The end of the summer

Not sure we really had a summer. But this is it. Last pics with shades and short sleeves. Rubber and winter boots are lined up. Leaves are turning yellow. Stores have stocked up on Christmas cookies. I'm not liking it. We need to move to a sunny place again. Counting the days till our next trip to Israel. Should be something like 182 days...

Ben and I (finally) got a new haircut! Ben has grown so much, and not just hair. He has (finally) started to talk, but he's rather economical of words, also because ja and nein is basically all you need to communicate. And you should hear the way he says it! Mama, Papa, (L)Jia, Auto, Hallo, Ball, and Baddo, a universal Ben-word that can mean anything in general and Bagger (excavator) in particular. His tiny repertoir of words is brought forth in a deep baby voice. He's such a man. Always so excited when we pass a train or a truck. Exhilarated when we drive past the construction site. That's when he gets to see the front-end loaders, backhoes, and bulldozers. Baddo, baby!

zoo much fun

Too bad this isn't the real thing, a boat cruise on the Zambezi river under the hot African sun. We all long for a vacation, especially with dad spending a couple of days at home, but we'll gladly wait until April (Israel, hurray!) and humbly enjoy the mini Zambezi in the meantime. The zoo can be a pretty exciting place, too, especially when you meet eye to eye with the king.

From Africa we went straight to Canada to dig for gold.

Girl got lucky. This should be enough to buy us a round the world ticket!

First wash the gold, then exchange the barter for a passage to Europe.

A trip on the tractor. Our kids are so easy to please. You'd think.

Mediterranean next?



Pat-a-cake

or:

how to bake a carrot cake and not eat it 

Actually, I have no idea how to bake a cake and not eat it. Unlike Lia, who helped me create this delicious carroty composition, but chose to eat a kiwi instead. Never mind, Ben and I were more than glad to share the calories. Now look at that perfect arrangement of marzipan carrots:

The proudest and probably slimmest baker ever: