How We Roll

For those of you who don't know, Ben is half Jewish from his Dad's side. Since we wanted to get in touch with those Jewish roots, and we actually bought a menorah this year, and we wanted to use the dreidel that Ben's Mom gave us last year, and we like to eat latkes, brisket and matzo ball soup, we decided to have a last minute Hanukkah get together with some friends. It also involved a gift exchange between Ethan and Simon who were more than thrilled to play with the new Star Wars Lego set he got (thanks, Vaiseys). After dinner we lit the menorah and played dreidel with the Mudrick classic prize of m&m's. So, technically Hanukkah doesn't start for a couple more days, but we figured we'd be gone for the majority of the days of Hanukkah so we partied anyway. Because that's how we roll. Like a dreidel...get it?

That's one magic dreidel.

Gems From the iPhone

Having a phone with picture/video taking capabilities has it's perks. It's easy to capture moments on a daily basis without getting out a video camera or the hefty DSLR. On the other hand, the things captured on the phone tend to stay there instead of ending up here on the blog. Especially videos of the kids. Once in while I'll post a photo to Instagram or Facebook, but it's not quite the family journal like the blog is. Anyway, here are a few moments captured on the blessed iPhone that have recently been released from the vaults.







And here are some other photos of recent happenings.

Ethan traced letters for the first time. Not too shabby.

Sharing some iPhone screen time with cousin Naomi. They play so well together.

Sharing a milkshake at the Museum of Play.

Sharing toast.

Ethan's first cleaning at the dentist. Didn't go super well, but better than expected.

Eleanor is ready for her 8 teeth to be cleaned.

First real snowfall of the season that lasted all of 2 hours. I'm not complaining though. It's nice not to have to trudge through snow while doing holiday shopping.

Festive Bedtime

I love bath night. There really is nothing quite like a freshly bathed baby/toddler when they smell like a bottle of shampoo. Put some festive pajamas on those freshly bathed kids and then there really is nothing better! Some day the kids will be embarrassed to be seen in matching pj's, so I just have to indulge while they're still young. Like their Halloween pj's I bought these after Christmas last year and just crossed my fingers that Eleanor would fit in a 18-24 month set. Phew!

Post bath ringlets.