From Snow to 75

It's been a weird week, weather-wise at least. We started out on Monday with the biggest snow storm of the season, a total of at least 6 inches of snow! The snow nixed all of our plans for Monday, including Ari and Alex's parent-teacher conference (a make up of the original conference, which was also cancelled due to snow!), Kira's first day of My Gym, her follow-up doctor appointment to get the shots she missed last month, and Mommy's board meeting, but we made the best of it and got out to play in what we HOPE is the last snow of the season.


By Tuesday the snow had started melting and the weather warmed up. It was back to school on Wednesday and on Thursday we headed back to the Indoor Soccerplex with Mommy's high school friend Lauren and her two girls, Vanessa and Danielle who are around the same ages as Ari, Alex and Kira. We had forgotten that nursery schools were out on Thursday for a conference so we saw a TON of our friends from school and the neighborhood. Like last week, Ari, Alex and Kira had a blast riding around and playing with all of their friends. They were even treated to a special visit from the mascot for one of the teams that plays at the Soccerplex:

Alex hugs his new friend

Alex and Vanessa play with the trucks
Alex found a digger!

Ari riding her tricycle around the SoccerPlex

Kira scooting around

Friday Mommy finally got to have Ari and Alex's parent/teacher conferences that had now been rescheduled twice due to snow. Mommy left the kids with Poppy Jack while she went to the school for the conferences. We're happy to report that both Ari and Alex got rave reviews and the teachers gave us some positive feedback on how they're doing. The only small concern brought up was Alex's speech, in particular the clarity of it. Mommy has been having some questions about his speech anyway so she decided to make an appointment with a speech pathologist for an evaluation in a few months just to be on the safe side. Otherwise, the teachers said that Ari and Alex are a joy to have in class, play nicely with their friends, follow directions well, set an example for the others who are potty training and otherwise are excelling in every area. Friday was also an exceptionally warm day- it was hard to believe that just a few days prior, we had snow on the ground!

Friday night we had Shabbat dinner at Miri and Opa's, where Kira took several steps unassisted. She's been walking well as long as she can hold onto something, so this was the first time she took unassisted steps NOT towards Mommy. We're hoping that means she's close to "really" walking!

Saturday we all celebrated friend Shara's third birthday at a big party at her house. Shara has a very fun house and it's always hard to drag the kids out of there...Saturday was no exception. Between all of the fun things to do and see (a moon bounce, face painter, video games, pinball, air hockey, Minnie Mouse) and all of their friends, the kids were bouncing off the walls! As always, Shara's mommy made a gorgeous castle cake for her party...we're always so impressed with her creativity and talent:

Alex and Ari pose in front of the cake

Ari and The Birthday Girl

Alex tries his hand at pinballAlex and Minnie cut a rugMinnie says "hi" to Ari and Shara

Ari tries out the pinball machine

After long naps, some of Mommy's sorority sisters and their families came over to play outside (in the gorgeous 70-degree weather!) and go out to dinner. After dinner we came back to our house to eat dessert and play. Ari, Alex and Kira enjoyed meeting new friends and were really great about sharing all of their toys with so many kids. Mommy and her friends enjoyed catching up and meeting each others' families. It was a late night as we all lost an hour of sleep as we moved the clocks an hour forward- it's hard to believe that it will now be light out so much later. Coupled with the warm weather we're having, it feels like summertime already!

Kira and (little) Alex swingAlex and Jake- boys and their sticks!Alex and Rory play in the ballpitMatthew, Kira and Jake try out all the toysMommy and her sorority sisters (and some "mini APhis"!)The guys- probably totally bored

Speaking of summertime, today the temperature reached the mid-70's. What a change from less than a week ago. After Mommy got in her weekly long run, she headed to the synagogue to help set up for the Purim Carnival. Mommy helped set up and then served cotton candy for a half hour...and swears she will never eat any of that stuff ever again, as she ended up COVERED with pink sugar and sick from the smell of it! Daddy brought Ari, Alex and Kira to join Mommy at the carnival before leaving for his Junior Maccabi soccer tryouts. After the carnival, Mommy took the kids to Nana and Poppy's house where they played and had dinner while Mommy went to help with the Junior Maccabi tennis tryouts. Nana and Poppy reported that all three kids were great and ate "like champs" at dinner.

We're hoping that this warm weather sticks around for good. Now that we have had a taste of summer, we definitely don't want to go back to winter!!