Weekend Round-up!

Loving the long-awaited heat blast out here! We spent all morning yesterday at Mother's Beach, and I relished in finally having a child big enough to play on her own. I lay in the sunshine on a beach towel up on the dry sand while Freida frolicked at the sea shore, attempted a sand castle construction, dug giant holes, and ran to and from the waters edge filling and lugging back buckets of salty sea water for 2 whole hours. Bliss!

Here are some things I've been meaning to share:

- Remember the tree bookshelf? It's finally here!

- This "TweetSeat" made me smile.

- This even-more-exciting TV news makes me want to dance!

- My latest article over at the Algemeiner.

- Those Appaman suits + vans sneakers!

- I'm thinking about this breakfast for Sunday night dinner... mmm!

Wishing you all a fabulous sunshine-soaked weekend!

Born to Be Wild

I'm very much looking forward to viewing this film, and I thought I'd share the excitement! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv2Af-H7ZnI&feature=player_embedded]

The cinematography is breathtaking, as is the immense vibrance of color! Plus, K'naan makes everything even more amazing, and a Morgan Freeman narration = film gold!

A Snail's Pace

While the Passover holiday surely interrupted our "caterpillar unit", we have been continuing the learning process through day-to-day activities and experiences. Conveniently, a bug's life cycle can be witnessed in an unlimited variety via springtime in the great outdoors! So we're moving along our little lesson, albeit at a snail's pace...

Our yard is lined with flower beds, and all spring long we see slugs crawling along the sidewalk in between the buildings. As I've mentioned earlier, Freida has a thing for the slimy guys, and when she found a snail's shell on a leaf the other day she couldn't have been prouder! At first she told me that the snail crawled out and left his shell, but when I said I think he's hiding inside she was all eyes and ears - ready to witness this sluggish discovery. Luckily for me, when we put the shell back into the flower bed the bottom of the shell bubbled slightly, and out creeped the little hidden mollusk (gross!!). :)

Simply put, she was in awe! It was one of those "priceless" moments...

(Plus, it made me miss (and laugh about!) Marcel.)

My First Haggadah

I printed some of the pictures from our little model-Seder last week, and used them to make a mini Haggadah-style picture book to help keep Freida involved during the Seder. While assembling the photos, I realized that I could use a harder lamination and that the book would likely end up being a long-lasting member of her little library - something she could reference and look through all year long, and, hopefully, as a keepsake for years to come...

I found the cutest (actually, the only cute) Seder-Plate illustration on Kveller from Design Pocket. I let Freida color it up and used it as the first page in the Haggadah, but it would make for a great coloring page for the kids to do the day before the Seder. You can download and print it here.

A few months ago, I helped my brother out with a linguistic job he was doing for Matisyahu (mazel tov on the newest little man!!). The religious reggae/rapper wanted a Sefirah chart made hip by using more modern, theme-related one-word ways to describe the 10 Kabbalistically-famous attributes (e.g. for "Kesser" we went with "Bejeweled"). Inspired by that minimalistic logic, I came up with 13 easy-to-read, easy-to-recognize words to navigate the many often-over-complicated steps of the Seder: Drink, wash, dip, break, ask, wash, bite, cry, remember, eat, search, thank, and sing.

Some colorful card-stock paper + card-stock frames, a little lamination job, and 2 metal rings later, the whole thing came out super-cute, and Freida is supremely proud and excited for Monday night!!

Chag Sameach dear Mamas!!

My Model-Seder Model!

We held an itty-bitty mock-seder at Freida's play table this week - just to prep her a bit and get her more interested, excited, and familiar with all the quirky Passover details. I'm a big believer in keeping the kids up and awake to witness and experience all the wholesome goodness invested in all that holiday tradition... but it's not always very practical - even with an extra nap. She's very excited that she gets to sing the Mah Nishtanah first (she's the youngest talking cousin), so I figure she'll be disappointed if she doesn't make it at least that far. Thought I'd up my chances of keeping her in the late-night game by peaking her interest in all preliminary steps. I also figured I'd print some pictures and make a little "Haggadah" to help her follow along. She totally surprised me by acting everything out! She even put on a full-fledged crying stint when I gave her the marror! She was definitely enthusiastic, to say the least. :)