Category Archives: general

Ka-pow: the Super-simple outdoor Superhero birthday party

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Last week we celebrated Koala’s 4th birthday with an outdoor ‘everything Koala loves’ party. Ok, not everything Koala loves; I couldn’t get a real policeman to breakdance on a firetruck, for instance.

It came out looking more like a superhero birthday party. Superhero outdoorsy explorer theme with chocolate cake.

First, the binoculars. Because I’m crafty and not an entertainer in any way, I went for the super simple art project (so simple that his two-year-old sister and her group of two-year-old sisters of his  friends could do it too). I wanted to do something with toilet paper rolls – do you ever realize just how many you go through in a week?!

Here’s what I did to prep:

  1. Measure colorful wrapping paper against the roll, cut a bunch of sheets. 
  2. With a glue stick, stick the paper onto the roll.
  3. Hole-punch one side of each roll.
  4. Staple two rolls together, with the holes on the outside.

Here’s what the kids did:

  1. Pick the color binoculars they wanted.
  2. Stuck various kinds of stickers all over their rolls.  
  3. Picked the color necklace string they wanted for me to tie on.

As four year olds, they totally could have done more, and if we had been indoors, I would have left the gluing for them. I also appreciate that not all 3-4 year olds are patient enough to sit with an art project. It worked out better that way.

Now on to the next piece: the CAPES! Yes, I bought a giant roll of cheap thin kindergarten fabric and cut pieces into cape shapes.

The outcome:

I had a plan for the kids to use silvery crayons to decorate them, but at the party I realized they were too ready to get flying so I let them go…

But not before handing each kid a nature hunt list; I printed pictures of outdoor items – rocks, leaves, sticks – and sent the kids to explore.

Worked out really nicely! Though if you ask any of them, I’m betting the cake, being cake, was the biggest hit (even if my son thought the drawing was a pizza…)

I could have totally gone all out and done the perfect Pinterest birthday… in the States. But I think there’s a simple modesty to appreciate in what gives a four year old a good time.

 

Is this Lag-pocalypse? Fire safety events in Israel for Lag Ba’Omer

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Are you an Anglo immigrant? Is it sometime around April/May? Have all the branches/wooden planks/crates been mysteriously removed from your neighborhood?

It’s time for the Lag Ba’Omer nag!

Nah. This year I have some praise. Turns out fire departments across the country (or maybe just one in Bet Shemesh) have taken on performing a fire safety week for area families in the days before Lag Ba’Omer, a Jewish minor minor holiday that I’m pretty sure has lost most its meaning since Rabbi Shimon had his way.

We visited on the last day, yesterday, and it was really lovely. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in the way of personal fire safety – what to do if you’re caught in smoke, how to keep your home safe. How to properly handle a bonfire. Though they did stress the phone number to dial for fire emergencies: 102.

But what they did focus on was how hard firefighters work – which is great because they definitely don’t get the kind of praise and honor and respect that they do in the States or elsewhere.

They also showed how firefighters work to rescue people trapped inside cars post traffic accident – a much more common occurrence here, unfortunately.

We got to climb the trucks, check out tools, equipment and uniforms, and speak to firefighters and volunteers.

All in all, an educational and hands-on way to spend an afternoon.

Climbing the trucks was obviously the best part:

Even Bebe got in on the action:

I was impressed with the turnout:

I do hope everyone walked away with new values and respect for our servicemen.

The day the Praying Mantis came to visit.

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It’s fun to come home with the kids and hand your son the house key so he can run ahead and then watch him stare at the front door and step back and look at you from over his shoulder like, ‘Mom, whaaaa-?’

Because he had spotted this guy:

Now, I’m that mom and made the saving of the praying mantis a whole elaborate experience, complete with talking to the scared creature, conducting the plastic cup/mail envelope rescue, and setting it free in the dirt of our mini-pomegranate plant.

Then we watched as it took about 20 minutes to climb up from the bottom of the plant to the top of our stone wall.

And eventually fly away to bite off the head of her scorned lover or be bitten by his own.

For days afterwards, the kids would run to the front door to see if we’d have another guest. No such luck yet.

My first dog run.

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My run this morning got a little messy – but way more fun – when my running partner joined.

If you live in Tzur Hadassah and this is your dog, man, you are lucky. I hope you’re a runner too! It’s such a thrill running with a dog (even if it was just for a kilometer or so).

I fall in love with dogs way too easily. Doggie affairs? It’s actually not the first time I’ve ‘hung out’ with a random dog who decided to follow me for a while.

One day.

What I learned running 21 kilometers in the 2013 Tel Aviv Marathon

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Last Friday, I did a highway practice run in preparation for the Tel Aviv (half) Marathon, and experienced an epiphany.

It started around kilometer four, and I fully appreciated it after completing all 16km.

By 4km, jogging uphill under a warm 7am sun, I was done. I really was ready to slow to a trot, turn around, get in my car and give up. I had my phone on me; I’d call my husband on the walk back and vent about not having what it takes.

But I didn’t. A tiny tiny part of me was moving my feet. A voice I couldn’t really hear clearly was forcing me to keep going.

The epiphany is not that running – or any physical challenge – is 90% mental. I knew that from four previous 10k’s in the last year and a half.

It’s how brilliantly amazing athletes are at combining the powerful self talk with any level of fine physical ability and empowering chemical reactions.

Running is a 360° high, and all at once, I understood there is always a place in the self talk for achieving that.

This was a week after spontaneously registering for the Tel Aviv Half Marathon; after Jerusalem, I literally said fuck it and knew the only thing stopping me from running a half was saying to everyone and myself I wasn’t ready to run a half. After each of my last three 10k’s, I knew I could have done more. A lot more.

This past Friday, I ran the Tel Aviv Half Marathon. There were a lot of excuses available, offering several respectable outs: The forecasted heat wave, which postponed the full and pushed our starting time up an hour. The fact that my furthest distance in my two-week training was 16km, and I had done it just once. The four hours of sleep I ended up getting the night before.

But I arrived at the starting line at five minutes to 6. It was already hot, but I felt prepared. I was watered well from three days of binge drinking, well-fed, had read an excellent article about keeping an elite state of mind, and told myself over and over I had absolutely nothing to lose.

I felt free as soon as we started. By kilometer 5, I knew I would finish the race. By kilometer 10, I knew I would finish it running. It felt great to have that confidence and control. It wasn’t an ego thing; it was knowing my body, being familiar with my preparedness and most of all, feeling totally at ease with my self talk.

After reaching 16km, the excitement really kicked in. I was passing my furthest distance and I felt fresh. Then something totally new started to take place after 17.  I don’t really know how to express it other than I had this totally emotional response with every new marker I passed.

I literally felt so good about each kilometer achievement, I had an overwhelming emotional desire to cry every time. I was overcoming some enormous challenge every time I saw a new number – 18, 19, 20. After a year and a half of procrastinating and making excuses, I was here and just doing it.

To be honest, it’s probably part of the ‘high’ I was on; like any other high, feeling the world in the palm of your hands… But that’s what it was. I looked around at all my running peers, and could hug every one. We were all together – most of us not pros, maybe a lot of us doing this for the first time – and we were each doing this to feel amazing, to achieve something personal, to just do it. There was a freedom in its meaningfulness and meaninglessness, and the world was a better place because tens of thousands of people had made the same decision to do something big within their own personal lives.

It was powerful, empowering, and between 20 and 21, I was flying.

It’s obvious that most of us don’t allow ourselves to take big leaps all that often. Maybe it’s wise to keep it at a moderate pace.

But when you’re fresh enough, fortunate enough, focused enough to hear that tiny tiny insistence that you can make this happen… know there’s an all-powerful high at the other end, waiting to blend your sweat with your tears.

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The following are some pics and details from Tel Aviv Marathon day. Earlier in the week, the full was postponed due to the predicted heat wave. We started earlier, at 6am, when it was reportedly 26°c. The aim was for everyone to finish by around 8:30am, when it was 29°c.

Set out early to make it for the new start time – 5am Tel Aviv:

5am Tel Aviv, Marathon morning

Tragically, the marathon ended with one death – a 29-year-old half marathon runner who collapsed. Out of 35,000 runners, 50 were in need of medical care of varying degrees – from first aid to critical hospitalization.

I do think the marathon organizers were very well prepped throughout – giving warnings, broadcasting tips, pushing up the starting time, adding majorly to the water supply, providing rinses.

But walking towards the starting line, I’ll admit it was daunting to pass such a fleet…

Ambulances lined up pre-Tel Aviv marathon

It was already pretty exhilarating while lining up with thousands of my peers.

Lining up the morning of the Tel Aviv marathon 2013

And just to drive the point home a little harder… While stretching my legs at the starting line, I spot this guy:

Running amputee.

See you at Rishon Letzion on May 3?

 

Liz’s How To: become a total creep over Hello Kitty

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Racing through Malha mall for errands today, the heavens opened up and rays of sunlight poured down and unicorn angels sang and my eyes fell upon this… mecca of old school cuteness…

Granted this would completely make my daughter’s day, week, month, year – somehow she’s head over heels in love with ‘KITTY! HELLO, KITTY!!!’ – I was totally confused when I saw this.

What’s the date? Is it 1984? Where am I? FAO Shwartz? I’m in Jerusalem? There are a few more grown women than I’d expect pushing their newborns in expensive strollers into this completely unnecessary store?

Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge Hello Kitty fan as a kid (for reasons I can’t really figure out now, decades later). Japan knows what it’s doing. Sanrio was pure  genius, right there with Lisa Frank.

It was just surprising to come across an entire shop right here in Israel’s capital,  dedicated entirely to Hello Kitty merch – shirts, dolls, bags, pencils, dolls, suitcases, bikes, and dolls.

First I snapped a few pics to show Bebe – her reaction every time she sees a Hello Kitty image is priceless: <squeal> HELLO, KITTY! KITTTTY!</squeal>

Then I walked in to fully take in a really big piece of childhood awesomeness.

Then I walked out, made it a few steps, and looked down. I happened to be wearing – a couple months after my mother gave it to me as a nostalgic relic – well, when I realized what I was wearing, I was quickly transformed into a total creep at the dawn of her fourth decade, having attempted to be ironic this morning when I had put on… this very t-shirt:

(I now understand better the sales lady’s face after I responded in the negative to whether she could help me…)

 

Jerusalem Marathon: Crossroads, crossing cobblestone roads, and more

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Success all around! Running the 10k for charitable fundraising was a great way to put a new spin on something I’ve done three times before. And my peeps managed to more than double the sponsorship amounts from what I initially pledged. Thanks so much to the friends and family who supported me in supporting Crossroads!

I also shocked myself by doing the 10k in 63 minutes, just a minute over my last challenge (and record), with minimal prep and in the hilliest Jerusalem terrain as opposed to flat Tel Aviv.

There are three things I learned this time:

  1. It doesn’t feel good watching homeless/poor folks watching us chug 23793847594238 bottles of water and then chuck 23793847594238 bottles of still-full water.
  2. Running on cobblestones is SCARY.
  3. The coffee culture here is so hilarious that after – and even before – a marathon, you’ll find throngs of people jonesing for a quick cup of Elite Turkish coffee samples. Ok, myself included. Which had nothing to do with the fact I took part in a Harlem Shake for Elite Coffee to warm up.

Starting line!

Faster than the light rail at least…

Aaaand that was quick.

Another serious thank you to the peeps who donated to Crossroads: Shara, Leah, Jill, Harry, JMC, Susan, Judith, Vicki, Matt, Yosef, Lisa, Aaron, Sarina.

H&M will exchange old clothes for store vouchers – even in Israel!

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Yay, retail!

Looks like H&M has its new years resolutions in order and is starting a new program called iCollect, launching February 2013, to take your old clothes for recycling/reprocessing in exchange for store vouchers. So hand over a bag of used clothes -> get some H&M rewards.

Seems the program will be worldwide, including all of the brand’s 48 markets, so that’s great news for H&M Israel shoppers! We don’t often get awesome no friar opportunities like that from corporate chains.

Also, it sure beats stuffing our old stained crap in those yellow sidewalk bins.

This is really amazing news; the clothing industry wastes tons of resources every year by manufacturing too much and destroying what’s left unused. There’s simply too much clothing floating around – manufactured cheaply, discarded carelessly.

FYI: Keep in mind – this stuff will be destroyed and re-used to manufacture. It’s a great cause, but if you have some real worthy stuff, why not donate to charity so that less fortunate people have the opportunity to look fabulous?

(h/t to you, momma)