Norwegian Cruise

About 1 week ago, our family set sail for the Caribbean aboard the Norwegian gem.  It's going to take a few days to get all of the photos organized, so until then, we hope you'll enjoy these three clips from our days at sea.  The kids loved the water slide!

National Geographic

Best part of living near the lake is seeing the cycle of life.  Not too long ago I captured the fish, well, making more fish.  It's a little hard to see them, but you can definitely see how they're swimming in circles:

Border Ballet

We had lunch at the Border Cafe recently.  As we were waiting for Daddy and Adam to finish up inside, Ashley and I waited outside.  There's music on the outdoor patio, so Ashley turned it into an impromptu show:

And then Adam joined in the fun.

The best part wasn't caught on camera.  Adam was heading to the car and Ashley clearly wasn't done dancing yet.  So we agreed she could finish out the song.  As soon as the song ended, she held up two fingers:  "Mommy, just two more songs please."  How can a mom say no?

Adam the Reader

Adam woke up on a Saturday morning determined to read a story to Daddy.  He chose his favorite book to share:

Christopher Columbus Park - Take 2

Found the photos!

One Two Buckle My Shoe

Daddy makes everything fun, including putting on our shoes:

Robbins Park

Pam took the kids to Robbins Park for an afternoon of fun:

Trip to Israel - Part 3

Two weeks of excitement continues today:

Class photo in Jerusalem

Fishing in the ocean

Visiting the Haifa Zoo

Off to a construction site

Photos with friends

Unearthing archaeological treasures

Trip to Israel - Part 2

There was so much to see and do!

Riding a camel

Amazing!

Bedouin experience

Bedouiin at the clothesline

Bedouin at the oasis

Navigating traffic in Jerusalem

Beep!  Beep!

Science experiments at the Technion

Technion students

Got it!

Trip to Israel - Part 1

The highlight of the preschool year is the annual trip to Israel.  Before you start thinking we send our kids to some sort of jet set school, just hold your horses.  Shelley, Kate, Lucie and crew bring the magic of Israel to Lexington for two exciting weeks each year:

Getting suitcases from Shelley

Decorating the suitcases

This is my passport!

Stowing his luggage underneath the chair

Pilots outlining the flight path

Plane banks to the side

Beached!

Adam and Ashley went to the beach compliments of their preschool:

Ballerina and Music

In this very moving clip, I learned two things:

1.  Ashley is ready to take a dance class.
2.  Adam doesn't mind the dancing, but he cannot abide music without lyrics.

Adam and Brownie

Every now and then Adam will spontaneously ham it up for the camera.

Truth is he wanted me to take a photo, but he couldn't sit still long enough for the phone's camera to take a decent shot.  Enter in a video clip!

Goodness -- how did parents handle this problem before digital photos and videos?  Right -- they didn't take as many.

Puppetry

What's a mother to do when it's pouring outside?  Visit the library of course! 

When I was a kid, our library didn't have exotic toys, like stuffed animal puppets.  No wonder the kids love visiting this particular branch.

Sharing Dim Sum

It warms a mother's heart to see her children sharing food.  Earlier in the day, Ashley asked if we could have "Sim Dum" for lunch.  I knew exactly what she meant!

In this clip, Adam liked the outside of the bao (bread) and Ashley liked the inside, so she cleverly figured out a way to keep both of them happy.  Ashley's use of the chopsticks vaguely reminded me of watching chimpanzees dipping for termites.  I have got to teach these kids how to use chopsticks.

Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park

As part of our foray to "Boston City", we had a picnic in a shaded section of the Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park.  The kids asked me to take a photo of them, which as you might imagine, takes a lot more effort when using the simple camera on my phone.

There's a still shot somewhere in my phone... I'll find it for another post.

Boston City

This past weekend Adam woke up repeatedly requesting to visit "Boston City".  That's where the big buildings are and he wanted to go inside some of them.  Sadly, most of the big buildings are closed on the weekends (because they're offices), but the kids found a ramp.  Problem solved!

Memorial Day celebrations

There's nothing better than buying ices from the ice cream man on a hot Memorial Day weekend:

And thanks to Google Auto-Awesome for giving us another memory of this day:

Some of the still photos I tried to take: