Pesach, Yom Ha'atzmaut and Car Purchasing

I know it's been a while since I last wrote so here is an update of everything from Pesach until Yom Ha'atzmaut (which just ended about 30 minutes ago).

Pesach was tiring but really nice. We were at Sara and David for the seder along with my in-laws, David's parents and David's brother. The seder was really nice with lots of shmoozing, grape juice drinking, afikoman finding, and (eventually) eating. We had thought that of course Tani would just end up crashing and falling asleep on the couch/floor at some point. But, alas, he was un-tired man! Thank G-d, he played/ate really nicely and stayed up for the whole thing. Most importantly, he sang all of his songs beautifully.

The first day of chag we had friends over for lunch and it was really nice to host our first Pesach meal ever. Even nicer - NOT having to have a second seder! What a difference that makes. However, it was quite odd that we couldn't talk to my parents until Sunday. It's weird having an entire day and THEN shabbat while they were technically in chag mode the whole time.
So on Friday (our first day of chol hamoed) we went to the Monkey Park about 10 minutes out of Modiin. This was super convenient seeing as we were going to Gila and Donny for shabbat. It's a really nice park with, of course, monkeys among several other animals. It wasn't too crowded (we got there early) and there were a lot of shaded places to sit down throughout which was, truthfully, the best part for me! It is also the place where we purchased a stuffed monkey for Tani that he literally has not put down since. It was really cute because the whole way from the park to Gila and Donny's house, Netanel was talking to the monkey, telling him about Pesach. Very entertaining.

We had a great shabbat with Aunt Gila, Uncle Donny, Ariella and Yaakov. It was really nice watching the kids play and Ariella has turned into one fine babysitter. She sat reading books to Netanel for like an hour on shabbat morning and he loved it. However, probably the best part of the whole weekend - Donny's Pesach sponge cake!!!! Even better, he made us one to take home! Elie ate his traditional 5,000 pieces at each meal so he was a happy camper.
I will give a shout-out here to my sister who hosted the first day (seder and all), shabbat, and second day - having guests for each leg. Kapayim L'Gila!

The second day we were back home again. At night we invited friends from the neighborhood and enjoyed an inaugural meal from our grill! Let me explain - we brought this grill on our lift but neglected to open it right away. Then, as Pesach approached, Elie and I both had the brilliant idea to use it for the first time on Pesach seeing as we had not yet used it for chametz. So, while we did miss the buns, the food and company were terrific.
For the day we went to my in-laws for my father in law's yearly Pesach birthday lunch. Much fun was had and (good) cake was eaten.

Another weirdness about the whole 1 day here vs. 2 day in America thing was that we had basically completely turned back over to chametz and were eating pizza before chag was even over for my parents. Quite a weird feeling....

Once we got our lives back in order and sent Tani back to gan (if you recall, gan was out for 2 1/2 weeks), it was time to get down to business.
We had rented a car for about 2 weeks over Pesach and were planning on renting one again for about a month once the baby is born, iy"H. However, we also had in the plans to buy a car sometime this summer. I said to Elie that, while the prices here for car rentals are quite good, why not just start the car buying process now rather than waiting to do it with a newborn. And that is exactly what we did.

We went to the Eldan (one of the largest car rental companies in Israel) office in Bet Shemesh. Aside from renting cars, Eldan is also in the business of selling used and like-new cars and several of our friends from the neighborhood have bought from them. To make a long story short, we found a car for a pretty good price and it is currently (technically) ours. We are waiting to take it for a test and to finalize the insurance but, in short, we are very soon to be car owners!! Not only is this exciting for the obvious reason that it's going to make life a million times easier having a car, but this is the first big purchase we have ever made. We feel all grown-up and stuff, it's kinda weird.....

Now, onto Yom Ha'atzmaut. What a celebration! Netanel's gan (and all the ganim) have been aptly prepping the children for Yom Ha'atzmaut. One day he came home talking about Medinat Yisrael; the next day he was singing Am Yisrael Chai. On Tuesday (Yom Hazikaron) the ganenet made the kids pita with chumus and falafel for lunch which, I was told, Tani scarfed down very happily. He also came home with his very own Degel Yisrael that he has not stopped waving.

On the eve of Yom Ha'atzmaut (Tuesday night) we went to a BBQ at our next door neighbor's house. (Just a bit of info for those who many not already know - Yom Ha'atzmaut = BBQ and lots of it). On the day of Yom Ha'atzmaut we had friends over for a pancake breakfast, went to friends for a BBQ lunch and then headed over to my in-laws for a BBQ dinner. That's right - 3 BBQ's in the span of 24 hours - I think that is very impressive for our first Yom Ha'atzmaut as Israelis. We should get a trophy.

All-in-all, it's been a great month with many reasons to celebrate. We are now really in the baby countdown - just a few weeks left (a.k.a. - any day now). Who knows what the next post will be about......