No more toothless grins

Naftali officially has two teeth...he cut the first one last week, and then the second one cut through today....

Updated 9/2/09- the next two teeth have come in now....we'd better watch out in case he starts to bite!

Cute Quote: What language was that?

Yisrael:    Mommy, we speak English in Cheder!
Mommy:  Really???
Yisrael:    Yes! Every morning, when Rebbi Shea comes into my kitah, he says "Good Morning Tired Yingelech!" and then we say to him, "Good Morning Tired Rebbi!"
Mommy:  Oh, Yisrael sweety, that's not English, its Yiddish! Your Rebbi is saying "גוט מארגן טייערע ינגלעך"....

Bruria singing "Abba Sheli Lomeid"

INTRO: I first heard this song when my sister Ruthie was in seminary- they learned it from some Israeli kids and thought it was really touching. So you can imagine how pleased and touched I was when my daughter came home from gan singing it!

Here's the words (she doesn't know them perfectly yet!)

אבא שלי לומד
בזכותו העולם עומד
כשאבא שלי לומד תורה
הבית נתמלא אורה

לכן חשוב מאוד
לא להפריע לו ללמוד
כי אין מתנה יותר יקרה
מאבא שלומד תורה

May we be zoche that she will always appreciate the beauty and חשיבות of לימוד התורה, and that she will see her father (and בע"ה one day her husband) make great accomplishments in their learning! אמן!

Loads of fun at SpeedyKef

Our major family outing of the summer was a trip to ספידיכיף, a small amusement park a few minutes away from Beitar. We had a blast! They have an outdoor pool with water slides, with separate hours for men and women- and when its not swimming time, there are lots of other attractions for the kids, like bumper cars, jumping castles, a train ride, a petting zoo and more. The kids had a blast in the pool (Azriel Shraga got to go swimming during both men's and women's hours....he LOVED it!) and they really enjoyed the other rides as well.

I really wanted to go on the roller coaster- they have one which is built into the slopes of the mountain- but none of the kids wanted to come and the line was so long that I couldn't justify making everyone wait for so long just so I could get a thrill! So I ended up going on the "simulator" with Yisrael and Azriel Shraga (Bruria REFUSED to even get near it) - it's basically a circular ride where you sit and it spins you around- nothing too fancy- but after spinning a couple times, I just couldn't wait to get off (I guess I'm getting old!) - as soon as it ended, I got off- but the boys both started to scream "Again!" I wasn't sure if Azriel Shraga would be okay without me holding him, but he didn't want to get off- so I let him do it again with Yisrael- he laughed the whole time....they ended going on it THREE times!

As we were about to leave, Yisrael saw the bumper boats- and he did not want to leave without getting a chance! The boats were in a big pool of water, with paddles that you turn with your hands. It took Yisrael a few minutes to figure out how to maneuver the boat, but once he did, he was moving in all directions! He ended up getting soaked because the water splashes into the boat...he was thrilled!

All in all, we had a really nice time!

Savta's Chena: a real cultural experience!

For those of you who haven't heard, our Savta (Bentzi's mother) remarried a few weeks ago. She and Saba Yosef (Cattan) came to visit shortly after the wedding, and her family here decided to make a Chena for her.

A Chena is a Yemenite tradition which is normally celebrated before the Chasuna. It is a special ceremony where the Kallah is adorned with special clothes, jewelry and herbs- each thing she wears is symbolic (my kids were a little scared when they saw their Savta all dressed up...they couldn't recognize her!) The Chasan is also dressed up, but not as elaborately. The actual ceremony involves smearing a paste made of ground Henna onto the hands of the Chassan and Kallah- I think in the 'olden days' they used to do fancy decorations on the Kallah's hands- but we just smeared it! (To read more about the Chena tradition, click here)

I have never attended a Chena before - to the suprise/horror of all Bentzi's Yemenite cousins- and I must say it was QUITE an experience! They had someone saying poems and tefillos in Yemenite and then translating into Hebrew- it was very moving. And of course all the woman were doing the "lalalala" noises, and the Yemenite music was quite wild!

Pool Time!

Cuty Babies

Here's the 4 youngest Minkus grandchildren, at our annual family get-together yesterday! (everyone else was too busy running around...so it was hard to get a good picture!)

(from L-R: Chana Rokach, Shifra Tziporah Blumenkopf, Naftali Yunger, and Leeby Berg)

Do slow songs make you cry???

I don't know if all girls are like this, but I know that at least for (most) of the Minkus girls, a nice, slow song can bring us to tears. I know that it happens to me occasionally when I hear a real heart-rending song, and I've caught a few of my sisters getting teary-eyed too.

Well Bruria takes it to the extreme. She HATES slow songs- every time I start to sing a nice, slow, kumzitzy song before bedtime, she starts to cry and scream, "I don't like this song, it makes me sad!" So I've basically stopped singing songs at bedtime.

But now its gotten even worse...since the kids are on break now, I sit them down and daven with them at home. Every time we get to "אבינו אב הרחמן", Bruria starts bawling!

Oy, girls- you've just got to love them!