Posted in Beautiful Things, Home Shuling, Jewish Life, Kid style, Parenting, Queens Life, tagged bar mitzvah gifts, charity, donation, giving, Lion's Share Food Pantry, mitzvah, soup kitchen, volunteering kids on August 12, 2019| 1 Comment »
This boy gave a big portion of his bar mitzvah $$$ gifts to the local food pantry where he volunteers, and they sure did stock up on necessities for fall! We can’t believe how much they could purchase with his donation .. I’m so proud of my boy for paying it forward.
Posted in Beautiful Things, Home Shuling, Jewish Life, Kid style, Parenting, tagged bands, bar mitzvah DIY, Flushing Free Synagogue of NY, gold and white party, jazz kids, Jewish learning, Jewish life, kid music, proud mamma, turning into a teen on July 9, 2019| 1 Comment »
I have to admit … we agonized about planning this day, for months (maybe years). It’s no small feat putting together a very ‘do-it-yourself event’ for 150 people – but we made it through (we hung 100 balloons, nearly that same quantity in Ezra baby photos, and managed to master uplighting ourselves). But the most impressive part is Ezra himself, and his bands of musical kids who performed! Ezra learned Hebrew so quickly (a little more than a year) and then ran a service like a grown up. We are so proud. We got so many compliments on his singing/chanting abilities which – I’m assuming is rare during this age when kids’ voices begin to change and crack! (think Greg Brady.) Anyhow here are some great pix taken by our photographer on that day. It now seems so silly that I agonized over hanging all my ‘gold and white’ themed decorations when – not only did the uplights overshadow it all – but my boy’s maturity is what really won the spotlight …
(By the way – we painted those recycled wine bottles to make our own centerpieces; and a special thx to grandma, grandpa and Aunt Becca for the fresh flowers! They provided the flowers at my wedding as well. Gotta love family with mad gardening skills.)
the flowers in front of Ezra here are in honor of deceased loved ones – and will continue to grow in the synagogue’s garden in their memory
a portion of Ezra’s money gifts are going to Lion’s Share Food Pantry, where Ezra volunteers every month
clearly, we have a lot of photos of Ezra’s childhood to add to the walls!
Cousin Angelo may grow up to have the same “performance knack” as Ezra
Zoe loves being the MC
the epic slide show put together by Ezra’s dad
and speech crafted by mom
friends and giggles during the slideshow
when the jazz band was done, cousins stepped in so that Ezra and family could dance the Hora
and Ezra got a ride in the chair – mazel tov to my boy!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Kid style, Parenting, tagged NYC schools, NYSSMA, Sokol Gymnastics on June 14, 2019| 1 Comment »
Ok – here I am tootin’ my kids’ horns again but… toot toot! This has been a great school year, after a couple of super challenging school years. So it comes as a delicious surprise that the kids got a bunch of awards and accolades last week. Zoe won ‘first place’ in her gymnastics team! And a day before that, Ezra got an ‘outstanding’ ranking on his NYSSMA audition for drums. I’m also in shock that they are managing to maintain good grades, even now as the weather warms up and water gun wars are heating up ‘in the alley’ after school. Have a great weekend!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Kid style, Parenting, tagged children, gymnastics NYC, kids, parenting, Sokol, spring on April 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Wow it’s already spring, and there’s been so much improvement in everything. Zoe’s splits and back walkovers are so sharp after a whole winter of practice, and Ezra’s band is sounding so wise and weathered already . And clearly the move into the season of more light and flowers is making it all seem like we are wrapping up the school year already (not so fast, still another quarter of grades to go.. but close?) Here’s Zoe at her gymnastics competition this Saturday – she did great!
there she goes on the bars!
see her to the far right?
now she is a pretzel!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Kid style, Parenting, tagged children talent, drums, guitar, Jazz Standard NYC, Jazz Standard Youth Ensemble, Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra, kids, manhattan jazz scene, music, NYC, piano on March 1, 2019| 2 Comments »
Remember years ago, when we went here to see young musicians before (and my kids loved eating ribs?)
Well now Ezra is actually one of the performers!
Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra is an excellent program that Ezra loves and takes part in every Sunday. The kids practice in the a.m., then a quick break before getting right back to the stage on Sundays 2-3pm. It’s so fun watching this group of kids grow together and work together to make the music happen. One ‘yelp’ reviewer said it best in his review of the Sunday performances:
“As the great jazz trumpet player, Albert Camus, said, “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.” Today I saw kids showing generosity toward the future by giving all to the present–on stage at the Jazz Standard.
I attended a kids jam session at the Jazz Standard on a Sunday at 2 PM and I believe it’s a regular gig. The kids ranged from 10-15 year old. That’s significantly above the other jazz lovers I know who range from 100-150 years old. And the kids were terrific. Yes, they were nervous, but in the best way possible, because they couldn’t hide their passion for the music. Here’s the best part…they organized themselves, offstage and onstage without adult supervision. Another impressive part was seeing how they learned to communicate with one another and coordinate the music so it didn’t run away from them.
The food was pretty good too featuring bbq brisket, burgers, mac and cheese and other stuff kids like. Kudos to the Jazz Standard for supporting the kids by giving them a platform at one of the world’s great jazz clubs.”
You can see a clip here on Ezra’s open instagram feed (gotta love the 2 kids tag-teaming on the piano, the one performing is only 11 ys old!)
Posted in Beautiful Things, Fun in NYC, Kid style, Parenting, Uncategorized, tagged art, book art, children, clay, claymation, fun in manhattan, growing big, growing up, kids, model making, painting on February 26, 2019| 1 Comment »
Remember the Children’s Museum of Art? Hard to believe I was just posting that ‘Zoe is finally big enough to enjoy this place’ and now .. I fear both my kids are starting to transition out of the big room full of flubber, crayons and tiny chairs. BUT they did still love painting and making clay-mation characters in the stop-action claymation room. And we loved the exhibit on book art!
kids making maps by tracing on a lightbox
always game to paint!
has his sensitive artist face going here..
so much book art!
Posted in Beautiful Things, Crafting, Decorating, Fun in NYC, Kid style, Parenting, tagged Barbie DIY, bookcase dollhouse, children, dollhouses, donuts, indoor winter crafts, kid crafting, kids, miniatures, My Froggy Stuff, parenting, winter to dos on January 9, 2019| 2 Comments »
We have cousins Stella and Allison to thank for turning our attention to My Froggy Stuff and their super fun youtube channel. The Froggy Stuff gals know how to occupy my kids’ cold winter days with DIY crafting for miniture rooms and spaces. I guess it all started when Zoe starting to request a ginormous Barbie Townhouse for the holidays … and all that pink plastic in our house kinda scared me. So I gave the kids an old Ikea credenza that we were not-quite-using anymore and .. voila! My kids wallpapered, created additional bunk beds and lofts and pasted in fake wood flooring and .. well they just keep going. Ezra is mastering his ‘contractor’ skills while Zoe enjoys creating a mini version of her ‘future gluten free cafe and art gallery’. I highly recommend upcycling an old bookcase over buying more pink plastic housing for dolls:
our version: 
and some others that I’ve seen online! How clever are these?
and we are kinda obsessed with making donuts out of cheerios (gluten free, of course):
