On Sunday, baking prep began in earnest. A few days before, my friend Caryn, who is one half of Peas in the Pod event planners, called me to ask if I would be able to do a large order for a kiddush at shul the next week. I jumped at the chance, as this was great exposure, as well as being the kiddush of people I like very much. Caryn and Leiah (the other "pea") have been great supporters of my business endeavor, and I think they were happy to be able to give me the business. So preparing to bake 600+ cookies required a trip to the supermarket to stock up on supplies, and then, we were off.
Later in the day, David and I headed to a kitah alef asifat horim vyeladim at the elementary school. This was meant to help the first graders and their parents prepare for the expectations and routines of first grade. Of course, it had to start at 6 pm, which makes excellent sense when you are dealing with six year olds. Ariella is in a very sweet class, just 22 girls, with a teacher who seems to really know her stuff. After sitting through a long conversation, we had to pick ourselves up and head to Yerushalayim for a bar mitzvah. It was a really nice event, for the son of a very special family, and we were glad to be there, if a bit tardy. Of course, we were not the only ones, as a number of guests had to be at the asifat horim as well.
Monday was the last free day for the two younger kids. We got them ready for school earlier in the day, as we were heading to a wedding in the evening. Everyone seemed to cooperate about getting ready and to bed on time. It happens at least once a year! The wedding was beautiful - leibedik, and in a beautiful setting. The chatan and kallah looked so happy, and so did their parents! The two had lived just a couple of blocks away from each other for years, but were set up by a mutual friend!
Tuesday morning was the big day. Dani and Lola managed to get up bright and early and get ready for school with a smile. Naturally, I had to photograph them.
I walked them to school and took Ariella to her classroom. I did not bring a camera, because I did not want to be the dorky parent with the lense in everyone's face, and especially not the dorky American. And of course, nearly all the Israeli parents were there photographing the proceedings...
David picked the two kids up at the end of the day, and they were both happy, Ariella more so than Dani. Dani was upset with the class split, as most of his friends were in the other class. We hope that he will learn to deal, and we are looking forward to Back to School night, because we are interested to hear the teacher's philosophy on this - we know Dani is not the only unhappy kid.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were consumed with baking. I churned out fouteen varieties. On Friday morning, David and I headed for Yerushalayim to the bar mitzvah. It was a lovely affair, the bar mitzvah of a cousin and neighbor! Then we picked up Shana and Ayelet (hasa'a difficulties), and zoomed home. Dani brought Ariella home and was supervising her - he did a GREAT job and we are very proud. He is really stepping up in the big brother role; he walks Lola to and from school every day. I will be sad next week when he is on Mishmeret Zahav (crossing guard) duty and I will have to cover.
Then it was time to pack up the platters. Shana was a tremendous help, and we managed to pack, count, and wrap in record time. I had also baked a batch of mini-cupcakes in the morning before we left for the bar mitzvah, which needed icing and decorating and packing -that was the cousin/friend contribution, as opposed to the business portion of our show. Shana and I had to deliver quickly - the event planners were in and out of the shul picking up the catering orders - so there was, sadly, no time for even a single photograph, which is really chaval - they looked great. Instead, I will have to regale you with the flavors:
Chocolate pecan fingers
Mint brownies
Thin mint sandwiches
Chocolate dipped chocolate chip
Linzer cookies
Molasses cream sandwiches
Orange cranberry white chocolate cookies
Whoopie pies
Chocolate caramel sandwiches
Mexican brownies
Peanut butter bites
Alfajores
Glazed lemon cookies
Maple pecan cranberry triangles
Is that list long enough for ya?
Shabbat was great - a young couple and their 12 week old adorable son - guests for the bar mitzvah who were cousins we had never met before! - stayed in our house. Arica and Josh were kind and merciful and invited us for lunch. Suzanne and Gary were there also, and we had a great time, though this time I stayed away from most alcohol, and thusly did not turn bright red or experience pounding in my head. We finally made it home - without Lola, of course, as she stayed to play with her intended Jordy - napped a lot, which was excellent as I had not slept more than 3 or so hours for several nights, and then got up to retrieve Lola (me) and go learn with Dani (David). I found Ariella in the park with Jordy, so I stayed to hang out with Arica and Lori, whom I had found along the way. David turned up a little while later, and we stayed for a bit longer, then headed back for seuda shlishit. Then suddenly, Shabbat was over, and a new week was starting. I will leave you with this thought - there is nothing more hideous than a Motzaei Shabbat when we are still on shaon kayitz, when then kids have to suddenly remember how to get ready to go to school on Sunday morning.
Shavua tov.
Dvora
No comments:
Post a Comment