June and July 2008 - Fun With The Kids

This post has been long overdue. We have had a fun summer, taking advantage of June and July, before the craziness that is August. Ariella turned 5 today - can you believe it? She starts kindergarten in August, then Jonah starts JCC preschool just after labor day. Just after turning 2, in 3 weeks. We're having a "Princess and Pirate" party for them in a couple of weeks, and will post some pictures after. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and videos below!

Ariella graduated preschool in June. Maya surprised her by showing up for the graduation.


Here's Ariella with teacher Debbie.


And Ariella with Teacher Jan.


Ariella with...

Gaia and Aviv (and Ittai)


Galia


Jared!


Justin...


and a good shot with photo-shy Cole.


After graduation, we went out to dinner to celebrate. Here's Jonah, on California Avenue, before dinner. We played a little game of peek-a-boo.


We had our Stanford friends Solly and Maya over for one more Shabbat dinner before they leave us for the summer. The kids will miss them! Maya is off to Washington DC, then a fall semester abroad - too long away from us. Solly is off directing movies already, and hobnobbing with the Hollywood elite.

Here's a Maya sandwich.


Solly is a good sport.


Reading Thomas to the kids.


We took a vacation down to Southern California. Rick and Ariella, in a Dana Point restaurant.


Then, to Legoland! It was so kid-friendly. First, Ariella in front of the mini-strip.


Battling Darth Vader, with R2-Jonah2 looking on.


Legoland is especially good for the little ones. Jonah...

playing in the kids' playground area...


driving the Lego car...


and flying the Lego helicopter.


Of course, a trip to the OC wouldn't be complete without a trip to Disneyland. Ariella, in front of the Magic Castle.


The kids were great, the whole trip. We are so blessed. Here, they wait patiently to meet the princesses.


We learned that Jonah just LOVES Minnie Mouse.


"I love you, Minnie!"


Ariella enjoyed meeting Belle.


And everyone posed for a picture with Mulan.


That is, until Jonah slipped out, and just BOLTED down the pathway to see his first love, Minnie.


Here's how to make your kids pass out and sleep until 9am the next day: take them to Disneyland, make them walk all day, deprive them of naps, and stay until 8pm.


Back home in Palo Alto, Ariella and Jonah hanging out at home...


and on the car at the grocery store.


Daddy took Ariella to a San Francisco Giants baseball game - her first baseball game. Luckily, he had a friend who sold him great seats! Here's Ariella, riding the train on the way to the game.


Soaking up the rays.


Just look at where we were sitting! Perhaps I should have started her out in the bleachers?


Then Ariella went to dance camp and had swim lessons, before 3 weeks of JCC summer camp. Here she is in her costume for one of her dance recitals.


We also spent a good deal of time at the train park in Los Gatos. Jonah went crazy on the actual train there. Here he is, on the playground train.


Riding the train.


On the carousel at the park.


July 4th weekend we went to San Francisco and played tourist, riding the cable cars ("trolley trains," according to Jonah). We visited Ghiradelli Square...


and briefly visited the beach across the street from Ghiradelli.


We also hung out in our back yard, where our plum tree went crazy. We made plum compote, plum crumbles, and tons of plum jam. We think our tree yielded over 1,000 plums this year. You can see it really well in this video, also featuring a great hit by Ariella of the baseball.


Here, Jonah points out the moon, his belly, his nose, his hands, etc.


Jonah's favorite indoor activity is making trains. Trains of blocks, trains of cars, trains of soaps, trains of trains. You name it, he lines it up.


Here's part of one of Ariella's summer dance recitals.


And a snapshot from our video camera.


At the end of July, we drove into the Santa Cruz mountains to Roaring Camp Railroads - a totally cool place I'm sure we'll be visiting again. The Camp was visited by none other than Thomas the Tank Engine. Here are some pictures...

Andi and Jonah, temporarily in shock by the idea that after months after asking for Thomas, he now sees him in person.


Ariella really enjoyed the day, too.


Here are the kids, on the train, staring at the beautiful sights in the redwood forest.


This is a good video of Jonah and Andi riding Thomas.


Some other good pictures on the train and around the property.






Here are Jonah and Ariella in their cute Obama T-shirts, birthday presents from cousins Nina and Tori and Aunt Robin and Uncle Drew.



Finally, I had time to upload one video from our dinner celebrating Ariella's birthday tonight. More to come from her birthday later.