Spontaneous trips

Spontaneous trips are the best for my family… I am not quite sure why: because we are not expecting anything and everything seems just perfect, or we are brave enough to risk loosing our day on nothing, or we are just happy to do something together and it seems that anything we do is just perfect… in any case, we learned (with time, mind you) not to plan…. Sit in a car and start going….

The day was rainy and we had nothing in mind (well, maybe to see some rain and flowers and clouds)…. We saw lots of clouds, we named some of them, the flowers were plentiful, but out of reach… we could only look at them while passing but they made a gorgeous background. In two hours we were playing with…snow!

Michelly's song

Michelly started to sing songs that she makes up when she sings. I am always trying to catch it on camera, but am always too late... I wrote one down:

Eshel, you are my baby
So crawl with me
To the island of the room,
Sing with me this song!

One of the funniest days are the ones when we dress up... we dance and play and laugh

Walking around the house in my old high hill shoes:
“I am such a magnificent lady!”

parenting

I know a few types of parents:

- parents that are not very interested in their children's lives... no, not bad parents, just too absorbed in their own lives, too forgetful .... they believe that if something is done on the national/world level it must be right and who are they, anyway, to decide?!

- parents who are very much concerned about their children's future ... they want the best of all world for their children (in  the future) and they know how to grab their dream ... never mind the fact that the children are seldom interested, that the future is ...just the future, that most of the dreams are their dreams... dreamt in their childhood and never realized.... these parents push and push .... and sometimes in the end they need to pull (and pull hard... and then, there is no more talk about dreams...)

- parents who let their children be... not out of any thought or belief... it's just much easier this way. I heard that a lot of these children grow up to be very angry at their parents.. I wonder if these parents just never believe in them ... never let them strife for anything... I wonder...

- there are parents that are ... different... I can't put them all together in one paragraph, but when I meet them - I know..... I want to learn from them... their children grow up to be happy, loving, interested ... their eyes shine and their smiles make you warm.... I want to know how that is possible...

Trip to the Check Post

Boaz is one of the best teachers I know.. he makes all the kids feel important, helpful and happy. Everytime I see him with the kids I think that if I'd have a school, he would definitely work in it! We are so lucky we met him in the zoo...without him, the trips to the zoo wouldn't be so nice and kids wouldn't see third of what we see there...
This time Boaz took us to a new place - two big puddles where most of Israel's amphibians dwell...

Shomrey Ha Gan

This year Michelle is going to shomrey hagan (garden keepers). They walk in the woods, look at different insects, footprints and play a lot. In the end there is always a fire, food and songs. Dalia is the "teacher" and all the kids love her!
While Michelle is with Dalia, Eshel and I go on our own hike...

 Eshel is ready to go...

 I love flowers, this year there was not enough rain and so the flowers are very rare... I hope soon we'll see all those colors.

 Ants - Eshel can spend LOTS of time looking at ants

 Wild boars were here at night... After the fire on Carmel the boars are concentrated in green areas and there is almost no food for them....

 Sheep were here too