Hyatt Family Blog

Madeline's Bat Mitzvah

Last weekend was our neice Madeline's Bat Mitzvah weekend. What an amazing weekend it was. It started out Friday night with a great Shabbat Dinner at the Junior League, hosted by the Grandparents. Madeline was a riot, passing the microphone around for people to tell knock knock jokes! Saturday was the ceremony at which she did an amazing job reading a heck of a lot of Torah. Lindsey read too and did great. Steve and I read a few things too which was really an honor. After that was a luncheon that was so good that when Steve found out anyone from the shul could attend after services, he wanted to come every Saturday afternoon! Then it was back home to rest up for the big party. (See pictures and description attached). Finally, on Sunday morning Steve and I (along with the other Aunts and Uncles) hosted a brunch for the out of town guests at the Frontenac Hilton. We were all tired, but still had a great time.

Here is a photo of Madeline after her stellar performance at temple. Steve had to sneak the camera in because you're not supposed to take photos on Shabbat

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When we arrived Saturday night at the Coronado room, we couldn't believe our eyes. Everything was so fantasic and decorated in a heart theme, since Maddy's birthday is on Valentine's Day. There was a greeter dressed like the Queen of Hearts, posters of her, special Martini drinks (her signature drink was a "Madelinny Valentinny"), an ice sculpture, a magician, a special bar of virgin drinks for the kids, a piano player, yummy appetizers, a photographer, games for the kids paid for with special Madeline bucks with her photo on the money, prizes, etc. And we weren't even in the ballroom yet!

Then, the doors opened and WOW! A gorgeously decorated hot pink heart wonderland! Here are photos of Allison at the rows of kids tables, the ballroom, the welcome speeches and best of all, the dancing! Everyone was on their feet to great music, amazing dancers, the hora, a conga line that went up into the balcony, chair lifing, crazy hats, sunglasses, glow balls, etc. and more. There was even a group photo of all her friends (where Jordan snuck in the front) and a special birthday cake for Gary who turned 45 the next day. Oh, and the food was the best ever and so was the video of Madeline!

Wondering why you don't see many photos of Allison at the party? She passed out on a chair during dinner! We had a sitter come take her home. Jordan, on the other hand, had, in his words, "the BEST night of his life" and partied until after midnight! He was the hit of the party doing these crazy dance moves in a circle full of cheering onlookers. He even got to go on stage with the dancers. He was truly in his element.

What an amazing time for an amazing girl. We were so proud of Madeline for the great job she did and so proud of her parents for planning the party of the year!

More highlights of our trip

In my last entry, I left out many pictures that I was unable to display. Thanks to Andy's suggestion, I now can show them.
Here are more funny pictures from our visit to the Maori Village. I'm giving the warrior the typical greeting, after he scared the wits out of me. Then, Art is sitting with a Maori family. Finally, another priceless picture of Art and Lenny doing their dance!

While New Year's Eve is not one of my favorite holidays, there is something special about celebrating it on a ship.

Some other highlights of our trip were the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, laughing and making plans with Carole daily, relaxing on the days at sea, daily tea and scones, beautiful gardens. For sure, the low part was the rainy weather in Auckland and packing up and spending so long at the airports coming home.

Blizzard Fun

After the blizzard that dumped a foot of snow on New York, the kids got to see so much snow that they didn't know what to do. The snow was a bit too high for them to walk around in, but they had fun messing it up, or, in the case of Annelie, holding one big piece of snow for the entire time.

Greetings from the land down under!

We just got back from a fabulous 2 week cruise to Australia and New Zealand on the huge, new ship, the Sapphire Princess.

We went with our good friends (even after spending 3 weeks this time),Carole and Lenny. We spent a few days on our own in the amazing,vibrant city of Sydney before boarding the ship. (I know I'm posting a ton of pictures but believe me, I eliminated a lot and chose the ones I thought represented the sites and highlights of our trip, especially the fun we had.)
The 2 most famous landmarks of Sydney are the Opera House and The Sydney Bridge, which people pay around $300 to climb. If you look closely, you can see the people on top.

We enjoyed shopping at their many pedestrian malls, the beautiful Queen Victoria Building shopping mall,taking sightseeing buses, Bondi Beach, Harbor Sightseeing Cruise, Jewish Synagogue, Masonic Hall and their great zoo.

There was a huge fireworks display the night we left Sydney since this was the largest passenger ship ever to dock there. The following pictures show us after we left the docks and show scenes of the ship, especially the outstanding entertainers, and staff, and show us enjoying the great dinners, shows, afternoon tea, shopping onboard, relaxing and trying to stay awake! Of course, New Year's Eve was a highlight of our trip. The four of us got along so well, we decided to dress alike on our last day at sea...very corny!

Here are some scenes in the other cities we visited.

By far, the funniest part of our trip was when we visited a Maori Village in Tauranga,New Zealand. The warrior that greeted us was very scary, the typical way of greeting them was strange, and the dance that Art and Lenny performed was priceless!

Eventually,our cruise came to an end and we stayed in rainy Auckland for 2 days. The only highlight of Auckland was going up in the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, the SkyTower, and witnessing the people skydiving from the top. It was incredible!

All goods things have to end and sure enough we were back in the NZ airport with all our luggage with nothing to look forward to but a 12 hour flight back to LA and then another 6 hour layover. Believe it or not, the best pictures I had didn't work for some reason on this blog!

New Years at the Playground

Here is some more of my backlog of pictures. This batch is from New Year's Day, which was unseasonably warm here. I was borrowing a co-worker's camera to try it out. I think it took much better pictures, especially the close-ups, which I find impossible with my current camera. So, enjoy!

Wrestling

The kids have started to wrestle a little bit during this past month. Nothing much, the most that happens is that one of them will climb on the other and straddle them. But, it's awfully cute, as you will see from the photos below:

Snow Day

I finally got around to importing a whole month's worth of photos. So as not to have one huge post with miscellaneous photos, I'll put up new photos from this batch every few days.

It snowed a few weeks ago, just an inch or so, but for the twins it was a new and exciting experience. They loved to play in the snow, and hold it, and just mess it up in general. I'm looking forward to more snow in the future!

Enjoy the pictures!