knitting news

I just found out this great news and couldn't wait to tell all my Israeli knitting friends....there is a new(ish) internet based yarn shop in Israel called Livya Yarn...and right now they are shipping orders free of charge!

This just might mean that we won't have to search for great yarn (and all the other accesories which we need) anymore.

Here's the link to their site. 

Happy shopping and knitting....let me know how if you buy anything from them, I'm interested to hear about it.

I'm off to check out their site....

tired...but happy

the sukkot holidays are almost over and until today we haven't done much with the kids. however, i can truly say that we've now made up for that.


we started the morning off with a long overdue visit with ronit and her boys, which even included a bit of zumba...and then went off home to make some salads and get ready for a barbeque with friends.

we spent the afternoon with friends in the ashkelon national park, barbequing, eating and playing. and if the amount of dirt your kids bring home with them equals the amount of fun they had you can be sure that mine had a brilliant afternoon! and so did i [even though my friends are thirty-somethings that have been known to gripe about their kids every now and again ;-) ].

after the park we went home and scrubbed the kids and then went out again. this time to visit friends in their sukkah. we went to our friends, the glams, who had a huge family dinner in their parent's sukkah (when you have 10 kids and almost all of them have few kids of their own, well, you can just imagine how big their intimate family gatherings are), i always love visiting them on these occasions, it's always joyful and noisy, and i feel a little sad that we don't have such a big family, but grateful to be invited into theirs.

their mom, who is used to cooking for the troops, made a wonderful meal, as usual. we had just spent the entire afternoon eating, so we couldn't eat much, but we were given a 'doggy bag' to take home with us, so we'll enjoy that tomorrow.

after dinner inbal got everyone dancing, and then she started the karaoke....we had a lovely evening with all of them, the girls had fun playing with their friends and singing and ben fell asleep not long after we got there....the little guy had been up since around five this morning, so this wasn't surprising.

i'm rather tired myself, so i think i'll be off to bed.

here's hoping that ben is so tired from his long day that he'll sleep until seven tomorrow!!!

apology

i've been putting this off for a while now. you see, like most people, i'm not always really sure how to apologize. you probably know what i mean. actually, at the beginning of the school year, just before the jewish holidays, i was helping the girls with their homework and for jewish studies they had to answer questions on the subject of forgiving – one of the questions was whether, if you've waited for a long time after something (bad) has happened between you and a friend, should you still ask for forgiveness, or should you just ignore whatever happened and carry on as though everything is good, because it's been so long that it doesn't matter anymore (or something like that).

this long introduction is just my way of getting myself psyched to apologize...so here goes....

dear blog, you know how much i love you, right? we've been together for a few years now and even though sometimes i don't pay enough attention to you for a while, i always come back. i know that i promised that this time it would be different, that i wouldn't do that anymore, but i have been very, very busy for the past few months – and i just haven't had the time to sit down and give you the attention that you need. i apologize for that!!!

and before you ask...i know that you know about my relationship with fb...but, let me explain...it's a completely different kind of relationship. he doesn't expect much of my time and attention, i can just pop over for a quick visit, tell him what's been going on with me, in a nutshell, and maybe about the stuff that interests me, and then i'm off again. so, please, don't get hurt, it's just not the quality time that we enjoy together.

i know i've said it before, but i promise to try to devote more time to you. i really enjoy what we have together. i do.

bring on the good times

the summer holidays have started and i have plans for lots of fun activities with the girls – of course they include lots and lots of crafting. luckily (i do need to pay the bills), i received a lot of translation work on their last day of school, so so far i haven’t spent much time with them. yesterday that we busy with friends and today one of my friends took them to see toy story 3...so i haven't heard any complaints of boredom yet. hoping to start with the fun stuff on sunday or monday.

i gave the girls (and ben, he wouldn't be left out) journals so they could write/draw about their holidays. they are going to write (or draw, or stick pictures or mementos in it each evening)....one extra activity a day. yesterday they decorated the covers. will post pictures once they have some fun stuff in them.

i just wanted to proudly announce that both girls did very well at school, and both of them received certificates of excellence (shiraz got two – one for being the best reader in her class).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

school's out

i knew that it had been a while since i last blogged, but didn't realize that it had been so long. there's lots of catching up to be done, maybe a little too much, so i think i'll just write about 5 things that i've been up to since the last time i wrote....

LEAP – after three years the leap project came to an end. it was a wonderful project, thanks to niki, who started it up and made it such an amazing project, but unfortunately people just weren't buying anymore. last week we said goodbye to the LEAP ladies with a small farewell party, as expected it was sad, but i hope we'll have occasion to work with at least some of the ladies again in the future.

numerology – i can't remember if i mentioned it before in my blog, but i started studying numerology, under jacov feigerson, who, as well as being a numerologist, is the chairman of the israeli reiki unity, and a very special man. jacov was kind enough to come to ashkelon once a week to teach a group of us. 

sweet stuff – last week was one of my best friend's daughter's bat mitzvah and i was honoured to help out a little. first with the invitations and then with the candy buffet, which i'm pleased to say was a mammoth success! the kids loved it (and so did the adults)... here are a few pictures, just to show you how sweet it was...

there are more pictures of the candy buffet on my facebook page.

ben is three – friday was ben's birthday. i can't believe that my baby is already three! as usual in our family the birthday celebrations were stretched out over a number of days, we started friday morning and continued up until yesterday, he got some nice birthday presents and three birthday cakes! i just love birthdays, don't you?

parties, parties and more parties...monday we went to no less than 4 parties (don't worry, we still only have three kids). ben's nursery school birthday party was monday morning, then meshi had the end of the year party for her drama class and after that both girls had their end of year class parties....we had to split up for that and i got to go to meshi's – i'll have to watch shiraz reading on video (she had two reading parts and i heard that she did very well). meshi's first grade class did a little show which was really good, they sang, danced and read – well done meshi! shiraz's class had a shabbat dinner party after their ceremony, and as always there was tons of food!

i seem to have been so busy this past month, it's so hard to believe that it's already the last day of june and from tomorrow i'll have my girls home with me for two whole months....been looking forward to this for ages! we'll keep you posted with what we've been up to.

enjoy your summer holidays!

39 and loving it

for the past few months i've been trying to get my head around the fact that this birthday will be the last that i celebrate in my 30s and that next year will be the big 4 0! i know, or at least, i've heard, that 40 is a wonderful age....new beginnings, etc. etc. and i do believe this, it is just really the thought of reaching that number, of not being in my 30s. it wasn't too long ago really when 40 was considered old age, and then it became middle age, and now, well, really i'm not too sure, but after i saw the pictures of those brazilian grandmothers, i have to say that maybe being 40 isn't old at all. it is really not being thirty-something that will take some getting used to, but i have (almost) a whole year to get used to it. 40 seems so grown up!

having said all that, i don't feel any different now, after my birthday, to how i felt the day before or the day before that, so maybe a number is just a number (says the aspiring numerologist). i have just entered year 2 of my current cycle, so i have the right to be sensitive (lots of pampering required!).

age issues aside, i had a wonderful birthday. starting on thursday night, we had a fun evening at sherri's, which ran till really late, so i started my birthday there – there were cookies and candles and singing. after a short sleep i was woken up on friday morning by three little munchkins with balloons and coffee in bed (no, the munchkins didn't bring it in) and after we took the kids to school we had the whole day to ourselves, to do the things that i wanted to do. we went to 'habaron' to buy dinner and then went to the yaffo flea market. we hadn't been there for years (the last time we went we had the girls with us) it is so much easier without kids (sorry girls, love you, but i know that just isn't your scene). the market seemed much tidier and cleaner than before, much larger too. we had a look at some great furniture, for my office, when we move, and i bought some clothes...birthday pressies from you (claire and si and the girls) so, thanks!

we had brunch at the famous dr. shakshuka's. it's been so long since i ate there, the last time was when i was really young, i can't believe that i couldn't even finish a pan of shakshuka in those days! and then went on to tel aviv, to the craft market at nachalat benyamin. i hadn't been there in ages either, it was fun to look at all the crafts and fantasize about (making and) selling my own stuff there one day....then it was back home to rest before a 'habaron' dinner with my parents....oh, and if you were wondering, mom and dad fetched ben and the girl's went to the sharon's (lior's) while we were in tel aviv. so thanks to mom, dad and rinat, for allowing me to have such a fun day.

birthday celebrations continued to the next day....lunch with the parents (we bought lots of food from habaron) and inbal's surprise birthday party in the evening. it was a karaoke party....which was lots of fun with half the guests being actors (most of the mama cast was there). great party, great fun, and of course, as usual, great food. oh, and believe it or not i even sang! maybe being 39 isn't that bad after all.

     habaron - friday morning

yaffa flea market

nahalat benyamin arts and crafts market

shavout

i can't believe that shavout, the last of the year's holidays, has already been and gone. I love this holiday and find myself looking forward to it even before we start the countdown... it went by really quickly even though i had the girls home from school for three days. we enjoyed a quiet, relaxing family chag, just us, my parents and brett. {talking about brett - he's leaving us and going home in a month. it will be quiet without him around our shabbat table, he'll just have to come back and visit soon! i don't quite know when and how to break the news to the kids. i don't think that they have even considered that he might be leaving, but they do have enough experience with family members leaving and coming back to visit, with almost all of my family living in different countries overseas}. Oops, i seem to be digressing....right, I was telling you about shavout. shiraz's class danced in the special shavout ceremony at school, i didn't get to go (no parents were invited) but i got to see the whole song and dance in my own kitchen, which was good enough for me. ben's gan had a party with milka – their party lady. and i cooked, and cooked and cooked....cakes, mini pizzas, lasagna (thanks brett for the help with that – and of course to effie for doing the shopping), breads, etc. etc. and mom made even more food, quiches, more cakes, cheese, salads....so as you can imagine, we are still eating leftovers. that's about it, we ate, slept, ate some more, didn't do much besides take the kids to the park, but that's what the holidays are for, right? And As usual, I forgot to take pictures - but here are some pictures of the kids going off to school erev shavout.

vicky's birthday brunch

the english speakers' craft group gets together once a month to knit, or work on anything else they might be doing at the time, and although i haven't been at many of their meetings i try to make it as often as i can (i.e. when i don't have any urgent translation deadlines to meet). this week the crafty ladies decided to throw vicky a surprise birthday brunch on craft morning. and although not much crafting actually got done at the meeting everyone worked hard creating a large assortment of scrumptious brunch food to bring to the party. there were borakus, quiches, blinches, salads, cheeses, bread, different types of fish, cake and cookies...and of course any aspirations i might have had of sticking to my diet were left outside in the dust.

here are the recipes for the things that i made, which i promised to some of the ladies...

focaccia

this recipe is so easy and fun to make.

51/2 cups bread flour (i used regular white flour)
1 package powdered yeast
11/2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
4 tbs olive oil

coarse salt, fresh rosemary, dried oregano (or basically any other type of topping you feel like using).

1. pre heat over to about 180oc

2. place four, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl (if you want you can also add some fresh/dry herbs in here).

3. stir the water and 3 tbs of the olive oil in with a wooden spoon (i usually just put it all together in the mixer and let the mixer do the hard work) and beat for 5 minutes.

4. cover bowl with a clean towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes (it should double in size).

5. place dough on a floured surface and gently knead for one minute.

6. divide the dough in half and place each half on a baking sheet. press each half out.

7. cover with clean towels and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.

8. make indentations all over the surface of the focaccia with your fingertips, brush each one with the remaining olive oil.

9. sprinkle with coarse salt (and herbs).

10. put in the oven for 15-20 minutes (until golden brown)

11. take out and enjoy.

tehina cookies

2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup tehina paste
200g butter – soft (or margarine if you are making them parve)
2 tsp vanilla essence
almonds for decoration

1. warm oven to 180 degrees c.

2. mix all ingredients together

3. place 5 cm apart on baking tray.

4. bake 15 - 20 mins. don't let them get brown.

cabbage salad

1 carrot
1 onion
1/2 cabbage
1/2 vinegar
1/2 oil
1/2 sugar
salt
2 tsp dijon mustard

chop the carrot, onion and cabbage finely, place in bowl and mix together.

mix the vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and mustard together on a low heat until it is mixed well.

pour over the veggies and mix together.

the delish birthday cake which my mom made for vicky

thank you all (especially you, mom) for the wonderful morning. looking forward to the next one.

friday afternoons – a family tradition

on fridays the kids finish school and nursery early and we usually go to pick them up together and then go on to buy our favourite friday lunch – it's much easier than cooking lunch at home on a friday, because i don't have enough time that morning to do much work, both housework and work for customers, also i need to cook for shabbat, so this is a fun break for me which makes my life a lot easier.

every week our lunch of choice is hummus fool. we always buy it at the same place, the only thing that differs from week to week is the scenery, during the winter we take our hummus fool home and eat it there, unless it is warm out and then we might take it to a park and sit on the grass and eat. during the spring and summer we usually go to the beach to eat. needless to say i prefer to eat out (no clean-up afterwards), and everyone knows that food eaten picnic style is always much tastier!

if you are not from around here and may be wondering what hummus fool is - it is a dish of hummus topped with cooked fava beans, a hardboiled egg, falafel balls, on top of which they drizzle olive oil and paprika, it is served with pita bread, pickled cucumbers and at the hummus place where we buy ours they make a delectable, extraordinarily hot, spicy eggplant salad which i love to mix in with the hummus.

warning - hummus fool tends to be addictive – a few people i know have become hooked after eating friday afternoon lunch with us. if you want to try some and you're in ashkelon i recommend our guy – his shop is located under the municipality building. if you're somewhere else in israel and you can't make it here to eat with us on a friday, you will probably be able to find hummus fool in most respectable hummus joints all over the country.

 

betayavon!

today's conversation at our house....

M: (Looking at a picture of a groom holding his bride) Who's holding the bride?

Me: The groom.

M: Will my groom also hold me like that?

S: Only if you faint.

62 years young!

Happy Birthday to the State of Israel!

Here's to many, many more....and here's how we celebrated her birthday.

Ashkelon

Air Force Museum (I highly recommend visiting – with or without kids).

We all had a wonderful celebration, although another day off would have been greatly appreciated by all of us.

Sweet and Healthy

Ben made these yummo tehina snacks (almost) all by himself, so I thought that that required a mention.

He helped measure all the ingredients and pour them into the pot and stirred them around (until I took it away to put on the range). And of course he helped with tidy up too; where did all those snacks go?

These yummy tehina squares are based on the very talented and creative Hagar's recipe. The kids love it, it's healthy, and I love it too, although it is very sweet!

If you'd also like to try to make them they are very easy, you will need:

1/2 cup tehini paste
1/2 honey or date honey (I used date honey)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons margarine (I used sunflower oil)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
3 cups rice Krispies

To make them even tastier add any kind of nuts, raisins, etc. you have at home.

Then all you do is put all the ingredients into a pot, place over heat and stir until it looks ready, place in a pan to set and enjoy!

Oh, and the best part was that just after we made them Ben's friend Guy came over with his mom so he had someone to share his sweet creations with.

Magic

Do you have someone who has made a real difference in your life? I am not talking about a family member, your parents, siblings or spouse, who usually have the biggest influence over you and your life. I'm talking here about an 'outsider', someone who is not in your family, maybe a teacher, a friend, a guru...

I have a few and one of them is Micha, Dr. Micha Zinnman.

Micha is a NAET practitioner (and an MD) who I had the good fortune to encounter a few years ago.

You may be wondering what NAET is so here is a quick explanation....

Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques, also known as NAET®, are a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to eliminate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine. (You can read more about NAET here).

I had been suffering from terrible migraine headaches for as long as I could remember. And, as anyone who is unfortunate enough to suffer from migraines knows, it was a huge pain (pun intended), being shot in the head during a migraine seemed like it would be better than what I was actually going through, and if I were to compare a migraine to natural childbirth I would take childbirth any day – it's more pleasant than having a migraine!

Besides the physical pain the migraines wreaked havoc on my life, both at work and at home (especially after I became a mom). Everyone at work of course knew about the migraines and one day someone at work told me about Micha. Maybe I should mention that this person is a scientist, works in genetic research, I'm just telling you this so you realize that although the whole things seemed rather flakey she is a serious person. Anyway, she told me the story of what Micha did for her and her kids, and how he literally saved her life (picked up on something that all the other docs missed) and after hearing her stories I really wanted to have him treat me, there was just one little drawback - and that was the high price of the first visit and then there would be subsequent visits which would also cost a lot. She called him the 'magician' but also let me know that he cannot always fix everything. So I took a couple of days to weigh my decision – take a chance on something that wasn't sure and either lose a lot of money and not be cured or pay a lot and be cured... I decide to take my chances, who knows, I could be migraine free forever.

Micha works from his private clinic in Ranaana which is about an hour's drive from where we live. I made an appointment for a Friday morning, had my parents fetch the girls from kindergarten and take care of them until we got home and Effie and I went off to Ranaana to meet 'the magician'.

The first meeting went well. Micha seemed really nice. He told us a little (with little being the operative word) about what he did, he said that he couldn't really explain why what he did worked but it did and he warned me that he couldn't help everyone with every problem. That was fine by me. Then he asked me a few questions about myself in regard to the migraines. He asked when they started and then when I had started my periods and decided to check first if I was allergic to estrogen.

To do this test I lay on his examination bed and he placed a small vial of the allergens that we were testing for in my right hand. I had to hold up my left arm and he tried to push it down with me resisting.  He tested me in this way with a few different vials, if I could keep my arm up I was not allergic to the allergen in the vial and if he managed to push my arm down I was. Simple. He tested for a few different allergens and then I was sent to wait in the waiting room for about 20 minutes. I had to hold the vial in my hand, to take off all jewelry and my watch and not to cross my arms or legs. After that I returned to back to the examination room and he did some sort of massage (kinesiological) thing and completed the treatment for that time (to tell the truth I don't remember this part of the treatment very clearly so I can't tell you exactly what he did). Then we would sum up and I would go home and return the next week for follow up and more treatment, if needed. I continued going to him for a few months until we were done, and he treated me for different substances each week. If someone was treated for allergies to some sort of vitamin, for example, they were not to eat anything that contained that vitamin for the next 25 hours – sometimes that was difficult, I would only be able to eat white rice and drink water – but it was truly well worth it! I have to apologize for this being so vague, but it was quite a few years ago now and I frankly don't remember all the details very clearly.

Effie was with me all the time during the first visit, and was totally skeptical about the whole thing. He said that of course Micha could push my arm down if he wanted to, he was much bigger than I was, but there was no way that he would be able to push his arm down if he was to be treated, because he was bigger than Micha. I thanked him for coming with me and paid no notice to his skeptical chatter.

I didn't mention before that besides the migraines I had a perpetual, persistent headache – always bugging me, but I had become used to living with it, and I was dizzy a lot and saw 'stars' almost all the time, I was so used to living like that that I didn't even mention it. Well, the next morning when I woke up I sat up and there were no stars! That hadn't happened for the longest time. Also no headache! I felt so good it was unbelievable and Effie seemed a little less skeptical.

During the week before my next appointment Effie started hinting that maybe he should also talk to Micha about his health (allergies and asthma – which he'd suffered from since he was a kid). So that week Micha started treating him too. It was unbelievable, his health improved so much! A while after that we were in South Africa and we given feather pillows to sleep on, we didn't notice until it was too late. Before Micha he would have had had a huge asthma attack, but he was fine, didn't even need the inhaler, nothing at all!

Since we finished our treatments I have only occasionally suffered from migraine headaches and each time it was because of my own foolishness. If I miss a meal I might suffer from a migraine, so I try to remember to eat on time, and also if I am really stressed about something, but that doesn't happen very much anymore either! Effie hasn't had a big asthma attack, maybe a couple of small ones where he has even been able to get away with not even using the inhaler.

After our last treatment Micha showed us albums full of letters of thanks that he got from all his patients over the years, all with different stories and all with happy endings. I was planning to write a letter of thanks too, but of course I haven't got around to it yet.

Oh, and I just have to tell you one of those stories. My favourite. A young couple came to him, they had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get pregnant for some time, they had tried all sorts of treatments and then they came to him. It turned out that the wife was allergic to the husband's sperm. That's all. Micha treated them and now they are proud parents!

Yes, Micha is definitely someone who had a huge impact on my life. And although I don't see him anymore I am eternally grateful to him!

Happy Passover

Happy Pesach to everyone.

Here is the Pesach Message which I 'posted' to my family on the kitchen note board....

Purim and birthdays

Claire and Si's annual visit went by in a whirl. This time her sister-in-law and her hubby joined them here for a few days. It was lovely to see them after so long! It seems that we are always anticipating their visits and then suddenly they are here. And gone. And then it was birthday time. February is Shiraz's birthday and Effie's birthday, they are two days apart, so it's always a fun, busy week. This year Purim fell on the week of their birthdays so it was especially busy. Purim in Israel, at least in schools and kindergartens, is an extravagant, week long, party-like carnival. The week before the week before Purim the kids get a letter of instructions for the next week and together with the 'do not dress up as terrorists, do not bring weapons to school...etc. etc.' they receive daily missions...

Sunday is weird hat day, Monday is fairy tale day, Tuesday is ghost and monster day...you get it -right? Which puts me in a mad frenzy trying to prepare different props for each day as well as the special mishloach manot (food parcels) which they give out to their friends, and their fancy dress for the actual day. Oh, and did I mention that they are allowed to wear make-up all that week (not regular make up – they have their faces painted daily, which makes getting to school in the morning just a little more tricky than usual). Of course I forgot to take photos every day, but here are some of them.

This year Meshi's costume was really convenient, she just wanted to be a princess, so she wore a dress from last year. Ben was a cute puppy dog, he wore the same costume that the girls wore at his age and Shiraz wanted to dress up as Princess Leia, a decision she made the first time she saw Star Wars – that was easy enough, she wore a white shirt that she already had, my mom quickly sewed her a white skirt and I made her a belt with aluminum foil, adorned with some old computer parts. I put her long hair up in the Princess Leia hair-do and we were off to school. Of course we had to do it all again the next evening when we went to shul for the megila reading, but by then we were old-hat at it and it didn't take long at all.

Back to birthday week...Shirazi's birthday comes first and Effie's. She was woken up in the usual family birthday tradition...balloons, confetti gun, pressies...and that evening we had her birthday dinner. She chose sushi. Her birthday cake was meant to be a Mickey Mouse cake, but it stuck to the pan, so I quickly made another cake and while she was out at a friend's birthday party Ben and I decorated it. The kid may just be heading toward a sugar-art career like his aunt. For Effie's birthday I only made one cake (of the two traditional birthday cakes that he usually gets), a sign that we are getting old. It was the white chocolate cheese cake with dark chocolate topping – I forgot to take a picture of it. We went to a friend's birthday party that evening we celebrated his birthday the following Sunday with a family lunch (and yes, he had lots of meat).

Then after our relaxing lunch we hurried home to prepare the place for the invasion of eight little girls. Shirazi's first sleep-over party. All in all it was fun although of course there were the usual little girl problems which we had to solve. Not much sleep was had by anyone, but a good time was had by all. I have to admit that I felt like I didn't do much work at all for this party (and I loved that). I decorated the place, made a cake and bought some snacks and pizza, and that's it. We did nails, played games, ate pizza (and other junk food) and watched movies and the next morning Effie made them toast and and I just made hot dogs for the girls who stayed for lunch. I guess that's a sign of a successful party...when your guests stay until after lunch the next day.

the icing on the cake

planning a wedding? i just came across these pictures and loved the ideas, so i had to share them with you.  they come from the gather and nest blog, here.

i'm back in the saddle

I'm a very bad blogger, anyone will tell you that. I've been awol again, but that is only because I've been having a really bad few weeks and I didn't really want to write about any of it. Some of it was too sad for me to write about, and as for the other stuff....well, do you really want to hear about my poor sore, swollen, purple foot? I didn't think so.

Anyway, it's good to be back!

Channukah

Yes, I know that most people are already blogging about spring cleaning and what they are going to do during their summer vacation, but me, I still haven't written about what we did last Channukah (which, by the way, wasn't that long ago), so before I forget all about it, I'd better quickly jot it all down.


Channukah began on a Friday this year, and I don't know if that's the reason, but it seemed to go by really quickly. It was also Meshi's birthday, so between all the birthday cake and donuts I'm going to need many, many hours to work it all off. The girls had the week off from school, and I had lots of work to do, so I had to 'fit' them in between work, or send them off to friends or to the grandparents (hooray for grandparents!). Ben only had the last couple of days off, and he spent his time with Granny and Grandpa too. He even slept over for the first time!

It wasn't all work though, we did take a day off to do something fun with the children. We went up to Jerusalem to the Science Museum – we hadn't been there in a while and some of the exhibitions had changed. As usual, a great time was had by all...we played, saw all their awesome exhibitions, learned about fingerprints, the science of fun fairs, and the girls even learned about DNA!

After the museum we went to Mahaneh Yehuda Market where we did some shopping, had a great time and ate at a very authentic little restaurant in the market.

Did you know that you can buy halva in dozens of different flavours? Seriously. We stopped at the halva stall and after tasting what seemed like most of flavours we took home some lemon-nana (mint) tea and King (with 8 different spices)flavoured halva. Being Channukah there were also all sorts of different shaped and coloured sofganiot in the shuk, so we had to try some of those too.

As we were making our way out of the market it was candle lighting time, so we joined in with the Chabad's huge channukiah lighting in the middle of the pedestrian mall.

Needless to say, we all got home tired, full and content.

Besides our day out we spent time with family and friends and, of course, there was lots more food involved. I think the pictures say it all.

Ben's Channukah Party

Channukah with Family



The Science Museum

The Market

Did I mention the halva....

and the sofganiot?

Baby Meshi Turns Six!

I didn't quite give Meshi's birthday due attention so here I am, ready to tell you all about it.

Her birthday fell on a Friday this year, and it was also the first night of Channukah, so she had to share, but nevertheless in true Meshi style she made the most of her special day.

Shiraz enjoyed it too. She woke up in the middle of the night and made lots of sweet birthday notes for her sister, which she hid all over her room, in her bed and even in her pajamas!

As customary in our home, the birthday girl was woken up with balloons and singing..."happy birthday to Meshi..." which seemed to go on forever (every time we stopped she ordered us to start again...that's the Meshi we all know and love) and there was even a special, quick, before school birthday breakfast.

Her class had a Channukah party that day, so she didn't take any cake to school that day, we left that till after the Channukah break, but after school we took her out to eat at her favourite place...Aroma! And later we went to Granny and Grandpa to light the Channukah candles, eat dinner and have a small family 'birthday party' (ie. lots of cake and sweets). Did I mention that she got LOTS of birthday presents?

And of course, she took cupcakes to school the week after Channukah. Made by Granny and decorated by mommy, Meshi and Brett.

I know that it wasn't Shiraz's birthday, but I just have to (proudly) add, that she was awarded the prestigious 'star of the class' award – and we also had to take cakes to her class that day – she chose to take brownies with Shabbat Shalom written on them.