Lag B'omer

This is the Israeli pyromaniac's holiday of choice.  We heard lots of variations as to what exactly this holiday is all about, and to be honest we still have no idea.  All we know is it involves bonfires and potatoes.

Both Lydia's and Will's school classes celebrated this holiday.  For Lydia's class, we met in a lot just beside the local fire and police departments.  Genius planning, if I do say so.  

In other news, between the Lag B'omer celebrations, Will accidentally knocked out Lydia's front tooth while they were wrestling on the couch. Admittedly, the tooth has been hanging by a thread for some time now, but he was still pretty proud of himself anyway.

Lydia's bonfire was Tuesday night, and Will's was scheduled for the following night.  For these kinds of events everyone gets assigned different potluck items to bring ranging from canned olives and pickles to hummus and pita to chocolate cake.  This time we were on cake detail, and Will requested a "candy cake."  His request gave me this idea - let's build a bonfire made out of candy on top the cake.  Won't that be fun?  We had a great time building it.  Oh, and all Israelis make their cakes in tins and leave them like that.  No popping them out of molds, elaborate decorations, or 3-tiered anything.  No daring icing tricks. In fact, powdered sugar is kind of scarce around here and comes in itty bitty bags. So, this is as inspired as I'm going to get, folks.

Will's location was a bit more dodgy than the fire station location.  Okay, more than just a bit.  When we asked for directions to the beach where the bonfire was to be held, everyone kept saying, "Oh, you know.... the one where all the prostitutes go."  No, we weren't familiar with that particular beach.  When we arrived at Will's party, things were much like the night before.  The food was out, kids were running and playing. The fire was prepped but not lit.  Will's gan (preschool) had hired entertainment, and they had a few craft stations set up and lots of drums to bang on.  But of course, boys prefer to play with sticks, dirt and ants, and Will kept drifting away from the pack and off to the dirt and ant piles.  When we went to retrieve him, we noticed something very alarming amidst the dirt and ants.  Lots and lots and lots of evidence that this was in fact where the prostitutes & their callers hung out.  I don't want to say exactly what, but you are welcome to look for yourselves.  We quickly redirected Will back to the group and warned him to stay away from the periphery, but every time we took our eyes off of him for a second he was right back to the sticks and the ants and the muck and the mire.  

Shlo & Yuppi, we're going to have to talk about this. 

After we called Uncle on the fire-festivities, we decided to take Yolanda-the-Honda for a carwash, since it decided to rain mud in Tel Aviv a few weeks days back. It was a sand storm that ended in a quick rain shower.  Definitely one of the stranger things I've seen - raining mud.

Lucky for us, the kids go nuts over the car-wash. They just love it. It's our newest family tradition.

So that's that...weird holidays, giant fires, candy-cakes, lost teeth, and one beater-Honda only slightly less dirty than the filth in which our kids were caught playing.  

I'm looking forward to a down week this week.

Shalom Ya'll,

E