5.25.2007

The Insurance Money's Rolling In!!

Are you freaking kidding me? We just received our first insurance reimbursement for Matt's oral surgery last month. When I first opened up the envelope I noticed that it included a check. However.... this is all we received. I think that Blue Cross Blue Shield of California probably spent more reviewing my claim and mailing the envelope. We're still trying to figure out how they came up with $9.

At the Kibbutz

Yesterday the preschool went on a morning field trip to a kibbutz. The children got to feed and pet all sorts of animals; tortoises, bunnies, goats, pigs, monkeys, camels, peacocks, ponies, and more. They also had a pizza party and ended with a puppet show. The kids had a wonderful time. Here are a few photos of the girls.

Sheridan holding a baby chick.



Here are the girls at their swim lesson in the afternoon. They both take private lessons at the same time on Thursdays. The pool is about 7 lanes wide and 25 meters long.

5.20.2007

Sheridan's New Bedding

Several months ago I saw a duvet cover for the girls that I fell in love with. However, it was ridiculously expensive. I decided then that I would make one myself. So after purchasing a sewing machine and taking sewing lessons from a girlfriend, I designed a duvet cover for Sheridan. This last weekend I recently finished Sheridan's new ensemble. Here are some photos of her reversible duvet cover, and the bedskirt that I completed. The front is a patchwork design, made up of 9 different colored fabrics and sashing. The back is strips of 4 different fabric colors. Both girls love the duvet - and as soon as I get Riley's fabric, I'll be making one for her too.


The front of the duvet

The back of the duvet

The view of the front of the duvet

View of one side of her bedding...

The ruffle was a smidge difficult to do... but I love how it turned out.

Preschool Program

On Thursday, May 17th, the preschool held its annual International Day Program. This year's theme was "The Circus". The girls all dressed up as ballerinas and the boys came as clowns. They sang songs, danced, and put on a few skits. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast. Riley smiled through the entire program and even participated (which was a big change from last year). Sheridan on the other hand spent most of the program either sucking her thumb or picking her nose. Oh well.

I'm going to try to upload a few video clips of the girls singing/dancing. Wish me luck.


The Circus




The Three Amigos: Emily, Riley, and Kit

5.17.2007

Clarification

I made a mistake. The so-called class ring that I thought I saw on my dad's left 4th finger in the photo was misidentified. It was actually his college varsity wrestling ring that he got for making varsity three years in a row.

Sorry for the confusion.

5.15.2007

Who is this??


I found this photo when I was at my parent's house last month. I always thought that Riley looked more like me than Sheridan ... I guess I was wrong! In fact, whenever I ask the girls who's in this photo, they always answer, "Sheridan!" This was taken in April, 1975. I particularly love my father's moustache, stylish shirt, and class ring.

5.08.2007

Allergies and a New Bed!

We no sooner get off the plane and home before Riley's allergies came back with a vengeance. By dinnertime Friday night she was already sniffling and had a runny nose. Sheridan's symptoms followed shortly thereafter. This continued through the entire weekend and their first day of school when I finally decided that they couldn't suffer anymore. We were able to get in to see the allergist on Monday evening who determined that the girls both have hay fever allergies. They would be "cured" with Singulair for kids. It's only been about 28 hours and after 2 tablets, their sniffling and runny noses have already subsided. Now we just have to wait for their watery eyes to go away.

We hit the jackpot today! At 9am, the Embassy came and delivered Sheridan's new big girl bed. Since we returned home she has been crawling out of her crib on average of 8 times per night. To combat her stealth escape missions, we got smart and put her crib mattress on the floor. That proved a futile attempt. She still got up and wandered the house in the wee hours of the night. This afternoon was spent taking down the crib, making the bed, and putting up the bed rail. Wish us luck that she sleeps in her bed throughout the night!

5.06.2007

My Kind Of Town... Chicago Is

We're Home! After a wonderful trip to Chicago, and a few not-so-nice flights to Tel Aviv, we're back home now and adjusting to the 10 hour time change. Our 24 hour stop over in Chicago was fantastic ~ a nice break in the travel, and an opportunity of a lifetime for the girls to meet their cousins.

(From L to R: Jonah, Gabe, Sheridan, Riley, Samantha, Ari, and Tristan. These are my 1st cousins children.)


We still can't believe how many people came to see us ... Zadie and Muriel came with Uncle Steve and Auntie Laurie on the 2 hour drive from South Bend, Auntie Debbie, Melissa, Ari, and Tristan made the 4 hour schlep from Indianapolis, Gail and Sam also made a 4 hour schlep from Michigan, Auntie Ettie, David and Amy, Jamie, and Cousin Ronnie all made the drive in from downtown Chicago to see us too. And of course, Hal, Jenny, Jonah, and Gabe opened up their house and not only had everyone over for dinner and chaos, but they also let us stay the night!! The girls had an amazing time connecting with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and big Zadie, and we enjoyed catching up with everyone as best we could in a short amount of time. I took over 100 photos of the kids and family ~ I narrowed it down here as best I could.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaNnDVo2YtWNl

Thanks again to everyone who came to see us. We had an amazing day and only wish we had more time to really sit down and talk. Next year in Yerushalayim?

We're off now to go pick up Libby from the Dog Farm. We couldn't pick her up yesterday as the place was closed for Shabbat. We're looking forward to seeing our furry friend and giving her a bath. Tonight we hope that Sheridan stays in her crib as she's been climbing out about on average about 10 times every night. I can't wait for the Embassy to deliver her new bed this week! Wish us luck that she starts to sleep through the night soon.


5.01.2007

And We're Off...

It's hard to believe that a month has already passed and we're on our way back to Israel. We fly out tomorrow at the crack of dawn, but will be taking a one-night detour by way of Chicago. We're getting together with TONS of family members who we haven't seen in years - and many kids who we've never met! Then on Thursday the fun continues as we fly onto Tel Aviv. We had an action packed R&R and are ready to go home and enjoy our last year there.

I'll be sending on photos of our night in Chicago once we get home. For those of you who we didn't get to see or talk to while we were in town, we sincerely apologize. This was a hectic trip due to Matt's dental issues and yearly shopping excursions. We will be back next summer for a much longer visit as we transition out of Israel and onto our future destination (TBD this winter).

Love to all!

The Zoo

After another quick trip to Target, we packed up the gang and went to the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose. This park was similar to Legoland in that it's geared entirely towards kids ages 2-10. The park was divided into two sections; a small zoo on one side and a playground/amusement park on the other. We started at the zoo and took a little over an hour to walk around and see all the animals. The girls (and Matt) loved seeing the lemurs, jaguar, parrots, tortoise, meerkat, capybara, pot bellied pits, and a few more that I can't remember now. However, they were less than thrilled with feeding the goats, the ram, or the little donkey. They didn't like getting their hands dirty.... prima-donnas that they are.

After the zoo we walked over to the amusement park area where they rode the carousel, the cars, and played on the jungle gyms. We left around 3pm and rushed the girls home for some much needed naps. Here's a photo of the girls with my parents (aka Bubbie and Zadie).


Weekend in Review

What a whirlwind of a weekend! Friday morning Matt had to have more oral surgery to take out the stitches and correct one tooth that didn't graft as nicely as the periodontist would have liked. Oh was he in a good mood when he returned home. The entire weekend after that was spent visiting family. Saturday morning we went to the swap meet in Orange County, Saturday afternoon we went to Matt's folks beach house to see Matt's cousins and aunt and uncle, and the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's (aka Matt's first cousins ... if you don't already know the story, e-mail me offline later) for dinner.

Sunday we had a lovely brunch at Matt's folks house along with his grandmother and close family friend who was in from Connecticut. The rest of the day was devoted to laundry and packing. We got onto the road around 4 pm and had another 7+ hour drive back to my parent's house. Here we'll stay until we fly back to Israel, via Chicago, on Wednesday.

The Girls with Great-Grandma Vera


The Girls with Poppa and Grandma Micky

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