Do you not know what causes that?

First Day!

Today was Isaac's first official Bar Mitzvah lesson!  I know I'll spend plenty of time griping about it between now and then, but today I'm happy.

Orchestra

Okay so the photo is blurry. The music was great at the All County Orchestra concert. We finally talked Hilary into auditioning and she got in despite not practicing. It was a very nice concert.

Isaac wanted to spend his birthday at school with the French teacher. They had open house for 5th graders. When he got home we surprised him with a video camera! I can't wait to see the wacky things he does with it. I already told him that tonight we go over the rules of use.

Twelve

It's really hard to believe that Isaac is twelve today.  It's a big birthday.  I've started thinking about his Bar Mitzvah to come next year.  I've reflected back on the last year.  He's transitioned to middle school nicely.  He's got lots of friends and is starting to really come into his own. He's a good kid.

Here's my version of his birth story and Kevin's version.

Halloween 2009

We had a lot of fun last night. The girls enjoyed the themed costumes as did the folks at the nursing home. Then we stopped to see Eve and Doug. Back to our neighborhood.

Isaac walked with us and took some pics. Benjamin and Hilary opted to stay home. Then I did homework.

Race for the Cure

Hilary and Isaac are doing Race for the Cure this morning. I'm just sitting in the car crying. Grandma got diagnosed and had her mastectomy in October. She was amazed at how many people talked about breast cancer - why it was even on her soup can! She had no idea it was a one month long thing. She just thought she was out of the loop. I'm watching all the people in pink stream by my car. The signs. The t-shirts. The huge tufts of balloons and even some pink hair. I can't help but feel a bit defeated today in my own personal race for a cure.

Isaac & Grandma

If you haven't read Isaac's essay about his grandma, it's sweet.

The Days Go On

Well, life is actually quite good here on the ranch.  Kevin is settled in his new job (for the week) in The Netherlands.  The poor vegan finally figured out how to ask for vegetables in Dutch and to pay for them with Euros.

It's amazing how much you can do in one afternoon!  The girls and I took a walk with Noa in the stroller. They collected half the foliage from here to there.  I was amazed as they picked up the leaves and were talking about each on in depth.  Clara said something about loving to collect leaves and then I thought, "Well only until middle school biology when you'll have to have a huge project - then you'll hate leaves."  How sad, and hopefully not true in their school tract.

Noa really enjoyed the stroller and the walk. I had forgotten how fun the world is through the eyes of a little one.  She's getting so animated and vocal.  She used to talk only when people weren't around, like in the car when she thought she was alone because she couldn't see me.  Now she talks more, unless Ada is around.  She has a few words too.  Tonight I'd swear she said Hi Dad! to Kevin on the phone.

And we got Isaac's county achievement medal in the school mail:

After the walk, we cleaned a bit. Had dinner and talked to Kevin. Then we did the laundry.  Read from our read aloud book, though it was creative reading on my part as I had to rewrite it a bit as we read. I figured it had to be near bed time - nope 6:36 p.m.

Hmmm, what now? Okay some more laundry and made more teacher appreciation gifts.  Now it was bed time.  :-)

I'm alone, writing and working. Okay blogging, fbing and talking on AIM...

Isaac's Award

I'm proud to announce that Isaac won an honorable mention for his essay in the Cari Kleinman Memorial Essay Contest.  It was a letter to a future Jew...

He's in!

Isaac is thrilled to be going to the school of his choice next year!  So far all of his friends who applied got in. He will miss his friends who applied elsewhere.  But the look on his face was priceless.

I was doing okay with the waiting until I saw how painful it was for him...

Good news, we don't have to sweat it anymore.

Tooth Removal Fail

So Owen has a slightly loose tooth.  It barely wiggles at all, but we can still hear of nothing but the tooth. So She was just sitting here talking about it when Isaac offered, "Go to Ms. Lori, she'll pull it for you."  (That's a nice woman in the school office.) Benjamin says, "Don't do what I did - put a crochet hook in your mouth..."

Ouch.