Well, that was an eventful Shabbos

First of all Tirtze finally invited a school friend (actually 2 but one couldn't come) to sleep over, plus Golda (one of the usual suspects from the neighborhood) slept over, and Adina (another one) spent the afternoon with us.  All 3 of the guests have mothers originally from Iran, so there was much discussion of Farsi vocabulary, and for at least one of them it was the first time in her life to eat brisket and shnitzel on Friday night rather than rice and stew.  I mean, we don't infrequently eat Sephardi style foods Friday nights, but it happens that the menu this week was brisket, shnitzel, challah kugel, and salads...quite the Ashkenazi stereotypical Shabbos dinner.

The real excitement came Saturday morning though.  The winds blew down 2 electrical wires right in our front yard, causing a half dozen explosions from the transformer on the pole at the corner of our property.  This totally freaked the kids out, what with the huge noises and sparks flying across the whole yard.  Thank G-d it rained a lot this week so all the tree branches and grass were wet enough not to catch fire.  The fire department came immediately and taped off our yard and the next door neighbors' and then Pepco came and fixed the lines and restored power within about 4 hours of the whole incident beginning.

And Gilad wanted everyone to see him and the train track Feivel built for him: