Tot Shabbat Kick off!

it's that time of year!

tot Shabbat is back.

once a month I co-chair an event at our Temple called Tot Shabbat.

this is for families with children under the age of five.

it's a Saturday morning kid friendly shabbat service with music and prayers followed by a themed craft!

asher joined some of his friends...

frida and jake from school as they geared up for the first tot shabbat....

just a quick close up to show how grown up he looks here...

granted i know its because i put him in little man clothes

but that look.

edible

our friends, the Traw's joined us as well.

stella goes to school with asher and she is quite the dancer...

lila also goes to school with asher and she and her daddy came out to celebrate the kick off event...

i told you the girl has some dance moves...

she put everyone else to shame!

ms. patti comes each month to play her guitar. this week the kids got to strum her guitar strings. ms patti has a great voice and all the kids love her

rabbi jonathan started a new tradition this year where he took out the Torah, put his son Jude on his shoulders and had all the kids gather around as he read the torah portion for that week. asher got to hold the torah scroll and stand right next to rabbi jonathan! what an honor!

this was a huge hit with the kids and we look forward to doing it every month!

after the kids service everyone moved into the social hall to make biscuit challah's!

we took three biscuits and rolled them into long logs. pinched the three logs together at one end, braided them and put them in the oven to cook for 10 minutes.

voila...beautiful golden biscuit "challah's".

the kids devoured them and loved them.

they also colored and ran around like wild children while the challah's were cooking.

tot shabbat is going to be a huge hit this year!

we truly love educating our children and immersing them in the teaching of the torah at such a young age! watching them make friends that share their faith and being a part of our temple family.

Greek!

one of our favorite Fall activities is to go to the Yiasou Greek Festival. one of my coworkers helps run the festival so we all get free tickets. asher went last year but really had no clue what was going on, this year was so very different.

we arrived around 5:pm and met up with Jen, Jason, Naomi, Jeff and Ella.

we were all pretty hungry so we went and got food before the dinner lines got crazy long and ate our way through the festival!

3 pitas. one with lamb, chicken and gyro meat.. French Fries, Spanakopita, Greek Salad and Baklavah. We got luck and grabbed a table and we all went to town on the food. It was delicious this year...and much better than years past.

as soon as Asher was done eating he ran up on the stage to imitate the kids that had been performing during our dinner.

kids quickly filled the stage and it became an all out dance party up there.

he definitely scared us a few times, running to the edge of the stage and pretending to jump off!

you can see that the kids were running around in the background. it was quite a scene!

after the dance party ended (more like mommy was about to have a near heart attack from the wild kids and removed asher)...we ventured over to the rides. asher has never been to a theme park or event with rides so we figured we would give it a try. ella wasn't feeling it, however asher was ready to ride without hesitation. first he rode the train...which could've been the coolest thing on earth to him...he looks so grown up on this ride .... cheese face!!!

it went round and round and we all got him to chant "Choo Choo!"

next up was the helicopter ride. they had to ride with a partner and it had to be a kid so off he went. he wasnt as thrilled about this ride and by the end he was definitely done....but what a trooper!

weeeeee....

afterwards Jen was there to scoop him up and bring him back to the paparazzi (cough cough, his parents).

the final stop before we grabbed dessert and left was the bounce house.

asher DOES NOT like bounce houses. i am not sure if its because of his balance issues or the feeling of not being on stable ground, but we figured let's try one more time... and it was a big fat FAIL. poor Ash got up and then looked at us as if the world was crumbling around him, begging to get down. we quickly ended the torture session...

and ran off to get a baklava sundae before we left.

it was a perfect evening for the greek festival. not too hot, not too cold.

happy times and happy tummy's

HHI

While we were at Erin's wedding Nana and Poppy took Asher with them to Hilton Head for an end of summer beach trip. Great Uncle jerry and Great Aunt Estelle gave my parents their Marriot time share for the week, what a treat! We decided to leave southport and make the 5 hour haul to Hilton Head bright and early Sunday morning after the wedding festivities were over. Since it was Labor day weekend we decided to get up at 6:30 and hit the road by 7 am. We missed the delicious breakfat at the Bed and Breakfast but, knew it was worth it to see our little boy after 3 days away!

We had zero traffic. The smoothest ride ever down the coast.

We mad it to Hilton Head around noon just in time for lunch. We ate a quick bite at a bagel shop and headed home for Asher's nap. Before nap time Nana and Poppy brought out every bubble toy they had brought for Asher. There was no shortage of laughs, broken toys and bubble solutio everywhere!

These glasses are to die for. I think he looks like a mad scientist!

Attempting to "blow" bubbles from the wand!

Daddy attempting as Asher observed in awe!

The view from our condo patio of the marsh. The day started off sunny, then cloudy, then rain, then cloudy , then sun!

The gun was not any easier to use. Actually it never worked, but made for some cute photos!

Asher went down for a nap and Philip and I headed to the beach for the afternoon while my parents relaxed back at the condo. It started off pretty cool and cloudy but it actually turned out to be a gorgeous day. We got 3 child-less hours sitting on the beach relaxing.

Philip even taught a few people how to play beach golf!

We even got sunburned!?!?

When we returned to the condo we got cleaned up and headed out to dinner. We wanted to celebrate Philip's new job. He had received his job offer en route to the wedding and we had yet to really celelbrate. unfortunately with it being a holiday weekend the restaurants were packed. We snuck out to the dock to snap a quick photo. What is funny about this is that this is the very same place we bourght Asher for a photo when he was 3 months old (his very first beach trip!)

Spet 2009....

Sept 2011...

Amazing what 2 years can do? I think we look more "parental". If that even makes sense.

We ended up eating dinner at King Fisher and luckily skirted the cheesy magician.

Thank goodness for the ipad to distract Asher since we were inching pretty far past bed time!

The next morning we debated on going to the beach since the forecast was wavering. It had rained throughout the night. I saw the tiniest break in the clouds and decided we needed to eat our breakfast , pack up and go. Nana made chocolate chip pancakes and Asher devoured them!

Due to previous freak outs about the sand and the beach we were prepared for the worst with Asher. As soon as we approached the sand he freaked out and wanted to be picked up. I was going to drag him through the sand, but decided it would be ok to ease him into the whole sand idea. How can this kid not love the beach? We are beach people. We brought out all of the toys and set up shop. He insisted on sitting in the chairs at first until he saw this truck Nana and Poppy brought him. He finally initiated some steps on the sand but refused to sit on the sand...

...instead he sat on daddy....

....until he saw the water, the waves, oh mi....he then bolted to the ocean

when it came time to play at the water's edge he still wanted to sit on daddy to get adjusted

...that was until he realized that the waves, the water, the beach, the sand were the coolest things on this earth...how foolish he was for thinking differently....

(this was about the only time we put his floaties on, we realized it was truly not necessary since he was only wadding)

He played paddle ball with Daddy and Poppy...he looks like such a serious athlete here!

He splashed around in the ocean with poppy.

This was one of his favorite things to do. He didnt care if he got smacked by a wave. He wouldve swam out to sea if we had let him.

Fun times!

Asher loved getting down low in the water and was super snuggly too!

My boys having a blast in the ocean!

.....the boys having a blast...

...daddy being extra silly...

....would you have ever thought that he didnt like the sand 2 hours ago???

....of course there has to be a sad Asher photo. I never post photos of Asher sad or crying. For the record, he does cry as you see here. Why was he crying....because he wanted to go back in the ocean, hahahhahahah!

....so daddy and Asher ventured back to the ocean with their boogie board...

...living the dream, riding the "waves"...

...faster daddy...

....and the wave came and knocked him off his surf board, which he thought was hysterical, jumped back on it and went back for more...

...i feel like they belong in a magazine, so cute...

...joining in for some boogie board fun...

...i thought it would be a good idea to test him towards the end of the beach time to see if he was completely adjusted to the sand. we decided to bury his feet...

...and he loved it, and we did it over and over and over again...

...i even got a TON of kisses, yes please...

...nana tried for kisses but he was all tapped out by that point...

....daddy came back from boogie boarding solo and decided we should bury Asher...

....surprise, he LOVED it...

huge success on this beach trip. he was devestated when we left the ocean.

he wanted to go back and play for hours, but it was time for a nap.

we went back to the condo and enjoyed ginormous hot dogs from the condo party...

asher loves hot dogs....ekkk, mommy is undecided on them...

but what he loves most is ketchup. everything gets dipped in ketchup...

unfortunately as we were leaving the beach we got a phone call that Softa was in the hospital in Chicago. she had flown up there a few days earlier for one of her friend's, son's weddings and encountered some back trouble (herniated disc, nerve damage etc). We found out quickly that she was all alone so we frantically rushed to make plans to end our vacation short so that one of us could fly up there the next day to be with her in the hospital. we ended up going out for a delicious early bird dinner with my parents and hitting the road around bed time to drive back to charlotte. we were able to get philip a flight to chicago the next morning so that he could be there with his mom. thankfully she was able to get an epidural and some pain medications so that she could fly back 3 days later and heal at home. we are happy to report that no surgery will be necessary at this point and she is doing a lot better, but her recovery will be months...

thanks Nana and Poppy for a short sweet and very special beach trip to Hilton Head.

ash loved it and so did we...looking forward to next year!