sukkot meets wheel of fortune...

After two very cold and rainy days of Sukkot, and only being able to eat dinner in our Sukkah one and a half times, the kids are headed back to school tomorrow for what's left of the school week. And though Tali came home from school sick on Monday night, Samuel got it on Tuesday, and Naomi has continued with her runny nose and cough since October started, we've really enjoyed the holiday. Yesterday we decorated our sukkah with waterproof decorations because the kids decided they didn't want to work hard on art and then have it ruined in the rain, EVEN if that concept seems to go with the whole temporary nature of Sukkot.

But then we decided a la Seattle to make waterproof decorations... We hung fabric leaves from the roof rafters and walls and strung lights to brighten up the dark afternoons. And then decorated the table with the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch last Sunday, even though we never got around to carving out the harvest themes we'd designed for them in my Martha Stewart does Sukkot fantasies.

Still, it's very festive and fun inside, though despite the fact that we've been making sure our meals are very hot and warming, even the kids can barely stand to be out there for dinner too long, let alone sleep in it. But we look at it a lot through the rain from the window...

Maybe it's a good thing I took the sukkah camping with us this summer--the weather sure was better.

And today we got out of the house and went to the Science Museum, which is usually packed, but of course was empty today, save for a motley crew of a bunch of toddlers and their worn out parents (oh, that does include us).

The kids and their friends were thrilled to get to take part in a science game show about bipeds and for once, when Samuel raised his hand to volunteer, he was actually chosen. Though, I think the poor guy running the show was thinking that his pickings were slim considering the audience consisted of me and my kids, my friend Julie and her kids (exact same ages as my kids), a very spirited old guy in the corner who seemed to have some limited mental capacity, a two year old and his grandma, and a very old woman in a wheelchair.

The show was a quiz show and more entertaining because every two contestants were as oddly matched as possible.

Here is Samuel against Isaac. They're the most evenly matched even though Samuel is three years older. Note that Naomi climbed up on stage and as I was about to pull her down, Julie whispered to me, "Hey, what does it matter since nobody else is here?" So I let her stay.

Here is Shira celebrating her triumph over two year old Benjamin, who doesn't understand he is supposed to sit on his yellow stool. The Science Center guy is asking him to please not touch the spinner wheel.

Tali competed against Benjamin's grandma. It was a tough round, but luckily, the old guy in the corner was very spirited and shouted out the answers for both teams. Benjamin's grandma is thinking that maybe the answer to Science Guy's question is still up on the screen. It wasn't.

And then we got home just in time for it to start to rain again before dinner. No meal in the sukkah tonight. We'll try breakfast again tomorrow morning...