Lag B'Omer

Today is Lag B'Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer (the 49 days between Passover and Shavout). This holiday generally always passed unnoticed in Boston.  Not so much here.  It's a pretty big deal here. I really do not know much about the significance of the day, but the tradition is to have bonfires the night before. Since the kids didn't have school today, both of their classes celebrated Lag B'Omer yesterday.  At Gan Frieda, Eli had a bonfire.  A very small and controlled one, but I was still  nervous and was glad when he came home from school unburned!  Frieda emailed pictures and I was looking at them with Eli.  I noticed that in the first picture of the bonfire, Eli was sitting in the front row of kids but in the second picture he is in the back.  I asked him why he moved and he said, simply "fire was hot."  Simon didn't have a bonfire in gan, but i guess they talked about it a lot because he told me "when we go to the fire we have to wear closed shoes, not sandals or crocs."  I didn't have the heart to tell him that he wasn't going to a fire.  We had to keep all of our windows closed last night because this entire country smelled like a big barbecue.  

Today was a very busy day.  First, Eli and I dropped Simon off at Yishai's birthday party and then we went to the mall.  We met up with Lauren, Asher and Meirav and went to Sbarro for lunch.  Poor Eli fell backwards off his chair and smacked his head into the ground.  It made a really loud noise that I think sounded worse than it was.  He cried for a long time but then was suddenly better as soon as he noticed that Asher was playing with his car and he wanted it back! After we picked up Simon, we came home for about 1/2 an hour and then we went to Jake's upsherin (when a 3 year old boy gets his hair cut for the first time.  it's also a tradition to do that on Lag B'omer).  Jake had the most gorgeous long curly hair so this was a big deal!  Simon was excited because his friend Ben was going to be there.  

From there, I dropped Simon off with Asher so that Alan could take them to some big Lag B'Omer celebration that Chabad was having and then Lauren and I took Eli and Meirav and Maya and Orli (to give Debbie a break and some time just with her new baby) to Idan's birthday party and upsherin.  That was also really fun.  Orli came in the car with Eli and me and the two of them were holding hands in the backseat--so cute!  I wonder if they remember how they use to wreak havoc together at Bettina's last year.  

After the party and after we dropped off the Nussbaum girls, Lauren called Alan to make sure they were home and he said the Chabad thing had included a parade to a park and they were in the park.  This park is a good 20 minute walk away so I felt bad that Alan had had to take them and deal with all of that!  We drove in 2 cars to meet them and only found one parking spot!  I drove around the block about 400 times and then gave up and brought Eli home and Lauren said she would bring Simon home later.  Eli was so tired that he fell asleep in the 5 minute drive home but he woke up long enough to take a quick shower and have a yogurt drink before going back to bed shortly after we got home.  It was already after 7 and he had a very busy day!

When Simon got home, he told me that he had the best day ever!  He got to be in a parade and then he got to row a boat at the park.  Apparently they had a big giant inflatable pool with little paddle boats that the kids could row.  Alan said the whole thing was utter chaos but the kids had the best time.  He also said that every time he blinked his eyes, one kid would disappear and it was impossible to watch Asher and Simon at the same time!!  Luckily they also re-appeared.  I asked Simon if he got lost at all and he said "no, Alan thought I was lost once but i knew where I was."  

After Simon was in bed, i went to the last party of the day, a barbecue for Tasha's birthday.  Now I really need to go to sleep because I'm getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go to Jerusalem for Abi and Abe's baby's bris!  I'm anticipating a very long ride since the Pope is here and apparently making all kinds of traffic problems in Jerusalem...good night!!