Purim 2011

So this year Zachary planned to be Darth Vader again, until he heard that his best friend was dressing up as a karate "guy" and then he decided he would do that too. As for Zoe, a bride (Callah in hebrew) was her request and thankfully we had a bride costume and this beautiful flower girl dress she could wear.

For the first Megillah (Purim story) reading on saturday nite, even Daddy dressed up. Everyone took a nap in the afternoon so that we could stay up late to hear the Megillah and party for Purim. The kids enjoyed listening to the story and shook their groggers every time they heard Haman's name. Then they begged to stay later so they could eat pasta and treats. By the time they got to bed it was very late ... but they did sleep in on sunday morning.

Here is a picture of Zoe with the grogger (noise maker) she made at school. She was very excited to shake it whenever they said Haman.

On sunday afternoon the shul had a lovely purim suedah (meal) organized by Mama and some of the other ladies. It was delicious and lots of fun too. Zachary and Zoe dressed up again and even Mama had a mask to wear. Their was a DJ and Zoe enjoyed a lot of dancing, see her and Mama dancing here. Before Daddy took the kids home for bed (Mama stayed to help clean up from the seudah) she wanted a picture with her two purim cuties. They are holding balloons which were part of the centerpieces -- why does that always happen at these things, oh well as long as the kids had fun and the party was a success we don't care!

A friend took a family picture of us, so stay tuned.

Zoe's Shabbat Dinner at Gan Hayeled

Zoe's preschool, Gan Hayeled, hosted its annual Shabbat Dinner. Last year we didn't go since it begins right before shabbat and Zoe's school is too far to walk home from. However this year there was enough time to be there for the pre-dinner singing and still drive home in time to light our shabbat candles, so we were so excited to be going.

This is Zoe's self portrait -- complete with her green polka-dotted rain boots. She wore her brown dress and brown tights that day too and we love it and can't wait to hang it in her bedroom.

Daddy and his cutie.

Mama and both her cuties, when we could catch them long enough to take a picture. The kids did quite a bit of running laps before the singing.

Zoe on the bimah with her friends singing shabbat songs. They were adorable. They sang shabbat shalom, shabbat dinosaur, oseh shalom, dovid melech and more, and then lit the shabbat candles.

Zoe running laps in her purple ruffle dress - it was so beautiful and she was very excited to wear it. Not to mention how it moved when she ran!

The kids all wore kippot, although somehow the one Zoe came home with is not the one pictured here ...?????