Noam's first birthday

Back to back birthdays for Noam (1) and Ima (29+1) brought a Pizzaleh dinner, cupcakes for dessert (and balloons) all courtesy of Grandpa and Bubby.

Noam, the birthday boy, seemed to be more interested in the clown figurine on top of the cupcake than the cupcake itself.

Great Neck Visitors

In January, we had an unexpected and pleasant surprise visit from Moshe Jensen. He just showed up at the doorstep and luckily I was home with the boys while Fay was out running errands. We spent some time together in the afternoon catching up and playing with the boys. Unfortunately, Elisheva was still in school. Moshe was in Israel for a couple of weeks before he would start his Spring '11 semester in college

Moshe was actually our second surprise visitor from Great Neck that day. Which is like lightning striking twice in Har Nof, even though it was a clear and sunny day Rabbi Josh Lewis, formerly of Great Neck, NY, and currently of Highland Park, NJ, was visiting Israel with a group of Rutgers students whom he teaches. Just happen to run into him on the streets of Har Nof, and we were fortunate enough to host Rabbi Lewis for Shabbos lunch along with our good friends Betzalel and Elisheva Vogel.

We welcome and encourage all of our Great Neck extended family to drop by when they are in the neighborhood

Ezra's Chumash Party

Ezra had his 1st grade Chumash ceremony and received his Chumash Beraishis. The organizers decided that the best way to go about doing this was to make both classes of 50 students and there parents wait around, while each student gets called up from their seat and take 90 seconds to talk to some Rabbi that they have never met, but are told 'he is a great Rabbi'. If you do the math you can see that we were waiting for quite some time. This is all before the children performed their songs, etc.

Then, when your son is called up you are supposed to fight your way through the crowd to the front to take your close up of your son getting his siddur from this Rabbi who is not part of the school but is transported in just to give out these siddurim to these children whom he has no relationship with.

When it was Ezra's turn, I decided to stand up on a chair in the back, lift my camera with one hand over the crowd and point downward, and let my zoom lens do the work, but this is the best picture I got out of 6 tries.

That is Ezra's teacher with the microphone, who called him up and the anonymous Rabbi with Ezra. I'm curious if the administration of this school understands what message they are conveying to the kids when they bring in someone who the kids don't know who is the only individual in a room of 200 people wearing a black jacket and black hat, whom they are told is 'a great rabbi', whereas all the other students, teachers and rebbeim almost without exception are wearing kipah serugah. Anyway, I will keep the rest of the commentary to myself.

Anyway, at least after Ezra received his Chumash, we were able to get a nice shot with Ima and Noam.

Ezra and I are toward the end of Parshas Toldos in our own learning together. We hope IY"H to make a siyum on the Torah by age 10, in accordance with Pirkei Avos 5:25

8th Night of Chanukah 5771

I know its already Tu B'Shvat so it doesn't make sense that I'm posting up Chanukah pictures, but we either have to move the inventory backlog, or save them and pass them off for next year's Chanukah.

After Abba lights it's Elisheva's turn.......

then Ezra.......

and last but not least -- Elazar!!! please be careful with that candle...

Elisheva the Photographer

A little while back, Abba was given a digital camera with a broken display screen by an owner who didn't want it anymore, which led to Elisheva receiving her very first camera. The camera works fine, but bear in mind there is no eye-hole to look through, so without the display its literally 'point-and-shoot'

Here is some of Elisheva's work...

Elazar has become a common 'target' and always seems to be available for Elisheva's new hobby of photography

Elisheva has also learned to turn the lens on herself and has made her own image a frequent 'focus' of her attention

Sometimes she even lets Ezra get into the act...

As soon as her tooth came out she made sure to record it for posterity

Elisheva is always on the lookout for the future bright new stars and models of tomorrow...