Summer is Officially Here...

because we have been to the beach and the pool! And the pool people even let me use my pass from last year that still had 4 visits left on it.
Last week Playball was canceled on Thursday so I thought it would be the perfect time to go to the pool. I convinced Sharon, Tali and Lauren to bring Oren, Boaz, Uri, Asher and Meirav and we all had a great time. The big kids all went off by themselves (not completely by themselves, we were in a pool after all, but they can stand in the entire thing) and entertained themselves. Eli surprised me and was willing to go into his floaty thing from last summer.
On Friday, when I got home from school we packed up the car and went to the beach in Herzliya. We met up with my friend David from school who lives there and we all had a great time there as well. Eli has no fear of the ocean and I will definitely not be taking the boys to the beach by myself anytime soon! We got home about an hour and a half before Shabbos and we hadn't done anything to prepare. Dinner was packaged schnitzel from the freezer, a package of instant couscous with vegetables and some steamed frozen broccoli. Honestly, it was delicious!
For lunch on Shabbos we went to the Nussbaums along with the Sachses. This time, Eli didn't break anything (I don't think I actually wrote on the blog about how last week we went to the Nussbaums after gan one day and Eli ran through their glass door...he was fine but the door had to be replaced). We stayed until after 5 and then came home and gave the kids dinner and put them to bed before Shabbos was over. I actually sat down on the couch and read a book for about 1/2 an hour and then fell asleep. I could have slept for the night, but sadly I had to get up to write a paper when Shabbos was over.
On Sunday, Oren and Sharon came over after gan. Eli napped while Simon and Oren played very nicely together. After they left and Eli woke up we went to a joint birthday party for Boaz Klahr (who Simon calls "Boaz not from gan") and Dani Moore. It was a fun party--there was a guy there who brought a bunch of animals and did a whole thing with the kids. It was all in Hebrew, of course. At first, he had all the kids sit in a circle and he had a microphone and asked who wanted to say something to the birthday boy and girl. First Ella, Dani's older sister, did it and then the guy asked who else wanted to and Simon yelled "ani rotzeh!" The guy gave him the microphone and Simon took it and then just sat there with a huge grin on his face. He wasn't sure what to do. I was on the other side of the yard but was calling to him and saying "say something Simon...anything...you have to talk...you can say it in English if you want...just say happy birthday!" In the end, he said "mazel tov v'yom huledet sameach." I was impressed. I was also impressed that he knew the little song to sing when the guy wanted to reveal which animal he had in a cage under a blanket. He told the kids to put out their hands and say the magic words and they all sang some song that obviously every kid learns in gan because they all knew it and they don't all go to the same gan.
Since I've decided that Eli is not going to go to Playball anymore because he never wants to participate and he mostly just causes trouble (I will try again in the fall) and since Simon's hebrew class ended, we don't have anything planned for Tuesday afternoons anymore. We decided to go to the pool again. I told Eli that he had to take a nap first and took him into his room. He immediately noticed that I had hung a painting on his wall (that David made, of course). He pointed to it and said "painting." I said "yeah, Daddy made it for you. Do you like it?" He said "no. Off." I just sort of ignored him and put him in his crib. He wouldn't even lie down, he just stood there pointing at the picture and saying "off...off!!!" He wouldn't go to sleep until I took the picture off the wall. I guess he doesn't like David's art.
Ducky called this afternoon and Simon answered the phone. He told her that we moved already and that we painted. She asked him what color his room is and he took the phone with him to his room to check and then reported "the walls in my room are blonde."
After Eli woke up (really we woke him) we went to the pool. It's not as much fun to go without friends, but we did see a bunch of people who we knew there, but they all left soon after we got there because we went late. Eli LOVES jumping into the pool and I tried water wings on him which looked very cute and he thought they were funny but they didn't really help him float too much. We only stayed for about an hour and a half and then we got popsicles and then came home.
All that swimming must have really tired Simon out because he asked to go to bed shortly after 7. Eli went to bed after him and about 15 minutes after he went to bed, I heard noises from his room so I went to listen outside his door to make sure he wasn't crying and I heard him talking (to his bear, I guess) and saying "n'night...shhh...n'night...shhh." So cute.
The pictures are from Boaz's (from gan, as opposed to Boaz not from gan) birthday party last week that I never posted.