Sledding at Highland Forest in Fabius

It was sunny - I don't know why this photo came out so dark.  We had fun, and we got tired - much bigger hill than Hafner's.  Alana fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Thanks to Meredith for lunch before and hot chocolate after!

Shabbat

How cute is this photo of Mommy and Daughter???  Thanks to Mark Kotzin for taking it and to Ellen Kotzin for sharing it.

Cal singing in the Shira Shalom kids choir with his buddy Luke!

5+ feet of snow

The Syracuse area is just a few inches shy of having the snowiest Decmber ever recorded!  We've gotten 66 inches so far, and winter doesn't officially begin until next week (not that the arbitrary date is relevant to us anyway!)  Here, Alana stands in front of our front walk - Larry did a great job getting the overnight snow out of the way.

Bunny is back!

I hadn't seen any bunny prints so far this year, during earlier snow falls, but this morning, the bunny had clearly visited.

Swimming at the YMCA

Our friends the Kotzins invited us to swim at the east area YMCA after Sunday school.  Cal and Alana fought over the mask.

Glitter nails

Alana decorated my nails with the kit she got for Hanukkah.

The snow keeps coming!

This is Wednesday morning and it's not done snowing.

Alana sweeping the deck

I have no idea why she wanted to do this!

Snow (so far!)

The Weather Channel said it's been snowing for 72 hours straight.  And there's more on the way.



Zhu Zhu pets at BK

AlanaTown

Alana created this tableau with new and old toys.

Playing dreidel on the first night of Hanukkah

Cub scout puppet show

Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic!!  Cal played Romeo and especially enjoyed the sword fight with Paris.

Caleb and Noa

After Thanksgiving dinner

Alana on Grandpa's piano

Cal at NJ hotel

Shabbaton at Temple Concord

FIRST SNOW

Basically just a dusting of frosty rain, but pretty.

Cal's music class

Harvest Fest bounty

We were a little more restrained this year than last year.

Sneaker saga, part 2

On Saturday, we were in the mall for the Borders Halloween party (which was lame), so we took the opportunity to run a few errands, since we don't go to the mall too much.  We stopped by Payless, because their BOGO half price sale had just started.  I wasn't optimistic, after the last fruitless search, but what do you know - Cal found some shoes he liked!  His friend Jake was along with us, and they both assured me that cool shoes are very important in Middle School (without them, you're "nothing"!)  The weird part is, Cal found some black high tops, not wide, but size 6 (his size is 4).  But they're comfortable and meet the cool test, so everyone is happy.

Halloween

Both Cal and Joey are Harry Potter!

Alana with her loot afterwards.

Shira Shalom singers

First performance by Cal and the children's choir at Temple Concord.

We had such fun checking out all the cool pumpkins here. 

If you look closely, you can see Alana crouched down to Caleb's left.

Pirate ship in Auburn

We managed to get there while he was "closed" but it was still fun to see this.

Hunter kitty

Rosie delivered a bird to the back door.

99 books!

It took me 3+ years, but I finally read 99 books

at the Liverpool library!

Sukkot

Alana shook the lulav and etrog in the morning at Temple Concord with Rabbi Fellman (the man behind them is an actor portraying Concord's Rabbi Guttman from the turn of the previous century).

 

Cal did the honors at the JMAC in the afternoon.

Juvenile Diabetes Walk

Alana decorated her tshirt with pleas for assistance.

Team Noah 

Gluten Free Cobbler

A few weeks ago, I made apple cobbler with a GF recipe, but I didn't really like it.  I wanted to make more, because we still have so many apples left from our trip to Beak and Skiff, so I sort of improvised a recipe using GF granola for the topping.  I added blueberries and crasins also.  This was scrumptious.  I would definitely make this again (though the kids didn't really care for it).

I love daisies!

Got these adorable salt and pepper shakers at the Jewish Cultural Festival on Sunday, made by a local artist (I want to get the entire daisy collection!!)

Middle School Open House

Roxboro Rd seems like a great school and Caleb really likes it already.  I'm relieved because I was a little worried about the transition to elementary.  But his teachers seem very caring and competent, and he seems to have lots of friends already.  His music teacher, Ms Kopf, wants to recruit him for a special choir she's starting, which will focus on world music, including drumming - how cool is that???  She says he has an excellent sense of rhythm and she called him a "shining light" in her class.

Full rainbow

Gorgeous rainbow that I saw outside Target in Cicero after a passing rain shower. 

Sneaker saga

Cal is really hard on shoes - not sure what he does to them, but they only last a few months - the soles crack and the toes get severely worn and they basically fall apart.  But of course he never likes the new pair because they feel stiff and not broken-in.  We went through a massive search this most recent time, because he needs wide shoes, and there are no cool styles in wide.  I bought a larger size (in non-wide) but they weren't comfortable or practical.  We tried a shoe stretcher, but he said the shoes weren't any more comfortable after many hours with the stretcher applied to them.  We finally bought a plain white pair and decorated them with (expensive) stickers (which didn't stay on), fabric paint (which wore off immediately) and permanent markers.  But even after we decorated them, he insisted on wearing his old, falling apart, shoes.  He eventually had to switch, when the old shoes became unwearable, but this whole process will start again in a few months when the new shoes wear out.

Alana's dream

Alana came in at 3 a.m. and said "I killed a bee." and climbed into bed with me and fell right back to sleep. When she woke up later, she still remembered her dream.

Cal's fitness program

Cal has been trying really hard to lose weight for about a week - he's exercising more and being very careful in his food choices. I'm really proud of how conscientious he's being. So he was VERY upset tonight when the scale showed that he had GAINED 3 pounds. I told him not to weigh himself at night! And we need to get a new scale, because I don't trust that one anyway (my weigh fluctuates on it much more than I think is real).

Alana with kite

Alana ran ALL over the park with this kite. The weather was perfect for this!

Acts Of Kindness event

The kids were so game about this - the weather was chilly and none of their friends were there. But we walked around for 1/2 an hour picking up every scrap of trash in Thornden Park.

Kite festival

 Went to Fort Ontario in Oswego for this small kite festival. 

The weather was perfect and Larry helped the kids get their kites flying high.

SIX pound fritatta

We saw this diner - Mother's Cupboard - on the TV show Man vs Food, and decided we needed to try it.  Between the 3 of us, we managed to eat the whole thing.

Middle school, here I come

Caleb waiting for the bus on the first day of school at Roxboro Road MS.

Apple farm

Picked apples at Beak and Skiff with Dawn, Geo and Nikki (came home with about 20 pounds!)  Ate apple fritters, perused the gift shop, and Alana took a pony ride.

Kidz Bop censorship

We bought and listened to the latest of these song collections. Musically, it's a bit better than I remember in the past (they're recruiting better singers these days). They change the lyrics of some of the songs, which I find both a relief and kind of hilarious. So Caleb asked me why the lyrics of Hey Soul Sister were changed, and I said, "I'm not sure, I guess they thought the original words were too sexy." And my little prude, Alana, says, "Mom, you could just say 'inappropriate'!" (She thinks the word "sexy" is too sexy!)

Alana caught a frog at the park!

Flowers from park

Recycling center

We collected cans at the Oswego Speedway and I've collected water bottles at the park for weeks, so we had an unusually large amount of recyclables to turn in. We ended up with over $7!

Family Top 10 lists

Cal brought this up, but I can't remember the segue. He said things like basketball and the NY Yankees. I told him he had to include some food, so he added cheeseburgers and breakfast sandwiches. Alana said pets and fruit. Here's my list:

Family
Walking Roxy in the park
Friends
Watching movies
Reading books
Politics
Great clouds
Sushi
Chocolate
Jasmin tea

Here's Matt's list

Family
Friends
Chemistry
Guitar
Philadelphia Eagles
NY Yankees
Tae Kwon Do
Music
Movies
Reading

Larry came late to the discussion and his list wasn't complete

The internet
NY Yankees
Remote control
DiNiro movies
Heavy metal music
Mute button on the telephone

Then I said we had to list our 5 least favorite things. Here's mine:

Littering
Unnecessary drama
Lying
Being tickled
People who are cruel to animals

Matt's:

Quitting
Princess girls
Apathy
Fake people
Avocado

Larry's:

Being stuck in traffic

Our Fresh Air Fund guest, Jasmine

On the carousel at the mall

Burt's funeral

Organizing the pallbearers at Temple Shalom


Into the hearse


Graveside in Farmingdale (Long Island)

Alana also shoveled, but I was helping her, so no photo