Yungers in Action: Mixing bowl... or a merry-go-round?

The kids love to play with my big mixing bowl- ususally they fill it with toys and "cook" - but today Bruria found a new use for it:

Cute Quote: How to pronounce Bruria's name

Yisrael: BRuRia (hard American-sounding R), come here!
Bruria: That's not my name! My name is Brrrurrria (throaty, Israeli resh)!
Yisrael: I know- that's your name in Ivrit- but I'm saying your name in English!

Got Milk?

Mornings in the Yunger household can get pretty hectic - so sometimes I tend to "neglect" the younger two until I get Yisrael and Bruria ready to go to Cheder and Gan. One morning, Azriel Shraga kept asking me for a drink of milk, and I kept telling him "Soon" or "One minute". Well I guess he got tired of waiting, and he decided to take matters into his own hands!

I'm a winner

(Yes, I know we all knew that already...)

I am the second winner of the 8 Nights, 8 Flights email campaign, run by Oorah! Pretty crazy, huh? I always sign up for these things, figuring- "what do I have to lose- its free!" but somehow I don't have mazal to actually win things (until now, that is!)

So when Mommy called me yesterday because she saw that I won, I was shocked! I was in the middle of putting the kids to bed, and they couldn't figure out why all of a sudden Mommy was shrieking like a lunatic (like I said, exciting things like this usually don't happen to me!)

So basically, I am now the proud owner of a free trip to/from Israel ($1000 max) which has to be used by the end of 2010. Or, I can opt for the $850 cash prize.

So when am I coming to visit? Not sure if and when that will be. Maybe if there's a chasuna in the family? (no pressure, Tehila!) Yisrael already told me that HE wants to use the ticket to fly to America (yeah right, he cries if we try to get him to walk to Cheder by himself...) or we could always opt for the $....a little bit extra cash could never hurt!

Anyway, there's still another 5 drawings left, so make sure to sign up if you haven't already....you may be the next winner!

Bruria's Chanuka party in Gan

Today I was invited to Bruria's gan to partake in a special Chanuka party. Her teachers really went all-out to prepare a really nice morning. Her music teacher came, and she had numerous different activities and props to do with the kids, some of which are pictured below.

(All nursery morahs and ganenets should pay some real close attention: you can get some really cute ideas!)

First, we did a lot of music activities- each girl got a pom-pom (with ribbons the colors of flames) to shake while they sang (see top left picture- sorry that she has her finger in her nose but I couldn't get a better shot!). After that, each girl got a musical instruments to play along with the music. We also sand a song about lighting the menorah, and we 'lit' a menorah made out of styrofoam (which the girls had decorated a different day), by sticking in toothpicks with 'flames' on the ends. After that, we sang a song about making olive oil, and each girl got to 'squeeze' her (pretend) olive into a huge bottle! We also did a special dreidel dance, with each mother spinning her 'dreidel' (daughter) around and around!

Next, they had the mothers hold onto a huge black sheet, and the girls all danced around underneath- to symbolize darkness. Then, they told all the girls to pop out through the holes, so they could have light! (see top right picture)

Finally, her teachers constructed a huge 'frying pan', and each girl was given a sufganiya hat. They danced around inside the frying pan, and when they were all ready, us mothers put 'jelly' on them! (see both bottom pictures)

We were then treated to a sumptuous milchig brunch, and of course each girl got a pekala! It was really a very sweet morning, and I must say that both Bruria and I really enjoyed!

Mechira Madness

Well, for those of you who have been wondering why I've been a little out-of-touch lately, I have a VERY good excuse. I have been busy organizing a huge "Yard" sale (I call it a Mechira) to raise money for Bentzi's yeshiva. I did it once in the summer, and it was a big success, so I decided that now would be a good time to do another one. Basically, we got donations of clothes, shoes, books, housewares, etc., and I had to go through everything and throw out whatever was not sellable, and sort and price whatever was. It was a VERY big job, but B"H we had the sale for two days this week and we raised over $3,500! I am doing another sale next week, where everything will be 50% off, so hopefully we'll bring in some more!

(now that things are starting to wind down with the sale, I've got to catch up with everything else that's fallen to the wayside...PLEASE don't look at the state of my house right now!)

UPDATE 12/10/09: B"H our last sale went well, and our total is now over $4,500!

Haircut Mishaps

Today I gave Yisrael a haircut, and after going across his head once, the machine decided to stop working! Yikes! He was VERY shaggy already (I've been so busy with other things that his haircut kept getting pushed off until it was really in a desperate state...) and anyways, once I started I couldn't just stop, but what to do now? One neighbor of mine goes to the barber, so they don't have a machine, and another one told me that hers is broken. So I grabbed Naftali, and ran to ask another neighbor (of course they DO have one but the parents were sleeping....)

Anyway, I ran back home, and figured that we'd first eat supper, and then hopefully I'd find a way to finish up his hair.

Well, as soon as I came back, I had a feeling something wasn't right- it was just TOO QUIET! (Mind you, I was gone for all of 2 minutes?) Well, I ran upstairs, and found Yisrael and Bruria giving Azriel Shraga a haircut! B"H it wasn't nearly as bad as the last haircut Bruria did- they only managed to cut off a few curls...and his hair is messy enough that you don't really notice that anything is missing! (but if you're not supposed to cut a boy's hair until he's 3, does the fact that you can't notice make it OK?! I'm not really too worried!)

I gave the kids supper, and meanwhile my other neighbor came home, and lent me her machine. So now, B"H, Yisrael has a nice haircut (except that he won't let me trim his peyos, because he wants them to be long, like his Chassidishe teacher!)