Muddy mess

They've pulled up all the bridges along the paths where Roxy and I walk. What a mess. Not sure if it's the township or the state - some of the land is owned by each and I don't know exactly where the dividing lines are. Maybe they're going to rebuild them (though they're taking their sweet time about it - it's been several days already) or maybe they're going to let it go back to nature. Either way, Roxy and I are both getting very muddy on our daily walks.

Caleb's arm emerges!

He was really excited to get his cast off.



He has a distinct tan line!

Fun with friends

Had dinner with friends and the kids had a blast jumping on their trampoline. (It may be time to get one of these!)

First beach day

We've been having very summer-like weather so we trekked up the Oneida Shores for the afternoon.

Alana buried her feet in the sand.

The kids were very proud to have dragged two fish carcasses out of the water.

Park

Alana and her friend Chloe on the tire swing at Wegman's playground in Onondaga Lake Park.

Third grade shabbat

Caleb's class helped the cantor with the shirat shabbat service.

Daddy Daughter Night Out

Alana was very excited that Caleb had cub scouts tonight, because that meant that Daddy was taking her to Starbucks!

True love

TWO party day

Two BD parties in one day is a bit much for me, but Alana had a blast and Caleb was terrific. The first was at the YMCA (photo above) and the second was at Build a Bear in the mall (photo below). Both very nice (though the earlier one had about 25 kids and was a mad house!), but the weather was terrific and I would have much rather been outside.

Saturday

Took Roxy for a nice walk in the park.

Then took the kids to BK for lunch - Caleb's friend Jake came along.

All the kids wanted to make houses for their new SpongeBob toys.

True love

Park on Friday

Gorgeous day so we stopped by Onondaga Lake Park on our way to a friend's BD party.


Caleb is playing with a fake megaphone.




Alana took this shot of me.

"Raising dough"

Terrible photo of Alana playing Littlest Petshop on her friend's DS (families can't go anywhere anymore without letting their kids play on electronic toys). Anyway, it was a terrific event at Uno's Grill sponsored by our Sisterhood to benefit the temple religious school.

Spring break "camp"

Caleb was mad on Tuesday when I picked him up - says he hates the YMCA (the kids don't know how to play tag!) So I said he could take a break today and come to work with me. He was totally awesome. We had lunch in the cafeteria and otherwise he watched movies on the laptop and entertained himself. I meant to take a photo of him in my office, but I totally forgot. :(

P.S. Alana's half BD today.

Israeli Scouts

One of these young people from Israel will be staying with us for a week in August as part of the Friendship Caravan program. (Our group is called Caravan Rimon; rimon means pomegranate.) There are 4 caravans visiting the U.S. this summer - this one will be traveling around the northeast U.S. and Canada.

After spring break camp

Caleb just looks so healthy! He was enthusiastically explaining that he got the high score on a computer game (Chicken Invaders) today at the YMCA. He got to level 32 and his score was 40,365!

McDonald's playland

Ended up spending several hours at the local McDonald's - ran into some school friends and were just having a good time. (I read most of Larry's Rolling Stone.) In this photo, Alana is peering through the netting in the play structure.



Caleb played a lot of video games.

Happy Easter

Threw together a quick egg hunt for the kids, which they completely enjoyed (and didn't even notice that it was a slapped together job). For prizes (several eggs had tickets inside), I used the stuff we bought in San Francisco and some books I got from the Scholastic sale at school a couple weeks ago. Mommy is a genius!

Passover seder

I'm so stinkin' proud of myself - I put together a complete seder, from soup to nuts (almost literally - I even made matzah balls for the soup, from a mix, but still). I had some neighbors and a few friends (all but one was non-Jewish). It went really well, but I didn't take any photos, darn it!

Pier-less day

Walked from Pier 1 to Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf - where this photo was taken) and then past the Cannery and San Francisco's Maritime National Historic Park and out the Van Ness Avenue Pier. After that, we were bushed and we rode a bus up Powell St to Chinatown and our hotel. The weather was perfect. We bought cheap souvenirs for the kids in several shops, and bought some very expensive locally made chocolate at TCHO.

Trolley ride

Rode the trolley down California street to a delicious sushi restaurant which serves only sustainable fish, and stopped at the Bittersweet Cafe for gourmet hot chocolate on the way back.



It was drizzling when we left, but it cleared up for most of our adventure.

New cast

I took this photo outside because we're having spring today (and it may be the only day of spring we get!) We went for Caleb's 2nd follow-up with the orthopedist today. Dr Katz took another xray and the wrist is healing splendidly. His cast was already breaking down along the edges, so they cut it off and gave him a new one (he gets to keep the old one of course). Still green. And this one is waterproof! He's scheduled to get the cast off on Monday, April 27.

I cut my own hair today!

I'm so freaking proud of myself! It took me a long time to work up the nerve. It's hard to find time to go to a salon, and the more time that went by, the sillier it seemed to go to all that trouble to get a trim of long straight hair. I went online and read on several websites about cutting your own hair. I was nervous, so I started with less than an inch. Then I got bolder and took off another inch. I think it came out really well. I colored it too and I was a little bold with the color too - adding more blonde around my face. It's hard for me to be bold - I have to really ignore that risk averse voice in my head. So I felt SO GOOD afterwards!