Street Ball

Last night, while hosting our Beloved Babkes and eating way, way too much pulled Cuban pork, Moros y Cristianos (black beans & rice) and tres leches cake, the boys decided that a spontaneous game of street ball was in order. We ran around, chasing Wiffle balls and babies, until the sun finally went down & we could all collapse in tired, sweaty heaps. It was a Sunday well spent.

Doyers

Dash's baseball coach--(Oh, have I mentioned he's playing baseball? Here are a couple of pictures:)

--has super-extra-fancy season tickets to the Dodgers, and shared them with Dash & Josh for a Monday night game.

See where they're standing? Their seats are right behind them. Row AA.

(The other day, Dash was watching a movie about Little League-rs in Mexico who had to make their own baseballs out of string and tar. So, you know. Different.)

Here's Matt Kemp, one of the most famous baseball players in the world, signing Dash's hat.

Nice.

My sweet, handsome, All-American boys. 

We wanted to properly thank Dash's coach for the tickets, so I baked some cookies & Dash made a thank you card.

When I think about the fact that I came to this country as a refugee from the USSR, I'm just overwhelmed and astonished by how much can change in a single generation. This country, I know, isn't perfect. But watching my son grow up here feels nothing short of miraculous.

Mother's Day 2014

My 8th Mother's Day was the lovliest yet. I was showered with tokens of my two favorite boys' affection, and then we trekked to LACMA to picnic with a couple of our favorite families, the Babkes & the Goulds.

The boys played Wiffle Ball... 

while Tori & I colored blank books.

Mother's Day selfie.

My Mother's Day Thorlos and a plastic cup full of box wine. It's like my vision board came to life.

Next year he'll be taller than the bear.

Easter

Haul

Because we hunted eggs at Dash's cousins' house again this year, the Easter Bunny created another basket hunt for him. The best part was that each clue sent him either up or down the stairs each time. That bunny sure is a hoot.

After his breakfast of chocolate bunny and Peeps, we headed over to the cousins' house, where Dash's Auntie Rain does it up good. 

I think she hid upwards of 200 eggs this year.

He got that shirt in his Easter Basket. Reminds me of Itchy & Scratchy.

That face!

Like father like son.

After all the candy and ham we could eat at the cousins', we headed over to our Beloved Babkes for Easter Ribs. Like you do.

Baby eat rib. Baby like rib!

This is Sharon. Sharon is Catholic and from Indiana. Sharon's family calls this "holiday bread." It wasn't until she married Adam the Jew from Oregon that she found out it's more like Chall-iday bread. Because it's Challah. But she didn't know! Because no Jews in Indiana! Either way, her Challah killed it and I'm going to steal her recipe & try to bake some for Jennukah this year.

I made some bunnies for Nate & Tori. Here's Tori's.

Neglected to add a fluffy tail. Boo.

Nate's got a skull instead of a heart because Nate is a badass.

Also no tail.

I think she liked it!

I also made four of these bunny pencil cases for the older kids (our Beloved nieces & Verlaque girl-children). I only got a pic of this one because I am a bad blogger. But look! The zipper pull is a fluffy bunny tail! Pattern here, but I used this tutorial for lining the pouches because I just didn't have the strength of will to hand-sew it in.

I filled them with neon pencils, Hello Kitty lip gloss rings and cute nail polishes. (Not pictured: the boys got origami bunny t-shirts and cool socks--yes, that's a thing--and bouncy balls and shit. I didn't photograph any of that because see above re: bad blogger.)