My Delicious Three

Leo’s Hagigat Hagan

2012-02-15T20:19:00.001-08:00

As you may remember from a couple of years ago…

…the Kindergarten celebrates Tu B’shevat with the whole school and their families.

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed to not see the flower hats this year, but Leo and his classmates were still completely adorable. No matter how many times you hear these songs, you cannot help but smile.

January Roundup

2012-02-12T20:00:00.001-08:00

Every January, I make my mom a calendar using photos from the last year's months. When they were younger and we did more things together, I had more pictures of them together. Now, they can say things like “no” and actually move away from the camera. Doh! Needless to say, it’s getting harder to get the prized photos…

I did do pretty well for 2012 (2011 photos), I had 10 months of all 3 of them, 1 month with just 2 of them and then one month, I had the same picture of each individually so I did some cutting and pasting. This year, I am taking matters into my own hands and making sure I get a photo each month. You can tell how our month has been going since I only got this picture on the LAST day of the month. Those are just details – I still got the photo and that’s what we need to remember here.

Since I haven’t been writing that much (just twiddling my thumbs over here, I guess), I thought that this monthly photo op would be a good chance for me to update everyone on what has been going on with our family and the kids. I have a feeling that its usually going to be “get up – school – teach – bedtime – and repeat”, but the kids are still growing up *fast* and I could stand to sit myself down and remember how wonderful they are and how even greater kids they are becoming.
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Ok, so I sat myself down at the end of January (actually, I think it was the first day of February – ssshhh!) and then had some reason to *get up* and never finished this post…

Good thing I waited for almost 2 weeks to finish because we got the kids’ report cards in the mail this weekend and now I have somewhere to sing their praises. They both received great comments and marks and we couldn’t be more proud.

Leo has taken Kindergarten by storm, the reading, writing and new math skills he is coming home with is just amazing. You cannot give Leo enough information in the course of a day (or a car ride) to satisfy his curiosities. Leo continues his incredible artwork and has started doing “designs” in addition to his superhero and landscape work. Leo is still superhero crazy, he knows everything about every superhero so please don’t test him. He is lucky that his Zadie has the same passion and has become his movie buddy. The new Superman cannot come out fast enough for either of them!

Amelia is enjoying everything about 2nd grade and has a wonderful class and teacher. Every year is better than the last for Amelia. Amelia loves doing her math, book reports, and Hebrew reading and writing. Amelia’s crafty side is coming out at home, she is now crocheting and doing paper crafts and started drawing again. Amelia is also our resident Lego lover and spent a good part of yesterday in building mode. No one will be surprised that Amelia continues to be my biggest helper, taking care of her brother and sister (whether they ask for it or not) and is always there when I need her, even if it’s just for moral support.

I am not sure there is enough space on this blog to talk about what Macie Belle has been up to this past month. I should really be writing everything down, there are so many cute quotes and conversations – I am so lucky to be home with her. We shop, we “clean” and we cook and bake *a lot* together. Macie can add a pinch of salt like no other. She has a finesse with food that I am trying to encourage, even if meals take twice as long to prepare. Macie is in preschool twice a week, she goes to a Park District class once a week and gymnastics once a week. Macie runs into each class with a smile and runs out to me after each class is over with a huge kiss and hug for me. Macie insists on kisses from Amelia and Leo before they leave the car in the morning and tells them that she loves them whenever she can.

Happy 8th Birthday, Amelia

2012-02-05T18:52:00.001-08:00

Amelia and her friends scrapped the afternoon away at Amelia’s 8th birthday party. I made paper bag scrapbooks for everyone and they covered them with their own pictures and lots of stickers and pretty papers that Amelia chose. Amelia set all of the tables herself and looked forward to sharing her special day with all of her friends.
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The tables are set…

I can see why people are addicted to these paper bag scrapbooks…they are the cutest things *ever*!

Bubbie and 2 of her girls…

And the birthday girl ;)

The scrapbooking begins…

Macie and Eliana had a great time making their own scrapbooks…

Ice cream birthday cake, just like Amelia ordered…

The girls were singing so loudly, Macie had to close her ears…

Grace and Josie always give the best gifts! (but that’s not why the kids *love* them!)

Dinner with Mom and Zadie at Go Roma…

Showing off her scrapbook…I think someone enjoyed her birthday today ;)

Happy Birthday, to one of my best friends, you make my world a better place. I love you, Amelia.

Hockey!!

2012-02-01T11:28:00.001-08:00

My first thought is, thank g-d for their helmets or I would never be able to tell them apart! Of course, Amelia is now fitted with hockey pants and some extra padding, but still…

Both “big kids” have been taking hockey since October and they love it. We kind of love it too and it is great to watch them improve more and more each time they hit the ice.

I sent the camera with Danny and I took Macie home. I love her so I can say this – being at hockey with her makes me want to pull every last hair out! I am counting down the days when she turns 4 and can be on the ice with them…and I can actually *watch* them playing hockey. We are so proud of them!

Amelia’s Siddur Ceremony

2012-02-01T11:13:00.001-08:00

Last Friday, Amelia and her classmates received their first Siddur. Unfortunately, Leo was sick, so I had to miss the ceremony, but Danny, my parents and Becca and Gary were there for support. I asked my good friend, Ivy, to help with the picture taking and she definitely came through! (The pictures are out of order – lots of different photographers…)

Monday morning, Amelia was so excited when she told me that “this morning when I pray…I get to use a real siddur”. I went to T’fillah this afternoon and I could feel the ruach (spirit) in the room, it was wonderful to experience.

(from Ivy)

(From Danny)

(From Tante)

Here is Amelia dancing with her class…

Amelia…through the years

2012-01-27T12:00:00.001-08:00

I am doing a project for Amelia’s birthday party and I needed a picture from each of her birthdays. It’s so much fun to look through old photos and see how much the kids have changed – and how much they look like each other at different ages! The one thing that stuck out most for me was the lazy days we used to have. We would go to breakfast, have lunch with Danny, go on field trips…and now it is just *rush rush rush* *homework homework homework* *bedtime bedtime bedtime*. I miss the old days where we could do whatever we wanted – and needed – to do whenever we wanted. Even though there is snow on the ground, I can see summer vacation in view and look forward to those lazy days and the field trips and the eating out together and just doing whatever we want to do…when we want to do it.

I will write about how much Amelia and her 8 years mean to me when it is her *actual* birthday, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I do have other pictures from another very special day to post anyway…

Can’t wait for #8 next week!

Chanukah Celebrations

2011-12-24T19:55:00.001-08:00

We take Chanukah pretty seriously in this house. We decorate, we party, we play dreidle and we eat LOTS of latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly donuts).

(Eva: I took a lot of the pictures for you, so you could see our Chanukah table and some decorations…maybe one day you could celebrate with us!!)
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The first night. We celebrated with Chabad and lit candles again at home. We are finally using our gorgeous silver chanukiah.

On the 2nd day of Chanukah, we had my wonderful book club over for our 1st annual Junior Bookclubbers Chanukah Party. It was a huge success!

One of the oldest and the youngest jr. bookclubbers ;)

The fun wasn’t always about the Chanukah theme…

Chanukah coloring table…

Cookie decorating…

Shrinky dinks…

More cookies…

More fun…

Enjoying the Chanukah music (or had we already changed it to JB?) :)

The 3rd night…

The 4th night, right before Shabbat…

I told Macie to give me “her biggest smile”…on the 5th night of Chanukah

Opening gifts from B&Z who are sailing away…thanks for the cool presents!! we love them!!

Happy Chanukah!!

Let me take you to Rio Rio…

2011-12-18T11:25:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Leo’s birthday this morning with a pajama/breakfast/movie party. Amelia and I made the cupcake cake last night – delicious and adorable :)

Chanukah at BJE

2011-12-18T11:08:00.001-08:00

Last week was Macie’s Chanukah party at BJE. Bubbie, Zadie, Amelia and Leo joined us and it was very sweet to watch. Picture taking was a bit difficult, but we got some cute ones. Happy Chanukah everyone!

Chanukah in K-C

2011-12-18T10:58:00.001-08:00

Leo’s Hebrew teacher invited the parents to their Chanukah party last week. We enjoyed lots of big dreidels spinning and a special light show.

Someone is 6 Years Old!!!

2011-12-08T06:11:00.001-08:00

Ok, so it’s not Amelia…but I curled her hair a little and she looked pretty :)

Here he is, 6 years old and as handsome as ever…

Macie was a bit under the weather, but was finally ready for her close-up…

Time for school…we all feel very comfortable in Leo’s class room.

I am sure Danny would have rather stayed all day and played!

Looking at the schedule for the day…

and now, time for the birthday celebration…

a quick shot before it starts…

It wasn’t hard to guess how to spell LEO’s name and his favorite colors are black, green and gray…

6 high fives and one for good luck…

We donated two books (thank you, Bubbie) and I got to read the story of Hanukkah. There wasn’t a single peep while I was reading…

Amelia enjoyed a little pattern block action…

Zadie and Amelia…

Counting and growing…

Stretching out before t’fillah…

Lucky mom :)

Handsome 6 year old…

Hazzan duties call…

B&Z&L…

More birthday fun with Mrs. G…

Some of us…

More of us…

Happy Birthday to my sweet, loveable, hilariously funny, smart, artistically amazing, inquisitive and just wonderful…Leo ;)

A little scary, a lot of cute

2011-12-06T20:14:00.001-08:00

My Chipmunks

2011-11-27T20:50:00.001-08:00

Leo’s Kindergarten Shabbat

2011-11-27T20:37:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago was Leo’s Shabbat, one of the highlights of Kindergarten. Bubbie and Zadie had to miss it, so here is their chance to relive it. Leo and his friends were as cute as ever ;)

Macie Belle :)

2011-11-27T20:23:00.001-08:00

I am about a month overdue with these pictures…oops. Still as cute as can be!

Still As Kooky As Ever…

2011-10-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

I am too tired to explain just how kooky these kids are, but I think you get the gist!

Happy Birthday, Miss Macie Boo!!

2011-10-23T20:42:00.001-07:00

It’s the start of birthday season in our house and Macie was thrilled to kick it off.

Last Wednesday, the big kids were off of school so I had Macie’s birthday party. We took a trip to the local fire station and then came back to the house for cupcakes and snacks. Macie and her friends had a great time and the Countryside firemen were awesome!

Taking a nice photo of the three of them is turning into quite the chore. Amelia decided that “silly faces” might get Macie to sit down for a shot. I guess she was right…

Birthday hugs ;)

Macie was a little unsure of that fire in front of her…(not a bad thing…)

I didn’t get a lot of pictures of Leo during the party so I had to get this one ;)

…and I tried to get more of Macie (*tried*)

…one more attempt to get some birthday photos of Macie ;) This time she is really 3!! What a cute 3 year old!! ;)

Enjoying the final celebration with ice cream and Eliana…

~ Yom Orchim ~

2011-10-06T19:43:00.001-07:00

Once a year, Schechter has a special “day of guests”, Yom Orchim, where grandparents and other special guests can visit the school and see what an amazing place their “kids” go to school. Parents aren’t encouraged to attend, but this year I realized that Bubbie and Zadie couldn’t possibly attend all four of their grandchildren’s classes, so Becca and I went along to make sure that everyone had a special visitor in their class.
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Before leaving for school, I managed to get some pics of my 2 Schechterites…and a little wanna be Schechterite!

Macie and I had to wait a few minutes after parking and heading back to school in a real school bus – so exciting!! Never a dull moment in the W-mobile…

Big girls…!

Showing her cuteness for Zadie…

Ari’s class…

Amelia’s class…she has been standing next to Nathan K. for 3 years now ;)

Noah’s class, dancing!

They had the best seat in the house…

Leo’s turn…

Macie and I visited Noah’s class first where they traced and decorated hands and added their special prayers…

Then, we headed down to Amelia’s class to make hamsas.

Tante and Eliana visited Amelia and Ari’s classroom…

but had started at Leo’s awesome Kindergarten room…

I’m a Big Girl Now!

2011-09-15T15:40:00.001-07:00

This was Macie’s first week of pre-school, the first of three wonderful years ahead. I couldn’t be happier for her, but at the same time, I can’t believe the place we are in in our lives. Everyone has their school, their friends, their own little worlds. I love hearing about what’s going on on the drive from school and the best is watching them and listening to them with their friends.

I have enjoyed everyone’s first day, first week, first this and first that. When I drop them off they are happy and when I pick them up they are exhausted, but still happy! What more could I ask for? :)

A week of firsts…and some classic behavior ;)

2011-08-25T15:13:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, we went to get haircuts and Macie got her first haircut. If you blinked, you could have missed both Amelia’s and Macie’s time in the chair, but they both look cute and Macie loved the new experience. We also had a bit of fun while we were waiting.

Then we hung out while the 2nd graders bounced around at Pump-It-Up…

Wednesday was Amelia’s first day of 2nd Grade. The day before we worked on her 1st grade scrapbook and it was fun to see how much she has grown over the last year.

and then we waited for Leo’s Kindergarten meeting…

In keeping with tradition, we took our family picture via a timer the day *after* Leo needed to bring it to school.

Today was Leo’s first (1/2) day of Kindergarten. At least he got to stay for lunch this time and tomorrow will be even cooler!

Ending the Summer with a Bang

2011-08-18T15:08:00.001-07:00

Uncle Sid and Aunt Nalsey came for a visit and we had a great time with them. Monday, we all went downtown to see Buckingham Fountain and Marilyn Monroe. The weather was gorgeous and I was excited to be downtown for the third time this summer. Hopefully, next summer we can go even more :)

Amelia, Ari, Uncle Sid, and Bubbie went to the top of the Willis Tower while the rest of us hung out next to the Art Institute. Sitting in the shade with nothing to do…it was lovely.

This was what was happening way way way up in the Willis Tower:

Amelia took the camera:

Amelia handed the camera to Becca for the first one…then took it right back

Amelia let me take these…

Amelia again, with the help of Aunt Nalsey:

I got a few shots in at the end of the day…

Tuesday, we all went to LEGOLand. Two days later and my head is still throbbing…just an indication as to how much fun the kids had.

Pirate’s Cove

2011-08-10T15:40:00.001-07:00

Last night I looked at my calendar and – shocker – it was BLANK. Nothing on the schedule today, not a thing. I decided to take the kids to Pirates Cove in Elk Grove Village, it had been on my list to do this summer and we haven’t had the chance. When we pulled in, it was quite clear that most of Chicagoland also looked at their BLANK calendars last night. Oy, were the lines *huge* and the rides *short*, but the kids waited and waited and waited some more. Their favorite ride, the carousel had pretty short lines and they enjoyed it seven times. They did the paddleboats twice – we waited way too long the first time, but they were so cute that it was worth it. I waited in line forever for Amelia to do the rock wall and it was also well worth it, even though she was done in 2 minutes. I figured, if they didn’t complain, why should I?

Time Really Does Fly…

2011-08-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

One thing I learned when Eva was here was that Americans have really weird sayings. I had to explain to her what “playing it by ear” meant. I didn’t do a very good job. But the saying “time flies when you are having fun” is an easy one. The 4 weeks that Eva was in our home went by so fast that I still can’t believe she is gone. Lucky for us, we have her as part of our family forever. I knew that this experience would be a great one, but I could not have foreseen the impact Eva would have on our family. When Eva left on Friday, there was a definite void in our family, as soon as the bus drove away. It’s hard to explain unless you have experienced it first hand, but it was a very special month for us and we will never forget the days we spent with Eva.

All of these pictures are from Eva’s camera, either taken by Eva or the kids. I didn’t see these pictures until the last day and only had an idea of the kookiness that was going on when I wasn’t looking. The last bunch of pictures were taken just minutes before we took Eva to the bus, before we sat down for our last lunch of pasta (Eva: butter and parmesan, Amelia: pesto, Leo: parmesan, and Macie: parmesan *and* sauce) – our signature lunch together. I think these pictures really show the relationship that Eva and the kids formed over the 4 weeks and how well she fit into our family :).

We have had great summers as a family and 2011 goes right up there as one of the best. We love you, Eva, and can’t wait to see you again ;)

Our Day Downtown

2011-08-04T19:39:00.001-07:00

For Eva’s last real day in Chicago, we went downtown to see Buckingham Fountain and let the kids splash around in Millennium Park. Lallapallooza sort of dampened our plans and didn’t let us go as close to the fountain as we wanted, but we had lunch in a cool spot, right in the middle of the action. The kids had a blast in the splash park and then we headed to “The Bean”, one of the kids’ new favorite sites. The train ride was fairly uneventful and the kids were major troopers, walking almost 30 minutes to the fountain and then almost 30 minutes back to the station. They did their fair share of complaining, but were troopers, none the less. For me, it was a perfect downtown day.

Brookfield Zoo

2011-08-02T07:47:00.001-07:00

We braved the heat, once again, and headed to Brookfield Zoo with Eva and two of her French friends and one of the host moms. It was a great day and Macie’s first real zoo experience. I didn’t have the best memories of Brookfield, but that has all changed and I can’t wait to go back with the kids and Danny and see all of our favorites again and see the ones that we missed.

and for the real animals…(all taken by Amelia)

Jelly Belly- Yum!

2011-07-31T11:57:00.001-07:00

In our constant attempt to visit as many awesome sites as possible , we took a tour at the Jelly Belly Warehouse in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Amelia is very proud that she tried “ear wax”…ewwww!!

Summer School -Glee Club and some serious goofiness…

2011-07-31T10:37:00.001-07:00

Amelia’s Glee Cub performance was killer – the kids in Glee could learn a little something from Amelia and her friends!

Beating the heat at Mc’Ds…

…and in the car

Oakbrook and Plano, Illinois

2011-07-31T10:26:00.001-07:00

Sweating buckets at Oakbrook Center and Plano, Illinois – where the new Superman is being filmed…

Ladd Arboretum

2011-07-31T10:23:00.001-07:00

Our annual visit to Ladd Arboretum…

Summer School–Readers Theater

2011-07-31T10:20:00.001-07:00

Amelia and Leo went to Summer School and we were lucky to see Amelia’s class perform “Cinderella”. Amelia and her classmates put on a great (5 minute) show ;)