Target practice

We had a playdate and 2 kids came over. I took out some sidewalk chalk and drew a target on the side of the house. Then I drew a line and had the kids line up and take turns throwing balls at the target trying to get a bullseye. It was a kodak moment. I'm a genious!

Spending more time with the boys

I have been spending alot more time with the boys and lately they have been doing the cutest things, it would be a crime not to share them. Their latest fun thing is to create a club house or hideout, depending on who you ask. They set it up completely on their own and it involves tunnels covered with sheets and blankets and they span from one end of the playroom to the other.

They are fantastic at cleaning up and Avi is really good at making beds and folding blankets. Ben is the best as sweeping up after dinner, and Yakov puts toys away where they belong. Its pretty amazing what you can get a 4 yr old to do for 1 chocolate chip!!!

Yehuda (the baby) is absolutely wonderful. Sometimes I forget hes there. I'll put him in his jumper in the doorway and he just bounces and giggles and smiles. He is a happy baby. I don't have to do much to entertain him. Avi, Ben & Yakov are his own personal 3 ring circus acts.

I have alot of fun things planned for this month that the kids are home. You can see it here so keep checking for updates.

Magic Mitzvah Beans

Starting tomorrow each boy will get a magic mitzvah bean for every mitzvah that they do. Or that they see their brother doing. A mitzvah in this case would translate to doing something good or helpful. For example, Avi cleared his breakfast bowl from the table. Then he would get a bean in his jar. However it goes even further, I've been getting tired of hearing the tattles of he did this to me...he did that to me... So if someone catches someone else doing a mitzvah, like Ben noticed Yakov picking up Yehuda's pacifier and putting it back in the baby's mouth. So in this case Ben & Yakov get beans.

What is so magical about these beans you may ask. Well first of all they will bring alot more positive energy into the home and thats enough on its own but... these beans turn into Shabbat treats (TRIX cereal, rainbow balls as they call them) every friday. It will give us another activity to do on Friday, counting beans!

I've been talking about this new idea for a few days now and tomorrow we are going to the store together to buy them. (again its something to do!)
There are penalties too I should note. If someone does something bad he loses a bean, and if its to one of his brothers then the brother gets to decide how many beans get removed 1 or 2.

I will keep you updated on how this system plays out.

What?

When I picked the boys up from camp they always had a ton of things to say, typically all at once and I'm lucky if I could get them to slow down so that they could take turns telling me what happened but basically they loved it.

The best was when they got in the car and all started talking about how one of the kids had brought in a snack and they were asking me "could we could have OD israel" well like you are now, I had no clue what they were trying to ask me so I asked them to tell me more about the snack, (trying to backtrack figuring the 2 were related somehow) They told me that someone had round candies with chocolate and they had ABCs on them, and then Avi said "But they all had M's" Aha! They were talking about M&M's and wanted to know if they could eat them because they were ou d and not cholov yisroel (two different types of kosher dairy labels) anyway they were so happy that I told them that we do in fact eat ou d. Then all at once they asked me to pack it in their lunches for tomorrow. - yeah right!

Mommy Camp

Tomorrow is the 1st day of Mommy Camp. The camp they were going to is over and they loved it. But those 5 weeks flew by so fast and now its my turn to entertain these guys until school starts. This blog is going to keep me sane through the summer.

Some recent pics to share

Avi in his bed
Yehuda & Ben playing together, making faces in the mirror
Yakov reading in his bed
Yehuda playing in the playroom.

Group Photo

You can't imagine how hard a simple photo like this was to shoot. (Thank you Neri, our new housekeeper for capturing this moment)

God Bless Shana!

Shana used to be our next door neighbor before we moved. When Yosef went away for a week trip to Israel Shana moved in! She took the night shift with Yehuda and the boys love her!!! We all love Shana. She is also a very close friend of mine. We are so lucky to have her in our lives.

Yehuda is 7 months