Yoav caught me pulling at my hair today, a horrible habit I have had for years and cant seem to shake, and he said "I hate it when you do that". I asked him why and he said "It makes your hair go all squibbly".
I told him he will make a fantastic husband one day because he notices EVERYTHING. He was terribly embarrassed at the thought of being a husband!...

It's truly unbelievable how much wild life we see passing through the back garden - in the past year we have seen wild rabbits, deer, groundhogs, all kinds of birds, skunks, squirrels, fireflies and bats!
The squirrels are totals pests - we are growing peas, corn & cucumbers from seed. We put them in window boxes up on the deck so that the birds and squirrels wouldnt get to them, but I wasnt really thinking straight about how birds can fly and squirrels can jump!! They just hop up to the deck and sit in the boxes. Anyway, we have miraculously managed to grow 2 pea pods and the corn is well on its way. The cucumbers have flowered which is a good sign, but i'm not sure whats going on under the soil...

I am having a great time at camp teaching swimming. I have learned a great new skill in the pool- under water vacuuming! I wish i could get a photo of it, its hysterical! Today was Olympic day which was a lot of fun. The campers marched round the camp in their country's group, holding their flags while the Olympic music blasted out from the gym. They had a very dramatic opening ceremony with the American national anthem and the Hatikvah and at the end of the day, everyone came home with a medal, so they were all 'happy campers'!

We took the kids to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania on Sunday. What an amazing place! Elinoa and Yoav were pleasantly suprised by the amount of rides for big kids and the absolute highlight for Millie must have been meeting 'The Count'. I loved the parade and got far too excited about meeting all the characters up close - maybe I am making up for all those years as a kid where people dressed up in big furry costumes frightened the life out of me!!!

The kids and I started camp Ma-Tov on Monday!
Elinoa & Yoav are having a great time so far. I am really enjoying being at the pool, the team are really nice & the kids are cute, fingers crossed.
Elinoa has a sleep over at camp tomorrow night which she is really looking forward to.
I will take some photos next week and post them here...

I was putting Millie to bed today and Elinoa decided to come in for story time (Bear and Mrs Duck)
At some point, she disappeared from the room and I thought nothing of it. I then went to read to Yoav and say the 'shema' with him. After 8 pages of his book and the full recital of the 'shema' and 'hamalach', I then went to see to Elinoa...except she wasn't in her room!
After looking in my bed, the playroom, the lounge, the basement and the garden, I started to worry. After checking all these places again, I was starting to get really worried. Trying to stay calm, I thought to myself "What would they do in 'Blue's Clues' or 'Little Einsteins' or even 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse'? They would go through all the options systematically and produce an answer by a process of elimination.
And thus Elinoa was found, sitting on the toilet in our en suite, where she had been stuck without toilet paper possibly for about half an hour. Her explanation? she knew I had put Millie to sleep and didn't want to shout for help in case she woke her up!

I got my logo this week, Elinoa was up until midnight helping me design it every step of the way! Thanks Els. Here's a picture of her, its about time she made it to the blog!

Bless him, he's got such an adorable toothless smile at the moment with his 2 top teeth missing. I have to be very careful not to let him see me taking his photo or he gives me the most ridiculous faces.
He came home with the most fantastic piece of writing that he'd done in school. It goes something like this:

"Once at the begining of the year not everyone was so nice to me. When I wanted to play with them. I tryd to make friends. At Ocotber it was a bit better. But at the begining of the year I only had 3 friends. But at April it was just writ. and its even better. When I playd with them they wer making funny jokes with me. All of the partys that they had. When I got home I sent them funny letters on my sisters email. And she never knew. the end."

There were 2 things in this piece that I particularly loved - firstly, he was so aware of the months, and where he was in terms of happiness and friends level at which month ("But at April it was just writ" - isnt that gorgeous?!!). Secondly, his honesty at the end, this fabulous confession that he has been using Elinoa's email account to send daft letters to his friends.

How could anyone not want to be his friend? he's the best fun!...

Please read this important letter from the ADL and sign the petition by clicking on the link below.

"The recent escalation in the efforts to boycott Israel by British organizations like the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the University and College Teachers Union (UCU) is a serious threat to Israel, Jews and open societies. We must do everything we can to stop this dangerous boycott and prevent it from spreading elsewhere.

ADL is fighting back and we need your help.

Sign your name to ADL's letter to the British NUJ and UCU.

This week, we began a series of ad campaigns around the world. Take the next step in support of Israel. Make a donation to sustain this critical campaign. "

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!