Life with Lauren: Bar Mitzvah!!

In mid-April, we took Lauren on her first plane ride to New Jersey for her cousin Steven's bar mitzvah. We had 4 days of enjoying family, including some from Israel, who all gathered to celebrate this special occasion. The weather was glorious and Lauren reveled in meeting for the first time Uncle Sal, Aunt Suzi, Aunt Michelle, cousins Steven and Sam, and of course hanging out with her Nanni and Pop-Pop Paul, in addition to numerous other relatives, a number whom had traveled from Israel. She did great on the flights and slept and napped while in NJ surprisingly well. We are definitely looking forward to another trip soon.

Of course I took a ton of photos, a select few of which are below to try to give you some flavor of how much fun Lauren had on her first out of state trip.

On our second night there, we went to have "real" Chinese food - wow, what a difference from what we are used to in Tustin! Lauren had a blast sitting at the table with Suzi, Sammy and Steven. Of course, I'm not sure whether the crazy faces are due to sheer happiness or too much MSG . . . .

The next evening we went to temple where Steven was acknowledged in advance of his big day. Prior to the service, we attended a festive family dinner hosted by Suzi and Sal at their favorite Jewish deli (can you tell we ate constantly on this trip?).

The Bernardo family, our gracious hosts:

Meeting Uncle Sal for the first time - so glad I was able to catch this sweet moment!

Within 30 minutes of meeting her 4 year old cousin Eliana from Florida (hey, toddlers sometimes take a while to warm up to each other), they were the best of friends:

Norm was so proud of his nephew!

Paul's sisters from Israel:

Cousins Renee and Sidelle:

Enjoying dinner with Nanni:

Nothing better than being squeezed by both Daddy and Aunt Suzi:

Some candids of Lauren's general silly, merry self:

Right at sunset, we headed to the temple for the service. The sky was truly more beautiful than I ever remember seeing it:

In true fashion, Lauren danced her way all the way in, then surprised us all by being a perfect angel throughout the entire service. Think she's definitely ready for Friday night services at home; we really need to start looking to join a temple soon.

The morning of the bar mitzvah dawned crisp and sunny, quickly warming to over 70 degrees. Steven read beautifully from the Torah (Lauren and I arrived too late to see Daddy dust off his Hebrew skills, but heard he didn't miss a beat). No photos were allowed during the service; in fact I later learned that no photography was permitted anywhere inside the temple, but not before I snapped this shot of the little fairy dancing and skipping in the hall while waiting for the crowd to adjourn:

We then headed to the reception/party/extravanganza at the same banquet hall where Suzi and Sal got married. What an event! There was so much food - my parents thought that the buffet stations during the "cocktail" hour were lunch/dinner, so loaded up on fresh omelettes and pasta. Then lo and behold we were let into the reception room and informed there also was a sit down dinner!

Lauren didn't sit still for more than 2 seconds the entire afternoon. Case in point:

A DJ kept the music pumping for the teens and toddlers in the room, and Lauren (sans nap, of course), maintained her pace and energy all afternoon. At first she and Eliana hung back from the crowd and watched the activity:

Then, as is her nature, once she became comfortable with her surroundings, she gained confidence and rose to join the party:

All of the teens played question games for prizes, and of course Lauren had to sit right up front with them to claim her party hat, pooka shell necklace, and glow in the dark ring:

Steven was certainly the life of the party, surrounded by a bevy of beautiful girls:

Lauren was definitely into dancing with everyone, including Nana:

And Aunt Michelle:

Loved seeing my mom and dad let loose!

I managed to get a small bit of food into her before being dragged back onto the dance floor:

Alas, exhaustion finally kicked in, and upon seeing the thumb pop into her mouth and her head rest on Daddy's shoulder, we knew it was time to head back to Nanni and Pop-Pop's house to put her to bed while we visited with all the family who came back to the house.