Gedalya's Hachnosa L'Cheider!

So we took our little/big boy (choose one) to cheider! Yes, the curly one, the redhead one, the toddler one!
I spent most of last night making pekelech. At first I thought we had to make for both of the kindergarten classes. But it was only after I packed 55 bags that I found out that we need only for one class!
I also forgot that they have a "no nuts" rule and bought pistachios as part of the pekele. Oh, well. B"H I had marshmallows that I was able to substitute. So the contents were: potato chips, a chocolate coated wafer and a little bag of a few marshmallows.


At first I wanted pekelech with an upsherin theme. We had them for Zusha's hachnosa, and I thought I'd find something like that. But the store I went to didn't have any like that. But they did have bulldozer themed bags, so I got those. To compensate, I bought gold "Mazal Tov" stickers to seal the bag and Alef Beis stickers to put into each bag.


In the morning, we got the kids dressed in Shabbos clothes (even Adel wore her Shabbos dress. Too bad she stayed in her snowsuit the entire time), put a yarmulka on Gedalya's flowing ringlets, wrapped our little boy in a tallis and were on our way!



When we came in, the Rebbe introduced Gedalya to the boys. Then they davened.

Gedalya is saying Shema:


Then Gedalya read the Osiyos.



Next was the long awaited and talked about honey licking ceremony!
The Rebbe did one letter, then Hillel did one.


All the adults in the room put honey on the paper for Gedalya to lick. And then, to my surprise, the Rebbe called Zusha up to put honey on a letter!

Zusha was very pleased. He put honey on one letter and gave it to Gedalya to lick.

The Rebbe finished the rest of them. Yum!


Then everyone sang Mazal Tov. The boys clapped while Hillel, Zusha, Gedalya and the Rebbes danced.


Gedalya gave out pekelech to the boys, who, from their squeals of delight, I could tell approved of my choice of the excavator/bulldozer/truck bags.


What a fun and exciting day!


Zusha went to his class, and the rest of us were ready to go home.


We got a few more cute photos on our way home:


Am I really cutting THIS?



Happy third birthday to my happy little three year old!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow



this child



turns three!

This wonderful, spirited, handsome little boy of mine will no longer be a toddler! We will take him to cheider for the first time, where he will read the Alef Beis, lick honey from the letters and give pekelech to the boys. We're all very excited! After much deliberation, the decision regarding his hair: we will stick to our original plan and cut it on Lag B'Omer.

I took some "3rd Birthday" photos... above is just a sampling. Click here for the whole load!

Troublemaker!!

My little photographer redhead curly boy... what do I do with him? He went and erased so many wonderful photos from my camera.
Just last week, he took pictures of me taking Zusha from the bus. The photos were great! I'm smiling at Zusha, Zusha's smiling at Adel... the bus in the background.
He just went and erased it all. Zusi and Zusha playing in the park, Zusi's brothers, Zusha on a swing, flying through the air. All deleted.
Some really great ones of Gedalya sitting barefoot on our doorstep, waiting for Zusha. All... well. you get the idea.

I was devastated. Hillel looked around for a file recovery software, and it pulled up a few photos. Actually, it pulled up over 300, but most of them were really old. Not the ones I was looking for. And many photos have a few images conglomerated into one. Modern art style.
So I was able to salvage some.

Like Zusi's baby brother...


And a barefoot Gedalya on the steps. A bit chopped up, but still nice. It's not one of the best ones of the batch, but I'll take what I can get.


This is one of the ones I really was upset about losing: Gedalya waiting for Zusha's bus.

And Adel waiting for Zusha's bus...


And Zusha on the swings... this I'm really happy to have back!


And a photo of the kids playing... similar to the one I posted before, but a little better composition.


And a whole bunch of really cool collages!

















From this one, I was able to extract a cute (abstract) picture:


Ta-da!

This is one of the cute footsie photos I really wanted back. So I got it back!

It's pretty annoying, since the images are damaged, and not all are showing up. Some show up in my folders, others in Paint Shop, others load but don't appear.
It took me a while to figure it all out. I will spare you all the technical details. At least it's working now!

Adel has been Trained

No, not that kind of trained.
THIS kind of trained:


She had her first experience riding in our train rocker! She loved it, and the boys were over the moon with excitement.




See the train tracks?

It's really the railing from Zusha's toddler bed. It was loose, and the boys were trying to loosen it more and break it off, so I took it off altogether until we are able to fix it.
So they put it under the train rocker and made tracks!

Aren't those adorable little feet in that photo above? Here are some more.