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.