More pictures from the weekend

July 20th Update

We had a wonderful weekend together celebrating Bubie's birthday at the soccer game and spending time with Aunt Sherry and Uncle Saul in their pool.

On Monday after a fun day at summer camp and an afternoon spent with Bubie and PopPop, the kids went with me to visit the new Bet Yeladim School. I am President of the Board of Directors this year as the school moves into it's new home. The kids were very excited to check it out and Sela was thrilled when she learned she will be in the purple room! It is such a beautiful facility and I am so thankful for all the hard work that was done by the administration, the building committee and the past Board of Directors to make this all possible. Here are the kids playing around at the new facility yesterday...I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to be mom to these two amazing children!!

More pics from the Beach...

My beach beauty:

Always stylish in her matching bike helmet:

Can you believe that this is my daughter IN the sand?? :) (this child went to HAWAII and would not let her feet touch the sand. She insisted on being carried around the beaches!)

and finally, my big boy - he is very excited about the crab claws they picked for dinner:

Oh how I miss these kids...

Pictures from the Beach

Nathan and Sela are at the beach this week with Bubie and Pop-Pop. I understand that they are having a great time...wish I were there!! Here are the pictures they sent to me today...

Nathan's message was "Happy Birthday" (my birthday was in January)

and Sela's message is "I love you".. and a picture from their fishing trip yesterday...

Lots of catching up....

It has been a busy and hectic couple of weeks. I am sorry that I didn't document everything as it happened, but will try to catch up now.

The third week of June was the kids' last week of school this year. They both had great years, wonderful teachers, made great friends and learned a lot. I love to watch all their new discoveries and their growth each day! Although we will miss the routine of school, I know that the kids need a break and look forward to the lazy days of summer.

We celebrated a wedding shower for Becca in June. She is marrying our cousin Bret and we are very excited to have her join our family. The wedding is scheduled for September in Washington DC. Sela was thrilled to be included in the shower and loved hanging out with her cousins. Here is a picture of her getting ready and trying her tiara on Mishu - not a great picture - taken with my phone.

Sela was not happy because she did not like the dress I chose for her to wear - I thought she looked adorable and loved the dress, but she wanted to wear her princess dress!The shower was beautiful, the food was delicious and everything was terrific.Here is the happy couple:Bret and his cousins:The following day was father's day and we spent some time with PopPop. We also made donations in his honor to to purchase food for the father's in Guatemala of the kids we sponsor:

Luis Alfonso with his father:Miriam Josefina with her father:

Hope all the fathers out there had a wonderful and very special fathers day. We love you PopPop and appreciate all you do for us!! Your support and love are invaluable.

Monday started our vacation and we spent the day running errands and getting ready for our trip. We did take some time on Tuesday to go to Aunt Sherry's pool. Here is my bathing beauty!

On Wednesday we set out on our trip. We met Bev and her girls at the Crayola Factory. The kids had a great time. I forgot my camera, so here is another phone pic:

Nathan has become camera shy and doesn't like to have his picture taken unless there is some incentive for him!

We spent the night at Bev's house and the kids had a ball playing with Cayla and Sara and their cats!

We had a quiet day the following day as the kids had been up late the night before. We went to Philly and hung out at the hotel pool before walking around the city and going out for a nice dinner. Nathan did manage to have a little fun with cheerios in the hotel room:

The following day, Bubie, PopPop, Aunt Teri and Uncle Jamie arrived in Philly for our annual family vacation. We took a bus tour that afternoon.

Nathan fell asleep during the tour...standing up!!!



Unfortunately our trip was cut short when we learned that Grandma Helen had passed away. We returned home so Dad could help with the arrangements. Last week was a blur with preparations, saying good-bye to Grandma and trying to enjoy the company of Uncle Rick, Aunt Liz, Andrew, Nicole and Matthew. We will miss Grandma Helen very much.

The kids are now at the beach with Bubie and PopPop. They left yesterday and I miss them already!! Hope they are having a wonderful time, enjoying each other's company and taking time to relax and enjoy the summer.

Swimming, Soccer, Ducks, Friends and Bubbles...

This weekend marked the last of this sessions' swimming lessons and the last soccer game of the season. We also had fun spending time with cousin Bret and his fiance Becca, our other "cousins" Miss Anne, John, Luke and Grace and of course, Bubie and PopPop.

Here is a shot of the kids before their swimming lesson. They have progressed so much in the past 12 weeks - Sela is no longer afraid in the water and will actually dunk under. She needs to work on her floating, but is learning the basics to be ready to swim. Nathan is also doing great. He is learning the basics to swim and loves to be in the water!

We were very fortunate to have the company of Bret and Becca this weekend. They joined us for lunch, a few games and a few books and accompanied us to Nathan's final soccer game of the season where he scored 6 goals!! Nathan still enjoys soccer and is already looking forward to next season. He even told me that I can have his old trophy because he has a new one now! I think I am going to need a big trophy case for this kid! As I watched the US National Mens Team play last night, I couldn't help but wonder if that would be my kid someday representing his country.

On Sunday, we met my dear friend Anne and her kids John, Luke and Grace in Baltimore. This is such a wonderful family and we always enjoy our time together. Here are the kids before we met for lunch at the Inner Harbor.

After lunch at the ESPN Zone, we took the kids for a tour of the city on a Duck Boat. This is a little bus that drives around the streets then goes into the water. I learned so much about the city and the kids loved the water ride, even though it was a long tour.

And of course, the kids needed ice cream after the tour!


To end the weekend, we had dinner with Bubie and PopPop, and then blew bubbles. A perfect end to a to a wonderful weekend.

My soccer player