american girls

Kestrel and I had such a nice day yesterday! We drove up to Chicago with some friends to visit the American Girl Place. We had a nice lunch in the cafe, saw the American Girl Revue theatre show, and enjoyed visiting and shopping in the store. Thanks to my friend Trish for driving and for taking these pictures.

Georgia, Olivia and Kestrel

Olivia and Kestrel

Georgia and Olivia

Kestrel with Nellie

Kacee and Georgia with Gabriella and Coconut

Olivia with Mia

All of us at lunch

atlanta friends

On our way back from Florida we stopped in Atlanta for a couple of nights to visit my friend Caroline and her family. We had a great time Saturday watching Erica and Maya's softball games and visiting the zoo.
A few pictures... (taken by Caroline)

Kestrel and Maya

Erica, Cooper and Nathan

Caroline and I

Reading the comics Sunday morning before we left: Nathan, Cooper, Bob, Kestrel, Maya and Erica

And below, Harrison with a couple of his new friends

Harrison with Jackson (in Atlanta)

Harrison with Grampa's dog Dijon (in Florida)

puppy learns to swim

Oh yeah, Harrison is defintely a water dog. Today he found out what his webbed feet are for.

more from florida

Having fun at Grampa's!

Kestrel is spending alot of time searching for lizards!

fun florida

We spent a couple of really fun days at Universal Studios in Orlando before arriving at Paul's Dad's house this evening. Here are a few of our pictures from the last couple of days.

how much is that doggie in the window

What's he doing? Checking out that other dog that appears at the back door at night (i.e. - his reflection). He barks and asks to go out, only to just stand or lie down on the back deck once he gets out there. He'll go in and out 10 times in a row until I finally turn off the inside light and turn on the outside light, which makes that other dog harder to see, and he finally settles down. I feel a little badly for him. It must look like the perfect dog to play with.

everyone loves a cake walk

Kestrel's school had it's annual carnival today. There were pizza, smoothies, balloons, inflatables, and lots of games and prizes, all indoors in the school. One of the most popular games each year is the cake walk. Last time we went Kestrel tried and tried but never won a cake. This time she tried and tried and tried, and finally won a cake! Yay! She was smart and picked one of the few cakes left that looked homemade.

Here she is hoping they call number 4. It was a couple more tries before she won.

Kestrel and Cooper both had their faces painted. Kestrel's kindergarten teacher (and hopefully Cooper's teacher next year) painted both of them. Kestrel asked for a puppy, and Cooper asked for the statue of Liberty (he was trying to challenge her).

spring teaser

Ahhh, February is finally over, and we had some warm weather today. Temperatures were up in the 60's. The kids and I took Harrison to walk around one of the parks that has a good walking path. There were so many other people and dogs out. Unfortunately, it looks like this weather won't be lasting. We are supposed to get a couple inches of snow tomorrow, and should be getting cold again this week.

art show

Cooper's school had their annual art show fundraiser Thursday evening. All four of us went to see Cooper's art hanging in the hallways. Cooper just loves showing us around and showing off his work.

This paining is titled "Night Prairie".

This yarn sculpture is called "The Scribble".

look what i made

What is it? It's a dog toy I made this afternoon. I made it out of fleece scraps. The black straps are left over from these carrying straps I made recently for Kestrel and Cooper's roller skates.

Harrison seemed to really like the toy. I only let him have it for a few minutes, though. I want to save it as a fun toy to try to teach him to retrieve. When we played for a few minutes yesterday he brought it back a few times. We'll see!
Thanks Mom and Dad for the sewing machine! Over the past year+ it's come in handy making various doll clothes, Halloween costumes, tunnels for the rats, and other fun things. Just don't ask me to replace the zipper in your tailored pants, or I might have a nervous breakdown (as Paul found out).