Is it summer already??!?

Tell me please, how it can be summer already (rosh chodesh Tammuz and everything...) and the first 'official' day of summer has yet to arrive?
This was Binyomin's last Shabbos with us, . We will miss him very much. We DO look forward to Joseph's imminent return though....
Shabbos was very pleasant. We had Craig, Alison and Oma for dinner on Friday night. Moshe stayed in Yeshiva, because he needed to study on Sunday for some big exams.
Michael was also not in attendance, as he was joining Rabbi Friedman on his last "shabbos yeshiva" before the summer. Lunch was a quiet affair, Jen having gone to Oma's house. Shalosh Seudos included the usual crowd - Yosef B, Craig and we were joined towards the end by Binyomin, Nochum G. and another young man. The singing was phenomenal guys! Judy and Nesanel stopped by as well. It was a three hour deal, because the kehilla was having it's annual "I don't speak yiddish but I'm not going to admit it" Shalosh Seudos, where the speaker talks in Yiddish and all the non-yiddish speaking, low self-esteem crowd, sits there nodding emphatically, smiling & pretending, all the while having NO CLUE as to what the speaker is saying. We welcomed everbody who got bored there at our table and not one of them was able to give over a single word of torah when asked..... now I ask you, what's the point of THAT??
Today - Father's Day is hot like the dickens. I bought Avram a really cool chin up bar. He was very excited and made an amazing first attempt at it in his suit and tie :)

The Grass is Always Greener

We had a quiet shabbos this week. No company on Friday night and none for lunch either. {OK, don't bring up the fact that we had Craig and Yosef B for shalosh seudos... that doesn't count... it's a set thing...} We all caught up on some much needed sleep, I will say that. I even finished my (long overdue) book.
Don't get me wrong... we all needed this weekend, but it certainly makes us remember why we love the busy fuller meals. Last Friday night we had Binyomin, Lester, Moshe, Chava, Megan and Oma. It was Lester's last Shabbos in America and we wanted to make it special. Binyomin will be graduating soon and moving on to Yeshiva, but he really has become like a "third son" this year (or rather as Erica says, "he's the brother I never had".... WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?!? If I were Michael or Joseph, I might be mildly insulted....).
Binny came by to say goodbye before he goes off to the Israeli Army. When did they grow up? I guess I blinked. No more blinking....

Michael's Graduation