The FinkelSternfelds

Summer 2017 - Iceland

2017-08-07T16:59:00.003+03:00

Hi to all our friends and family.

Been a while since we wrote and published in the blog. Possibly this isn't the most posh communication method existing.

So, anyways, some updates.
Bar is now two thirds of the way into his army service. He is now in Rehovot, working with Ethiopian youth. He has the making of a great educator.
Shalev has finished middle school, and entering high school in a month, where he will be focusing on physics and music. Cinematography, his greatest passion, doesn't open this year, but I hope he can find an extracurricular activity that will help him maintain his interest.
Sheer will be starting third grade in a month, with a new teacher, but the same classmates.
I've started working as hydro-therapist a few months ago, to my great pleasure, and am still working part-time at Intel, which I also enjoy.
Dany is working at Intel, still flying frequently and taking pictures.

And this summer, all five of us went to Iceland.
We went about a third of the ring road (a road around Iceland) and also to snaefelsness.
We did a lot of hiking, a horse riding tour, amphibian tour in the ice lagoon, and saw many magnificent places.
It was extremely cold, and very much awe inspiring.

Map of our travels

Photos from Iceland - by Dany

Iceland movie - by Shachar

Shalev's UnBarmitzva

2015-03-21T15:55:00.000+02:00

It took thirteen years, but Shalev has finally reached the age of reason and maturity.
Well, relatively speaking that is.
One of the things that mark his coming of age, is his becoming the tallest one of us. Shalev passed Bar's height just this week.
Another mark is his persistently improving sense of humour, and his talented cake making.

We wish Shalev a lot of happiness and joy, maturity and patience, and many reasons to prepare yummy cakes.

We gathered in a restaurant in Kiryat Motzkin, and had lunch together, all of the family who could make it.
After discussing it, we arrived at the conclusion that this is the first meeting of all five Finkelstein siblings since Reshsef was born, 23 years ago.
So we talked, we ate, and talked some more.
May we meet more in happy occasions.

Some pictures from the event here & here.

Fauna - 1 May 1995, 16 Dec 2014

2014-12-16T20:49:00.001+02:00

Dany tells of the time Fauna found him, she was a tiny kitten, around six weeks old, with black fur and white tufts behind her ears, like a Mogwai. He was walking out of a vaadat tarbut meeting (cultural committee) in the kibbutz dining hall, and she adopted him, and was so cute he just had to take her home.
Shachar tells of Fauna's first pregnancy, which coincided with Shachar's carrying Bar. When Fauna gave birth, I was seven months pregnant with Bar. We put her in a carton with some clothes to keep her warm, and I sat with her while she gave birth, and I could feel her contractions and knew that soon I would be following in her footsteps with my own labor, it was very moving. She was a great mother to her kittens.
Bar tells of the time when Sheer caught Fauna's tail, and Fauna didn't like it. So she moved, and Sheer crawled after her and tried to catch her. So Fauna moved to another corner of the carpet, and this process repeated itself many many times, with infinite patience on Fauna's side. She was a very tolerant cat.
Shalev tells of the time when he saw Fauna catch a dove. Dany tells about the mice she brought into our house in order to teach us to hunt, because obviously we weren't doing a good enough job by her standards. Shachar tells of the time when Fauna, almost eighteen years old, saw a dog come into our yard, and without any qualms chased him away. Dany tells of the time he saw he fighting a snake. She was a great hunter and a brave warrior.
Shachar tells of the numerous times when we had to show her where her food was, because she would refuse to eat the food unless shown where her plate is. Dany tells of the annoying habit of "I don't have enough on my plate. You have to fill it up more!". Bar tells of the amazing talent of hearing a tuna can being opened from 100 meter away. Dany tells of the amazing feat of hearing our car going into the street and recognizing its unique motor noise and running towards it with whine: "will someone please show me where my plate is?"
Sheer tells of the brown hues in Fauna's black fur.
Shachar tells of the time when Sheer was a baby and woke her up twice a night, with Dany unaware of baby cries, while Dany woke twice a night to let Fauna in/out, with Shachar oblivious to the cat's cries. Shachar and Dany both confess to a tendency to mix names between the two. Well, they are both small and whiny and cuddle worth.

This morning Fauna died having lived with us to the age of 19(!).
She died peacefully, in her sleep, at home with the people who loved her surrounding her and they had time to make their farewells. She chose the time of her own death, she stopped eating and waited to die.
May her soul hunt fearlessly in the lands of never ending mice and doves, of comfortable cushions and easy reachable laps.

Shana Tova 2014

2014-09-25T14:04:00.000+03:00

Rosh Hashana is upon us again.

Wow, it's been a busy year, hasn't it?

Shalev finished 6th grade, and primary school, Pictures from his end-of-school show here.
He's becoming pretty big and is now in highschool, new place, new friends, lots of challenge.

Bar finished 12th grade, and high school. Pictures from his end of year show here.
He started a year of volunteering as a youth leader in HaShomer HaTzair. New place, new friends, lots of responsibilities and challenges.

Sheer became much stronger during this year, learned a many new things, started drawing very well, and started reading recently. She is in Gan Chova, new kids, new kindergarten teacher, and having a grand time. Some pictures from private fashion shows she does for us (may be restricted by google+).

Dany shifted to a different organization within Intel, and is now working at something totally new and challenging. New people, new place, lots of challenge and brain stretching.
Other than that, he still flies high and far, and takes lots of aerial pictures and videos.

Me, I've been unemployed the past year, after leaving Intel. I finished studying hydrotherapy, and working now on completing my internship. So this coming year will bring lots of challenge and new beginnings. Other than that, a story of mine won a prize, and another was published on paper, and I started drawing more seriously. I also gave a filming class for 6th graders. So shifting from engineering to artistic mode.

We took the yearly vacation in Slovenia, and you can see the pictures and the movie.

It was a good year, all in all.

We wish you a happy year.
A year of challenge and fulfilment, of feeling loved and secure, of giving and receiving, of friendship and family bonding.

Special wishes to my brave sister Ayelet - a very very happy year to you.

Sukkot 2013

2013-09-25T22:30:00.004+03:00

Hello all our friends and family. First of all, we wish you a happy new year, may you all be healthy and wealthy.

Sukkot this year started with building a tree house for Sheer, for her 4th birthday. Probably the most elaborate gift I ever made. We started at a height of 3.5 meters, but I decided this was too high, so we re started at 2 meters high. Eng Sternfeld authorized the house after several fixes, and it can carry ~100 kilos.

Next on the agenda came The Gilboa Balloon Festival, where we saw a show of fire and dancing, watched balloons fly and fireworks. On the following morning, 31 balloons flew from the landing field, and then 25 paragliders flew and many trikes.
Some pictures Dany took from the event: pics from Gilboa Balloon Fest
And also a movie of Dany's flight from the Gilboa to the Kinneret where me and the kids picked him up: Movie

And last but not least, all of us went to Icon - Israel largest SciFi convention in Tel Aviv. We saw a lot of SciFi fans, dressed as Anime, DoctorWho, Roman arena fighters, Orcs and other characters.
In Icon we attended a launch of Once upon a future, a book which contains one story of mine, and I received a first prize on a story contest, for my SciFi story "As Ketchop To Hummus".
As Ketchop To Hummus
once upon a future

So, a great start to what will hopefully turn out a great year.
May peace and happiness seek and find you at every corner.

Toscana April 2011

2011-04-30T21:34:00.009+03:00

Happy passover, Happy Pasqua, Happy Easter.

This year we decided to go to Toscana Italy.
April in Toscana is very similar to what our area could have been, given enough rain: Green, lush, colorful.
We had a great time together, ate a lot of pasta, gelato, and drank a lot of Chianti Classico. We even had a Seder dinner (quote: do we have Hametz in the house? Yes, check, next item.) Amazingly enough, most of us actually lost weight, probably because we walked and cycled so much. One of us even went swimming, but I wont say who.

Some pictures can be seen at here & here.

Shachar

Hanukka 2009

2009-12-19T21:36:00.006+02:00

Happy Hanuka.

Hope you didn't eat too many fatty foods, and if you did - that you let yourself enjoy it and not feel remorse :)

May all of our candles be joined together to light a bigger light.

Some videos from our Hanukka vacation:

Shalev plays his clarinet at his class Hanuka party

Bar's fencing tournament in Jeruslaem

Shir is three months old, and started flipping.

Some more Shir'ness

2009-09-10T22:19:00.002+03:00

I promise not to make a habit of bombing your inboxes with Shir's pictures ( though it's quite tempting I must say), but here's some more pictures I took today.
Isn't she beautiful ?

Took the kids to visit Their Mom & new sister at the hospital. They're both pretty excited though each shows it differently: Shalev in his bouncy 7 yo manner, and Bar trying to be all rational and grown up about it.

Shachar & Shir will come out of the hospital tomorrow noon.
I'm off to bed.

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

A new baby girl in our family !

2009-09-09T23:22:00.003+03:00

Shahar gave birth tonight, 9.9.09, at a few minutes to 9 pm to a healthy baby girl in what was probably the speediest labour of all times - less then an hour in the delivery room.
Both mother and child are fine. The baby, whom we have decided to name Shir (שיר, a song or poem in hebrew ), weighed 3.76Kg at birth.

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Bar's Bar-Mitzva !

2009-03-10T22:31:00.001+02:00

Amazing how 13 years can fly! We celebrated Bar's Bar-Mitzva this Sunday with family and Bar's friends at a restaurant called Leonardo in Beit-Lehem-Haglilit.

Besides the good food, Shachar & I did our best to embarrass Bar with our speech (none of our ploys worked though), Tami congratulated in behalf of the rest of the family, and Bar himself made a small speech he prepared.

Here's the video we showed at the party:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OhRbvkzeYY)

Here are pictures mostly taken by Susan.
Tom - Can you send a link to the pics you took ?

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

ברוך שפטרנו מעונשו של זה

2009-01-16T14:39:00.008+02:00

It took thirteen years, but he is finally there.

Real soon.

We’re proud to invite you to Bar’s Bar Mitzva,
Which will be held on Sunday, March 8, at 19:00 at “Leonrado” Kosher restaurant in Beth Lehem Haglilit.

People who wish to attend, please let us know.
People who are willing to send a short MazalTov note (~10 seconds), in any Audio or Video format, which will be used for the presentation during the Bar Mitzva – please send to Dany (dany.sternfeld@gmail.com) or Shachar (shachar.or.05@gmail.com ).

זה לקח לו כמעט שלוש עשרה שנה, אבל הוא סוף סוף מגיע לשם
אנחנו גאים ומאושרים להזמין אתכם להשתתף בבר המצווה של בר
שיערך ביום ראשון, השמונה במרץ, יג' באדר, באולם האירועים ליאונרדו, בבית לחם הגלילית, בשעה שבע בערב
המקום כשר, ולמחרת יש חופש, כך שלאף אחד אין תירוצים

נשמח מאד לקבל מכם ברכה קצרה של מספר שניות, בכל פורמט אודיו או וידאו שתבחרו, שתכנס למצגת שתוקרן באירוע. את הברכה אנא שלחו לשחר shachar.or.05@gmail.com או לדני dany.sternfeld@gmail.com

להתראות ממש בקרוב

שחר דני בר ושלו

2008 ends - welcome 2009

2008-12-31T22:52:00.005+02:00

It's that time of year that calls for gathering thoughts and nesting in warm houses.

We had an evening of punch and christmas chocolates courtesy of Maria (Thanks Maria), after a stormy day. Makes you realize how lucky we are: to have a warm cozy home, with few imminent threats.

May the next year be peaceful prosperous and happy for ourselves and our neighbors, in the South in the North, and in our hearts.

The picture was taken a few weeks ago, at Ma'agan Michael beach, at a magical day, when the winds were easterly, and the waves sent sparys as the wind cut against them.

You are most welcome to watch Shalev and Bar at the martial arts show at Hanukka (the singer is Yoel - Shalev's judo sensai who is also Dany's sensai and mine as well)
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=6isbPqWQ9vU

Summer trip to fjordland Norway

2008-09-03T19:56:00.008+03:00

What could be better than leaving the Israeli heat for a tenday, and trade it for the cool and wet Norway?

This is probably the right place to thank Vera and Robbi for planting the idea while they were here. Thanks guys!

We went on a glacier walk, saw a lot of fjords and waterfalls, walked and walked and walked - until our shoes got threadbare, slept in cabins and ate supermarket food to lower the costs, and generally had a lovely time.

You can see the pictures we took here
or in the frame below if you're reading this from my blog.

Or take a look at the Video:
Part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

End of school year 2008

2008-07-19T11:13:00.005+03:00

Dear friends and family,

A hectic June and some of July have passed, and that means the end of school year, a special ending for us, as Bar has finished elementary school and will be starting junior high school next year, while Shalev has finished kindergarten and starting elementary school in September.

So, Shalev had the end of year celebration in the kindergaten, based on the theme of 60th bd of Israel.

And Bar did as well - a full fledged play based on the theme of, guess what, 60th bd of Israel.

(Bar as Theodore Herzl)

Also you can see Bar's end of year concert. Small, but of high quality performers :)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCIy7uxF5w)

See more pics here.
This message is posted to The FinkelSternfeld's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Fun stuff we did during the Pesach week

2008-04-26T17:48:00.005+03:00

We did the Seder one day ahead of the rest of the jewish people worldwide, in order to accommodate my sister's family who were going abroad on the real Seder night.

Shalev sang the "Ma Nishtana" (Sorry for the somewhat shaky camera work):

The next day we set out to the Golan and hiked the Gilabun stream, spent the night on the Kineret shore and went the next day to the Yahudia stream.

Later this week we went to the Haifa children's theatre festival and spent a day there. the highlight was the Corpus group from Canada with their "A flock of flyers" performance, where they invited me in to their show as "Capitan Fiffy".

Shachar & Bar went to a Sci-Fi convention in Tel-Aviv, while Shalev and I went to to an amusment park for younger kids on the hottest day ever recorded ( +40 C ).

And today we're mostly vegging out. It's back to work tomorrow !

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Shraga Sternfeld. 1932-2007

2007-12-27T10:42:00.000+02:00

It's been a week now since my father passed away. We will all miss him, his humour and Hungarian accent. In a way he keeps on living in Ruthie & me - we keep repeating things he used to say, imitating him. I still remember his voice from the time before he lost it to cancer and needed a machine to be his "voice".

Dad, a very active man in his way, became ill with a mysterious lung disease 2 years ago which was never diagnosed. It's symptom was low blood oxygen saturation levels. He needed to breath oxygen from external sources (tanks or from an oxygen generation machine ). Last week however, after being hospitalised for 2 weeks for tests, his heart decided the strain was too much and gave up...
Having suffered from his illness, he used to say in his typical wry humour - "I'm willing to compromise on heart failure...". He pretty much got his wish.

A very intelligent, nice man, if sometimes strange - but who isn't ?
We'll always remember him.

Some pictures of my father I collected and uploaded can be seen here.

The power of N

2007-12-10T11:49:00.000+02:00

The power of N: Novemeber, New Zealand, Nirvana.

So I went to New Zealand, and drove mostly on the left (correct) side.

Saw some whales, swam with dolphins, went on many walks in amazing scenery, went on a helihike (helicopter + walk) on a glaciar, went caving in the dark, saw seals and sea lions, had to give way to mother duck and her ducklings, saw penguins, and all in all had a great time.

If you want to see some more pictures you can visit my flickr page here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9660976@N06/

Shachar

New Year's eve

2007-09-11T22:00:00.000+03:00

To all our dear friends and family,
Another autumn has come, and looking back on this year we see lots of excitement and adventures: outdoor hikes, violin concerts, judo activities, massage course, photography course, summer vacation in Jerusalem, some of us lost a significant number of kilos, some of us gained a significant amount of height, and one of us even lost their first baby tooth, and last but not least 36 hour Harry Potter Seven marathon.

All in all it's been a very happy and fulfilling year.

May the new year bless you with tranquility, peace, and happiness, health and a purpose in life.
Shana Tova ! שנה טובה

Love from the FinkelSternfeld family: Dany Shachar Bar & Shalev.

The picture above was taken flying over the beach in Arsuf, near Hertzlia - I spotted this guy writing "Shana Tova" in huge letters in the sand. - Dany

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Passover vacation in Elifaz

2007-04-07T21:45:00.000+03:00

We Drove down to Elifaz early last Monday to have the Seder with Shachar's brother Gilaad's family, with Tami, Yiftach & the kids and with Daveeda & Baruch who took a flight to Eilat.

We met Tami & Yiftach on the way and hiked wadi Tamar - a hike that involves descending ladders & ropes over high, dry waterfalls.

The Seder was held in the dining hall of Elifaz with about 30 people, most of them from our party.

The next day we went on a hike along the geological trail of Timna park. it's about a 4 hour walk along rocky terrain with steep climbs and descents.The beautiful and wild view made the effort worth while. Shalev walked almost the entire hike bravely on his own two feet. I was very proud of him. You can see our track as a google map or in 3D in google earth if you have it.

Wednesday we took it easy and went to visit the Hai Bar reserve near Yotvata.

On Thursday we got an early start and headed with Maayan to hike the Red Canyon, near the Egyptian border. This is a deep, not very long sand stone canyon, with
dry watrefalls, not as high as in wadi Tamar. Its a bit like a natural play ground for the kids (and grownups ). Again, here's our trail as a google map or in google earth.

On Friday we headed back up north, stopping in Ein-Yahav to watch a model-plane competition that was held there.

And it's back to work on Tuesday !

See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Shalev is 5. Bar plays his first concert.

2007-03-24T23:57:00.000+02:00

Quite a week we had !
Shalev turned five and had 3 ( three ! ) birthday parties : one at home with 25 of his friends from kindergarten, one at his kindergarten and one with the family.
For the party at home, we had a lady called Avishag who's a puppeteer perform for the kids. At the kindergarten, it's customary that the birthday kid's parents do some activity with the kids, so at Shalev's request, I gave them a short Judo lesson.

Bar, who started to learn to play the violin this year had his first concert today, where he played two short pieces. Here they are:

More pics here.
This message is posted to my blog.

Purim, birthdays and early spring

2007-03-04T21:32:00.000+02:00

Long time no posts, but we're back with more pics.
The crazy winter we had brought an early spring with an explosion of colour from blooming wild flowers and trees.
It's also the birthday season here - Shachar, Bar & soon Shalev.
And of course - Purim !

More pics here.
This message is posted to my blog.

Pics from our trip to Rhodes

2006-10-12T19:12:00.000+02:00

We went this week on a short vacation in Rhodes, organised entirly by Intel, after the management lost a bet it made with our design team that we can't complete the design of a family of 4 new processors ahead of time.

We visited the medieval city of Rodos, the ruins of Lindos acropolis, and walked through an 180 meter undergroung aquaduct near the seven-springs.

More pics here.
This message is posted to my blog.

Vacation in northern IL

2006-08-30T23:29:00.000+03:00

So now the war is over, we vacationed for a few days in Ramot near the Kineret , going out each day for hikes in the area, mostly to places with water, like the Majrasa stream and the hexagon pool ( Brechat Hameshushim ). I even got to go flying from Mevo-Hama on Friday evening and had a great 45 minute flight, enojying the great view of the Kineret at dusk.

This message is posted to my blog.
More pics here.

Pics from Kalat-Namrud, Banias & Netanya

2006-07-14T11:48:00.000+03:00

It was a not-so-hot-as-usual day last weekend so we went to visit Kalat-Namrud and the Banias
waterfall up north ( couldn't go there now with all the missiles raining down there ). I last was in the Banias about 20 years ago, so I was pretty shocked to find a ticket booth at the entrance, and big signs saying that bathing is forbidden.

I'm now on sabbatical leave from work ( we get 23 days sabbatical every seven years ), spending time with the kids and going paragliding every other day, mostly in Netanya.
If you can read Hebrew and interested, here's an account of a forced landing I had yesterday. It was a bit scary but ended well. Most of my flights are very peaceful and fun.

This message is posted to my blog.
More pics here.

Shavout in Ramat Hashofet

2006-06-10T12:26:00.000+03:00

Picture from the Shavout event in Ramat Hashofet.

This message is posted to my blog.
More pics here.