Arts And Entertainment Fair - ALEH

The ALEH Arts and Entertainment Fair

Yesterday wasn't a Jewish festival in Israel (outside Israel it was - don't ask) but the children still had the day off school. As a wonderful end to the festivities we went to the ALEH Arts and Entertainment Fair at The First Station.

I've written about ALEH before - it's Israel's largest network of care facilities for over 750 people with multiple and complex disabilities. They have residential homes, respite stays, medical and rehabilitative care, educational frameworks, and assistive therapies. It's an amazing organization and I'm always happy to support the fundraisers and events.

Tuesday is my college day so I had to work this morning but after lunch DD, her BFF, and I walked down to the first station in time for the show. I enjoyed it although DD and her friend patiently explained to me that if it's a show "for all the family" that means it's for little children. I watched the show while they went shopping.

The tie-dying was held in a bar but unfortunately the bar was closed. :(

The First Station is our mini Covent Garden without the street artists. There were stalls lining the main drag and selling all sorts of artisan items: knitted, quilted, ceramic, jewellery, hats, beautifully painted hand held fans, bags and purses, religious items, and toys. The girls inspected everything and came back with some little jelly beads that grow when you put them in water, and an egg with 'nauty putty' (sic) inside. They spent £1 each and we were all satisfied.

We didn't need the Covent Garden street artists as there were about 20 arts and crafts tables for kids to join, including face painting, glass painting, hair braiding, wooden ornaments to make and decorate, slime making, you name it, if it involved painting it was probably there.

Then we sat and had ice-cream because it's rude not to when you're at The First Station. DD had vanilla and marshmellow, BFF chose the more sophisticated pistachio and cheese cake, and I had frozen yogurt with pineapple and lychee and mascarpone with berries. Delicious!

Yeah, we loved it!

The highlight of our day was a tie-dye workshop. Each of the girls got a white tee-shirt which they twisted and bound with rubber bands. Then they painted them and finally the shirts were handi-wrapped and put into bags for us to bring home and finish. Tomorrow we have to rinse them out, wash them them in the washing machine and hang them out to dry. I'll post the results on Thursday.

We walked home in the sweltering heat, even though it was after 6 pm which is unusual for Jerusalem. Reality hit as we walked through the door - supper, showers, bags ready for tomorrow and early to bed (for DD, obviously not for me). But it felt good to have ended the holidays with a full, fun and active day out.