3.5 .... Spidey !

The Jakester turned 3-and-a-half today. We had a great weekend as a family, which we haven't been able to do in a few months. We went to a carnival at school with magicians, baking contests and face painting. Tania took the kids to the pumpkin patch and carved a Jack-o-Lantern. Jacob got to go to a birthday party and play on the bouncy castle. But mostly we all just hung out. Jacob's corker for the evening. I took him grocery shopping and he was walking down the aisles saying "eenie, meenie, miney, mo." I said, "Jacob, where did you learn that?" (I'm always wondering how these great American childhood traditions get passed down). He replied "Papa taught me." Did you??? Didn't seem plausible to me.

Anyway, the fourth Halloween of his life it coming up this week. For the first year ever it wasn't a fight to get him dressed. In fact, he wanted to wear his costume early! We're excited - our first "proper" Halloween with the kids. Aunt Eileen is coming over. Should be fun. Here's a blast from the past, in order. 2.5 years (David Beckham - the star of England's soccer team), 1.5 years (lion outfit that he had to be wrestled to the floor to get on) and 6 months (his only chubby phase, where his head actually looked like a pumpkin!). Tempus Fugit ...

The Big 4-0 !

Ron's Big Weekend

The whole extended Suster family descended upon San Francisco recently to help "Uncle Ron" celebrate the big Four-Oh. We wanted it to be a surprise but in typical Ron fashion he started calling everybody a few weeks before looking for inconsistencies in our stories and trying to find somebody who would crack. I'm sure somebody must have but Ron didn't let in that he probably knew what was going on before the weekend.

We started by booking Ron at a hotel for 2 nights in the City. The idea was that Ron would arrive early Friday evening so that he could enjoy a leisurely night out with Wendy and a relaxed breakfast in bed. But ... stupid me. I should have known Ron would leave 4 hours later than the last moment possible. I think he got in around midnight so the hotel only had one room left. No TV. Oh well, my bad for not making up some fake reason that he had to be there by noon on Friday.

The whole family met for lunch on Saturday at the famous vegetarian institution in San Francisco called Greens. Ron & Wendy are vege's so thus must be nirvana. And for Ron's carnivorous siblings it actually was a nice restaurant so we didn't mind no meat. After lunch we dropped off Dad and Mari at the hotel for a break and the rest of us took the boat across the bay\ to Sausalito for a little fresh air and a stroll. It was a perfect opportunity for everybody to just take in the nature surrounding us and chit chat. Nice to have no real distractions but just a great chance to catch up.

We arrived in Sausalito and met up with cousin Dan, the Renaissance Man and his new girlfriend who was really nice and seemed a good match for one of our favorite cousins. You'll see that Dan dressed up for the occasion.

We got back to the City as the sun had just gone down. Met up at one of the nicer Indian restaurants in San Francisco and ate until we had to undue our top buttons. Indian is always a good bet for vege's. I always remember the interesting twist in India where most restaurants assume you are a vege and have a section on the menu for "non veg" meals. Next day we all headed down to Palo Alto (thank you to everybody for making the journey) for bagels and a day with the kiddies. It was a great weekend all around and great to have yet another excuse to bring the family together.

A new dimension

Okay, so we're taking the blog to a whole new level! Maybe now I can just post video in stead of having to type ;-)

Click on the right arrow on photo below and it will play the video. Enjoy!

Tania Rocks!

New pictures of kids (black & white) courtesy of Tania, aka the Admin Queen! We have found a new nanny (Tania says she is happy the she finally has a wife!). Her name is Normita and she's from the Philippines (hey, spelled right first time!). She is very pleasant as a person, great to the kids and cooks (big, big bonus) and helps with cleaning. So Tania is happy and thus I am happy, too.

Life seems to be settling in to a nice routine for us. As you can see from the shot of my gorgeous wife below she has been putting in the serious hours at the gym lately. The shot below is of Jacob trying to be Spiderman.

Lots of events coming up. This weekend we will see two friends from Europe: Danny Boy Zaidifard and his wife Annie as well as Holger. Next weekend we celebrate Ron's (my brother) 40th birthday. Then the following week back to LA for cousin Jill's wedding!

Stories of the week:
1. Jacob told one of the nannies, "don't make a mess or mommy will get mad at daddy." Telling, hey? ;-)

2. Jacob was in bed with me. I was laughing and giggling with him (usual routine) when he pointed his finger at me and said, "hey, calm down." Whoa! From Tania's mouth to Jacob's ears!

3. Went to Galia's house (okay, Gerardo and Nourit's house) for Yom Kippur. There must have been 8 kids running around and screaming. Looked so fun to Jacob. Reminded me of what it was like to be a kid and go to family events. Was heart warming. (okay, but most of my attention went into the Kugel, smoked salmon pizza, brownies, orzo, pecan, fig & goats cheese salad, cous cous, more smoked salmon, more Kugel, brownies, dates, cookies ... could you tell I was hungry? How do people manage this for a month during Ramadan?

4. New company launched. Check out http://blog.koral.com if you want to see details.