Shmuli has a fabulous sense of design, and it is well illustrated here with his latest lego project. This is a view of the project from above.

Here is the side view of Shmuli's project.

We can feed ourselves...

Natan and Michael are starting to practice feeding themselves. At the ripe old age of 14 months it seems that far more food gets on their faces then in their mouths!

The spoons make their targets...

Boy is this fun!!!!!!!! (Note that bowls and spoons have been tossed aside for the exclusive entertainment of mom and her cleanup committee).

Soccer Season!

Shmuli is so glad that soccer season is finally here. Here he is playing goalie.

Here is Shmuli's team (in yellow) playing a game. We are very pleased with the league he is playing on, which emphasizes good sportsmanship and having fun.

Home in Los Angeles

Back home in Los Angeles, we found we missed the cold weather up in Big Bear, so we headed on to the ice skating rink. Shmuli is skating backwards here, which he just taught himself to do.

Shmuli enjoying coasting on the ice.

Off to Big Bear for Winter Vacation!

Here is Shmuli taking a break from skiing. He has become quite an accomplished skier, and can now come down the highest runs.

Shmuli is chatting with one of the ski instructors. His focus on this trip was practicing parallel skiing (which means, for the uneducated regarding skiing like myself, that he is learning to go down the steep slopes in a nice S shape, winding back and forth instead of racing straight down the slope).

Natan and Robert walking in the snow.

I can do this myself!!!

Michael touches the snow for the first time.

Oh!!! This snow is wet and cold!!! Michael decides that he doesn't really like the snow.

I guess the snow isn't so bad after all.

Please get me away from this!

Sleeping snow bunnies...

Big Bear Zoo

Here are my boys, ready for a visit to the mountain zoo. We are particularily fond of this zoo, as all the animals are rescued because they would not be able to survive in the wild. Some of the more notable animals are a three legged bear, a blind fox, an eagle with a broken wing and deer that were tamed by a well-meaning mountain resident. Shmuli is proudly wearing his bear claw which he bought at the museum store (the "claw" is actually carved from wood by a local Native American).

Here is a proud bald eagle. It was injured by a hunter, and can no longer fly, so it cannot be released back into the wild.

A deer who seems to enjoy visiting people.

This handsome fox cannot survive in the wild because he is blind.

Here is an owl.

Alpine Play Park in Big Bear

We spent an afternoon at a park in Big Bear where there lots of intertubes for sliding down the snow. Here is Shmuli at the top of the hill, ready to come down.

There he goes!!!

It was nice to see quite a few familiar faces up in Big Bear. Since all the local Jewish day schools had the same day off, there were quite a few Jewish families there. Here, there were enough to make a minyan for afternoon Mincha.