Celebrating Kira

Today started with brunch at our friends' and neighbors' house to meet new neighbors that moved in this summer. It was such a nice chance to catch up with each other, welcome our new neighbors, and for the kids to play with all of their friends. In fact, Alex and Ari both cried when we had to leave- they wanted to stay!

But we had to get home for naps to rest up for Kira's birthday celebration. We delayed it for a week since Miri was out of town last weekend for Kira's actual birthday. We celebrated with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and some of Kira's friends at the indoor play area at the JCC. Everyone had a fun time playing in the play area, singing and dancing with the instructor, playing with the parachute and, of course, eating delicious CAKE (which also happened to be kosher because of the JCC's rules, but if Mommy had known how yummy kosher cake was, we would have been eating it all of our lives!) The birthday girl finally got to dig into cake herself...up until today she's had some tastes but never an opportunity to go crazy. It was a special celebration and Kira, Mommy, Daddy, Alex and Ari feel so lucky to have been able to celebrate with our family and friends.

After the party, we joined our neighborhood crew for dinner at a local pizza buffet. It was a remarkably civilized experience considering there were 13 adults and 15 kids in all! What a nice way to cap off a fun day of celebations.

In other news, we are hoping we will not jinx ourselves by saying that Ari seems to be officially potty trained! She has now gone four days with just a couple of small accidents, and has even pooped in the potty. She is a bit more nervous about going while we're out and about, although she did go on the special toddler potty at Kira's party today, but she seems to be able to hold it long enough to get back to her familiar potties at home. We'll see how she does back at school this week, but Mommy is hoping that we're officially down to just two in diapers!