Old Fashioned Next Door Neighbors!

Although our "new" home (that we've been in for a year now) is smaller than the carriage house we lived in for 6 years, it has several benefits over the old place.  One of those is that our next-door neighbors quickly became friends and they have a three-year old daughter who gets along fabulously with both of the twins.  Tamar loves to pop next door to see if she's available for a playdate.
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Just like we used to do when I was a kid!
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--Victoria
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Hanukah gifts

Each of the kids received a National Geographic "Dig" kit -- where they use a little digging tool (with a pick on one side and a brush on the other) to excavate the hidden item.  Benji dug into a fake bar of gold to uncover a piece of pyrite ("fool's gold").  Tamar dug into a little treasure chest to discover a gem (which also happened to be a piece of pyrite.  Daniel's kit promised a fossilized piece of dinosaur poop.  At first he was confused and asked me, "Mommy, why did you get me dino poop for Hanukah?"  I explained that he had told me a few months ago that he wanted to be a paleontologist and that digging up fossils was what paleontologists do.  Then he delightedly dug through the fake piece of poop to uncover the real fossilized poop inside.
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--Victoria
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"My hands got all dirty.  That's what paleontologists do!  Mommy, I think paleontologists always keep wipes with them."

Success!

Decorating Hanukah cookies!

These "decorate your own" cookies were a gift from a pre-K-4 classmate.
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--Victoria
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Pumpkin pancakes for breakfast!

Morning Butterfly

A few days ago, the kids noticed a monarch butterfly on our front steps before we left the house in the morning.  Benji identified that it was a male butterfly because it had dark wings.  Daniel named it after himself (Daniel Charles Hadfield Moshiashwili The Butterfly). 
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--Victoria
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Things Daniel says

Daniel: "Next time I go to school, I'm going to bring my brain."

Us: "Your brain?"

Daniel: "Yup!  I didn't think anything the whole day today."

Scooting around the block

[from last week]
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--Victoria
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Soccer!

Tamar and Daniel are signed up for soccer this fall and this morning was the first day.  Benji came with us and helped out, including giving demonstrations of what the coach was asking for.
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--Victoria
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If you click HERE, you'll see a video of Benji demonstrating dribbling a soccer ball, and then Daniel following him.
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In the picture below, Benji is in the blue shirt, passing the ball along to Tamar.

In the picture below, Benji waits his turn while Tamar demonstrates just how BORED she is (it was temporary).

In the picture below, Daniel is on the right in the orange shirt.

In the picture below, Tamar is on the left, in the pink shirt.

Before we got there, Tamar complained long and loud that she didn't want to go to soccer and she didn't like soccer.  Once we arrived, she was the best listener and participated the most!  She did a great job.

Cousins from Israel

These are photos from earlier in the summer, when we spent some time (in DC and in North Carolina) with Aaron's cousin Yossi, his wife Mieko, and their children Reina and Eitan (our children's cousins).  They went to a "dinosaur park" and had this amazing photo taken.  The last day of our time with them, Tamar was very upset about not seeing Reina again for a long time and I was only partly able to console her by taking the photos below (photobomb by Daniel, of course)
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--Victoria
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Mystery Object

This was on the curb down the street from our house as we walked to the car last week.  The kids had no idea what it was.  We left it for someone else because obviously it IS haunted.  :)
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--Victoria
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Daniel on the "rough materials" playground at school

Building a "wooden surfboard" with his crew, including his "bestie" Colin.
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--Victoria
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First Day of School! (Tamar & Daniel)

First day of pre-K4.
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--Victoria
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First Day of School! (Benji)

Benji started FOURTH GRADE last Monday! 

Tamar and Daniel had a short week and started Pre-K4 on Thursday (photos to come in the next post)
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--Victoria
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