nomi and they all napped. Saturday evening was a special farewell party for the children and they had fun with face painting, dancing and singing karaoke.

Sunday am the girls got to enjoy the waterpark before we left at noon for the long journey home. We went by way of the Dead sea and actually got Gramma to try and float. She’s not comfortable in the water so whenever Trudy took her hands away from under her shoulders she immediately stood up so not a perfect “10″ of a floating experience

On the winding mountain roads from the Dead Sea (400′ below sea level) to Jerusalem (700′ above sea level) poor little Naomi tossed her cookies. We arrived in Jerusalem about 6:30pm to much cooler temperature and had dinner in a very old family restaurant. The huge bowls of lentil soup were delicious. Safely home to Rehovot about 9:30pm.

Categories: Kids