Wednesday’s Wacky Signs

They have some NERF!!

When my oldest 3 boys were small, I was anti-weapons. There were no play weapons of any kind in the house. If Legos came with mini guns, I insisted the guns be thrown away. There was no purchasing of cap guns, no playing with plastic swords. I was on a mission. There would be no violent play in my house.

I distinctly remember them building guns and canons out of lego. We once visited a friend who had girls and my boys played with their Barbies. They adjusted the doll’s legs so that they could form the toy into a machine gun and shoot the other Barbies. No matter how benign the toys were that they were given to play with, they always managed to fashion weapons out of them.

Over the last few days my kids played over at friends who have a huge arsenal of NERF guns – and there was major warfare going on. All the kids were involved – and no one got hurt or left out. These guns fire soft darts that cannot hurt. The kids really had an awesome time with them.

They have begged me to be allowed to spend their afikoman money on buying NERF guns for themselves for use down here in NY and I heard myself agreeing (with terms, naturally).

I used to have this whole speech about how allowing the kids to play with guns encourages violent tendencies etc. But then I saw how my boys have the natural instinct to want to shoot at things and destroy and blow them up. My step daughters also enjoyed being in on the action too.

I feel like I am going over to the dark side, but then again, I just know that the kids will just have so much fun strategizing and battle planning – maybe we can even re enact the civil war??

I have already agreed, but I guess there is a part of me that is still conflicted…what are the rules in your house with toy weapons??

Pesach 2010

Well, for the first time in a long time, I was really sad to put away the Pesach dishes. We had the most awesome holiday E V E R!! I had been so nervous prior to my trip down. Worrying about getting the house ready for Pesach in time, and concerned about how all seven kids in our blended family would get along.

Turns out I was worrying for naught. Everything went swimmingly well. The house got ready in time – KoD and I worked so very hard to clean and shop. The first couple of days of Pesach (when it was still just the two of us) we were invited out to the sedarim and the lunch meals, which was great. We were really spoiled by all our hosts.

Thursday evening I drove up to Lake George to meet my boys – it’s the halfway point between Monsey and Montreal. I was so excited to see them after a week away from each other.

I spent Friday in a frenzy of cooking and cleaning and errands, and boy-hugging!! They were all so thrilled to be here and to reconnect with their friends (it’s been six months since they were last down).

Friday afternoon the KoD’s kids joined us, and the place really started hopping. Going from two people to nine people in less than 24 hours was a bit of an adjustment, but a welcome one!

Friday night to Tuesday passed in a jumble of cooking and dish washing, serving and serving and eating and eating and davening and shul going and oh-so-much-fun. Everyone got along – I kinda want to say there was peace and harmony – but with that many kids around it certainly was not peaceful, but it was harmonious. I was so pleased that there was no major friction!

Pesach ended last night, I got the kitchen back to its usual chametz self, sorted the laundry, KoD and I took his kids home (I miss them already) and bought out half of ShopRite!! We bought bread and cereal – all the important stuff.

Today I have a humongous load of laundry to do, plus the kids have been promised a trip to Walmart so they can spend their afikoman money that is burning holes in their pockets.

I hope to be back to regular blogging at the beginning of next week – once we are back in Montreal and the kids are back in school.

The best part overall about the last few days? My 10 year old step-son, as he was leaving the kitchen the other day, looked at me, smiled and said “Hadassah, we are so lucky to have you”. My heart is full. I am totally blessed with my KoD and all our children.