happy birthday kestrel!

Today our girl turned 8!
She had quite a special day. This morning we gave her a new pair of earrings, her first pair after getting her ears pierced. She proudly changed her earrings for the first time this morning so she could wear them to school, where she brought cupcakes to share with her class.
Between her dance classes this evening we went out to Jupiter, a new place that opened up near us, for pizza and chocolate cake.
Later at home we opened the rest of her presents. She got some really great gifts from family, especially from all of her grandparents.
She got sung to many times today: at home, at school, at both dance classes, and at the restaurant. What a day!

This "slice" of chocolate cake was not only big enough for 8 candles, but it generously fed all four of us.
Sooo excited about her birthday!
Cooper is getting a big "thank you" hug.

Kaya makes her 3rd blog appearance, this time on horseback!

more from the weekend

A few more pictures from the weekend. Paul's Mom is leaving today, the rest of the crew headed back yesterday.

Cooper had a great time singing, dancing and playing guitar with Uncle Arthur.

All the cousins right before they hit the road.

Kestrel and Gillian - its hard to say goodbye!

happy thanksgiving!

Another successful Thanksgiving was had by all! We hosted again this year, with Paul's mom Carol, Debra, Jim, Erica, Gillian, Aida, Arthur, Lila and Levi all making the trip here. As always, Paul did most of the cooking. Kestrel, Cooper, Erica and Gillian created the salad, on their own with no adult involvement at all. Levi made the mashed potatoes.

Kestrel and Cooper serving their special salad creation.

The kid's table! From left, Erica, Lila, Gillian, Kestrel, Cooper and Levi

My contribution to the meal - apple pie!

Erica, Lila and Gillian

cooper and friends

Cooper went to a classmate's birthday party at our local children's science museum. This museum is really small, but Cooper loves it there. They got a little hands on time with some of the resident animals. Here are some camera phone pictures.

Petting Windy the box turtle

Checking out Corney the corn snake

Cooper with his friends Olivia (middle) and Elise (on the right). By the way, Cooper often says he is going to marry Elise when he grows up.

happy trails

Here's Kestrel with Kelly the horse following our riding lesson this morning. Kelly is her favorite horse for lessons. Today I rode Boots, a very pretty mare. She's a nice horse despite her tendency to want to stop abruptly without warning (hopefully NOT when I'm up in a two-point). I never really had any experience with horses prior to starting riding lessons, and I'm enjoying the fact that each horse has his or her own personality, and his or her own quirks. We had to miss our lesson last week because I woke up sick, sick ,sick, but it was fun to go back today.

Some other news: Kestrel got a part in a local production of the musical "Miracle on 34th Street". Her part is one of Judge Harper's Grandchildren, and she'll also be a caroler. It's a small part, but still she gets to be on stage! Her friend Zanden is also one of the grandchildren. She's very excited and I think it will be a fun experience. Performances run from Dec. 14th through Dec. 22. For more information you can go to http://www.brightlightstheatre.org/public/.

happy halloween

After Kestrel got home from school yesterday we got to work carving our pumpkins. Paul got home a little early and joined us, so we ended up each carving a pumpkin. Afterwards, Paul roasted the seeds while the kids and I put up the Halloween decorations. They were pretty excited about decorating this year, and we got some new decorations -- the graveyard! Of course we still had the singing/screeching cat from last year at the front door to surprise the trick-or- treaters.
We ordered pizza for dinner, which has become one of our Halloween traditions. Paul stayed home to hand out candy while I took the kids out trick-or-treating with some friends from Kestrel's Brownie troop. They had a great time, though Cooper was getting tired trying to keep up with the big girls who were zipping from door to door.
You'll be happy to know our candy basket is now fully restocked to last through the next year!

Our pumpkins. From left - Kestrel's, Cooper's, Dad's and Mom's.