Cool Clouds

 

Too Funny Not to Share

This is what happens when Ben talks into his Apple Watch instead of bothering to fish his phone out of his pocket and text me back!

 

Mid-Week Update

We celebrated Becca's 9th birthday this weekend, with dinner at Blue Taj on Saturday night, presents, steak dinner and ice cream cake on Sunday. Becca got an iPad Mini from Joel and I, and lots of other great presents. Lucky girl!

Caroline is still doing great with her reading (see video below) - yesterday while I was cooking dinner I handed her Ten Apples Up On Top and she plowed through the whole thing, needing help with maybe 5 words total. It was the first time she had ever read that book herself, and I had probably only read it to her a couple of times and not within the last year at least, so it was very new to her.

Becca and Ben have both had a good start to the school year so far, fingers crossed :) And we're still waiting for something resembling fall weather to kick in! We're looking forward to Rosh Hashana Sunday/Monday and I had promised Becca we might go ice skating Saturday afternoon.

More of Caroline Reading

Happy birthday Becca!

Birthday number 9! 

 

 

Ice Cream Cone

I had to coach Caroline through the eating of her very first ice cream cone (we found some gluten free ones at the grocery store). When first presented with it she attempted to take a very large bite out of the side of the cone, greatly threatening its structural integrity ;) I talked her through the proper technique and she managed to eat the whole thing without any ice cream falling on the floor. Phew :)

 

Reading Progress

Last night was the first time I pulled a "real" book off the shelf for Caroline to try. She immediately balked, saying "I can't read that kind of book, mommy!" But I assured her she could and that I would help her with the words she didn't know. She did great and was so proud of herself!

Goal!!

My girl scored her first goal in her first ever soccer game as the Masada Stars cruised past the Jerusalem Strikers 4-0! Way to go Caroline!!

 

Week in Review

It has been a busy week, with Joel away it Atlanta for a conference for part of the week. We finished redecorating the mantel:

  

And we had our third Friday night Shabbat dinner in a row!

 

I also upgraded to the iPhone 7 / iOS 10 and now neither of my previous blogger apps will work. So here goes nothing, hoping this new one works! Other than that small snag I am enjoying the new phone and operating system. 

Future Soccer Star

Well probably not a future soccer star with these genetics. But Caroline had her first soccer practice yesterday! She said it was fun (in a surprised tone of voice) when it was over. My older two never made it out of 4-5 yr old micro soccer so I don't expect Caroline will either, but it is fun to see my last baby on the soccer field with her friends! Hopefully the weather will get a little cooler soon, since it was over 90 yesterday for the first practice. I was hot even sitting in the shade! Caroline did great though and didn't complain about the heat. 

Shabbat with Cousins

Abby and Mike went out to dinner last night for Mike's birthday so the cousins got to have Shabbat dinner with us ❤️

Farmhouse Chic

So half my reason for wanting to go do a family photo shoot last month was so that I could go make one of these pallet pictures at Farmhouse Chic. As luck would have it, I happened to enter a Facebook contest last week to win a free craft there, and I actually won! Of course somehow I ended up making 2 crafts and paying for Abby's, so free it was not ;) Heather came along as well and made cute wall sconces. Here are the finished projects. I am now in the process of ordering a big canvas print of one of our other photo shoot pictures, and re-decorating my mantel! Love, love, love! Thanks Abby and Heather for coming with me!

Random Updates

The kids have settled into the back to school routine better than I have, in that I am the only one seeming ridiculously tired and muttering under my breath every morning ;) Rebecca seems to like her teacher so far, and Ben seems to be settling in to all of his new classes as well. We had a very welcome 3 day weekend for Labor Day, after what seemed like a really long first week of school :)
We had our first Shabbat dinner (hopefully many more to come) complete with homemade gluten free challah, The kids had dueling cousin-sleepovers, Ben over at Charlie's house and Amelia over at my house. Saturday the girls had a birthday party to go to at Ray's Splash Planet and we had a nice little Labor Day barbecue with the cousins. Sunday we took a last (?) trip to the neighborhood pool and Joel and I went out to dinner and a movie, and yesterday we mostly did errands and had a quiet day. Hoping for some cooler fall weather soon to go along with the calendar :)

Awesome gluten free chocolate chip loaf I made for breakfast Saturday morning, which ironically everyone liked except for Caroline:

Playing in the pool, even though it was cool (mid 80s) and the water was a little chilly thanks to a couple days of rain Thursday and Friday:

Gluten free challah, made by me:

The best drink ever, cucumber jalapeno margarita at Paco's Taco's.

Shabbat Dinner

A new (and long overdue) Friday night Kaplan family tradition.