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!)