Yeshiva bocher

To those who observe it, a very happy Rosh Hashana/Jewish new year! We've been preparing in a variety of ways -- making double round loaves of challah (with a fabulous new circular braid technique Meh found on pinterest thanks to friend K) almost daily, bringing in our excellent bumper crop of red (and now increasingly staying green, but still flavorful) tomatoes, and busting out with the Rosh Hashana toys, books, and puzzles in our collection for the boys. All week, they have also been enjoying "shofar doggie!", a video we landed on while YouTube surfing to show them what a shofar is; the video has become a top request for early morning and pre-bedtime viewings.

As far as the holiday itself, we went to a service -- er, sorry, an "experience" -- hosted by one of the local synagogues and designed for kids. We actually got there way early with mima and papa and explored the JCC's new garden patch for a while while we waited for things to get rolling. The service (sorry again, experience) was held in the JCC's gymnasium, so intelligibility wasn't particularly high -- but it was mostly songs and a sock puppet/felt board seven-days-of-creation story, followed by an arts and crafts project involving making a creation story collage out of food bits (a pita background, shades of blue frosting for the sky and sea, broccoli for trees, swedish fish for fish, star- and person-shaped sprinkles, etc.) Meh was most excited by the high quality (i.e. actually edible) kosher marshmallows they used for fluffy clouds, and now has a mission to go hunt some down at the one local grocery store likely to carry them. O mostly slept/nursed his way through the event. Z really wanted to run around giggling (in between some excellent public self-grabbing, as we continue to work through potty training), but occasionally joined in the songs and certainly was absorbing the general spirit of the event.

That night, we had a lovely dinner at mima and papa's house. Both boys chowed down on excessive amounts of challah, but also enjoyed mima and papa's plush bedding:
Incidentally (and to explain this post's title), between services and the festive meals we had on both nights (and again with friends over for Shabbat dinner last night), Z has decided that his favorite part of Jewish observance is wearing a kippah on his head. It got to the point this morning where he insisted on wearing a fabulous purple one (O occasionally pointed and commented on the "purple hat") when we were heading out for a walk/jog with friends L, R, and their son E. Between the kippah and his increasingly ragged (fringed?) blankie, Z certainly looks ready to go study some talmud!