A lovely afternoon in פארק בגין- עין קובי

Yesterday we planned to go to the park in Gilo (which many of you are familiar with) to have a BBQ and play in the park.  But when Bentzi came home from morning seder, he commented that it was a really nice cool day - and its a חבל to "waste" going to פארק גילה on a day like that (for those of you who are unfamiliar with this park in southern ירושלים, it is on the side of the mountain and very shady- so even on a pretty hot day, its rather cool there)  So we changed our plans and decided to stay local, and spend the afternoon in one of the parks here in Beitar.  Yisrael wanted to go to one of the new parks in Givah B, but when we got there, we couldn't really find ANY shady, grassy areas which would be comfortable for a BBQ.

So we came up with an impromptu Plan C- to go to פארק בגין, a forest preserve that's 5 minutes down the road from Beitar (in safe territory, no worry!)  It was close enough that Bentzi was able to drop me off with some of the kids and then pick up the rest of the crew (we don't all fit in our car)  It was a great choice- we picked a nice spot with picnic tables, and got our BBQ started.

There's an interesting blog I visit from time to time, written by a frum woman here in E"Y.  She has many tips on frugal living- and one post of hers describes how to make a BBQ without buying any coals, using bits of wood instead.  I figured we might as well try it out (we did bring coals along just in case!)- so the kids got all busy collecting different sizes of branches and wood scraps that had fallen from the nearby trees.  It was a lot of fun for them, much more so than a regular BBQ- even Naftali was busy bringing me twigs to put in the fire.  (Anyone who has bought cheap "coals" here in E"Y has seen that they are really just pieces of wood covered with a black substance- and our "coals" worked just as well- if not better!)

It was a great learning experience- the kids got a mini science lesson, as I explained how the fire burns the wood, and how the thicker pieces get really hot so even when the flames die down, there is still plenty of heat from the wood.  Bentzi offered a mini mussar lesson, using the fire as a משל to illustrate how the fire of תורה goes into a person's נמשה and heats it up, and how once a person's נמשה is so hot with תורה, that heat can spread to warm up others.

While the food was cooking, the kids had fun climbing in the olive trees right by the picnic tables.  Bruria is already becoming a mini seminary girl, asking me to take pictures of her in various poses in the tree.  Yisrael and Azriel joined her, and then we even got Naftali to go up- so we got a few nice family shots.

After a delicious lunch, we played in the historic site nearby- עין קובי - which has underground caves running from the ruins of ancient houses, to a water cistern which they dug.  The kids had fun crawling through the caves and coming out at all the different exits (I tried joining them but there were parts of the caves which were a bit too narrow for me!)- we gave them a flashlight and they had a real blast.

Before beginning to head home, we lit a small bonfire (now that we were experts!) and roasted marshmallows- a delicious treat to leave a sweet taste in our mouths after a really fun afternoon!