Lena's Bat Mitzvah

Samuel and Shira attended their first Bat Mitzvah yesterday, and their first Bat Mitzvah party last night.

Both the service and the party made a significant positive impression on Samuel. He informed us that he will be getting Bar Mitzvahed at "his" shul next weekend.

Favorite part of the party? For Samuel - the photo booth. For Shira - the fact that Bubbie had eyes (and arms) for no one but her.

Photo Booth, you ask? Yes, they now rent out those booths that you go in to make silly faces and the pictures come out in little squares. Except nowadays, it is completely digitized, so in addition to the copy that you get (almost) instantly, David and Suzette will get a copy of every picture that was taken on a cd.

We counted this morning, Samuel managed to convince various people to take a trip to the photo booth with him to the tune of 14 different trips times 4 pics a time. Hopefully I'll get the chance to scan and upload a few.

We didn't take many pictures, since Samuel and Shira were so frickin' adorable, and the photographer was the same one we used for our wedding, we knew there would be plenty of professional shots, but here are couple that we did take.

Samuel looks like he is about to fall asleep in his soup. Considering the party started when we are usually getting ready for bed, it's not surprising.

But he was so intent on the fact that there would be dessert, he pushed through dinner as quickly as possible. He shoveled his soup in, and the next words out of his mouth were, "Did I eat enough to have an ice cream cone?"

Shira got a lot of attention for looking unbelievably adorable in her fancy dress. I believe we have Kathy and Jessie to thank for it (was this the one Jessie wore to her cousin's Bat Mitzvah, too?)

Ah, that much awaited cone...

Preschool Project Sharing

You might remember the project that I mentioned Steve and Samuel were working on last month for preschool. You know, the one about monkeys.

Well, today was the day for presentations. I can't tell you a lot about what went on, because I wasn't allowed to go. It was Dads (or whoever was project point person) and preschooler only. But Steve and Samuel (there are a lot of pictures of the back of Mason's head) and Wendy (our class photographer extraordinaire - Hi Wendy) took lots of pictures.

I hear that Samuel did a great job. With prompting he told the class much of what he learned about monkeys, and answered questions from the audience as well. He was happy to report, when he came home, that he and Mason were the only ones who "did" animals (Mason learned about bats.) There were also two cooking projects, a lever and pulley demonstration, a drum circle, guitar demonstration, a bee report and a checking of vital signs.

This Morning's Bath

Samuel and Shira are both big fans of taking baths. If I honored every request for a bath, I would have the cleanest, pruniest kids around. We're talking a minimum of two requests a day, typically. This morning the kids took an hour plus bath. I had to get a couple of pictures in of one of the new tricks that Samuel has taught Shira - using crayons with your toes. They do this outside of the bath, as well.

First Parent-Teacher Conference...

...where I was the parent.

Weird, I almost feel like it was more about Steve and I than Samuel.

Even more weird - seriously, do we need to evaluate preschoolers?

Well, I guess it is a good thing if there are any developmental issues or concerns.

Anyway, it's official, Samuel is a charming kid, who is right on track and we will be doing the MWF morning class next year, because who needs all that structure?

Thank you Teacher Claire for making a house call for our conference. Man, I'm already that parent...

PS I am so sleep deprived I thought our conference was last Friday at 8:00pm. Turns out I had signed up for this Tuesday at 7:30pm. How did I manage that one? It's even more convoluted than that, but impossible to explain here.

Preschool Ice Skating and New Bookcase

Samuel and Steve went ice skating today with Samuel's preschool.

Mason and Samuel had a good time on the ice.

The zamboni was, as usual, one of the highlights of the day.

When they got home, I put everyone to work constructing our new (to us) book case.

Got the kids' books and toys in, now all we have to do is pull all of our boxes of books out of the garage.

It was a gorgeous day, so after the slave labor, the kids played on their play structures.

Ran around the trampoline.

With bowls on their heads (game created by Shira and wholeheartedly enjoyed by Samuel).

And sat in boxes.

Ahh, Eagle Park, How do I Love Thee

I've been making an effort recently to get in more park time. I realized the other day that Shira gets to play at the park maybe once a week. When Samuel was Shira's age, we were frequently at the park twice a DAY.

In my quest to allow Shira some childhood unfettered by all of her older brother's activities, I have been reminded how awesome hanging out at Eagle Park is. I have already made myself several new mom friends, reconnected with some nannies and mom acquaintances, enjoyed more time outside, gotten Samuel more playdates, and had my children pee on more bushes.

Yesterday morning, we relieved Katherine of her children so she could recover from a nasty cold that my children quite likely inflicted on her and visited Eagle. When we got there we had the park completely to ourselves. By the time we left, it was hoppin'. Probably didn't hurt that it was in the mid 70s. Anyway, it's been great to get outside more for some unstructured time, and the kids seems to love it too (especially when we bring friends).

Shira adores the swings. She points to them first thing whenever we arrive at the park and I always tell her we'll do it later. I save it for last. Seems to be working well so far.

(Picture courtesy of Samuel - looks very artsy, no?)

Super Hero to the Rescue

One day when Samuel was at Kristen's house, he asked her to make him a cape. She did, and he was thrilled. Thanks, Kristen!

I called him a Super Hero. After which we have had considerable discussions about what a Super Hero is, and what they do. We agreed that Big Brother is another name for Super Hero, as is Mommy and Daddy.

Anyway, he began to tell me that we needed to have more capes. Namely, because Steve and I needed capes as well as Shira. Which of course morphed into him needing another cape.

So we went to JoAnns and picked out some nice shiny Super Hero fabric, in, you guessed it, BLUE.

And I looked online to find some Super Hero cape patterns, of which, unsurprisingly, there are many.

Then I drafted Steve. Because really, making a pattern out of muslin (I used this one) looks like geometry to me, which I can do, but Steve's brain just works that way so much better than mine.

So here are my boys. Notice the level. So much more manly when making a sewing pattern if you use construction tools.

Samuel learns about pinning the pattern to our material. This is the blue that Samuel picked out.

And I thought it would be cool to have a double sided cape - blue on one side, red on the other. Shira's cape will be green and red.

Haven't come to a final decision on the emblem yet. Samuel wants just an "S".

PS Anyone have a sewing machine they don't use? I'd love to borrow it...