A lazy vacation morning

You know how it goes...kids are off of school, its less than a week to Pesach, and you've got tons to do!  So as soon as you're up, you quickly get to work!  Meanwhile the kids slowly start to wake up, and hang around in PJ's while you're busy tackling those dirty cabinets.  Well at one point I realized that it was too quiet- which is usually a sign of trouble. So imagine the feeling when I went into my room and saw this:

The kids were all cuddled up in my bed (except for Yisrael and Nissim who still have school - !) and Bruria was reading them a book - it was a real "Awwwwwwwwwww" moment!

But now I'd better go back to my scrubbing...I just wanted to share this cute moment with you! 

Our Erev Shabbos "Bath"

This past Erev Shabbos was a HOT day. And with such a long afternoon ahead of us, we were trying to come up with ideas to keep the kids busy, without creating a huge mess in the house.

The Solution: A pool/bath! We filled up the pool in our front yard (which is shady in the afternoon) and gave everyone a bath in the pool. They had a real blast- we can't fit all five in at the same time in our bathtub, and I let them splash as much as they wanted because it wasn't going to make a mess all over our bathroom! After letting the kids splash and "swim" for a while, we started washing them all down with soap and shampoo (the bubbles from the shampoo caused lots of excitement).

 

Once everyone was finally washed, dried, and brought inside to get dressed, they had let out lots of their energy, and they were happy to sit on the couch and read books- a real win/win situation!

We'll have to try this tactic more often!

Going for a "Spin"

Since Yisrael comes home early on Rosh Chodesh, I decided to take the kids for a "spin"- quite literally.  There is a really interesting park in Beitar B (the opposite hill from where we live) which I've passed by a few times, so I decided to take them there.  The whole park is a "spinning park" with different types of equipment that spin and rotate based on the body's weight and movement.  The kids had a really fun time experimenting with their body weight and gravity, and eventually they got the "hang" of it.  They learned how to shift their weight to make themselves spin- what a blast! Of course I also made sure to join in the fun (after all, someone had to demonstrate!)

And where was Nissim during all the excitement? 

Doing what babies do best....sleeping!

Feeling Blue?

One way of saving trees...

Color on your skin instead! It washes right off (well, after much scrubbing in the bath...) and can be reused again and again!