Okay, I have 5 minutes to write this.   I have to pick up Ben from school in 5 minutes so I have to be quick.

Didn’t get a chance to write last night because I was so tired.  Keren and I hung out yesterday while the cleaning man cleaned.  At one point I put her to sleep and felt like I should rest also but how can you rest if the cleaning man is cleaning the house?  I kind of feel obligated to look like I am busy while he is busy!

Last night we went to my cousin’s son’s birthday party.  It was in Petach Tikvah at her parent’s house and I had to bring the kids with me b/c the party was at 7.  I thought at first I would leave Keren at home but then I just decided to schlep them all.  Ben and Keren fell asleep in the car on the way there and both woke up when we got there.  I realized in the car that I forgot my cellphone and I was nervous about driving there and getting stuck on the way and not having a phone.  It all worked out okay and I got there and home without incident.  We stayed from 7-8 and then left before cake time, much to the kids’ chagrin.    There were a ton of people there and it was nice.  Her mom made incredible lasagne that I have to get the recipe for.

When we got home I had 3 tired children and they all went to sleep nicely.

This morning the alarm woke me at 7 (I slept well for the first time all week) and, to my surprise, the kids were all already awake!  I got the kids out to school and then came home and attempted to make a brownie recipe. The recipe is from a woman who was friend’s with Eric’s mom who gave me a home made cookbook when we got married.  Halfway through the recipe I saw that she left out the eggs!!  so I looked at some other cookbooks and figured I would use 4. When I looked in my fridge I only had 3!  So I used 3.  I am not sure how good they turned out.  I’ll have to wait and see.

So now it’s time to pick up Ben and then get Eric from the airport at some point.  His flight was delayed a bit and after last time I am going to wait until after he’s gotten his luggage and then leave the house so we don’t have to wait too long for him.

Shabbat Shalom!

This morning we ran to pick up our new glasses and then to get Eric a haircut while the kids were in school.  Pictures of us in our glasses to follow when I get a chance to take them.

The kids had English today and Talia also had gymnastics.  I was busy running carpools all over the place (again!!)  This is going to be a very busy year.  I think we all have to figure out our schedules and then we can figure out some real carpools that will save us all a lot of time.  We all keep saying when the chagim are all over we’ll deal with it.  Can’t wait!!

My back has been hurting since tennis last night.  I don’t think I did anything to it while playing b/c it was hurting me just before I got on the court.  All I know is I took 2 Alleves today and they didn’t help at all.  I finally just resorted to drinking the rest of the sangria that was left over from Shabbat.  It was a particularly strong batch of sangria and I have to say that I am not really feeling very much of anything right now as I write this blog.  SO I guess it’s working!!

Ben and I made a really delicious smelling honey cake this afternoon after English.  He was given the choice of a bunch of things to bring in for his class Rosh Hashana seudah and he chose a cake.  Not only did he choose a cake,  he wanted to bake the cake.  So we did.  I’ve never baked a honey cake before so we’ll see how it comes out.  It made 2 loaves so I am bringing one of them to Robin when we go on Shabbat.

Nothing out of the ordinary today so I am going to keep it short and end it here and have an early night.  Eric, if you are reading this, feel free to add on for our friends and family who might be wanting a little more than the above….

Today, just before I took the kids to school, I decided to comb my hair with the lice comb.  Why did I do that?  Well, I’ve been really really itchy for the past few days and I had assumed it was my scalp being dry but it just seemed like maybe it was more than that.  Well, of course, I had lice!  So annoying.  You can tell by my “so annoying” that I no longer freak out about these things.  I very calmly screamed up to Eric, “I HAVE LICE!!!” and then took the kids to school.

So the morning was spent doing laundry and changing linens and combing my head out (thanks Eric for being here to help me!)  I had assumed that if I had it then of course the kids would have it b/c I had to have gotten it from one of them.  So here’s the strange thing, Keren is the only one who had it and she had one tiny bug!  Soooo weird!  Eric thinks that it’s b/c I comb them out every night so maybe I caught theirs early and they didn’t have anything left but in the meantime they had given it to me.  I guess that makes sense. 

The kids came home at the same time today and I glooped them with conditioner and threw shower caps on their heads and we all had lunch.  Talia did her homework with Eric while I cleaned Ben’s head and then I did Talia’s head after she was finished. 

Here is how we managed to get Keren to sit still for her lice combing procedure:

Wednesdays we have no chugim and a short day of school so I told the kids that I would take them to the monkey park after we finished with all the craziness in the house.  Eric called to make sure they would be open late and he said that they told him that as long as you were there by 4, that you could stay until 6.  So I tool the kids and we were there by 3:30 and the place was locked.  There were other kids there with their grandparents and they said they were told the same thing.  I saw a number on the door to call but there was no answer.  So we hung out a little longer and saw someone walking by and he let us in and told us to call a certain number when we wanted to come out.

We had a really nice time there.  The kids had a great time playing with the other kids who were with their grandparents.  We were the only ones there other than them.  Keren was there in the past but this was the first time that she was there since she is able to walk and she had a blast chasing after the peacocks and watching the monkeys and other animals there.  She was just walking along without a care in the world barking at the monkeys (she barks at anything that is an animal).

We got to the end and Keren had made and I was out of diapers and the other people we were with had also had enough so I called the number we were told to call to tell them we wanted to come out.  I got a machine with a voice prompt and I pressed the number for emergencies so I could get an operator.  I told her the story and she said, “where are you?  you are in the monkey park?  I don’t understand! ” I explained in Hebrew that we were at the end of the park and we wanted to be let out!!  She put me on hold 5 different times and just as I was thinking that this guy let us in and probably went home and we are there alone and this operator is probably on the other end thinking, “oh crap, these people are there and everyone left for the day, what do I do???”, someone showed up to let us out! 

So that was my big scare for the day at the monkey park.  Of course I had to keep cool when the kids started asking questions like, “are we locked in here?”  I wanted to scream, yes, we are and we are going to be sleeping with the monkeys tonight but don’t worry, they will pick out our lice!

It was nice b/c we were there so late that we got to see them feeding the monkeys which was adorable.  The kids really had a nice time but poor Keren had a pretty red tushy by the time we got home

Everyone was starving and tired and really dirty when we got home so we ate, took showers and the kids were asleep in no time at all!

Just a quick, funny comment that Ben made today.  He saw that his hamper was full so he asked me if I was going to make a “colorful” wash tomorrow.  I told him that I could.  He didn’t hear me so again he asked if I was going to make a “rainbow” wash tomorrow so his hamper would be empty for him to put his dirty clothing in.  So cute!

As promised here are the pictures of Savta and Talia knitting yesterday:

This morning Eric, Keren and I hung out around the house and in the park next door and outside in the back.  We didn’t do much.  We took a walk just before 11 and signed Talia up for her many chugim.  Other than that it was a really relaxed morning.  Keren took another nice nap today (2 days in a row!!) and we watched a movie in the middle of the day!!  How nice is that?!

From the time Ben came home today he was bored.  I don’t know what to do with the kid.  I want to sign him up for chugim and encourage play dates with kids and he isn’t into anyone but Eitan.  I have to figure out what to do with him on a day-to-day basis.  Meanwhile, Talia was very busy today.  She came home around 2:45 and did homework, had a bite to eat and then went off to English and from there got a ride to gymnastics and from there walked home around 6. So she was busy busy busy. 

In the afternoon I did take Ben for a bike ride but we (I) forgot to take water and we had to come home earlier than we wanted to.  In the end I wound up reading him books on the couch.  My eyes got sleepy the minute I picked up the books and I wound up asking him to play with my hair while I laid down with my eyes closed.  Keren, meanwhile, was napping (again!) and when she woke up I heard her and told Ben to go play with her while she was in her crib and I think I must have gotten a good 20 minute nap in.

Ben, Keren and I ate dinner while Talia was at gymnastics and while Eric worked.  Just before we ate Ben and Keren were playing.  Take a look:

I just finished cleaning up downstairs and I threw a load of laundry in.   I would like to have an early night tonight for a change!

Today the kids went to school and I took Keren for another blood test.  The results from her first test were a little messed up b/c she was sick so the doctor asked me to take another one.  This time I had a much better nurse and she took about 30 seconds whereas last time the woman was squeezing her finger for 2 minutes or so and Keren was screaming.

It was another hot and sunny day here and we really couldn’t do much outside.  I had a haircut appointment at 12:30 and then after that Eric and I picked up lunch from one of our favorite sandwich places and brought it back home.  Talia came home and I ran out with her to pick up a birthday gift that she owes one of her friends.  Then we spent time doing homework and cleaning up her room a little together.  While all this was going on, Ben was at Eitan’s house and then karate. 

That’s pretty much the whole day.  Tennis was great, as usual and I am so going to miss it this summer!!

Anyway, Eric and I have been working on a video of all the pictures we’ve taken over the course of this year and if you haven’t already seen it on Facebook or gotten it as an attachment in an e-mail, you can see it below.

Hope you enjoy!

Boy did I sleep last night!  It was awesome.  I slept from 9:30 until Ben came up at 6:15 (he was hungry since I didn’t let him eat much after throwing up the evening before).  I felt awesome and ready to start my day!

This morning after taking the kids to school we stopped off at the park at Keren’s insistence.  She pointed and shrieked so we went.  I met a new person who just moved in about 2 weeks ago.  Not the type that I will be friends with but it was nice to have another mother to schmooze with in the park at 8:00 in the morning.

We came home and I put Keren in for her nap.  She was exhausted after going down the slide a million times.  Her favorite is the swirly slide. I put her on the top of the climbing apparatus and she crawls to the slide and turns around and goes down on her belly.  It’s the cutest thing!

When she woke up we ran to the supermarket and then came home and had lunch.  Saba and Savta came shortly thereafter and soon after that Ben came home.  Ben was waiting at school for me with 2 friends, both of whom wanted to come to our house and play.  It was so cute.  When I told him that my grandparents were here waiting for him, though, he dropped them and ran home with me.

Ben and I made challot and we made cookies too.  I promised him that we would bake today since yesterday he missed his chug.  I gave 2 challot to my grandparents and my grandmother was THRILLED!  I was psyched b/c I have tried to make the same cookies now about 3 times and each time they have come out completely flat.  They taste delicious but they are flat as pancakes.  It’s a recipe that my mother-in-law gave me and it’s so frustrating.  HOWEVER, today we made them and they came out so nice!  They taste awesome and look awesome.  Take a look:

My grandparents came with the chicken and I bought the burgers and we had a BBQ for dinner tonight.  I was running around like a maniac doing a million things at once – cleaning the windows with my grandmother (she doesn’t like to sit around and we cleaned some of the windows today!!), BBQing the food, baking the cookies, baking the challot and making sure the kids were okay.  I mean, she helped with some of the stuff but there was only so much that my grandmother could do.  Needless to say, it was a really tiring day but it sure flew!  Now I have a clean sliding glass door and 1 clean kitchen window!  I think I’ll clean some more windows now that I am on a roll tomorrow with the kids.  They seemed to have enjoyed it.

My grandfather was in an amazing mood.  He got such a kick out of “Karen” as he calls her.  He just couldn’t get enough of her.  He and my grandmother were fighting for her attention.  It was funny. 

Right before they left I put up the soup and the fish for Shabbat.  I am not making much else because we are invited out for lunch.  I am taking out the chicken from the freezer from last Shabbat.  My grandmother left Ben a piece of BBQ chicken since it’s his favorite.  He actually ate 2 pieces of chicken tonight at dinner!!

Anyway, that was our day in a nutshell.  It was really, really hot today but I think it’s supposed to cool down soon. Oh, that’s one difference between Israel and America, here the weather takes a back seat to the rest of the news and when they do finally get to it they say the weather today is… wait for it…. “NICE!”  So if you think “nice” is 70 and your neighbor thinks “nice” is 80 who will have the “nice” weather and who will complain that the forecast was wrong that day??  It cracks me up.  In the States they go on and on about the forecast and then they repeat it every 15 minutes.  I guess they have more important things to worry about here!

This morning after taking the kids to school Keren and I packed up for the beach!!  We picked Jere up at her house and the 3 of us went.  We went to Hertzaliya Pituach instead of the beach in Tel Aviv.  It is supposed to be a nicer beach but I am happy to be in Tel Aviv and it’s a shorter trip so I don’t know that it made much sense to go there.  Also, there are a ton of steps to walk down and a ton of beach to walk on before getting to the water.  Anyway, we had a great time.  The first thing that Keren did was crawl straight to the water and she didn’t stop until she was in!!  She spent most of her time in the water and so did I!   At first Keren didn’t seem as happy as she usually is to be at the beach.  I figured out that she is usually at the beach with Talia and Ben and she usually crawls around and follows them and climbs in their hole, etc.  So I dug a hole and she climbed right in and she was thrilled!  Then I buried her in the sand and she LOVED that!!  I wish I had my camera there but I didn’t want to schlep too many things with us since it was going to be me carrying all the bags.

We came home at 1 with just enough time to get rid of the evidence (if the older 2 knew we went to the beach while they were at school I would have a mutiny on my hands) and take showers.   I ran the shower for us and Keren peed all over the bathroom floor just before she was ready to come in with me.  She hated the shower, which I find funny since she crawled in with Ben yesterday, clothes and all.

This afternoon Ben had Eitan, Chen and Ofek over after school.  Chen and Ofek left after an hour but Eitan stayed until I took the boys to karate.  They played really, really nicely the whole time!  It allowed me to put away some laundry and even make dinner!  One of the best play dates so far.

Talia called me after school today to tell me she was going to her friend Rachel’s house and to make sure it was okay with me.  I really wanted her to come home so I could put Keren in for a nap at 3 and not have to wake her while I took the boys to karate but I also wanted her to have a nice time at her friend’s house.  So she went there and I wound up waking Keren up and taking her with us to karate carpool.

When Ben came home he finished watching the end of the video that I put on for Keren.  He loves her Baby Einstein videos for some reason.  We ate dinner and then I finally called the house that Talia was at to find out where in the world she was.  It turns out that she stayed to play with her friend and then went to her friend’s English chug with her b/c they weren’t finished playing!!  Then she went back to her friend’s house.  So I told her she could eat dinner there but that she had to be home at 6:30.  At 6:25 she called asking me if I could pick her up.  I said no, she had to walk home!!  The other kids were all ready for bed and nice and clean and we were reading books.  So she asked if she could stay longer.  I told her to get her little tushy home right away!!

Tonight I played tennis and had a great time.  Jere came to babysit with her dog.  I don’t mind that she brings him but he stinks up the place and then I have to vacuum the rug after they leave. 

Some funny Ben stories:

The first story is a little gross.  Just a warning:  This morning he went to the bathroom and he was crying that it hurt him when he made.  So I told him that sometimes that happens when you make and it means he might have to eat more fruit, etc.  I told him that his tushy might be bleeding a little when I wipe him so I would be gentle and not to be alarmed.  So he said to me, “oh, then I will need to  use one of those sticks?”  I had no idea what he was talking about but after a minute I realized he was talking about a tampon!!!!!!!!!!!  I told him that it’s just for mommies and he wouldn’t need one even if his tushy WAS bleeding!! 

Second story:  He was looking at the hairs on his legs telling me that he had a lot of them.  Then he mentioned Eric’s hairs on his legs and said they were black and he had more.  I told Ben that one day his too would be dark and that he would have a lot more hair than he has now.  He said, “why, because they get dirty?”  So I told him why.  Then, if that wasn’t funny enough he proceeded to tell me that his friend Chen has a ton of hair on her legs and she also has hair on her back (he showed me where on her back).  I asked him how in the world he managed to see her back where she has the hair and he said “when we play doctor and I check her back”.  I just hope that those teachers of his are keeping an eye on the two of them!!

The weather finally cooled down a little bit.  Yesterday’s 104 hopefully won’t happen again until sometime this summer.

Anyway, the kids and I walked to school today, Ben on his bike, Talia on her scooter and Keren in the stroller.  After I dropped them off Keren and I went to the playground for a while and enjoyed the cooler air.

When we got home I gave her breakfast and then left her with Eric so I could go to my bookclub meeting.  I had a really nice time chatting with the ladies, as usual.

When I got home I did some laundry and Eric and I went for a walk to see a house that we thought we might rent next year (so not going to happen) and then to the makolet to pick up a few things for dinner.  I got a call on our walk from Ben’s ganenet asking where I was, why I hadn’t come to pick him and his two friends up.  One of the other mothers forgot that it was her turn to pick up the kids and bring them to their chug.  So I straightened it out and we continued on our way.

Talia said that her trip was great.  She said she walked a ton and saw snakes and bears.  I still have no idea where they went.  I have to call someone and find out.

I took Talia to her English chug and the rest of the day was spent hanging out with the kids as they came to and from their chugim, etc.  After dinner we spent about an hour playing baseball outside.  It was great.

Some updates on Keren’s progress:  She now eats eggs and fish (loves them both) and drinks milk (doesn’t care for it).  She has been more and more steps.  Tonight she got up by herself and walked 4 steps to me without me even asking her to do it! 

Here is some video of Keren dancing in the kitchen while Ben and I made dinner tonight:

While making dinner Ben decided to measure my cabinets.  I think he might be planning on replacing them for me or something

Here is another of the girls together:

Shabbat was nice.  Nothing much out of the ordinary.  Friday night we put the kids to sleep and then ate a nice quiet meal by ourselves.  Shabbat day I spent the morning relaxing while the kids were in shul with Eric and Keren took a 3 hour nap!

We ate lunch and then the neighbors came over to play with the kids.  Eric took a nap on the couch while I played with Keren and with Ben (he would come play with me when the girls were being mean to him).

At 4 I took Keren and Ben to the park and Eric followed a little while later.  Keren had a blast sliding down the slide and playing on the swings.  I was exhausted from carrying her all over the place.  Gone are the days when she sits on my lap or in the stroller content to watch the kids play.

We came home with Keren and Ben and gave them their dinner.  Talia came home a little while later and ate and then we got them all to sleep.  Talia heard all the noise outside while she was trying to fall asleep and decided that next week she is going to take a nap in the afternoon so she can stay up late until after Shabbat is over so she can also play outside.  We’ll see what happens…

I finished an amazing book that I highly recommend called The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  I read it for my book club and it was really great.  I think I read the whole thing in 3 or 4 sittings. 

After Shabbat we watched Bride Wars which Eric had downloaded on his last trip to America.  It was adorable.

This morning Eric let me sleep late and he took the kids to school.  I woke up and came down and saw Keren and Eric sitting on the couch watching Baby Einstein.  Keren was mesmerized.  She didn’t move the while time and at the end Eric had a huge drool stain on his shirt.

I cleaned off the baby seat that goes on the back of my bike and we put Keren in a went for a bike ride. It was short lived b/c the helmet was much too big on her.  The other kids used it but they were each one and a half. Keren is not yet one.  So I am going to have to figure something out.  I don’t think they make helmets much smaller than that.

We came home and put Keren in for a nap and then just hung out before the kids came home from school.  I wanted to watch the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy but something happened during the download and it was on good!!  So sad!!  I hope another one comes in so I can watch it tonight.

When the kids came home we went out to lunch at a place in Modiin, kind of as a Mother’s Day thing.  The kids loved the food there (they both got a different kind of pasta while Keren shared all of our food) and they were really good.  It was very nice.

When we came home Talia went straight to English and we went to find out what houses are on the market or for rent here.  I think we need to keep our options open and figure out what we are going to do after the summer.  I have a feeling we are going to have to find another house.  Our landlord won’t give us an answer to whether we can have the house another year.  Anyway, there is not too much out there but we are optimistic that something will come up anyway.

After that I went to pick Talia up and we came home and did some practice on English spelling words since she didn’t do too well on her test.  Ben and Keren went outside to play with Eric and when we were finished with the spelling words we played cards.

By this evening Grey’s Anatomy was downloaded and we watched it and now we are watching 30 Rock, my new favorite show!!!

Forgot to mention that on Friday when I was walking Ben to school in the morning I must have said something in Hebrew and he told me that I had no accident.  I asked him what he meant and he explained that my ר didn’t sound right.  I told him that I believe he is looking for the word accent.  He insisted it was accident so I laughed and let it go.

Today, Sunday, I slept in while Eric took the kids to school.  I did the linens today and some other cleaning/straightening around the house while Keren slept and Eric did some stuff on the computer or something like that.  Oh, he also took the rosemary that he was drying and put it into a little jar for me.  Anyway, I remembered that I was supposed to call the contractor b/c he told me to call him today and said he would send someone over to install the new kitchen faucet that we bought.  So he sent someone over and he installed it and we were very excited to FINALLY have a working kitchen faucet in the meat sink. 

When Keren finally woke up from her nap we went to the supermarket to pick up some things we needed and then came back and Eric picked Ben up while I waited at home for Talia to come home and I fed Keren.  Unfortunately, while I was feeding her I decided to put the stuff back that was under the sink that we had to take out for the guy to install the faucet and I noticed that water was leaking out of the pipe!!!  So I thought it was something that would never get fixed but Eric came home and saw it and we called the contractor again and then the guy came over again and this time he fixed it and we now, officially have a working sink.  Yipeeeee!!!!

Eric made schwarma for lunch in big pita laffas.  Oh, it was so yummy!  Here are the pictures I took of us enjoying the schwarma:

[View with PicLens]

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent at home hanging out and doing homework with Talia and dancing to music in the kitchen and stuff like that.

Tonight I went to a hat sale at a friend’s house.   I got a bunch of new mitpachot for my head and then one casual hat for every day.  Yay.  I had fun too.