kids start a new school

School started Sept. 8th. For the first time Kestrel and Cooper are taking a bus to school. They are settling in to school well, enjoying the bus and making new friends. A few pictures from their first day:

Kestrel when she just got off the bus after school the first day. Her bus came a few minutes early that first day, so I didn't have time for a picture before school. Kestrel and Cooper take different buses.

Cooper after he got off the bus.

Cooper watching his bus come down the street before school. He was getting tired of me taking his picture!

In front of our house before we headed to the bus stop (which was 3 houses away, but now the bus driver will stop in front of our house).

lost tooth

Cooper lost his first tooth this morning, one of the top front. His tooth has been loose for a little while, and at breakfast he was crying because it hurt to eat. All of a sudden his tooth came out and he was much better.

Here he is at lunch being tickled by Paul.

And showing off the gap at dinner...

off to play hockey

Paul and Cooper just left for Cooper's first hockey practice. Paul got him all decked out in his hockey gear before they left (minus the helmet and skates, of course). He looked so cute! We'll let you know later how it went.

look ma, no training wheels!

Cooper learned to ride a two-wheeler today! This afternoon Paul took off his training wheels and took him to the school park to learn. He picked it up right away! After they got home Cooper wanted to show the rest of us how well he could ride.




And just for fun, a couple pictures of the other kids playing outside as well:

kindergartener

Cooper had his first day of kindergarten Friday. He had a great day! When we arrived he proudly showed Miss Winters that he tied his own shoes. When I picked him up he said "I didn't have to go to the principal's office the whole day!" And he proudly showed me the stamp he got on his hand for "good choices." He can't wait to go back, which won't be until Tuesday.

Before we left for school, in front of our house (above).

On the way to school, with the school in the background (on the left).

Walking towards school.
Sitting in his seat in the classroom. By this time he was definitely ready for me to leave.

And here are a couple of pictures of Kestrel on Friday, which was her first full day of third grade.

Kestrel with her friends Madison, Amy and Ashley before school.

tying talent

Yesterday, shortly after arriving home from our trip, we had our kindergarten conference with Cooper's teacher. He has Miss Winters, who was Kestrel's teacher, and we all just love her! During the conference she asked Cooper if he could tie his shoes. When he said not yet, she told him his homework was to learn to tie his shoes.

This morning I took Cooper out to buy new school shoes. At first he said he wanted shoes with straps because he couldn't tie. So right there in the store I showed him how to tie his shoes. He picked it up right away, and was so proud of himself he insisted he had to get tying shoes. He also really wanted Sketchers, which I said he could have, but these days finding Sketchers that tie is not very easy. After going to two stores we finally found some in his size. He kept saying he couldn't wait for Kestrel to come home so he could show her his "tying talent!" Which he did, right after she got home. Both Kestrel and Amy watched him tie and gave him lots of praise.

I was going to take a picture of him tying his shoes, but he asked me to take a video instead. So here it is:

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.

puppy learns to swim

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

birthday sleepover

Kestrel had a slumber party with 3 of her friends Friday night to celebrate her birthday. They made their own tacos for dinner, danced to High School Musical 2, decorated their own cupcakes, played hot potato (Kestrel insisted they use an actual, hot potato) and watched Ratatouille. The girls slept in the basement. Well, eventually they slept. They didn't go to sleep until after 2am! In the morning they had pancakes before the girls got picked up. Kestrel's first sleepover party was, in her words, "the best birthday ever!"

The party guests: Olivia, Kestrel, Rachel and Amy

pierced ears!

My girl got her ears pierced! We had told Kestrel she could get her ears pierced when she turned 8. However, this past Tuesday we had some time for a mommy-Kestrel morning, as Kestrel is on break from school, Cooper was in school, and we had nothing planned for the morning. I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together. I discussed it with Paul and we both felt she was close enough (she'll turn 8 in less than 2 months). So, when I woke her up in the morning I told her we'd have a special day and get her ears pierced.

She was so excited! We had breakfast out and then arrived at the mall before the stores were open. She wanted to wait outside of Claire's. She couldn't think of doing anything else. She was a little nervous, but very brave. She picked out the pink crystal flower earrings. Afterwards, she told everyone she saw that she just got her ears pierced. When asked if it hurt, she described how it "hurt a little for half a second, and then felt weird for a few minutes, but then felt like my normal ears!" We did some shopping and I bought her some new clothes and a purple headband to show off her earrings. She was ecstatic all day, and kept telling me that I was the nicest Mom ever!

Here she is cleaning her pierced ears, in the mirror. She wants to take care of them herself and doesn't want me to help. So grown up! I tried to get a close up of her ears with the earrings, but I couldn't get it in focus. Oh well, I'm not much of a photographer.

roller kids

The kids and I decided to go roller skating at Skateland Saturday afternoon while Paul was at the football game. We needed a fun diversion as it had been a tough week, and we did have fun. Kestrel's been rollerskating for the past couple of years so she is a good skater, but this was Cooper's first time in the rink. He was a trooper! He kept falling but kept getting himself back up and kept trying. Part of the time he wanted to skate on his own while Kestrel and I skated a little faster around the rink, and at other times he wanted to skate holding our hands.
Here's a fuzzy picture.


We signed them both up for ice skating lessons that start next Saturday. Again, Kestrel's been taking lessons for a while, but this will be Cooper's first time. I'll let you know how it goes!

t-ball

Monday Cooper started Little Sluggers Tee-ball, a pretty low key program run by the small town next to us. They actually started last week, but we were on vacation so Cooper missed the first practice.

Maybe I was distracted because we were on vacation and just barely got home, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that Cooper should have a glove until right before we were leaving to go to T-ball. Duh! I quickly stopped in at Wal-Mart on our way there to try to get a glove. Surprisingly, they didn't have a kid sized glove, only adult gloves. When I asked, the store clerk showed me the only kid glove they had, which was actually a very cheap, plastic, velcro covered thing that came with a velcro ball. I tried to tell Cooper he'd be OK this time without one, and we'd get him one for next week, but he started getting worried that "they" would be mad at him if he didn't have a glove (and I couldn't seem to convince him otherwise), so I got him the plastic-velcro thing and he seemed satisfied with it. However, once we were at the field, he noticed the other kids' gloves and commented that they had real gloves. I felt terrible!

It all worked out fine though. He was a trooper with his velcro glove, and seemed to have fun. I praised him afterwards for doing a great job throwing, and he acted so proud and couldn't wait "to show Daddy!"

And yes, I did go get him a "real" glove, and bought one for Kestrel too so they could play catch together.

summer soccer

Kestrel and Cooper had soccer this morning, with the Summer Soccer Club in a nearby town. Soccer started last Saturday, and meets twice a week through July. Kestrel participated in this last year and loved it. It was one of the things she was looking forward to this summer. This is Cooper's first time playing soccer. He was a bit nervous last week before he started, and kept saying "but I don't know how to play soccer!" However, once he got out there with his buddy Ethan he loved it, and now is all excited when he finds out it's soccer day.

I know it's too small to see, but that is Ethan kicking a ball behind Cooper.

just like a couple of cowgirls

Kestrel and I started horseback riding lessons this morning. Kestrel has been asking to take lessons for a while. When I was looking into it I decided I'd like to try it too, and thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together. The lessons include riding and horsemanship (grooming & saddling). My horse was an Appaloosa named Dice, and Kestrel's was a Paint named Minnie. I was a little nervous in the beginning as I've never been on a horse before, but it was really fun. I don't think Kestrel was a bit nervous. She's been talking about the lesson all day. She says the most exciting part was that she got to ride all by herself without the instructor even close to her! Unfortunately, we have to miss next week's lesson, but we're looking forward to going back in two weeks.

Hopefully soon we'll get some pictures. I did not take the picture above, by the way. I took it off of the stable's website.

"my first igloo"

"This is the first igloo I've ever seen and the first igloo I've ever been inside!" - Kestrel
She finished the igloo moments before I posted these pictures.

first sleepover

Kestrel went to her first sleepover last night at her friend Amy's house. Their friend Caitlin also spent the night, and it was the first sleepover for all three of them (brave parents). Amy's parents had all of us over for dinner earlier in the evening with a couple of other families, and then we left and Paul took Cooper home to bed (I went out to another friend's get together).
Kestrel was soooo excited for the sleepover. Apparently the girls didn't go to sleep until about 11:30, which doesn't surprise me. She was also thrilled with the "first sleepover" present Amy's family gave her, a Burt Bees cherry lip gloss!
Here is her list, in her words, of why the sleepover was so much fun:

• playing!
• going to sleep
• we were all together
• we got to stay up until after 10:00
• watching a movie
• I ate a stack of three pancakes with syrup and a banana for breakfast

Of course when I came to pick her up, Kestrel kept asking if she could have Amy and Caitlin sleep over at our house. I told her we'd think about it after the holidays!