Springtime!

our pink tree is in full bloom and we saw a rainbow over Cherry Hill. Springtime at last!

Happy Passover!

Why is this night different from all other nights...

At the Passover Seder, the youngest child asked "The Four Questions" (Why is this night different from all other nights?). This year Jena is ready to ask the questions in Hebrew so Stefanie took on an added challenge and will be asking the questions in Chinese. In order to accomplish this, I translated the questions from Hebrew to English and brought the translation to our Piano teacher, whose husband then translated them into Chinese. I hope that after three translations the meaning is still basically the same! I hope to video both girls reading their parts but I could only talk them into doing one question each, and even that was under duress( hence the unhappy looks)
Happy Passover!

china sisters and best friends

Eight years ago in china:




last night in our house

Happy Birthday Stefanie!

when Stefanie calls my cellphone this is her ringtone:

When I see your face
There's not a thing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are
And when you smile,
The whole world stops and stares for awhile
Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are

To celebrate her birthday my very grown-up 9 year old took two best friends out to dinner where she ate an entire steak from the adult menu. This year she asked her Zayde for a complete set of the books of the bible in Hebrew/English translation and excitedly told her friends over dinner how beautiful the books were. She asked for a Jellybean Machine from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dave and an electric guitar from her mother. I think those three presents are an accurate reflection of the wonder that is Stefanie.
Girl, your amazing, just the way you are

stefanie the swimmer

a great end to the swim season as Stefanie swam in 5 races at the championship meet and had 3 top ten finishes. She finished third in butterfly- not bad for the girl who, the first week of practice, told her coaches she didn't know how to do butterfly (because she couldn't do it "perfectly"). Since the meet was in Harrisburg we toped the whole day off with a visit and dinner with BJ and Olivia!Stef is in the green swim cap, in the lane closest to the camera.

an attempt at a movie

if this works you should get to see a little movie of Stefanie's class program celebrating the Havdalah service (done on Saturday night to mark the end of the Sabbath). The class put on a 20 minute program, all in hebrew and wonderful to watch- now- let's see if my movie works ....

Happy Birthday Amah!

We had the family over to celebrate Amah's birthday. Jena was an excellent older cousin, patiently showing Rafi how to play the wii and sharing all her toys without complaint. A quick pic of Stefanie as she was running out the door on the way to her last swim met of the season.

family playday

everyone had a day off for MLK day so we picked cousin Rafi and Aunt Sarah up at the train station and went to the Discovery museum followed by lunch at friendly's. what more could anyone ask for?

snuggly girls

glad they are making the footie PJs in all sizes now- I'm not ready for the girls to outgrow them!

snow fun

fun on a weekend snowday!

a sporty Chanukkah this year

Jena raked in the gifts this year with a baseball glove and tee ball set,rollerblades, hockey stick, puck and goal, football trading cards,cars cars and more cars as well as a Wii game (of Cars) and not be be forgotten- a trundle bed for her Babies. Stef went with the one 'big gift' and got an iPod touch. Everyone had a good laugh looking at Jena's giant pile of gifts and Stef's lonely little one. Now that Stefanie has an allowance and spends her own money (sometimes) she fully understand the value of 'good things come in little boxes' and asked everyone else who was buying her something to get her an iTunes gift card.

Olympic 2020?

here's a peak at what has been taking up most of our time- the JCC sharks Swim team. Stef was thrilled to move up to the competition level of the team (the Mako Sharks). Practice a minimum of twice a week and first meet next week. i will be sure to share the results

Happy Chanukkah!

a very busy holiday this year- Stefanie sang with choir at the local mall the first night and we rushed home to light candles and open gifts quickly so that everyone had a little time to play before going to bed, since it IS still a school night! Stefanie was thrilled to get the iPod touch she has been waiting "forever' for and Jena loved each and every gift, big or small, everyone was '"ust what I wanted"!

just because-

--she looked so cute! so many pictures of Jena in her sports attire, I thought it might be nice to to post a picture of her looking pretty in purple

Happy Thanksgiving

thankful for the best family

Yep- she's 6!

Fruma Ruchal Naomi

Stef had her first 'real' aliyah at the youth minyan today. Since I can't videotape in shul here is a repeat performance for the camera.

the Fab Five

much easier to get all five Anhui girls to sit still this time around!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Our second Anhui China Sister's reunion was wonderful. We didn't think we could top the trip from 2 years ago, but everyone agreed it was even more fun the second time around.