Shavuot and more

The kids have been off now for 3 days, counting today.  They were off the day before the Chag and now they are off the day after as well for Isru Chag.  The nice thing, though, is that they are very busy! 

Tuesday was spent mostly cooking and watching movies.  Eric and I did the cooking while the kids watched the movies.  Too bad it couldn’t have been the other way around.  At one point I actually sent Ben to Eitan (by himself) to play for an hour b/c he had had enough home time and needed to see other people, I felt.  We also spent much of the day trying to locate Ben’s Crocs!  It was the strangest thing.  He came home from English on Monday and had them on his feet.  After English he ran inside while I was chatting outside with Robin and when he came back outside he was barefoot.  About 40 minutes later we went to the mall and he couldn’t find his Crocs.  We were in a bit of a rush b/c Eric had a meeting at the bank right outside the mall for our mortgage so he put on a pair of boots (!!) and ran out the door.  I turned the house upside down and could not find those shoes.  The problem is that he has his Crocs and he has his sandals that he only likes to wear on Shabbat and that’s pretty much all he has to wear.  When we go to America next month I’ll buy him sneakers but I see that he doesn’t even want to wear sneakers most of the time when he does have sneakers that fit him.  Anyway, about 20 minutes before I lit candles I found them!  The were on the window sill behind the leather couch that we have in the living room.  He likes to climb behind the couch and stand on the sill.  It finally occurred to me to look there and, sure enough, there they were.  AHHHHHH!!!

Ben has to go to school tomorrow prepared to tell a story about the Parsha.  We worked on making him a Har Sinai as well as the Luchot.  Talia and Ben scavenged for cardboard boxes and I cut out the mountain for them and they painted it.  Talia made the Luchot and I cut them out and then I was the one that wound up painting that one.  Ben doesn’t have much patience to sit down for long periods of time and work on something.  I hope he’ll manage next year in first grade!  I’ve been going over the story with him about matan torah in the hopes that it will sink in and he’ll be able to tell his gan tomorrow.  He won’t practice with me.  At first I thought it would be a good idea to tell it to him in Hebrew so that he could retell it in Hebrew.  The problem was that I was making so many mistakes that he wound up correcting me and we were laughing so much.  So I told it to him in English and he’ll translate it when the time comes.  That is, if he does it at all.  I am a bit skeptical.  But at least his teachers will see that he did work on the props and he did prepare.   I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

Shavuot, the one day, was nice.  It flies by here like it’s nothing.  We ate at home at night after Eric came home from shul.  Talia made a big stink that she wanted to stay up to learn.  Eric told her that if she wakes up and wants to go to shul with him to learn that she should wake him up (he had no plans to learn) and he would take her.  She woke him up and told him her throat was hurting her.  She asked him to make her a hot water bottle.  While he was making her the hot water bottle she went to the toilet and started spitting and gagging.  Then she told Eric she was too sick to go and she should just go back to sleep.  Eric said she put on quite the show for him!!  She is a good little actress that one.  So, they both happily went back to sleep

The next day we had our friends Shlomit and Shmuel and their kids.  It was very nice.  The kids all played really nicely together and when they left to take a nap, the 3 kids stayed to play.  They played until 5:30 and then came in for dinner and some calm playing with us before bed.  I started a 1000 piece puzzle with Talia that Eric’s mom had given us for Chanukah.   We did the border and a little more before it was time for bed and before she gave up. It’s going to be a while until that puzzle is finished!

This morning Eric got up early to pick up Foster and to go to Yerushalayim to take care of more stuff for the future house.  He then did the grocery shopping.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we played and then went to the park to get out of Foster’s way so he could clean.  Eric met us there and Talia went off to a friend’s house while Eric, Ben, Keren and I went out for falafel, which I had been craving.

Right now Eric is at a carnival with Ben here on the Yishuv.  I assume that Talia is still at her friend’s house… either that or they decided to go to the carnival as well.   Keren is napping now.  It took me 20 minutes to find her doll so that she would finally go to sleep.   I have 2 of them but she prefers one over the other and now I see she won’t accept the other one at all.  I’ll have to buy another one this summer so that I have a backup doll.  I don’t have a backup doll for Ben and it’s a problem!  I have to tell my friend Stephanie that from now on when she buys my babies dolls she should just buy 2 of the same one!!  Later on today there is a show for the kids being put on at the moadon noar.  I’m going to send Ben and Talia and hopefully get some cooking done if Keren lets me. 

Back to school tomorrow for a short Friday.  At least it’s something!  Eric leaves on Sunday for a lonnnng time but it’s his last trip for the year!