harry gets a new pool

Yesterday we finally got Harrison a wading pool. We've been talking about getting one for a while. Kestrel helped me find the right one and of course was eager to play in it with him. He got right in as soon as I started to fill it up, and I think he drank about half the water as it was filling! He kept trying to dig in the pool, probably thinking it was like his beloved mud puddle. He kept getting out and then jumping back in (or over) the pool. All in all, he seemed to have fun exploring his new toy.

Because I know you all really love watching home movies, here is a 2 minute video of Harrison, Kestrel and the pool. I think it's cute, but I may be a little biased.

cooper's first concert

Cooper has been taking piano lessons for a couple of months now. He had his first recital this evening! He seemed really happy to be in his own recital, after seeing Kestrel in so many performances. He was a little bit nervous though, but he did great. He played a song he learned a few weeks ago ("Night Shadows"), together with his piano teacher.

Here he is looking through his piano book as he's waiting for his turn to play. We were sitting behind him, and right before this we saw him practicing his song by tapping his fingers in his book.

After the concert

Below, a video of Cooper's concert performance (it's a short song):

Unfortunately, I stopped the video right before Cooper's bow (I put down the camera so I could clap). It sure was a great bow! He had been practicing it. The kids ahead of him were forgetting to bow, but Cooper got right up after playing and took a big, grand bow.

canoeing

Kestrel with her friend Amy participated in a kids canoe clinic this morning. In addition to the two of them there were three boys at the clinic, around their age. They had a great time being in the canoe by themselves and exploring nature, though they complained the boys kept splashing them and bumping their canoe. Boys!

pictures by kestrel

All of these pictures were taken by Kestrel on her own camera. The first two she took the other day. The last two she took last month. I thought they were all pretty cute. The pictures of her she took using the self timer. As you can see she loves taking pictures of (and with) Harrison.

dad's day

We're having a fun father's day. I picked up bagels this morning for breakfast. Later, we picked up lunch and went to a park in another town where we ate our picnic lunch and took a walk along a trail through a prairie. After we eat dinner we are planning to head out to the movies to see the new Chronicles of Narnia. There is a severe thunderstorm warning right now, however, and the wind and rain have just started.

Here are a few pictures I got with my phone this afternoon.

more from the recital

Kestrel had the first recital performance last night, and danced in three dances, and the second (and what we thought was the last) performance tonight with two dances in the show. The recital is actually three days long, but most dances are not in all three nights. Kestrel's ballet class danced in Thursday night's show, and her Musical Theatre and Tap classes danced in Thursday and Friday. However, we found out tonight that they want to add in her Musical Theatre dance ("I Am Adolpho") to Saturday's show, because it's been so well liked. It's nice that people seem to like their dance, but we had been looking forward to getting a chance to relax. She's tired out, but of course wouldn't miss being there.

Kim, the mother of two kids who were in Cooper's preschool class, took the following pictures of Kestrel on stage. These were actually taken at the dress rehearsal Tuesday evening. Kim's daughter Mary was also dancing in the recital (with a different class).

Musical Theatre - "I Am Adolpho":

Kestrel is third from the left above.

Kestrel is the one lying on the floor.

Below, her ballet dance, "Teddy Bear Dolls".

Here are two pretty low quality videos I took of two of Kestrel's dances at the Tuesday dress rehearsal. You can't make out faces, so its hard to see which dancer is Kestrel, but it will give you an idea of what her dances were like.

Below - "Acapella Army" - Kestrel is in the group on the left (early in the dance she says "one line, tappers"). For some reason my video cut out right before the end of the dance, but you are only missing about 2 seconds."

Below - "I Am Adolpho" - Kestrel is in the group on the right.

dance recital rehearsals

The last two nights Kestrel had dress rehearsals for her dance recital. The performances that she is dancing in are Thursday and Friday evening. She's been doing great in rehearsals. She is in 3 dances in the Thursday show and 2 dances in the Friday show (2 of her classes are doing both nights). I grabbed a couple of pictures of her today at rehearsal.

In the following pictures she is dressed for her Tap routine "Acappella Army".


Below she is in her costume for her musical theatre class. Their dance is "I Am Adolpho".
These two are the dances she has both nights. On Thursday, she also has her ballet dance, "Teddy Bear Dolls".

harry the dirty dog

Remember that book about the dog who didn't want to take a bath so he ran off and got dirty all over town? In the book Harry went from being a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots. Our Harry goes from being a black dog with a white spot to, well, a black dog.

Yup, Harrison is in love, and its name is MUD PUDDLE. We've got a spot in our backyard where a mud puddle forms every time it rains. The puddle just keeps getting bigger because Harrison loves to dig in it whenever he discovers it (and we've had so much rain this week we may be needing an ark soon). After he digs a bit he lies down for a nice leisurely bath. If he's still digging and splashing and notices I'm coming to get him, he quickly lies down so as not to miss the bathing part. It's tough to get him out of the puddle without getting covered in mud oneself (the puppy is about 115 lbs these days).

He's had quite a few of these mud baths since winter. A few days ago Paul gave him a full bath after one of them. I'd been trying to be careful since then with Harrison in the yard, but for some reason tonight I thought the puddle was dried up. I was wrong.

He's squinting because I'm shoving a flash in his face. Submitting to a picture is the least he could do.

In this picture you can see some of the mud splattered on the siding. He gave a big dog shake as soon as I got him out of the puddle on up on the deck. He's tethered to the deck railing waiting for me to hose him off, which, by the way, he seems to really enjoy.

YYY

On another topic, Kestrel had an AWESOME time at camp, despite running face first into a tree while playing Marco Polo (yeah, she was "it"). She says she wants to go back next year for a whole week.

hello muddah, hello faddah

Kestrel is now at overnight camp for the first time! She is attending the 4-H mini camp (its just two days) that is located about a half hour away. She has been so excited and counting down the days. Two of her good friends from school are in her cabin.

Here she is by her bed in the cabin. She chose the top bunk, of course! She is standing on the bottom bunk so I could take the picture.

Kestrel is with her friends Amy and Alexa outside of their cabin.

The camp looked like so much fun. She told me to leave while she ran off with her friends. I'll be picking her up late Friday afternoon.

the eyes have it

The other day Cooper was helping me pump gas and accidentally splashed gasoline in his eye. Ouch! Fortunately there happened to be a fireman in the car next to us, who ran inside with me to help me flush out Cooper's eyes. Thank you Tad!
Cooper was fine after we flushed his eyes, but I had to take him to the doctor anyway just to make sure. Our pediatrician sent us to the eye doctor. Cooper was a trooper through all the doctors and waiting. It helped that I let him play with my phone, and he was taking pictures of himself and everything else. Here he is waiting for the eye doctor, making a silly face.

Anyone know a way to get the gasoline smell out of his clothes? Washing didn't seem to do it.