We had a really fun Yom Ha'atzmaut. David and Simon got up early to go to Park Ra'anana with a couple of other people to reserve a spot for a big barbecue. Simon was all dressed in blue and white with his Israeli flag hat that he got at school. They left around 9 and Eli and I puttered around the house trying to find things to do until it was time for us to go. Eli saw me put a bottle of wine in a cooler bag and he insisted on putting his sippy cup in a cooler bag too and drinking it that way. We left around 11 and walked to the Nussbaums' to pick them up and then we all walked to the Park. The park was full of barbecuers and there was lots of stuff for the kids to do. We barbecued with a group of 60 people, I think, many of whom I didn't know, but it was a lot of fun. All the kids were walking around with stickers with their names and parents' cell phone numbers just in case anyone got lost! No one did, but having those stickers made everyone feel better.
Debbie was really smart and brought some arts and crafts activities for the kids. She printed out some maps of Israel and some flags for them to color. It's unclear where she got the map from ("some American site" is what she said...figures, blame it on the Americans!), but it was the most left-wing map I'd ever seen...David doctored up the one that Simon colored so that it included things like the Golan Heights and the West Bank!!!
Just as we were starting to think about leaving, Irit called me and said they were in the park, so we waited for them to come to where we were and then once Simon started playing with Chaim he really didn't want to leave. So David took Eli home in the car and Simon and I stayed until 3:30 (remember he had been there since 9--LONG day for him!!) and then walked home. We were so tired that we even passed up an offer from David Nussbaum to go swimming at their house. We got home around 4 and relaxed for a little bit and then went to watch the parade on Ahuza. It's a parade in which all the schools in the city put on dance performances all up and down the street. We had a good spot and watched for a while and then David called that he and Eli were there at the other end, so we walked back to meet them. They were with the Nussbaums and the Hassans and after the parade we all went to Coffee Bean for dinner. Eli and Orly spent the time seeing who could shriek louder. I'm sad that those two won't be in school together next year because they are quite the couple even if he is a little bit of a bad influence on her!
I don't know what time it was when we finally got home, but it was late and everyone was exhausted. I let Simon stay home from school on Friday because he was just wiped out and we were going to Jerusalem for Shabbos so I wanted to give him a bit of a break!
More about the weekend in the next post.
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