ברוך אתה ה' א‑לוהינו מלך העולם, המוציא לחם מן הארץ‏

I think I'm ready to change this blog into some Jewish site what with all the Sukkah postings and now tonight's Shabbos post.

Karen was really proud of Faith's recital of the hamotzi. The boys also know it pretty well, but were not in the mood to recite along.


You can also see the kids posters are now hung; its looks pretty nice.

Its a good thing last night I decided to tie the roof on, as it got very windy. Even during tonight's dinner, the wind was blowing pretty good and if the roof wasn't tied down, it would have definitely blown off.

Promise when Sukkot is over, we'll go back to some go old secular postings ;-)

Dinner In The Sukkah

The Sukkah is partially decorated!! We feared rain so some of the posters the kids made have yet to be hung. Unfortunately it looks like the rain is going to pass us by. I say unfortunately because we are having a big deal drought here in VA; not such a good harvest for the VA farmers. So with no rain, we had a wonderful dinner in the Sukkah.

Decoration Party

Yesterday Karen organized a sukkah decorating party for many of the kids' pre-school and neighborhood friends. Everyone had a fun time and made great posters for the sukkahs. Fortunately many of the kids father's were part of the sukkah build-a-thon and took their beautiful artwork home to their sukkah; meaning away from my house ;-)

Unfortunately, while Karen organized everyone coming over, she didn't organize the work area. And, while they used washable paint, no one realized that concrete is somewhat porous. After a hose down, the sidewalk in front of a neighbor's house is still pretty stained. He was very nice about it and was planning on taking his power washer out for his deck anyway... I doubt it will get all the stain out, but I'm sure it will help. I predict we'll be reminiscing about that decorating party when we still see some artifacts of it come high school graduation.




This one above of Lia reminds me of Jackson Pollock working

Sukkah Raising

Somehow I got myself into Sukkah building today. A sukkah is hut representative of the huts the Jews used while wandering the desert for 40 years (Exodus). It is customary to build a sukkah as part of the holiday Sukkot. I always thought the timing of Sukkot was related to the timing of the harvest and it was harvest festival, but wikipedia makes no mention of that. I must be confusing my Jewish holidays.

Anyway, the kids were very excited to help and watch us build. They are also ready to camp out one night in the sukkah; we'll see about that one.

Bright and early this morning, my team of 3 other sukkah builders constructed my sukkah and then we moved on to build the rest of the team's sukkahs. Turned out it was a lot of fun and we got pretty good at putting them together. We completed all 4 sukkahs in 3.5 hours including travel time to each house. So come Thursday, we'll all be ready with decorated sukkahs, for our first meal in the hut.

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Breaking News: Faith is Square

Faith went to the Dr. today and as usual was weighed and measured. She is 37.5 x 37.5, nice and square ;-)

Its About Time

Faith finally is starting to ride a tricycle!!! Took a lot of encouragement, but finally she is willing and now able to ride. See for yourself...

Signs Of A Different Iran

Today I read an encouraging article today reported by the AP. It is the story of a very successful mini-series running on Iranian TV. The streets in Tehran are described as emptying as everyone rushes home to watch the program. What kind of program in Iran can get this large an audience? Just a Parisian WWII love story between an Iranian diplomat and a Jewish woman who must be saved from being taken to a concentration camp. In the process the Iranian saves many more Jews with Iranian passports.

News reports first reported by the Wall St. journal can be found here: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3448022,00.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/16/AR2007091601363.html

So what to make of this... The fact that the masses in Iran are watching this program and from the quotes reported in the articles, the Iranians do not appear to be Holocaust deniers like their President. This type of reaction by the Iranian people further enforces the belief that the majority of the people of Iran are relatively moderate and modern Muslims being controlled by a conservative (and partially crazy) government.

So what to do... Not sure, but I do know we need to tread carefully. We may have a modern, well educated, Muslim people who actually don't hate the US and for that matter may not hate Jews (they probably still hate the State Of Israel, but we can deal with that one later). Yet, the government is extremist, terrorist supporting, and attempting to acquire nuclear weapons. You know that when the French are ready for war, its pretty serious.

Continued slow steps and less sword rattling rhetoric would be a start. If things progress poorly on the nuclear weapon front, I could see limited air strikes on nuclear facilities but every precaution taken to limit civilian casualties - even to the point of cash inflows to the citizens of the towns affected (I'm sure the CIA can figure out a way to disperse cash inside Iran). All I know is that we (America) can not afford to blow this one!!

Anyway, any positive note on the culture in Iran is good one and this type of intel is as good as the military intel reports in order to better understand our current enemy and maybe potential friend.

Apples, Apples, Everywhere

16 lbs of apples goes a long way...

Here is one bag of apples that was to be used for cooking today.


Here are the cooking helpers on break time this morning.


and here are the cooks hard at work this morning on delicious apple honey oatmeal muffins!!!


Several apples were also consumed as snacks and tonight as dessert with honey for Rosh Hashana. We also had latkes with dinner with homemade apple sauce of course.

By the end of the day, the bag of apples does not look much different and there's another just like already in the fridge.

Saturday Do Over

Things started off a bit rough this morning. Karen's plan was breakfast out and then Apple picking. Unfortunately the crew, while excited about apple picking, could not get their act together and I did not feel like a whole morning of yelling and screaming. So, Karen decided to call a morning do-over. After breakfast we went back home and everyone went back to bed! I used the time for some cutting in the backyard and a run to Home Depot for some grass seed. After about 2 hours (no one actually slept, except Karen) it was a quick a lunch and then on to Homestead Farms for some apple picking.
We picked about 16 lbs of apples. A mix of empire, gala, and jonagold. I had a jonagold this evening and it was delicious.
They also had a bunch of farm animals: pigs, goats, and chickens. Some of the goats were especially talented...
Everyone had a fun day out, good thing Karen gave us a do-over!!

Happy New Year

We had a nice holiday. Services were good and very crowded. Kids enjoyed the pre-school service today and also had fun in babysitting with all their friends during the other long stretches. And like most Rosh Hashana's the weather was beautiful.


Also, Karen found this funny song about taking care of kids that really hits home, though he's only got two daughters to deal with ;-)

First day of preschool

And they're off. There are no pictures of the happy mommy. They enjoyed their first day today.

Back To Reality

There were no towel animals or chocolates waiting for us when we went to bed last night. What a disappointment ;-) No beach, no lounging around the pool deck or soaking in the hot tub. So now its back to reality. Bye to the Grandeur Of The Sea. Fortunately, we had a nice visit yesterday from Uncle Mark and Aunt Jessica (soon to be a Mommy) who were here for wedding last nigh; easing our way back to reality. The kids were all excited over Jessica's belly with Faith asking where the baby was going to come out... no its not the belly button ;-)

Back From Our Cruise

What a great vacation!! We all had a wonderful time, but the one thing you never seem able to do on vacation is... sleep. So here is a quick highlight of our cruise to Bermuda on the Grandeur Of The Sea. Now to get some shut eye.

Gotta Go Potty

Good behavior continues... Dare I say it, is someone getting sick. I hope not, but we'll see. These are from a park in Fairfax City. We hit McDonald's for breakfast; hot cakes all around. Meanwhile we left Karen home to pack up for the kids. On the way home we stopped at a park, but about 90 seconds after getting out of the car, Faith says she has to poop. The park we went to was only 2 minutes from our house, so back in the car and home to poop. While there Jacob pooped as well ;-) Then it was off again to the Fairfax City park; a little further from our house, but a better park. Kids had a good time and the weather was great. After nap time the kids played outside in the sprinklers and with the rocks on the driveway. Faith missed all the activity; taking a 3 hour nap. Look at that... TEAMWORK!