"My Own"

Samantha has taken on a very cute verbal habit of referring to things a "my own..." or "your own...", like "where is my own kitty" or "are you going in your own car". Even though (almost) everything she does is cute times 10, this is one of those things we hope would never go away. This morning, while in the shower, the door opened. Samantha poked her head in and asked for a Kleenex so that she could "get out my own favorite boogie".

Benjamin's 9th Birthday

Sunrise, Sunset...Quickly fly the years. When did he grow to be so tall?! I don't remember growing older; when did he?! La la la... Our eldest son turned 9 on March 27, 2009. He has grown to be such a responsible, caring, athletic, smart, wonderful mensch. It is exciting to watch his development over the years. Who knows what the future will bring for him, but one thing we do know is that it will be BRIGHT. Will he be a Video Game Designer and make tons of money (as he said recently) or will he be an Engineer/Businessman like his Daddy? In any case, here are some photos of his Star Wars Sleepover party. May the force be with you, Benjamin! Love, Mommy and Daddy and family

Purim 2009

Well, this year the kids had a blast at our temple's Purim celebration. First there was the Carnival... which was a crazy place where the kids play games and get tickets to cash in for prizes at the end. You know, the kind of prizes that they get excited about, but that break within 10 minutes of their playing with them... Joshua decided that he wanted to find the Black marked lollipop because that would earn him 5 tickets, but he kept finding the Blue marked ones that only yielded one ticket. He played until he found one. He was pretty good about giving back all the lollipops, saying, "I don't want all the lollys, I just want the tickets." Samantha had her nails painted for the first time at the Shushan Salon, which was just a table with various bottles of nail polish and nail stickers being (wo)manned by a few teenage girls. I asked for a mild pink color, which they did and she kept saying she thought her nails looked beautiful. She is such a little diva! Benjamin went around playing various games and collecting tickets so that he could get a cool little lightsaber thingie. Joshua was very sweet and came over to me while I was playing Blackjack saying, "Mommy, look what I got you...it cost me 25 tickets. I hope you like it." It was a little red purse. So sweet of him! Zachary basically ran away every chance he got. A few times I lost him for short periods of time, but he could always be found touching something he shouldn't be near. After the Carnival was the Megillah reading, which was great. The older kids read passages from each of the 10 chapters. Then, we had Shushan Idol, the costume parade. Fun, fun, fun... Then, it was time to leave and get the kids to bed, even though the Purim Shpiel was still yet to happen. Overall, I would rate it an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale... Chag Sameach!

Samantha's 3rd bday videos...

Check these out... One is of her declaring that she is 3 and being sung happy birthday to, one is of big brother Benjamin playing happy birthday on the guitar, and one is of her and big brother Joshua playing with her new vanity table...What a great day we had celebrating our little princess!

Samantha's 3rd Birthday...

How can it be that she is already 3 years old?! It feels like yesterday that we found out at the ultrasound and had it confirmed at the amnio that we were going to have a GIRL... She has been such a blessing to our family. She is a bright spirit with bright eyes and a bright mind. Watch out, daddy, when the boys get their paws on her. Jon is already talking about buying that shotgun. Anyhow, we had a few days of parties here. Yesterday was her party at Cole-Harrington with all 23 other preschoolers. At 9:30 am we fed the kids cupcakes...good luck to the teachers after that! Today we had a smallish (for us, 20 is no sweat) party at home with most of the important family and friends. We were missing a few people though- Nana and Papa, Uncle Mitch, Uncle Bubba, Uncle Jeff, The Landman's, The Bornstein's, Uncle Eric, Auntie Lori, and the Missouri cousins, and some others. But, for those who were here, Aiya, Auntie Lee, Auntie Robyn, Auntie Shirley, Auntie Phyllis, Uncle Howard, Diane and kids, Brenda and Wendy and families, we partied for hours. Here are some photos...Check out the one of Zachary with her tiara (thanks, cousin Max for placing that on him...) Happy Birthday, Sweet Samantha!

Happy Valentines Day 2009!

It was a great weekend for us... On Friday the 13th, we hired our babysitter Emily to stay with the little ones while the big boys slept over at Aiya's house. Jon and I headed out to a little local restaurant called The Village Pub in Dedham. Pretty good food, good value, good ambiance, and good company. And, we had a certificate from Restaurant.com, so that was a big plus for going there. Then, afterwards, we did our usual date thing and went shopping. Home Depot, Walmart, and Kohl's, yahoo! There were just no movies that we could make in the timeframe we had available. So, on Saturday, we all met at Vinny T's in Dedham to have a V-Day lunch. Aiya, Auntie Lee, Auntie Robyn, and all of us Cohen's. It was a very nice time. And, here are the photos to prove it...

Benjamin's Guitar Recital...

On Thursday night, 1/29/09, Benjamin had his first guitar performance. It was a three minute slot that students in grades 3 through 5 town wide were eligible to participate in. A form went home in the backpacks at the beginning of December asking if our child takes music lessons outside of school and would like to perform in a little concert. I sat Benjamin down and asked him if he would like to, explaining that if he committed to it, then he had to practice every day until the concert. Once he said yes, I called up our Guitar Teacher Extraordinaire, Uncle Jeff, and asked for Emergency Guitar Lessons. Benjamin had ceased having lessons in the few months prior to our receiving the concert notice, so if he were going to do this, he would need to brush up on his playing. He decided to play "Happy Birthday" and the Theme from Jaws. On the day before the concert, he had his final lesson. Uncle Jeff actually started teaching Ben a new song, that is, the Theme from Star Wars (which he is REALLY into these days!). He wanted to perform it, but we didn't think he was quite ready to do that one in public. About a week before the concert, he was giving me a hard time about practicing daily and started to say that he didn't want to do it. It was not because he was nervous though. It was because he would rather play on the computer at the time. I reminded him of his commitment and he was fine. He is such a great kid... He did a terrific job in the end. He told Jonathan that it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. He told me that he pretended that everyone was sitting there in only their underwear. Ha ha ha!