Emma's Sixth Birthday!

Emma's Kung Fu Panda 2 birthday party was on Friday! We had 12 kids in here, including 2 new friends from Emma's class. The kids played a KFP2 game, and watched KFP2. We ate Chinese food, had cake, and opened presents! Emma was so excited about everything! On Saturday we skyped Nona and Zeyda (Matt's parents) and Uncle Avi, so she opened her gifts from them: a panda winter hat (so hot in NYC right now), Beauty and the Beast Squinkies, and a baby Jasmine doll. Yesterday, her actual birthday, she got $5 from Mom, Dad and Siri, so she was able to get the Hello Kitty watch that she's been saving for! Fun weekend!

Bible Pages and Chipboard

This is a Christmas gift that I just finished. I had some chipboard letters that I didn't know what to do with and an ugly wall hanging that I had gotten on sale a long time ago to use for a mosaic. I went with a Christmas theme and stuck chip board letters on my board to spell, " A Child Is Born." then I cut out the pages from an old Bible from the passage telling of the Messiah's birth (Luke 1-2) along with some passages from Matthew and Isaiah, (5 pages in total.) My husband dyed the pages in coffee for me and then I decopauged them over the chipboard letters. I mixed the pod podge with water and that was helpful to get the paper wet enough to manipulate around the letters. It was meticulous, but I did it in one day in between playing Candyland and baking birthday cakes. I haven't decided if I'm going to mod podge over the whole thing, and I might add some light application of brown paint around the letters to make them pop.

Autumn Dioramas

These pictures aren't super great, but this was the latest craft that we did together.  I cut up cereal boxes and secured the back of the diorama.  Then we just glued colored construction paper for the sky and grass.  The girls used many skills to make this, including ripping white for the clouds, drawing the trees, cutting little cuts to make the grass.  Then they glued ripped up pieces of red, orange, yellow, and brown for the background trees.  Next we made the 3D trees out of toilet paper rolls and brown pipe cleaner.  For the finishing touches the girls put fall leaves and pine cones on the 3D tree and on the ground.  Pretty cool fall project.

Siri's Birthday!

Last Friday Siri turned 4! We celebrated by inviting 10 neighborhood friends over for a Jake and the Neverland Pirates party! The kids decorated eye patches and watched Siri's 2 favorite episodes of the show. Then we fed them all chicken nuggets, fries, carrots and bananas before they set out on the treasure hunt, each with their own pouches to collect gold dablouns at each clue. The treasure was a Skully (the parrot on the show) piñata that I made. We smashed it in the living room, the kids added candy to their bags, and then we fed them cake! The 1 1/2 hour whirlwind ended with Siri opening presents and Matt ushering the kids out the door, which was easy since they all live next door!

Hair Cuts in September

Everyone got hair cuts before school started.  This is still a learning process with Ty, as the very first time I cut his hair I sliced a piece off his ear.  There is still a scar.

That little drill is his favorite thing.

August Visitors

It's way over due, but I wanted to put up some pictures of when Terry, Stacy, Elijah, and Miles came to visit in August.  Terry summited Mt. Rainier, and we had lots of fun with Stacy, Elijah, and cutie patootie Miles.  It is such a blessing that they made the trip out to see us.  The cousins get to know each other better, and I get a fantastic shopping buddy :)

Elijah as a tiger doctor.

Ty could not get enough of Miles!

Little Rascal

Update on the First Day of School

So, the first day of school was actually much less dramatic than I had expected.  Picking Emma up was relatively boring...except that Matt wasn't home in time so I had to bring along Ty (without shoes as we were in a hurry) and Siri, who was pretty bonkers because she hadn't napped.  The bell rang as the parents were waiting in the wrong area, and I went around the corner as Emma came out the door.  She was happy to see me, but we had to get Siri away from the tether ball before we could start for the car, and when I had a quiet moment to ask her about her day she wanted to know why she didn't get to take the bus.  Hmmm. (And in case anyone is wondering, we are opting out of putting our tiny 5 year old into the craziness of 30 unsupervised minutes and carpooling with 2 other neighboring families.)  Emma did comment on how long school was; 6 hours every day is pretty different from 2 1/2 hours of preschool every other day!

After school we had all the neighbor kids over for cookies and milk in honor of the first day!  It was really fun and I think they drank a whole gallon of milk!

First Day of Kindergarten

 This morning I dropped off Emma at her first day of kindergarten!  Wow, it was really weird.  School starts at 9:20 so we are able to keep our morning "getting up" time of 8:00, which is great.  We were all ready around 8:30 and we heard all the other kids outside playing, so we joined them to take pictures and such.  Emma and I left around 9:00 and it only takes a few minutes to drive there, but had to find parking.  We walked to the playground and as we entered her grip on my hand got much tighter.  We lined up with her class and walked into the building.  One adult noted, "This must be the kindergartners!" as all the parents were walking alongside their munchkins.  Emma has her own locker (I remember having a little hall with hooks and a cubby - up until 3rd grade), and its a huge locker, so we practiced pulling the handle up and slamming it shut!  Then she found her desk and was still a little nervous until she saw Ibrahim, our neighbor, arrive!  I think her heart was warmed then :)  So, Ms. Rae told all of the kids to wave to their parents and she ushered us out!  One kid was pretty weepy, so I left before that scene made me sad.  Then there was a small welcome meeting with the principle, I checked out where the office was, and walked to my car.  Pretty weird, yes, and the house is quiet and the playground is empty, but it will be a great year!

East Coast Vacation, Last Part

To conclude our vacation we had a surprise ending!  The return flight got off to a bumpy start...well, it actually didn't start at all.  We were supposed to connect in Atlanta from Pittsburg to Seattle, but there were thunderstorms over Atlanta.  We were late boarding the plane, and once on we sat at the gate for about an hour, waiting for the skies to clear up.  While we were waiting they determined that the fuel leak that had sprung on the previous trip was too big to fly with (nice to know that sometimes they do fly with fuel leaks :/)  So, we all got off the plane. By this time the kids are bonkers, as you can imagine.  I managed to get Ty to sleep in the stroller while Matt got us on another flight that would connect through Minneapolis.  We had to wait in the airport, so I also managed to get Siri to fall asleep in the stroller (we have a Phil and Ted's Sport double.)  After they woke up we killed more time by playing at the play area in the airport, where Ty fell and cut his lip which bled all over my shirt.  We were so thankful to get on our flight, but still feeling stressed because the kids to such short naps, and we were going to have a 1 1/2 hr layover in MN and be landing in Seattle at roughly 2 a.m. EST.  But, on the plane I had a great idea!  We prayed for favor, and when we got off the plane we asked customer service (well, Matt put on his exasperated face) if we could extend our layover one day.  We got on a flight for the next day at 5, and called my brother to tell him that they had unexpected guests!  It was AMAZING!  We have not been in Minnesota during the summer for 3 1/2 years...and it is definitely the best time to go!  We all got a good night sleep and Emma and Siri got to play in the back yard with their cousin, Elijah.  We got to oogle over Miles, who was only 6 weeks old, and we even made it to the Mall of America for lunch before we headed home.  That layover was the whipped cream, on top of the icing on the most delicious cake I've ever had!

East Coast Vacation Part 7

This just goes on and on, doesn't it! :) I love recounting this wonderful trip!  When the great, but exhausting week at Messiah College was done we rented a car, squeezed all our bags and gear and kids into it, and headed off down the road to Pittsburgh to hang with our besties!  The thought of being in their presence is heavenly to me.  We met everyone at the Elsers' church pool where the kids had a blast.  We stayed 2 nights at the McAdams' house and got to hang out with them and the O'Connells for 2 days.  It was amazing.  I can't believe we're so far from them all, but God has been so gracious to allow us to see each quite often, considering.

The whole crew: 8 adults and 12 kids!

They must like his long hair...at least someone does :)

This involved farting.

East Coast Vacation Part 6

I've been slacking in my blogging!
So, this is the next installment of our trip back east.  (It was just so great that we're still thinking about it!) We packed up Matt's parents' car and drove to Messiah College in PA for Messiah Conference 2011 where Matt volunteered for the last year (because he is too old!)  We stayed in a student housing apartment for the week and Emma was in the kids program for the first time.  Siri and Ty enjoyed time in the nursery, and we had fun in the pool.  We got to see TONS of friends there, and the icing on the cake was that our be sties from Maryland, Troy, Jen, and Lyla Wallace, came up to stay with us for the last night.

  

East Coast Vacation Part 5

The New York leg of our trip was rounded out with Matt's cousin, Lisa, her daughter, Claire, and Matt's Grandma (Granny) coming for the day on Friday and staying for Shabbat dinner.  We spent the evening outside in the warmth and Emma relished the last few moments in the hammock, which was her favorite spot all week.

Saturday morning we were off to shabbat service at Shuvah Yisrael where we saw tons of old friends, and I shed a few tears...almost as soon as we entered the building.  Then, we were off to Pennsylvania for Messiah Conference!

It was too short of a time in New York, much too short.  There are  lots and lots of things I would have loved to do, but until next time...

East Coast Vacation Part 4

On Thursday of our vacation out east we took Emma and Siri to Central Park on an "Enchanted" tour.  Matt was brilliant to bring along the movie on his iPad so that we could recount each scene from the movie as we came to the places in the park.  I was such an awesome day, though we had a couple of major meltdowns directly related to heat, lack of snacks (silly mom), and a skipped nap.  We planned on walking past the Central Park Zoo to see the clock because Emma loves the Penguins of Madagascar cartoon so we gave the girls a choice of picking out something to buy in the gift shop or taking a carriage ride.  They, of course, couldn't agree on a choice, so we caved, agreeing to buy small gifts from the shop (small, meaning inexpensive, was easier said than done), and taking a carriage ride.  Siri lost her privilege of buying something, but she was the one pulling for the carriage ride.  It was amazing, and I just felt at home again, being in the city.

All hot and exhausted we took the subway back to Queens where we had parked our car just down the block from our former apartment.  Nothing has changed.  I love it.  My old stompin' grounds.

Since we were a little late due to traffic and lengthly carriage rides we stopped several places on the way back to Westbury picking up things needed for the open house that we hosted at Matt's parents'.  We rounded out the day talking with friends from Shuvah Yisrael and Matt's cousin Tovah.

Great day.