James in Jerusalem

We’ve been busy since school got out last month.  Click here to see a few photos of our adventures.

JPC

I “graduated” from kindergarten on Saturday.   I don’t know if that’s the right verb — it seemed more like a party.  But it was a good time, and fun to have my brothers at school.   Here’s my class, before we sang a few songs.  Everyone looked good — some looked better than good.  I’m not sure why I don’t yet have a white tux.  Dad?

But there was a mandatory costume change halfway through…  here’s what I had to wear for the interpretative dance part of the program.  I don’t think that Dad will let me soon forget that I got my first diploma wearing what looks like a yellow tutu.  (p.s. I also think I’m lucky that my report card is in Arabic.)

Then it was off to the main event… cookies and juice.  My brothers enjoyed themselves too, while I did the 2 year old version of sitting on the stoop with some ladies.

Dad took some grainy video – if you’d like a closer look at the day…

My First Graduation! from James Carpenter on Vimeo

I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy Memorial Day.  Hope everyone got to spend it with friends and family and – ideally – a large backyard BBQ.   We spent our weekend at the beach and the zoo. The only drama came when I threw one of my shoes into the rhinoceros pit — and then mom wouldn’t let dad go and get it.   Boring.  That would have spiced up the weekend a bit.

First, for the zoo.   They had a great tractor parked out front.   The way they were yelling at me, I think they thought I might actually drive off with it — I guess they didn’t realize I can’t reach the pedals.   My brothers liked feeding the fish and the duck in the big lagoon, and generally trying to pose for dad and the camera.

Then there was this cool exhibit that had an underground tunnel.  Something about how you could see how moles really live underground.  Whatever.  I just liked making my dad chase me through the tunnels.   You can tell they weren’t built to fit “extra medium” individuals.  He struggled a bit to keep up, but finally made it out…

Then we went to the beach with my good friend, Jane.

I invited her to take a long walk on the beach, but she declined – so I went by myself.   (You can also see that we had the place pretty much to ourselves… nice!)

And did I mention that my brother Tristan just won’t take off his hat?

Anyway, a happy Memorial Day to everyone!   Keep in touch!

JPC

Summer comes early out here in Jerusalem.  Not only has it been hot hot hot, but apparently my school year ends this month.  Surprise, Mom!  So I get some more quality time with my brothers.  My mom’s looking for things to do every day.  The beach is high on our list…

But we’re also big fans of the park.  You can tell who drives (and who’s the backseat driver) in this family.  Tristan won’t wear his hat in the sun at the beach, but then he goes for hours where he won’t take it off — in the car, after dark, etc.  Oh well.

Oliver’s become a little taken by soccer balls – though he’s not so good at kicking them.  He just wants to hold them.  But he’s always interfering in my games.  Luckily, I’m still faster than he is.

There doesn’t seem to be much motivating my parents besides just wearing us out.  Here we are at the end of a long day, back on the couch at home…

Sorry that there are no photos of Leighton in this posting, but he looks just like a month-old baby should…  Maybe next time if I can get my photographer to do the necessary.   JPC

So, Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter came all the way out from California.   Dad says they came because of the new baby.  I’m pretty sure they came to see me.  Here’s green, shiny proof:

I’m now ready to get out and about myself… I even think I look good in the helmet.

Grandma and Grandpa are taking us up to the north today, for some quality time at the horse ranch.  I’ve been practicing locally.  Not to be immodest, but I think I’m quite a showman on the horse…  Otherwise, we’ve just been hanging out a fair bit with our new brother.  He’s alright – and I like the fact that I can palm his head like a basketball.

Mom and Dad say Leighton is doing well.  I think he keeps Mom up a lot, as he’s always hungry – but he seems to be a pretty mellow customer most of the time.  Speaking of mellow brothers — Tristan still has his cast on, but it’s supposed to come off next week.   We’ve had fun while he’s had it though – it’s sort of like having your own personal sketch pad that travels with you wherever you go…

Alright, I have to run.  The car’s loaded and ready to go, and Oliver gets cranky when we make him wait…   Will try to write more when we get back from the dude ranch…  JPC

I got my first chance to hang out with my baby brother Leighton yesterday.   He was alright, but Mom and Dad wouldn’t really let me play with him.   So I mostly got to sit next to him.  He’s pretty mellow.   But he’s doing well and maybe coming home today with Mom.

Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, because I think Dad’s slightly overwhelmed looking after the three of us.  He’s on his blackberry a lot – and he speaks really loudly (to nobody) when he’s driving back and forth to the hospital.  But he does let us watch a lot of TV, which is a good thing.

The other news this week – as you can see in the photo above – is that my little brother Tristan took a digger at the park.  I think the cast is a bit overly dramatic, but Dad says I can go at it with my magic markers tomorrow.  Dad says he’s fine, and will be as good as new in a couple weeks.

Well, Mom left the house in a rush last night and we thought for sure she’d be coming back with our little brother.  But no dice.   Apparently Percy’s decided to wait a few more days.   It did mean that we all got to go to the Easter party at the Consulate today.  (Ahem, “Spring Party” to be appropriately sensitive to the many faiths.)   Anyway, there was an Easter Egg hunt, so I guess we can call it whatever we want…

We had a good time, though.  We’re not so good at finding eggs — but we enjoy the ones we do find!

(p.s.  For those of you keeping score at home, it’s Ground 2, My Forehead 0.)

JPC

It’s holiday season out here.  Passover started on Wednesday night.   Easter (at least the first Easter) is on Sunday.  I’m out of school for both Easters (don’t ask me how that works, but Mom knows).   We’ve had a good run of parties, including an early Easter egg hunt at school before we got off for our holiday.

I found the best egg.  But my brothers seemed to enjoy themselves too.  You’ll note that since the last time I’ve posted, we’ve all had some serious haircuts.

We’ve also found a couple of horses on our way home from school that we can stop and feed.  They look like they could use a good carrot or two…

The big news, though is that it’s almost summertime here.  It makes the two weeks off from school that much more fun.

Today we went to the beach for the first time this season, while Dad was working.   Oliver seems to have forgotten all about the beach though, ’cause today he wouldn’t even let anyone put him down on the sand for the first hour.   And forget about the water.  He’s kind of a scaredy cat.

Tristan’s not though, he was all over the place.

Anyway, we had fun on the swings, and then at lunch.  Makes me excited for the summer!

Well, it turns out there are horses closer to home.  My friend Jane had a birthday party at the nearby stables, and I got to ride another horse.  This is Tinkerbell.

I have to say that it went so well (and I think Mom and Dad like the idea of tiring us all out in the great outdoors), that we’ve been back again already, and Mom got me a frequent rider card.  But it seems like I have to share some time with my brothers, too.   Tristan’s really into it.  Oliver not so much, and he wouldn’t let go (which totally upset my groove).

Oliver wasn’t such a fan of feeding the horses, either.  But he seemed just fine on the tractor.

I’ve learned, though, that these great days come with a price.  The stables get dirty – and the car does too.  So Mom and Dad put me to work on both.  As Oliver says: “Yuck!”

We went up to the north this weekend to an Israeli horse ranch.  Very fun indeed.  This is me riding Shoku.  We had some good times together…  Sorry that you can’t see his head — but you get the picture.

My brothers and I also played a lot around the grounds.   Lots of fun stuff to climb on.

Being somewhat in the countryside, I also had my first real dose of bugs and mud…  Here I am with one of the many caterpillars in the grass by our cabin.  Dad says I tried to feed this one to Tristan.  What, I say, is he suddenly Vegan?

But most of all, there were lots of horses.  I brought a bag of carrots with me from Jerusalem to feed them, and after that I was really popular as I walked through the stables.

I made a short video of some of our good times…

Vered Hagalil from James Carpenter on Vimeo