Tons of kids and meeting new friends.

Diamond has grown so much.

Diamond with sweet Phyllis.

Lovely Shani with cutie pie Naama. Shoshanna...those cheeks!

The kids were all ready to start their own band.

Naama on drums, Shoshanna on tamborine and Ari on guitar.

Max, Diamond and Sarah making their own necklaces.

Obviously visiting Jhanine and her family means spending time with all of Jhanine's friends. Old and new. Even though Diamond is only 3 years old, she attends a Jewish Academy. That's given them both the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. The house always seemed full of kids and their mommies. I met a lovely new friend named Shani and her daughter Naama. They had both recently moved there from Israel. We actually spent quite a lot of time together. We cooked and baked a lot. Jhanine's next door neighbour Sherry picked the wrong time to start a diet. I feel a little bad that Sherry wasn't able to stick to it while I was there. I kept tempting her with Carrot Cakes and Chocolate Pavlova and White Chocolate Toffee cookies and Scones and Lemon bars and my chicken mandu...she really didn't have a chance. Next time she'll know to avoid even thinking about starting the diet until after I'm gone.

Jhanine and her family are not particularly religious. But, whenever I visit, I do feel a little immersed in the Jewish culture. All her friends are Jewish. In fact, this time I even attended the Israel Independence Day celebration at the Venetian hotel. It got to be so funny, Stacey told me I should just consider converting....I told her I didn't think my Roman Catholic mother would be too happy with that. :)