The engine on our car suddenly went a couple of weeks ago, a week after spending 7000 shekels fixing everything and passing the test.

Unfortunately for us, a mechanic didn’t fix an oil leak or tell us it was still a problem so it ran dry, despite us being regular about maintenance. My teens think we should hold them responsible them for negligence but my husband said clearly G-d wanted to move this car out of our lives. It couldn’t die a natural death from old age since we had replaced everything and it ran well.

Yesterday my husband bought a new car, and to celebrate our mobility, we took the four youngest kids to a zoo close by. I bought a family membership there a few weeks ago. At that point I had to sign up all the children by name, and though I didn’t yet know if the twins would be coming, I added their names rather than deal with the future awkwardness of having to show foster care paperwork for guardianship.

When you have a membership, there’s no inner pull that you should go see this or that or the other, because you’ve just spent over 50 shekels a person admission fee. You can do whatever feels fun for the children right then, and as you go more often, the positive anticipation builds since they’re going somewhere familiar and they know what they have to look forward to.

We were fortunate that we got there towards the end of the day, so we were the only ones there.

Our little three kiddos are such a cute group. They mostly get along well and are just so sweet, individually and on their own. Ds10 overall seems happy to have them with us, too – his role is the big brother.

When you enter, each child is given a cup of feed to give to the various animals there. We started off with the parrots.

At the entrance they have a line-up of ride on cars for kids. Ds6’s favorite part is zooming around and around. It’s a really nice feeling of freedom for a young child; it’s completely enclosed and he never goes too far.

On one of his rounds, he met the woman who worked there and asked for a drink. She asked him if he was allowed to have a slurpee. He came back and asked me, and I said yes, thinking he was asking about something else. I was surprised when a few minutes later, all of the children were happily sipping their slurpees! It was a nice treat for them, and the woman working there was clearly happy to give it to them as a gift.

Ds5 was most interested in all the tractors and golf carts that were available to play on. He was very disappointed that they couldn’t be moved, though.

When I did my shopping for ds6 for the summer, I bought matching shirts for ds5, though I didn’t know yet if he’d be coming. The first morning when the two youngest boys got dressed in their matching shirts, dd5 was disappointed she didn’t have a matching shirt, too. Since I had purchased a few long sleeved polo shirts at the same time, today I was able to give her the red one to wear.

They were so excited they were all wearing matching shirts! They were exclaiming over it together and did a spontaneous group hug. “Right we’re all wearing the same thing because we’re friends?” “Yes, you’re friends and you’re brothers and sisters.”

I intend to take the children here regularly. Though it was 105 degrees outside, thanks to the shade trees and breeze, it felt cooler there. They have different attractions we’ll explore in different visits; I appreciate the opportunity to empower the children by giving them the choice of what they want to see and do.

Avivah