Christmas in Brookline

Kestrel loves this vest she got from her cousin Halle. She's been wearing it ever since.
Cooper with his cousin Tegan.

Who's that crazy uncle in the back?

Christmas cupcake!

Young Indiana Jones.

Kestrel got a new outfit for Anna (OK, technically a Chanukah present, but the holidays do overlap this year). By the way, Anna got her ears pierced today, at the new American Girl store. She wasn't nervous at all.

...Mushface!

happy chanukah!

another recital

Kestrel and Cooper had their Winter Concert with the school where they take their piano lessons. I tried to take pictures, though it was pretty dark from the audience so this is about all I managed.

Cooper played "Lightly Row" and Kestrel played "Rain Dance". They both did great and were fearless up in front of the auditorium full of people. They both do seem to like to perform. The concert was held in the music building of the university here.

Kestrel received her trophy for 100 days of practicing. Cooper received his 100 day trophy at the last music get together a couple of months ago.

Below are two short videos of each of them playing (I only caught part of the piece). Again, it was pretty dark, but perhaps the grandparents would like to see these anyway. :)

ice

We woke up this morning to ice covering everything outside. School is cancelled, which would have been the last day before winter break.

9 girls who did not sleep

Kestrel had 9 of her girlfriends over last night for a birthday sleepover party. She wanted a dog theme (the girl loves dogs) and everyone got a stuffed dog when they arrived. We also had a jar of Scoobie-Doo Grahams (Scoobie Snacks we call them) and they all made guesses as to how many snacks were in the jar. The winner (which was Rachel) got to keep the jar of snacks. We had pizza for dinner, and s'mores for dessert. Kestrel had been talking about s'mores for her birthday for many months, including asking us if we could get a fire pit. We finally told her we would try to make s'mores on the gas grill out on the deck. Unknown to Kestrel and me, Paul and Cooper had gone out earlier in the day and bought a fire pit, which was a great surprise. It was pretty cold outside, but the hardest part about s'mores in the winter was the wind and smoke. Still, it was quite an adventure, and I think everyone had fun trying to roast their marshmallows out in the snow. The girls also made their own fleece pillows, out of various dog prints of course! Kestrel definitely had a lot of fun, and very little sleep.

first snow of the season

The other day we woke up to some snow on the ground. First snow of the season! Later, Kestrel spent a while outside playing in the snow and building this snowman.

The kids are trying to make snow angels.

happy thanksgiving birthday!

We had a double celebration going on today: Thanksgiving and Kestrel's 9th birthday! We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house again, with Paul's mom, his two sisters and their families. As always, I made an apple pie and Paul cooked everything else (very delicious). Of course we had a special birthday cake for Kestrel. She was thrilled to get to celebrate her birthday with her cousins.

The cake! We got her an ice cream cake from her favorite ice cream shop, made with oreo and cookie dough ice cream. Also on the desert menu were pumpkin pie and apple pie, of course.

Kestrel requested extra whip cream on her slice!

Cooper, Erica and Kestrel.

The kids' table

Kestrel thanking Cooper for the present he gave her

With her FurReal Kitty

She got matching pajamas for herself and her doll Nellie.

owl play

Today Cooper's kindergarten class had their first performance for parents. They've been studying owls in school and put on two short plays about owls, "Owl Babies" and "Good Night Owl". It seems like just the other day I sat on the same stage watching Kestrel in the same plays with her kindergarten class. Was it three years ago?? This time Kestrel got to sit with me watching Cooper.
Cooper was a sparrow in "Good Night Owl" (but they all wore owl masks). Here are a couple pictures of him up on the stage and a very short video singing a Hoot Owl song at the end.

did you boat today?

Kestrel asked to come with me this morning to vote. They've been studying government in school and she's been very interested in the election. So we got up extra early so we could go before school. Before we left Cooper said he wanted to go too, so Paul brought him along a few minutes later. Good thing we left a lot of time because the lines were long. While we were waiting in line Cooper was saying something about how he wanted to go in the canoe. I didn't know what he was talking about until later, when Kestrel got it out of him that he thought there would be boats there. Apparently, he thought we were saying "boat" when we were saying "vote". Poor guy.

happy halloween!

The kids are out with Paul trick-or-treating. This year it is my turn to stay home and answer the door.

So here they are: Indiana Jones and a bat, on their way out (and Underdog too).

Yesterday afternoon we carved the pumpkins. Kestrel did the shorter round one, and Cooper did the taller, thinner one. Kestrel did all the carving herself. Cooper drew the face on his, and did some of the carving, but needed a little help. Today after school we had fun decorating the front of the house.

It's getting busy now (I write about 2 words and the doorbell rings again), but I'm having fun answering the door. I just made this one girl's night because I knew right away she was Tracy Turnblad. Then there was the werewolf whose trick-or-treat bag was as big as one of those yard waste bags (probably was one, but at least he decorated it). Too funny!

not bird, nor plane, nor even frog, just little old me...

The other day I made my first dog costume. Meet Underdog.

Our dog trainer had a Halloween party last night. The kids really wanted to go so we had to make a costume for Harrison too. Kestrel came up with the idea of Underdog, which I thought was a really funny idea. Kestrel was a bat (a costume she designed and I made) and Cooper was Indiana Jones. The kids had fun. They had a fire pit out back where the kids could make s'mores. Lisa, the dog trainer, took us to her barn so that Cooper and Kestrel could see her two horses. Kestrel asked if they could groom one so she took one of the horses out of the stall and let them brush him. Cooper kept saying "I never brushed a real horse before!"

We'll get pictures of Kestrel and Cooper's costumes on Halloween. They want to take Harrison trick-or-treating. We'll see how that works out.

This morning Cooper wanted me to take a picture of him with Harrison, so here it is:

happy fall!

Paul took these pictures a couple of weeks ago on his phone when we went to a local pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins. The kids have so much fun running around the patch trying to find just the right pumpkin. We think we found three great ones. The plan is to carve them later this week right before Halloween.
As you can see, it was still nice and warm then. The last few days it's been much cooler.

big and little

We we arrived at Debra's house we found a surprise: they had a new puppy, a Miniature Australian Shepherd named Nicki (who joined their good dog, Socks). Nicki is about 9 lbs, and Harrison is over 125 lbs. right now. The loved playing together and it was so cute watching them.

some new pets?

Just a few more pictures of the kids at the Museum of Natural History, on the Stegosaurus and Bear statues. While we were in Cleveland we also had a fun time hiking, had some great meals and a nice time visiting with everyone.