Israel: Thurs, Part 1 - Tel Aviv Port and Birthday Party in Kiryat Ekron

Aviva's hair is getting long, so she's been wearing it up in one or two pigtails, which we take out before she goes to bed. Sometimes, though, she wakes up with her hair still sticking up from the previous day's hairdo. (In this photo she also has yogurt on her face.)



After breakfast, we went to the Tel Aviv Port to walk around. Unfortunately I forgot our camera, but we did take a few photos with Peter's camera that I will upload later this week. The port is a huge complex of restaurants and shops, right on the water. Because it was a holiday, there were hundreds of families with kids and strollers everywhere.

In the afternoon, we went to the birthday party of Michala, who is the granddaughter of Ilana (Frances' first cousin.) The party was at Michala's house in Kiryat Ekron, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

We figured that the party would be like most kids' parties (at least the ones we've been to), where the families sort of trickle in. Nope. This party had an official start. We were 30 minutes late, and while we were on our way, Ilana called us to find out where we were! It was a little embarrassing. They had waited for us to start the party. Oops.

The party officially started with lots of singing, with the birthday girl sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. Her mother, aunts and uncle read very heartfelt letters to her. Even though I couldn't understand the Hebrew, I was very touched. From left to right are Roye, Ilana's oldest son; Roye's wife, Dalit; Michala's father; Michala's mother, Inbal (one of Ilana's two daughters); and Ilana.

Even Aviva stopped socializing to listen (for a few seconds.)

Then, there was more singing and clapping, and the birthday girl blew out the candles on her cake. This clip includes a few seconds of video of Aviva chasing after her balloon. In the video you can also see Frances next to Ilana, and Ari (Inbal's husband), who gives Aviva the balloon.



Then, Michala's relatives lifted her on a chair. I will rely on my Israeli friends to help translate what everyone was saying.



For the past few weeks Aviva has been getting more and more social. At the party, she loved interacting with everyone. In this clip, she plays with one of Michala's friends, eats Ilana's pizza, and watches her cousin (Inbal's youngest son) play video games.


Aviva kept crawling onto Michala's kid-sized sofa.

Later, the mother of the birthday girl led the children in some games. The kids sat in a circle, and Little Miss Social crawled right past them into the circle! She seemed to think it was a party for her. Fortunately the birthday girl was very gracious and didn't mind her strange baby cousin's antics.

The first game was sort of an Israeli Hot Potato. The kids passed around a present while music played. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the present had to unwrap it and follow the directions inside that layer of wrapping paper. Many of the directions were sort of sweet, like, "Give your mother a kiss." I can't really imagine American kids playing this game.

Aviva was too little to play the games, but she participated by dancing on the side.


It was so wonderful to be included in the celebration, and very interesting to see how an Israeli child's birthday party differs from an American one. Many thanks to Michala and her family for including us!

Tomorrow I'll post the photos and videos from the rest of the evening (Simchat Torah at a local synagogue.)