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Rosh Hashanah 5772 Celebrations

Posted on October 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

At nursery school, JSL has been creating a lot of items especially for Rosh Hashanah. The class has a display in their room of shofars that each of the kids made. I can not recall which of the ones was his. My guess is that it was one of the predominantly blue ones.

The kids got to see a shofar up close and even heard the rabbi practice the blasts before the holiday. Earlier in the week, a bee keeper came in to visit the classes. At the end of the day, the kids were allowed to take a piece of bees wax home with them.

As we walked out of the building, I noticed that most of the kids had their noses to the wax. Silly me, I had no idea what it was all about. Even JSL got in on the act when we got to the car.

Of course, when we arrived home I had to check it out myself. OMG – it was sweet like honey and smelled amazing. I was most definitely in love with this scent and so were all of the kids.

Since apples and honey are big for the holidays, the kids were making a lot of apple art. JSL arrived early one day and jumped right into his. I have to say, if they had allowed blue, his apple may have been that color.

Wednesday night, we went to celebrate the start of Rosh Hashanah with Nana and Papa. JSL and I picked out some of the apples that we got on his field trip the week before. They were perfect and ready to go with the honey that Nana got from a coworker.

We also had round challah with raisins on the Halloween table cloth (kind of funny no?!) and both of the boys helped to say the blessing.

Now I look forward to seeing how JSL learns about Sukkot and the rest of the holidays this year. He gets so excited and I can not wait to watch as he learns about our traditions.

How do your children embrace your holiday traditions? Feel free to share some of what your family does for any holiday that you celebrate.

Categories:
arts and crafts family food glorious food holidays jsl photos school yummy

Shannah Tovah with Apples and Honey Song

Posted on September 27, 2011 5:06 pm by TheAngelForever

I am fresh from the SheStreams Conference in NYC only to get home and thrust into the holiday bonanza of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. Yes, tis the season for a bounty of holidays. JSL came home from nursery school today with an art project. He made a Rosh Hashanah apple dipping plate. This will be heading to Nana and Papa’s house for dinner tomorrow evening to welcome the sweet new year.

Once we were home, JSL started to race around the living room and wanted to put on a show. Suddenly, I had my video camera in hand to record the little guy singing “Apples & Honey” that he recently learned.

As I learned at SheStreams, a large number of bloggers post raw, unedited video on their websites. That was golden to me. I often hesitated to post video that I made because of this reason. Let’s be honest, kids will be kids and often surprise you with their antics. Of course, this makes the video more real and quite authentic.

Well, JSL did not fail on that. At four, he has a quirky sense of humor and is gaining confidence in his talking and singing. A few short months ago, he never would have agreed to share this song in front of the camera. Check out how he replies to my questions and ends the video.

As I enter the new year, I hope to embark on many new and exciting things. This will include more videos and vlogs in the near future.

To all of those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, I wish you and your family a Happy and Sweet New Year.

Categories:
arts and crafts Blogging Conference crafts fun holidays jsl me moments photos school video

Back to School 2011

Posted on September 3, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

In just a few short days both of you will be heading back to school. We have had a lot of fun this summer. Neither of you went to camp, but we kept busy. We went to the library and crafting events, had adventures in the park, and just tried to stay cool any way possible.

Sure some days may have seemed like they were never going to end, but no matter how frazzled I was – I love spending my days with both of you. I am truly lucky to be able to watch both of you grow, learn, and laugh in front of my eyes. I do miss teaching, but this time with both of you is priceless.

Just four years ago I sent NHL off to school for the first time. Now JSL, you will be going to nursery school five days a week. I will miss those two special days that we had together last year. It was fun having these years home with you. I know we will work together on writing and pre-reading skills since you want to read like your big brother. Please be prepared that I will likely cry next year when you, my baby, go to kindergarten for the entire day.

This summer you conquered chapter books. You read a good amount of them and tried a few different series. I love watching you devour the books and chat with me about the story. NHL, I can not wait to see all that is out there for you to learn and discover in the third grade. We have met your teacher and I am positive it will be an amazing year. You want to do multiplication, division, and more. I know you can do anything you put your mind to and will show everyone just how smart and capable you are.

Boys, remember to follow your dreams, do the best that you can, and know that I will always be there for both of you cheering you on.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
arts and crafts Dear Kid Saturday fun jsl looking back nhl photos play time school summer

Baby Gifts

Posted on September 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

There are days that I would love to have another baby. I mean we have cute kids and it would be a lot of fun to add more laughter to our family. Then reality kicks me in the rear. I think about being up all night with an infant, diaper changes, and the cost. No, two kids is perfect for our family – we are complete!

Of course, I love making things and putting together gifts for new babies. When my life long friend told everyone that she was pregnant, I waited to find out if she was expecting a boy or a girl. The evening that she announced that it would be a little boy, I ran out to the store to get supplies. I had a mission to start a baby blanket for her little one.

This was THE baby blanket that created baby blanket envy with my boys. In the end the blanket was finished and ready to be part of a present for Baby Z.

Of course, I can not knit a baby blanket for every gift that we need. Here’s another baby gift that we recently gave.

You can see some of my knitted wash cloths, along with some other items that the boys require us to include. Yes, we must have a buddy, and rubber duck for bath time. Plus, I think it is nice to toss in some baby wash since you will be using a lot of that with a new born.

So my question to you this week:

What do you like to give as a gift for a new baby and why?

Pssst . . . if you knit or crochet – I am on Ravelry and have more photos of my items on there.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #167

Categories:
Aloha Friday arts and crafts gift ideas knitting looking back me moments photos

Cutting and Pasting Practice – Catch Me There

Posted on August 21, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As a teacher, you would think that I would know when kids need to learn to cut and paste. Well, you would be wrong. I have now been caught off guard with both of my kids. Thanks to this, we spent time this summer practicing and working on cutting and pasting skills. To help make this more fun, I tied in Disney. Shocked, aren’t you?!

My latest post on The Disney Driven Life: Cutting and Pasting Practice with Disney is all about the project that we did and more ideas you can try. It really is amazing how much time kids will spend cutting and pasting when they have items that they love in front of them.

Please stop by to say hello and check out the other magical posts from my Disney Drive Life friends. My other posts there can be found under NDM183 – that’s me!

So what other ideas do you have for cutting and pasting practice with younger kids?

Do not forget that even older children need to work on these skills since they do not use scissors as often as younger kids may in school and when crafting.