Reese's Baby Naming

We held Reese's baby naming ceremony at our house on Sunday, July 14th.  

The Cantor who performed Colden's bris, also performed Reese's baby naming.

Reese Sephora is named after two of her great-great-grandmothers:  Rose Gallin and Shoshana Bayer

I need to briefly step back and point something out because it is too much of a coincidence not to:
I made Reese's baby naming invitations myself to showcase roses, in honor of Rose Gallin.  After the invitations were printed, but before they were mailed out, we were given this hand-me-down (never-been-worn) dress...

...right down to the pink roses on a vine!  How perfect!


It really was a beautiful ceremony, which we were lucky enough to share with our family

Reese slept through the entire ceremony...

I actually had to wake her up so that she could have some wine.
(Not a bad way to wake up - If only we could all be woken up like that!)

As part of the ceremony, Nanny and Safta each lit a candle.
 Nanny lit a candle to remember the people who are no longer with us

Safta lit a candle to honor the people who are currently with us

There were only two candles.  Because, who represents our future?  Our children - and on that day, it was Reese




Both Colden and Reese were very interested in the ceremony.
Colden loved listening to the Cantor sing

And Reese loved the program




And the Cantor's tallit

Mazel Tov on your naming ceremony!

Cape May - Family Reunion

19 adults

9 kids 

7 days

1 house

1 awesome family reunion in Cape May, New Jersey!!

(Back: Mike, Colden, Nanny, James, Hana, Becca, Asher, Jason, Larry

Middle: Reese, Tovah, Merri, Chaya, Shana, Gil, Michael, Jonah, Howard, Sarah

Front: Lauren, Julian, Craig, Gabriel, Jordi, Talia

Not pictured here, but we know you were there: Dotty, Micky and David)

The house was 2 blocks from the beach, 2 blocks from town and was large enough that it surprisingly never felt too small for the 8 families staying there.

It was so much fun to see Colden and Reese spending time with their cousins:

(Chaya, Colden and Julian)

(Chaya and Reese)

With so many little kids (there were 7 kids under the age of 4), we had to get rather creative with how we kept track of them during walks:

 (if you look closely, you will see 3 pairs of feet riding behind the stroller)

(the favorite mode of transportation, by far!)

This was our first time taking the kids to the beach.  We didn't realize that we were going to have to schlep so much stuff!

(thank goodness for the wagon and a willing helper)

Once we got to the beach and set up camp, we had a blast!

It was also nice to slow down and just enjoy the nice sea breeze

I have to admit that before the beach trip, I had a ton of ideas of places I wanted to go and things I wanted to do with the kids.  None of them came to fruition.  I quickly learned that sometimes the most fun things were the unplanned things:

(Click here for "Beach Music - Cape May 2013" video)

We had jam sessions at least a couple of times a day.  

(Cousin Craig playing guitar)

Reese was especially mesmerized by the guitar - she would just sit and go into a trance listening to someone play:

(Cousin James playing the guitar)

With all the craziness that comes with having 8 families in one house, it's hard to imagine having any down-time.  But, somehow we all managed to escape when we needed to and find our own little bit of peace and quiet:

 (Nanny and Colden)

 (Cousins Craig and Gabriel)

 (Uncle Gil and Reese)

~~~~~

We were at the beach for the 4th of July...

...which meant the first time the kids saw and tried lobster:

(Thanks to chefs Craig, James and Michael for the lobster feast.  Now, stop playing with the food!)

(Colden tried but didn't like lobster...Reese liked playing with her fake lobster)

...the 4th also meant that the kids saw fireworks for the first time:

 (Reese bundled up on the beach to watch the fireworks)

Colden did a good job with his "OOHs" and "AAHs"

~~~~~

A fun activity worth mentioning was our trip to the Purple Martin bird sanctuary, right next to the lighthouse in Cape May.

The birds are born in nesting boxes...

 ...and a volunteer caretaker comes to the park every morning to check on the birds and to count how many eggs have hatched.

We were able to see 1-day-old birds:

...and we got to hold 7-day-old birds:

 (they were tagging the birds' legs on the day that we were there - hence the wire with the purple tags in the forefront)

Big difference from the picture of the 1-day-old birds.  The purple Martins can fly just 28-29 days after hatching

~~~~~

We had such a great time at Cape May that we are already talking about "relaxing" there again...