Chanukah at the Zoo

***APPARENTLY THIS BLOG FROM CHANUKAH 2009 NEVER GOT POSTED***


The kids have off from school for the whole week of Chanukah. Baruch Hashem the Zoo is only a bus ride away.

Ezra volunteered to be the first to wear the snake around his next from the whole group of kids. Just look at Elisheva's unscripted reaction
But then she was brave enough to give it a try.
We learned that snakes will only eat things that have a circumference of a maximum 4 times as big as they are. And will only use their teeth to bite when they are eating. And that they only eat about once every six weeks. And this snake had just eaten about a week ago.

For some reason Elazar wasn't scared of the real Bengal tigers we saw behind the glass, but he was scared of the goats in the petting zoo and the zoo staffer dressed up in the Tiger suit

Gersten Chanukah in Beitar

The Gerstens and Aunt Rochelle met in Beitar on the 2nd day of Chanukah

Elisheva, Ezra, Elazar and Ima travelled by bus from Har Nof to Beitar. Elazar was eating a banana on the bus and it fell down and rolled near the door. Then when the driver opened the door the banana fell out the door. Ezra lost 20 agurot.

Ima held Aliza and Elisheva and Esti played with the kitchen set and played house (Ima and Abba) with all the dolls. Elisheva ate a lot of doritos and chocolate coins.

Ezra ate a lot of potato chips and went outside to play hide and seek with the rest of the kids. Aunt Rochelle brought candy bags for all the kids.

(As told by Elisheva and Ezra)

Elazar's Gift of Gab

Elazar has become quite the talker
Here are two Elazar videos where Elazar discusses the world of animals



and the parts of the body



Don't forget to leave your comments
Please share with the rest of the family

Simchas Torah 5770

One of the great things about working for a Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael is that the day after we celebrate Simchas Torah, when the kids have the day off from school, they can join the yeshiva boys who are celebrating their day of Simchas Torah - and I can snap the pictures.

Elisheva and Ezra are pros already. The already fight over which yeshiva boys are going to put them on their shoulders. Here Ezra is riding Moshe Jensen (from Great Neck), while Elisheva in the back is on Nechemia Kushner's (from Cleveland, OH) shoulders.

Elazar was in attendance, but he wasn't much of a dancer. After Hakafos were over and the boys went back for Torah reading and Mussaf, I took the boys to the park nearby, while Elisheva went with Ima to her Nishmat awards ceremony

Chol HaMoed Succos Video

Here is a follow up post with a live action movie...
BG

Succos in Yerushalayim 5770

Gail, David and Racheli came to Eretz Yisrael for Chag. On our first attempt to get together on Sunday, Aunt Rochelle unfortunately came down with something and we had to cancel. So we finally met at the carnival in Gan Sacher on Tuesday afternoon. Eli also came down later to join us.






After hours of rides, live entertainment, frisbee and searching for a missing Elisheva, we were all hungry. So we had a late lunch in the Sukkah of Ahavat HaYam, the Mehadrin seafood place across from Gan Sacher. Aunt Gail and Racheli came with us by bus to Har Nof for chocolate mousse and tea.

Zeidy was also here for succos, but I didn't get any pictures with Zeidy yet. We treated Zeidy to breakfast at Cafe Angel on Kanfei Nesharim Wednesday morning and then a trip to the toystore to buy something for Ezra and Elisheva.

Wednesday night after a day in Nechalim with Mollie and Yechiel, We met Aunt Rochelle, Zeidy, David, Gail, Eli and Racheli for dinner at the Cafe Rimon in the new Mamilla mall. We walked from Yaffa Gate toward Ben Yehudah, stopped off for ice cream and toured the giant sukkah in Kikar Safra.

Walk This Way

Elazar is transitioning from cruising to walking. Enjoy.

Here is his first short walk



Here is a longer walk for you

Gersten, Inc. - 1st Quarter Earnings Report

Purim was nice; although Elisheva was sick with an upset stomach. We went to David and Elana Zeevi in Beit Vegan for Seudah - our 3rd time at least spending Purim with them.

In Israel, on the last school day before Purim, students come to school in full costume. This is "Elisheva the Princess" - who finally gets to put on the wedding dress and hair extension that she has been waiting so long to model for everyone. Crown and scepter sold separately.

Ezra was "A Saba". He was so cute delivering Shalach Manos around the building hunched over with his cane. He had to do it all by himself, because Elisheva was in bed all morning. We have a few elderly people in the building that actually look something like this and hopefully they enjoyed it in the spirit of Purim.

Ezra turned 5 and Elazar turned 1 this week; both with private ceremonies to mark the occasion. For Elazar the family went out for Pizza and had Bubby's alternative "fly a cake" brand zucchini chocolate cake (it tasted a lot better than it sounds). For Ezra we sang happy birthday at Seudat Shlishit with a few boys from Yeshiva over and had ice cream.

Elisheva received her Chumash in school and we hope to upload a picture of that soon.

Everyone is now off from school/yeshiva, etc. and are making Pesach preparations. We were hoping to have both Uncle Josh and Cousin Eli for seder, but they decided in the end to say "L'shana HaBa B'yerushalayim" at the seder from New York instead of Har Nof.

I can't believe it's been so long...

Wow it's been almost three months since the last blog post and the first of 2009

Here are some pictures:

The kids are doing great. When the weather outside is lousy we just get the kids to lie on the floor all day and we take pictures like this one.

Aunt Michelle and Uncle Bentzy came with Akiva and Ella to Israel for three weeks and the kids had fun at various amusement parks and attractions.


Ezra will be 5 at the end of March. We already starting learning pesukim from Breishit and hope to finish the Torah by the time Ezra turns 10.

Elazar is turning 1 on April 3rd. (Happy birthday Savta)

Elisheva had a siddur play in her first grade class. Afterward the entire class took a trip to the Kotel to daven from their new siddur.
Here Elisheva is with Ema at the Kotel