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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