For our second night of Hanukkah this year we celebrated with friends. Olivier, Ellen, Eric, and the Scott family came over to help us with our briskette and latkes.

In the spirit of things

Yummy latkes!

We had a very sweet first night of Hanukkah with Norah and Sammy. After dinner we put the kids in their jammies and then gathered around the menorah. We lit the candles and read a quick Hanukkah story. Then we let the kids open their gifts from Grandma Savta and Great-grandma Fyrn. Sammy loved everything and started playing right away! Norah I think enjoyed ripping the paper. She was already very tired and went to bed right after. We let Sammy stay up a little while to play.

As many of you know, I have been taking Norah to Mommy and Me swim lessons for several months now. She loves the water!! I haven’t been able to get much in the way of pictures since I’m in the water with her, but Jeremy was finally able to come and watch and take some for us to share. Norah gets so excited when we arrive at the pool. She bounces and smiles and continually tries to crawl in before I’ve had a chance to get her into her bathing suit. She really loves it.

We have been so busy since getting back from London…..the kids are growing by leaps and bounds.  Norah crawls so fast she’s hard to catch!  She is cruising around – walking by holding onto things and is constantly getting tangled up in our legs.  She will be walking very soon!  Sammy is doing wonderfully.  His swimming is improving every week.  He is almost 100% potty trained (whew!)!  We are now gearing up for the holidays and our trip to Florida.  Sammy can’t wait to fly on a plane again.  He is such a good traveler!  That’s it for now I guess.  We’ll keep you posted!

For Thanksgiving this year we shared it with our friends the Brough family, the Schwartz family and the Teeter family.  I gotta say it was very relaxing not cooking.  Even more relaxing was all the girls of babysitting age who passed Norah around all afternoon giving me a chance to be with the adults!  She had a great time playing with everyone….so did Sammy.  At 9 pm when we finally headed home he was begging to stay.  What a terrific time.  I am very thankful for such wonderful friends!

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Wearing Sammy's pilgrim hat

I'm a little turkey

Last weekend we took Sammy to the pumpkin patch to pick out this year’s pumpkin.  Sammy had a blast.  First we picked our pumpkin right out in the field where it grew,

At the pumpkin patch

then we took a wagon ride to the petting zoo.  Sammy loved feeding the goats!  Norah was interested a bit too.  On the return wagon ride they shot off the pumpkin cannon.  I loved that! and then Sammy ran through a hay maze.  Norah mostly played with her socks.

Last night was Halloween so we took the kids to Light the Night at Calvary Church as we have done every previous year.  I have been sewing frantically all week to make the kids costumes.  They went as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.  They looked great if I do say so myself.  Sammy was very excited all week about dressing up.  He anxiously watched his costume being pieced together.  We walked around and saw all the different booths and things going on.  We bumped into friends too.  Noah was dressed as a knight.  He looked great!  Even Mitchell was there in a tiger suit. He was too cute!  The kids both got balloons.  Sammy picked another pumpkin to bring home and he played games for candy.  He had a very good night! And I think our Tinkerbell did too!

We are finally back in California if not entirely back on California time.  We had a wonderful visit.  The flight out was rough.  The seats were very narrow and because we were in the bulkhead the trays came out of the armrests and couldn’t be put up.  The bulkhead seemed like a good idea because we were given a bassinette/seat that attached to the wall for Norah after take off, but she didn’t really like it and because we couldn’t move the armrests, Sammy couldn’t stretch out and truly sleep.  It was a very long flight!  As soon as we got in we went straight to the hotel.  Jeremy got a nap while the kids played and I unpacked.  We tackled the transportation right away.  We found the train station and took it to Putney and then walked to our cousin’s house for dinner.  We had dinner at Beth and Ira’s with Jeremy’s mom and stepfather and his aunt and uncle.  It was a delicious turkey dinner; like an early Thanksgiving complete with stuffing.  The next day Ira and Beth took us all to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, unfortunately it was called off due to rain. It really wasn’t that bad!  So Aunt Marye and Uncle Arnie headed for the Imperial Was Museum while the rest of us went to get a bite to eat.  Afterward Beth and Ira left us and we walked to Trafalgar Square and to the National Gallery.  It was an amazing gallery!  The artwork we’d only seen in books was right there in front of us, inches away!  Sammy particularly liked the Monets.  He said they reminded him of the show Little Einsteins.  Too cute.  That night the kids stayed home with Beth and we took a short tour around the grounds of the Tower of London with a Yeoman Warder and then saw the Key Ceremony.  The same ceremony has been going on every night for hundreds of years.  Very cool!  Afterwards we had a pint at the Yeoman Warders private club bar.  What an evening!  The next day we went to Greenwich and visited the National Maritime Museum.  Sammy really enjoyed the hands on exhibits. The one thing I did think I wanted to do in Greenwich was go to the Royal Observatory and stand on the official Meridian Line.  Unfortunately it was raining too hard and we couldn’t!  We did so much else on our trip…we did finally get to see the changing of the guard and from inside the palace gates!! That was really neat.  We went back and toured the Tower of London again and saw the inside exhibits, shopped Portabello Road and got crepes, Harrod’s and got ice cream, saw Picadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, rode over the Tower Bridge.  Best of all we got to spend time with our family!  Beth and Ira’s dog, Buck, made a big impression on Sammy.  He is still asking to go to Buck’s house!  He loved riding the trains and the underground and the buses.  We had a wonderful time; I wish we could have stayed longer!

Well, for those of you who haven’t heard yet, we are going to London!  It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that we can’t miss.  Jeremy’s cousin has been living there with her husband the last few years, but they will be moving back to the states soon.  So, here parents, Jeremy’s aunt and uncle, are going to visit.  So are Cookie and Itsik.  We decided we better go too!  This week has been crazy getting a certified birth certificate for Norah so we could get her passport.  Because of the short time frame we had to expedite those too!  Then getting a good flight and finding a hotel…….anyway we are all set.  We are heading out October 4th.  I can’t wait.  We are trying to plan some fun activities for Sammy while we are there too so he will have a great time as well.  It’s so exciting!

It was a nice afternoon, so we went outside so Sammy could blow bubbles – something he loves to do.  We put Norah in her Bumbo seat.  You may have to turn the volume all the way up because I caught this video on my iphone and I can barely hear it at the beginning.  Enjoy the kids!