Nadav's Bar Mitzvah: The Party

We stayed until the party until quite late. Mikael had a blast. He ate tons of yummy food (it was totally out of control what they had) and then did a lot of dancing and then rode the elevator up and down and up and down and then danced some more and then hung out with Tal and then rode the elevator some more and then had chocolate for desert and so on and so forth. Here are a couple of videos we took during the party; I'm particularly pleased with the second one. Nadav is the kid dancing at the beginning of the first video. I'm sure eventually there will be official pictures and video, too.


Vimeo.


Vimeo.

Tal and Mikael at the Bar Mitzvah

I'm not going to get into the complicated family relations here (oh, ok: Tal is Orna's daughter who is Anat's sister who is Nadav's mother who is the Bar Mitzvah boy and Orna and Anat are Eliza's daughters who was my mother's sister. Got it?), but Tal spent a lot of time and energy with Mikael at the Bar Mitzvah party and eventually won his heart.

 

 

Nada Bar Mitzvah: That afternoon

It must have been a couple of weeks ago now that Liya and Mikael and I took the long drive north to attend Nadav Mizrahi's bar mitzvah. Nadav is my second cousin and we'll see a little more of him in the next couple of posts. We left early on the day of the Bar Mitzvah and drove to Cahal where Nadav lives with his family. There we met more cousins of mine, Elad (daddy) and Zohar (mommy, my cousin) and Maayan (their little girl). We borrowed a little bungaloo that the family had rented in order to dress for the party and hung out with them during the afternoon. Here you see us taking advantage of a hammock near the bungaloo and checking out the fish pond.

 

 

Vimeo.

The audio in this video is me reminiscing about the last time Liya and I were at these bungaloos which was for Nadav's brother's Sagi's Bar Mitzvah.


Vimeo.

And in this video Mikael decides to go look at the fish pond and gracefully (?) exits the hammock


Vimeo.

Purim Bubbles

At the end of the picnic, Caro and Amit gave out prizes for best costume, second best costume and third best costume both in the family and individual categories. Then they gave out prizes for 22nd best costume and 56th best costume and most improved costume and costume most likely to succeed and so on until everyone had a prize. It turned out that all the prizes were the same and they were all soap bubble guns so pretty soon the whole picnic area was a fantasy land of bubbles. Mikael had a lot of fun with his while Liya and I fought about whether it was ok that he hold it on his own or whether he needed help.

 

 

 

 

Tigerlion with face paint

So, the tigger costume did, in fact, come with a tigger hat, except that Mikael rightly judged that it was too big for him and that I should wear it. I figured this completed my bear-with-a-tiger-tail-and-bow-tie costume pretty well, and that Mikael could use his lion cap (which we just use as a regular cap, actually) to complete his own costume. You can't see me, I'm off camera. When we got to the picnic, Caro did us up in matching bear-lion-tiger face paint. Liya missed that part because she was working and came in late.

 

 

 

 

Purim picnic

These two photos are just to set the scene. Everyone came in costume and there was lots of food and fun out in Park Hayarkon. This was a day care picnic, by the way.

 

 

Purim!

It's been more than a couple of weeks since the Purim party, but the pictuers are forever. Liya was working the morning of the Purim picnic party, so it was my job to get Mikael into his costume. It wasn't easy, by any means, Mikael is particular, and quite conservative, about his clothing preferences. Still, in the end it was so worth it! Even Mikael thought so and still talks about his costume. Anyway, these pictures are nothing. Wait till you see what Caro did with the face paint.

 

 

Gotliev Bithday

After the Indigo trip we headed over to our friends the Gotliev's who were having a birthday for their daughters. Here Mikael enjoys the weather on the first warm day of early March.

 

Petting zoo

We saw all sorts of animals at the petting zoo including monkeys and camels and wombats. Generally, Mikael was fairly frightened of all of them. It was hard to get good pictures, in any case.

 

 

Indigo trip

It's been a couple of weekends, but here are some pictures of Mikael enjoying some treats on a trip that we took with his Day Care. We had a picnic and visited a petting zoo. More pictures follow.

 

 

 

דונחין מבשרת הגיעו לארוחת ערב

יואל דרור ונטע הגיעו לארוחת שישי.
יואל ומיכאל היו במצב רוח דומה

מטפס

נסענו לאיקאה וקנינו למיכאל ארון קטן שאמור להחזיק ולסדר את כל הצעצועים שלו, כלומר אנחנו מסדרים , אבל הארון אמור לכוון אותנו. מיכאל כמובן גילה את האטרקציה שבארון - המדרגות והתחיל לטפס. אני חשבתי לעצמי - טמפה, האם אתם מוכנים לשובב הקטן?


מטפס from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.
ואם מישהו תוהה- אז כן, כמובן שהוא הגיע, וגם נעמד על המדרגה האחרונה

עם שולה ויואבי בגן דובנוב

"לפגוש את שולה" - זה משפט שמיכאל אומר כל הזמן החל מהפעם האחרונה שבה פגשנו את שולה ויואבי. הרבה פעמים הוא אומר את זה כי הוא מעדיף שהוא ואני נלך ביחד לפגוש את שולה ויואבי מאשר שהוא ילך לבד לגן. הוא גם טורח לציין את זה כל פעם כשאנחנו עוברים ליד הנקודה ברחוב שבה- פגשנו את שולה!
ביום חמישי האחרון התגשם החלום - שולה ויואבי באו לפגוש אותנו בגן דובנוב. מיכאל כל כך התרגש, רץ אליהם וצחק כל הדרך מרוב התרגשות. כמובן שברגע הפגישה עצמה הוא מיד הסיט את תשומת ליבו למיגלשה.

With Shula and Itamar in Gan Dubnov

"Meeting Shula" is a sentence that Mikael says all the time ever since we last met Shula and Yoavi. Often, he's saying it because he'd rather be meeting them in the park than just going along. He also says it every time we pass the spot where we last met them. This past Thursday, we finally got to see them again: Shula and Yoavi came to meet us in Gan Dubnov. Mikael was so excited he ran and laughed all the way to the Gan. Of course, the moment we actually met them, he was immediately distracted by the slide.

עם שולה ויואבי בגן דובנוב from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.

פורים מתקרב

קארו, הגננת הנהדת מהגן של מיכאל, איפרה את כל הילדים לקראת פורים. בעוד הבנות בחרו להתאפר כפרפר או כפייה קסומה, כל הבנים, כולל מיכאל בחרו להתאפר כמו אריה

Caro, out excellent day care person, got all the children made up in preparation for Purim. The girls generally wanted make up to become a butterfly or a fairy, all the boys, including Mikael, wanted to be lions.

מגה בלוקס

מיכאל מאוד נדלק על המגה בלוקס. לאחרונה קנינו לו קופסא חדשה של מגה בלוקס, בצורת כלב. מיכאל טיפס על השולחן וסקר את רכושו.
אני די מופתעת לפעמים לראות כמה הוא מסוגל להתרכז במשחק מסויים

Mikael is very keen on the MegaBloks. We just bought him another box, this time in the shape of a dog/fire hydrant. Mikael climbed up on the table to better survey his new posessions. Sometimes, I'm pretty surprised at how he can concentrate on a specific game.

מגה בלוקס from Opher Donchin on Vimeo.