buddy

Buddy the guinea pig has been visiting us this weekend. He is a pet at Cooper's school we got to take home for the weekend. We had Buddy once before; two years ago when Kestrel was in the same school. The kids have been playing with him and feeding him and cleaning up after him all weekend. He is actually pretty friendly and affectionate, and makes these squeeky noises when we hold and pet him. Kestrel is especially in love with Buddy, and has been trying to convince us all weekend to let her have her own guinea pig when she turns 8. She's been doing research online to find out how to take care of guinea pigs, and printed out several pictures she hung up in her room. They are sad to have to bring Buddy back tomorrow, but are hoping we'll get to take him home another weekend.

our cheerleader

Kestrel went to a cheerleading clinic at one of the high schools in town last Sunday, and performed during halftime at the JV basketball game Friday night. She really enjoys doing these, and wanted to stay for the whole game when her show was done. This was the 3rd or 4th time she has done one of these clinics (including a 1 week camp), which are led by the varsity cheerleaders. Paul took a picture of her Friday with his camera phone. I'll try to download it later.

"my first igloo"

"This is the first igloo I've ever seen and the first igloo I've ever been inside!" - Kestrel
She finished the igloo moments before I posted these pictures.

snowman

We finally got some snow last night! Other than a dusting early in the season, we've really had no snow so far this winter. Until last night. Kestrel spent 2 hours playing in the snow this morning. She and Paul worked on this snowman together. Cooper was playing outside for a little while, but came back in long before Kestrel did. As I write this Paul and Kestrel are both back out there building an igloo on the deck (Kestrel's idea of course). It's great for Kestrel that Daddy loves the snow, too.

Speaking of last night, Kestrel had her friends Amy and Caitlin sleep over. They had fun and were all really good, except that they wouldn't go to sleep, of course. I think I heard them still whispering and laughing at midnight! This was Kestrel's first time having friends sleep over here (besides cousins).

some updates

I know its been a while, so I thought I'd give a few updates (my friend Amy said she was tired of looking at Kaya on the blog:)).

Kestrel is so excited about selling girl scout cookies. Her personal goal is 709 boxes, but lets just say she has quite a ways to go. She's not shy about going up to doors in our neighborhood to peddle cookies (we go with her, of course).

Remember the PTA Reflections project that Kestrel entered (you can read about it here)? We found out, thanks to my friend Trish reading the PTA school newsletter, that Kestrel's work was one of 7 from the school to advance to the council level, and one of 2 from the school to go on to the district level. Go Kestrel! We don't yet know which work it was, the painting or the poem, but I'll try to find out.

Cooper is just as cute as ever. He got a new pair of shoes the other day, because his Cars sneakers are getting small. He really wanted the "shoes with eyes" that were on sale at Stride Rite. Yes, they really have little snake eyes, and are reptile inspired shoes. Yes he loves them, but now insists his Cars shoes still fit too.

Cooper has been singing Paul's praises, going on and on about how smart Paul is. Yesterday out of the blue he said "Daddy is AMAZING with science!" And went on about how Daddy knows about sea animals (I think it might have had something to do with Spongebob, but I'm not sure). Later, he was getting frustrated with himself and said "I don't know everything!" I tried to talk about how nobody knows everything, but he kept insisting "Daddy does!"

Last weekend the kids decided that Daddy is the fun one, and Mommy is the nice one. Hmmm. I think I'd like to be the fun one. When I said that to Kestrel she said "Sorry, that one's taken." And sometimes I don't feel like the nice one, especially when I'm being told how mean I am.

I started making a doll bathrobe, for Kestrel's Anna. I told Cooper if he picked out one of his stuffed animals I'd make some clothes for it, too.

clothes for Kaya

Kestrel got a new American Girl (Kaya) from Grammy for Christmas, and I got a sewing machine. We decided it would be fun to make clothes for Kestrel's American Girls. Here is the first completed outfit. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. Kestrel basically did all of the designing. She decided what she wanted, picked out the patterns and all the fabric (brown and red micro suede), and came up with the idea of adding the fur trim. I suggested some beading on the top, but she decided what it would look like and where to put it. I just finished the top late this evening. Next project: a fuzzy yellow bathrobe for Anna (her other doll). Can you tell I still love playing with dolls?

salami?

We just finished watching Ice Age: The Meltdown, and we were all playing around on our bed. Cooper started saying "I'm a salami" while rolling around on top of all of us, and kept saying it, including "I'm a salami from the shore!" After a minute I thought to ask, "Cooper, what's a salami?" and he said "A really big wave!" (tsunami)