Now there's just Yom Kippur to look forward to...

This week went so quickly! On Sunday, we took the kids our to Falafel Ofer in Modiin, one of those stuff your own pita type places. David, Shana, Ayelet, and I very much enjoyed the wide variety of add-ins - salad, pickles, chatzilim, three varieties of onions, chips, and lots more - while Dani and Ariella had pizza from the place next door, which only makes small pies. As we were eating, we were trying to figure out the meaning of the pizza place's name - Super-news? David finally explained to us that the name was Soprano's Pizza! We felt foolish, but wondered exactly who thought that was an appropriate name for a food purveyor that caters to families! And no, not that kind of familia! After that, we headed for Matityahu, to the ice cream store there, where Ayelet, the family money-maker, treated us to ice cream. The bochrim who walked in just after us tried to get the girl behind the counter to give them a sample to taste. Sounds reasonable, right? Then they explained what they wanted to taste - a MILKSHAKE! David and I burst out laughing, and the girl yelled at them, asking how they expected her to give a taste of something that had to be made specially. "Just make a small amount, and we'll try it out." Needless to say, they did not get their sample. Of course, she was also not in the mood to make a yogurt and fruit shake, so we were also a little disappointed, not to mention that the ice cream was pedestrian at best. We probably would have been better off buying a tub at Rami Levi. Oh well, at least we tried something new.

Not much else happened this week. We spent Wednesday drinking and eating in preparation for Tisha B'Av - liters of water were consumed, until we could not take any more. Baruch Hashem, the fast went very well for all of us. even Dani fasted the whole time, and the girls held up very well. I spent the afternoon baking, which was not as difficult as I thought it would be. And then it was over, and we were enjoying potato leek soup, along with bagels and lox. I think we are all glad it's over, and we won't think about fasting for at least a little while...

Our initial plans for Shabbat called for Dani to go visit Saba and Savta, and Shana's friends Chana and Shobi to come stay with us. We had also invited our friends Lori and Seth for lunch, as Lori had been laid low for days by a very unpleasant flu, and was completely wiped out. We figured that some more family members might get sick also, so whoever was healthy would join us for lunch, and Lori would not have to worry too much about cooking. In the end, Baruch Hashem they were all healthy, but one of our nephews was still enjoying a lovely case of pink-eye, so the boys' Shabbaton in Har Nof was scuttled. Being very spontaneous, we invited Saba and Savta to join us for Shabbat, and being very spontaneous, they accepted! We had a very enjoyable dinner Shabbat night. The Gersons were all able to join us for lunch, which is always fun, so we were very happy about that. Yakir, their youngest, was clearly not 100%, as he fell asleep on the couch for an hour or so. Fortunately, he was able to rally and entertain us with all sorts of singing and performing, causing his father, Seth, to die a slow death, by dessert time. Dani and Ariella headed to the Gersons after lunch to play for a couple of hours. David and Dani went to learning at shul, and I collected Lola. Unfortunately, it was too hot and muggy outside for Seuda Shlishit, so we had to eat inside.

This week was a dual baking week for me. I had a cupcake order for a birthday in addition to the regular Shabbat trays.

I had a great time making all the decorations for the cupcakes. There were a dozen each chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, with mix and match chocolate and pink vanilla buttercream and decorations. For ourselves, as an experiment for a possible addition to the menu, I filled some chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mint ganache and covered them with chocolate buttercream. YUM!This week's cookie platter contained glazed lemon cookies, chocolate cherry brownies, chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies, ginger white chocolate blondies, and sacher torte sandwiches.

I will be proceeding to the post Nine Days festival of laundry, in preparation for our upcoming vacation. This week is also our Three Year Aliyanniversary - Mazal tov to us and all of our plane-mates!

Shavua tov!

Dvora