The kids had a really long break over shavuot, it merged into shabbat and memorial weekend, and they only went back to scool yesterday! The weather has been really lovely and the kids have enjoyed all the sunshine & water play. These are 2 of my fave pics from the long weekend (sorry, no Elinoa photo, she was making a pretty grumpy face)
The photo of Yoav was taken in the front garden - as you can see, he was having the time of his life jumping backwards and forwards through the sprinkler.
This photo of Millie was taken at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ. A fabulous time was had by all and Millie is still talking about the "beanch".

So, its been a long time since I posted a proper update. I am out on the deck watching Millie frolicking on the grass with no clothes on, covered in marker pen & drinking paddling pool water...
The kids are doing great. Elinoa is becoming quite the karate pro; she has a yellow stripe on her belt already and hopes to be a full yellow belt by next month (seriously, dont mess with her!) She is doing brilliantly at school in both languages too.
Yoav's hand writing is so good now that I cant tell if its Elinoa or Yoav who has written something. He is a total whiz at spelling too and has started writing in script in ivrit.
Millie's speech just blows us away - she is desperate to keep up with her brother and sister and she sounds just like them "why not mummy?" "but I dont want to" "thats not fair" "dont make me feel sad" "i'm not your friend anymore" etc etc
I am keeping pretty busy at the moment with both my lifeguarding training and my photography business.
Here are some fab pics I took of Millie's playgroup last week, we all had such a good time.

More soon I promise!

Madeleine McCann missing in Portugal. Have you seen her?
Please contact: +351 289 884 500, + 351 282 405 400, +351 218 641 000

Madeleine McCann desapareceu em Portugal. Tem informações sobre o seu paradeiro?
Por favor contacte: 289 884 500, 282 405 400, 218 641 000, 112

The Gavriel Meir Trust London Cycle Ride

On Sunday 27th May 2007, there will be a sponsored 75km bike ride around the City of London, UK.
The ride is taking place in order to raise funds for the Gavriel Meir Trust, which was established by two of our very dearest friends, Kerry & Doron Rosenfeld when their son Gavriel (this beautiful 5 year old boy you see in the photo) was recently diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy; a degenerative and as yet, incurable muscle wasting disease.

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (or DMD as it is known), is the most common fatal genetic disorder to affect children around the world. Approximately 1 in every 3,500 boys born suffer from DMD. Children with DMD cannot produce dystrophin, a protein necessary for muscle strength and function. As a result, every skeletal muscle in the body deteriorates. Although Duchenne is the most common fatal genetic disorder to affect children, as yet there is no cure.

For the moment, Gavriel is an active, athletic child who adores life and doing everything that an active 5 year old enjoys doing. While the disease has yet to show its devastation, the stark facts about DMD are hard to believe:

* DMD has a 100% fatality rate.
* On average DMD boys die in their late teens or early twenties.
* Most boys with DMD are in a wheelchair between 10-12 years old.
* DMD is associated with respiratory failure, heart failure, and debilitating orthopedic complications.

The funds raised will go towards funding critical research projects aimed at identifying a cure (and effective treatments), for this life shattering condition. The various research projects being funded by the trust are not only for the less common strain (which Gavriel has), but also covers projects that will hopefully lead to a cure for all boys who have this condition.
Kerry & Doron very much need your help, and without a cure there is no hope, so please donate generously at http://www.justgiving.com/doronrosenfeld.

Thank you so so much.

Today we celebrated Purim & Millie's 2nd birthday all at the same time! It was a bit hectic but a great day. We were blessed with the company of the Shaws of Ramat Beit Shemesh and the Wachtels of Manhattan, previously of Ramat Beit Shemesh too. For desert, we made Millie an Elmo party with a bubble machine, pin the nose on Elmo and a Sesame Street Pinata. The kids all totally OD'd on the chocolate fondue, and most of them abandoned the idea of dipping marshmallows or strawberries into the hot chocloate sauce, and just used their fists!

So, Millie is now 2. She is getting taller and cleverer by the day. She has begun to speak sentences so long and sophisticated that I have finally stopped counting if its a 4 word or 5 word sentence. She totally gets the difference between 'me' and 'I' and uses them perfectly. She also knows how to use the word 'please' to get exactly what she wants! Today, after her party, I took her up for a bath. She was having a great time but after a while I said "ok Millie, time to come out". She looked and me and said "No, Mimi not coming out, I playing a bath, pleeease mummy". Who could refuse?
Here are Millie's very clean feet after her bath....

So, i have recieved a few complaints that I dont write enough about myself in this blog. What am I up to?
Apart from the usual cooking, cleaning, shopping and running around, I have signed up for a 5 week' introduction to photography' course in Manhattan. It was very exciting going in for my first session and I really enjoyed it. I hope to continue after the five weeks and take some more advanced courses in portraiture, lighting etc.
Watch this space.
Here is a nice black and white of one of my favorite models...














Yoav had his siddur party last week which was really lovely and he performed beautifully. The ceremony was just right (not too long, only one speech) and Yoav took his part very seriously. Mazal tov Yoav!!

I'm sorry, I've thought long and hard about this and have decided that I just have to share this with you. I never thought I would see a child more in love with their nostrils than Yoav, but Millie has taken nosepicking to a whole new level. She gets such immense pleasure from poking around in her nose and will very often stick two in at at the same time. In addition, she likes picking other people's noses and loves to have people pick hers. She also very much enjoys poking things in her ears too. At least I dont have to battle with her to wipe her nose or clean her ears! 

James' swearing in ceremony to the NY Bar - Albany, NY, January 24th 2007

Here is James promising to be a good, fair and upright lawyer at his swearing in ceremony.



















James with the kids after his ceremony

On January 1st, we took the kids to the New Jersey Children's Museum. What a great place. It was pretty empty because most people were still home nursing huge hangovers, which was great.
The kids had an amazing time there, there was so much for them to do.

Here are Elinoa & Yoav sitting in the Optician's chair trying to read the letters on the wall...


Elinoa and Yoav tried their hand at broadcasting and giving weather reports...
All the kids got dressed up for the fire engine..

This is Millie's favourite step, at the entrance to the playroom. She likes to sit there and sing "hello everybody" or serve people meals or draw all over her body and clothes with felt tip pens. In this picture, she was in the middle of making me supper. Her latest favourite words are "hey", "sure" and "ok".








In the picture underneath, Yoav and Millie are enjoying a bath with "naughty soap". It sprays out like shaving foam and the first time I showed it to Millie, it scared her silly. She shooed it away and called it "naughty toap"!














Elinoa came with me to one of my photography sessions and I had a great time photographing her. I may well be biased, but i do think she has such a beautiful face to photograph, its such a pleasure...



 

Wow! We are doing really well at the moment getting the kids to pose for photos, and we even got a photo of all 5 of us (after 18 attempts..) The kids really enjoyed their Thanksgiving break (for the majority of us who really have no idea what Thanksgiving is about, see this great site here which explains it all www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1083
Most importantly, Thanksgiving means finishing early Wednesday afternoon and not going back to school until Monday! The kids have had so many lazy days of sleeping in and late nights watching DVDs, they are going to find Monday tough!
New Millie words/phrases/songs: Stop it, dont touch, ice cream, change mimi nappy, fekfork (breakfast), Klunch (lunch), foken (broken), tickle, sticker, daddy go ferk (daddy went to work), aye yai yipee (she'll be coming round the mountain).
Yoav has started ice skating lessons and was doing so well after his first lesson, i think he is going to be really good at it. Elinoa wants to have drumming lessons...hmmmm...

I'm happy to hear that some one out there is reading our blog!

A few people have asked us to take a photo of the outside of the house. I was outdoors with Millie today in the back garden so I took a few pics of the house & the garden (I said to Millie "Mummy is just going inside to get her camera" and she said "Mimi?photo?")

As you can see from the photos, the weather is beautiful today - last night however it poured for hours and there were heavy storms which knocked down trees and destroyed houses in some parts of the country! So, kind of confusing when deciding what to wear in the morning..
At the bottom of the garden we have a little stream and a bridge, which the kids think is very cool. Its about the only thing they get excited about in the garden - we did buy a swing set but its still sitting in a box in the garage with missing pieces which still havent arrived. Good to know it doesnt just happen in Israel!


 

Millie attended her very first birthday party on Sunday! She talked about it non-stop after she received the invitation and was so excited that finally she was invited to a 'birday - partee'. Millie's friend Paige had a party at a local gymboree center with singing, dancing, bubbles, pizza and cake - when I asked Millie if she had a good time, she said "fun"...


 

James and I went to Washington DC from November 1st-2nd. We drove down to DC and spent the evening at a comedy club called the DC Improv, where we saw a hypnotic show. The next morning, James had a business meeting so i enjoyed the hotel gym and did a bit of shopping. In the afternoon, we took a tour on an amphibous vehicle called a Ducw (pronounced 'duck'), which was used during WWII. It was a bus which could also function as a boat, so in 1.5 hrs we managed to see most of the famous sights of DC by land and water! After the tour, we hooked up with a long lost relative (Lou) who is now living and working in Washington - that was majorly exciting! Here are a few pics that i took from the duck..