Three times a year?

I think three times a year might be about as much as I can handle for blog posts these days :) :)

Last winter's trip to NY for Great-George's 101st birthday.

We spent most of the rest of the winter at home, with great (i.e. frequent) snow this winter, probably the best we've had since moving to Pittsburgh.

Oren turned 3 in February.  He is still very funny, and has also been seeming quite a bit more grown-up lately (sometimes) in his verbal expressions and interests.

Li'el and Eytan both had firsts this year -- going to friends' houses to play without either of their parents there (this picture is a Valentine's day tea at a friend of Li'el's).

We took our annual trip to D.C. for my policy class + visiting cousins/uncle/aunt and this year a grandma too.

And had the opportunity to go to an Indonesian gamelan concert back in Pittsburgh.

And in the spring returned to NY for Passover.

 

Li'el turned 5 in April.  She has been speaking Korean a lot (i.e. saying words English and telling us they're in Korean, emulating a friend of hers from school), so we've all been trying to learn.  Picture of birthday party below.

Noa is also getting quite grownup these days. She climbs stairs and gives hugs, and she and Oren have been pretty pleased (sometimes) to play together.  If she could, she would spend almost all her time on swings and outside -- a love she shares with Eytan (also, similarly, has the same tendency as he did early on to just get up out of bed and come find us when she wakes up, whereas Li'el was and Oren still is way more likely to call for someone).  

Several months ago, Noa started bringing over her jacket whenever she wanted to go outside (kind of like a puppy), and now has moved on to bringing each person their shoes to put on.  She also has a strong territorial streak (her chair, her toy, her lap, her books) and is very assertive and hitting the other kids when they've taken something she thinks is hers.

And a complete obsession with books, a little like Li'el did but maybe even more so -- asking to hear them over and over, and memorizing and repeating phrases.

Eytan is wrapping up his year in kindergarten, with all the tumult of anticipating moving to first grade next year.

And for all the kids, there has been lots of construction on the street outside school to watch this year.

We've also been selling lots of baby goats, so far 6 out of the 8.  Sad, as always, to send them off, but needed.

And now we've hit spring and almost summer.  When school wraps up in June we're headed to Minnesota (on a driving odyssey!) for a conference and a class I have, and visits to the Mike side of the family.  And then the plan is to spend the rest of the summer mostly at home.