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.