Today was David’s 41st birthday. We celebrated in style - with a Pilsbury cake from the grocery store.

Categories: Dad

I took the girls to watch a soccer game today with Zohar, Kedem and their Dad. The team we were cheering for is a new team in Jerusalem that is half fan-owned. They are near the top of the 4th division. They did not win this game, but the girls had a great time none-the-less.

Categories: Kids

I always thought that birthday parties were a bit overdone in Canada. Well, in Israel, it is over the top. Miriam had her actual birthday in August 2007. We had a small ‘tea party’ at the end of December, once she had made a few friends to invite (see Miri’s Birthday - Again!?). Today, she had her party at the Gan (kindergarten). As with Naomi’s party at the gan we were given a long list of items to bring — bamba, wafflim, bislee, candles, giant sparklers!, a cake, etc. The party started at 9:30 and went for a full hour with Miriam the center of attention the entire time. She danced in the center of the group, was hoisted up on a parachute, and of course blew out the inferno of candles and sparklers. After all of the excitement, the entire gan sat down to snack on all of the junk food we brought - and birthday cake, of course. There are 31 children in Miri’s gan, so it works out that they are having a party like this almost every week! Even though it is way overdone, I see the point since there are so many children in each class, it must be difficult to feel special and on this day Miriam was the star attraction!

Categories: Miri

I saw frost on the ground the last few mornings on my way to drop Naomi off. Cousin Muli - who lives in the mountains outside of Jerusalem, where it’s much colder than here - reported a wind chill of -3 the other morning when he was out walking his dogs. Israelis tell us that this has been a particularly cold winter, so far. Hopefully, this is the end of our cold spell, as I see the high is supposed to be back up to 17 on the weekend.

Categories: General

Today we didn’t plan anything. The girls were feeling like they don’t spend enough time just hanging around home. Abby and Zoe started off the morning with a little soccer and basketball. Next, all four girls went to our playground and were lucky enough to find a number of friends to play with. After that, the three big girls headed off for a bike ride to the Weizmann rec. center. They played at the big playground and then had lunch there. Naomi had lunch, helped me with the laundry and then went for a nap. After the girls’ compulsory Webkinz time, they played hide-and-seek with the Freedmans and then it was back to the playground for a bit before dinner. The weather was pretty much the coldest we’ve had - the high was just 13 - but it was sunny and nice all day.

Categories: Kids

We went on another little day trip today to Ein Hemed National Park. The main feature at this site is a large Crusader building (~1000 years old) that’s practically a castle. We had a picnic lunch and a nice little hike around the park with our kitty cat tour guide.

Categories: Kids

We made the same deal with Abby as we did with Miriam. Just let us know when you’re ready to have your birthday party and we’ll have it. Of course, her real birthday was on September 15th, but she hadn’t really made any close friends in the first two weeks of school. We had a slumber party with two friends - Zohar and Tamar. Both girls speak English quite well. We had pizza (for Shabbat dinner!), played Canada-opoly, watched High School Musical II (thank you Michelle for getting it to us), ate candy, played some cards and stayed up late. We were even able to trade Zoe for Zohar since Zoe slept over with Kedem (Zohar’s little sister). It was Zoe’s first sleepover and, by all accounts, it went well. This also gave Abby a chance to enjoy her party without Zoe “helping” her all the time.

Categories: Abby

We have been lucky enough to have another Canadian prof here on sabbatical with us. Stephanie is a physics prof at Memorial in St. Johns. Stephanie’s daughter Jordana was together with Naomi at daycare. I think that Naomi really appreciated having a little English-speaking friend with her at “school”, especially in the beginning. Stephanie and Jordana will be spending the rest of their sabbatical at the University of Waterloo. We wish them all the best for the rest of the school year and we will miss them.

Categories: Nomi

New year’s in Israel is a bit different since work and school go on as if nothing special was happening. And really, there is nothing special since new year’s in Israel occurs on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New year). But regardless, we got a babysitter and went out to a local bar for a few drinks. The first bar we tried - La Morse - was booked full. That is, the bar was basically empty at 9:00, but all of the seats were reserved, even at the bar - very surprising. So, we went to another bar - Ma - and were told that, instead of the usual Monday special of “buy 1 beer, get your 2nd free” (yes a very sweet deal every Monday night), that we would have to spend a minimum of 60 shekel each to sit at the bar. We agreed. Each chair was adorned with a decorative Happy Birthday balloon - apparently, they couldn’t find any Happy New Year balloons. We met up with Stephanie on her last night in the country and said goodbye (see story above - Goodbye Jordana). We were home by 11:00 since it was a school night for our sitter and stayed up and celebrated ourselves. A very enjoyable evening, if not your typical New Years.

Categories: Parents