Ben’s Matzah Balls and Joshua’s Passover Mini-Marshmallow/Hail Launcher

I’ve been meaning to get these photos up for almost a month now. It seems like Passover was ages ago. So much preparation and then it’s over like a flash. Well, it didn’t really go by like a flash at the time, but it seems that way now. I spent a lot of time with my brother and his kids, who were in from Maine for a week. We went to the Central Park Zoo one day, then the Metropolitan Museum of Art another day, and we fit Passover in between those days.

Here are photos of my baby, Benjamin, 5, who will be 6 in June. He loves to help me cook and he has become quite the matzah ball maker. He loves matzah ball soup, so we had already made it a few times before Passover. He did the whole thing, from opening up the bags, to cracking the eggs, adding the oil, and making the matzah balls. The only problem is that I used 3 boxes instead of the usual 1 box, but still put them all in the same pot (see the last photo – you only see the top layer of matzah balls – the lucky ones that floated to the surface), so instead of having lots of big matzah balls, we had lots of small ones. They were still tasty anyhow.

Also, check out the photos of my big boy, Joshua, 10, who will be 11 in a few weeks. I bought mini-marshmallows for the plague of hail. For everyone at the table, they had little cups filled with the marshmallows. But that wasn’t good enough for Joshua. No – he had to design and build the FIRST EVER PASSOVER MINI-MARSHMALLOW/HAIL LAUNCHER!!! (His dad and 2 grandpas are/were engineers so that explains it.) Joshua spent over an hour building this out of blocks and rubber bands, pencils, and a doubled up plastic spoon. We were doing some painting in the house (nothing like company to get a house in shape – sort of), so that’s why he’s covered in white paint.

Here you can see the PASSOVER MINI-MARSHMALLOW/HAIL LAUNCHER in action. The video is really lousy. My always reliable digital camera, which used to take great videos, now takes lousy videos, so I’ll have to get another one (and NOT give that one to the kids). Enjoy the video!

And, to wrap things up, my first Passover went very well (or at least that’s what my family told me). It was really unlike any Passover I’ve attended because there were lots of songs, and I spent time talking about Miriam’s role in the Passover Seder, and showing off the Emily Rosenfeld Miriam’s Cup. I played Debbie Friedman’s Miriam’s Cup song, which was great.

I hope you had a very Happy Passover, as well.

JOSHUA’S FIRST EVER PASSOVER MINI-MARSHMALLOW/HAIL LAUNCHER!!!