Dealing and Dining

As the shabbos night meal grew progressively later and our fine young bochrim grew progressively maniacal, it occurred to us that perhaps something needed to be done about this highly unpleasant situation. But how to tell the boys that they are hereby uninvited from the meal- something that they looked forward to all week long?

After much deliberation, a new rule was instituted in the Svei household:
We welcome you to our Friday night meal ON CONDITION that you take a nap on Friday afternoon.

I'll be totally honest- I had zero faith that the 2 big boys would actually settle themselves down for a nap which basically translated itself into uninviting them from the meal BUT at least I didn't have to be the bad guy...............

"Boys, its such a shame! We REALLY wanted you to be able to join us.................."

It's not even a half truth, were they to nap, we really would love to have them. But, exhausted boys who were supposed to be in bed hours before? No thank you!

There was, however, one boy DID get to join us this past Friday night:

Poor tired baby! Right in the middle of eating an apple!

And to have seen his face when his brothers went shluffy and HE came to the seuda!

Shavua Tov!

Indoor Pool

Hey, who says you have to have to live in a big house to have an indoor swimming pool????

The World of a 6 Year Old

I wasn't going to blog tonight but I had a conversation with Yitzchok Zevi at bedtime that begged to be recorded for posterity................



Yitzchok Zevi: Mommy, do you know how long ago dinosaurs weren't 'ekstink'?


(We, of course, are firm believers that the world is, in fact, 5768 years old. What we do not know is how to define a "day of creation". Because each day of creation could very well have spanned millions of years according to our definition of time, it is entirely possible that dinosaurs lived and died during those first 6 'days'. For a greater understanding of this approach, see Gerald Schroeder's book "Genesis and the Big Bang")





Me: I don't know exactly, Yitzchok Zevi.





YZ: do you know around how long?





Me: Nope.





YZ: Like before Alta Bubby was alive?





Me: Way before.





YZ: Are you sure? How long before?





Me: Like even before Avraham Avinu was alive.





YZ: Can't be.





Me: Yup.





YZ: Who told you that?





Me: I must have learned it in school.





YZ: And you are sure about that?





Me: Absolutely.





YZ: Wow. That was a really long time ago................





Me: Uha. Go to bed Yitzchok Zevi.





YZ: But-





Me: Bed!





YZ: But I have more questions!





Me: Tomorrow.





YZ: But-





Me: Tomorrow!





YZ: (In angst) What if I don't remember tomorrow!?





Me: G'nite!





YZ: (blessed silence)

Only in Israel

Sometimes I forget that I live in Israel. I've been living here so long, I don't even notice the hebrew as being foreign to me. The styles, the culture, none of those things really phase me much anymore. I guess you can say I've.....................acclimated. And it only took me 7 years!
Then there are the times that the notion hits me- Wow, I really live in Israel!
Take yesterday, for instance. We were playing in the park, minding our own business, when all of a sudden a donkey waltzes though the park laden with heavy objects, lead by his arab owner.
All of the boys were quite excited.

YZ: Its a Chamor! (donkey)
AL: A Chamor! (donkey)
YM: A Chamud!!!!!! (cutie)

Close, Yisroel Meir :)

Then Yitzchok Zevi mused:
"If you don't have money for a car, it's worth it to get a donkey. Donkey's don't need gas because they're alive. They can carry all of your heavy stuff for you- like your food from the grocery store. Mommy, do you think we can get a donkey?"

Spoken like a true Sabra!!!!!

Below is a slide show of pics of YM from his gan this year. The ganenet gave each kid a CD as a souvenir. I Just had to share it with y'all.............




Shalom everybody!

Pool Party!

Today was HOT. I had lots of laundry to fold and, quite frankly, I didn't want to go anywhere. I figured we'd have a nice quiet afternoon in the house.

"Mommy, what's our plan for today?" (That was YZ)

"What do you mean PLAN?"

Aryeh Leib- "He means what fun thing are we going to do to today?"

(What am I? A one man circus?)

"We're playing at home." (Trying to sound confidant and unwavering)

Both in unison- "nooooooooooo!!!!!!!"

Recognizing that I was waging a loosing battle, I decided to concede defeat and still maintain a vestige of my pride.............and then I had a brainstorm!

"Boys, how 'bout a pool!?"

"Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!" (The big 2)
"Yeeeaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" (The little one- who has no idea why he's 'yeah'ing but it sounds like the right thing to do............)

So, we spent the next 25 minutes blowing up the pool (add on a few minutes for hyperventilation..........), 15 minutes filling it (with buckets- I don't have a hose- am I not a dedicated mommy????), and a half hour splashing in 6 inches of water.........a glorified bathtub.
But, hey, we had fun! And I got to fold my laundry.............

Running, Pushing, Going, Doing, ............and Blogging

A bit busy now- inundated with.............life! We had a great time with Bubby and Zaidy and miss them alot. No time for musings- must go do sponja, laundry, clean my kitchen, start cooking for shabbos, etc etc. But here are a few videos of the boys and a couple of pics (since, thats really all you want to see anyway :) ).

And the above pics reminded me of this one that I took almost exactly a year ago. .......