Happy mother's day! Paul came in town this weekend, and this morning he and the kids surprised me with some awesome gifts: several really nice cards, a homemade certificate for a day or night out along with cash for a sitter, a lava lamp and an ice cream cake after lunch. Very nice!


A few pictures from the last month:

Kestrel's Flat Stanley project. She had to take pictures of Flat Stanley visiting a new place, and gather information about the place. She decided to take pictures in Rochester when we were out there over spring break. The project was due last week. Here is the final product:

Cooper lost his second tooth a few weeks ago. He now has a matched set - missing top and bottom in the same place.

happy 4th of july!

I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July Holiday.

On Thursday (July 3rd), Kestrel and Cooper's camp had their annual 4th of July parade. They decorated t-shirts for the event, and marched around chanting and singing and basically having fun.

Kestrel with her friends Olivia (middle) and Tyler (left). This picture was taken by my friend Jenifer P., that's why its so much better than the rest.


Cooper walking with one of his counselors, of course. When I come to get the kids for lunch after camp, Cooper is always sitting with one of his counselors.

Cooper with some of his friends.

Kestrel once again with Olivia and Tyler

Yesterday in the morning I took the kids to a little celebration at our neighborhood park with a fire truck, bounce house, and lots of kids on bikes. Later in the afternoon we had our annual 4th of July cookout. The only picture I took was of this centerpiece that Kestrel made for the party. Pretty nice, huh? I did see a few of my friends with cameras, so perhaps someone will send me some pictures (hint hint)...

We did have a great time, with lots of eating and drinking and tons of kids running around being crazy. We even got to light some sparklers and see some of the fireworks from our neighborhood after the party.

happy new year!

This was Coop 8 minutes before midnight. So close! Right before this he was laughing and playing. We woke him up to ring in the new year, but I'm not sure he noticed.

greetings from boston

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is having a fun vacation week. We are in Boston right now visiting my family.

Kestrel had her last performance of "Miracle on 34th Street" Saturday evening and then we left Sunday to start the drive here. Unfortunately, we ended up trapped for hours on I-70 in IN due to a really bad multi-car accident. We were stuck, in stand-still traffic, on a closed section of highway Sunday afternoon for about 4.5 hours, until we finally had the guts to escape by driving through the median ditch and heading back in the other direction. We weren't sure if our van would make it (we saw one car get stuck in the ditch trying earlier) but it did. Go Odyssey! It was a frustrating situation, but the kids and the puppy were all being so good and patient, and we couldn't really complain knowing there were 3 people who lost their lives in the accident. We were mostly thankful to all be together and safe. We (and by we I mean Paul) drove straight through the night and arrived here at my parents house Monday afternoon.

Christmas morning we opened a few presents and relaxed here before heading over to my brother Stephen's house for Christmas with all my siblings, nieces and nephews. Paul surprised me with an awesome and unexpected present: a very cool sleek little notebook computer. So now I can take up a table for hours at Panera while I work on blog posts...

Today we ventured into the city and went to the Boston Children's Museum (where I took the pictures above on my phone). The kids had a great time, but it sure was crowded. We could have stayed even longer at the museum but had to get back home for Harrison. Speaking of Harrison, he's doing great for a 10 week old puppy in lots of strange houses. It's hard to believe we've only had him 2 1/2 weeks!

Tomorrow we make the drive to Cleveland, where we'll stay until New Years. Oh yeah, for everyone who has sent us cards this season, we love them and are sorry we haven't gotten any of our own out. Life's just been a bit busy lately. Who knows, maybe we'll send some out late.

feeling pretty festive

We decorated the tree yesterday. It went really fast once we got started. The kids helped put on most of the ornaments. They had them on the tree faster than I could unwrap them from the storage box. The start on top is a 3-D star Kestrel made for a shcool project last year.

Kestrel's having a lot of fun with her new digital camera. She's taking a lot of pictures and videos and learning how to edit them on the computer. She's been into using the self timer. Here are two self-timer pictures Kestrel took yesterday:

5th night of Chanukah

In front of the newly-decorated tree. Isn't she getting pretty good?

**As I write this Paul is on his way back from a road trip to bring home our new surprise! Check back here soon for more details and pictures...

happy chanukah

We celebrated the first night of Chanukah at home, and then Kestrel had to go to rehearsal. When we came out of rehearsal, it was starting to snow! Kestrel was excited and screaming, and telling me to look straight up into the snow like she was.

happy thanksgiving!

Another successful Thanksgiving was had by all! We hosted again this year, with Paul's mom Carol, Debra, Jim, Erica, Gillian, Aida, Arthur, Lila and Levi all making the trip here. As always, Paul did most of the cooking. Kestrel, Cooper, Erica and Gillian created the salad, on their own with no adult involvement at all. Levi made the mashed potatoes.

Kestrel and Cooper serving their special salad creation.

The kid's table! From left, Erica, Lila, Gillian, Kestrel, Cooper and Levi

My contribution to the meal - apple pie!

Erica, Lila and Gillian

one more parade

Kestrel and Cooper go to camp at Indian Day Camp, at a local swim club. Today they had their annual 4th of July parade. The kids have been making things for the parade all week at camp, and parents came to watch the parade this morning.

Kestrel with her friends Olivia (left) and Caitlin (center).

celebrating the 4th with friends

Later in the afternoon we had some friends over to celebrate. Everyone had fun, especially the kids who got a little wild! After eating, drinking and getting wet (from the rain, sprinkler and water balloons) we headed over to Kylla's house to watch fireworks.

An angry mob is demanding more water balloons!

Thanks to Paul for doing all the delicious cooking - and to everyone else for bringing their wonderful creations and goodies. And thank you Amy for taking all the pictures. I handed over my camera and she snapped pictures all afternoon.

happy 4th of july!

Neighborhood Celebration

In the morning there was a parade and celebration for the kids in our neighborhood. They decorated their bikes, and followed a fire truck around the park. After the parade they played in the bounce houses, got tattoos on their faces and ate ice pops. They loved it!

Cooper was excited he got to sit in the fire truck.

happy father's day

We decided to have a picnic lunch at Allerton Park today for Father's Day. It's become a tradition for us. We've been the past several years.
Last year, we brought Huxley and while walking in the woods, Huxley decided to jump into the river. Unfortunately, the riverbank was too steep for him to climb out, so Paul had to go in to get him out. The next day Paul discovered he was covered with Poison Ivy. The poor guy was really sick and uncomfortable for over a week!
This year Huxley stayed home, but mostly because it was just way too hot today. Because of the heat, we didn't spend long at the park. We ate lunch by the lake and enjoyed watching the snake, crayfish, turtles and fish that were in the lake. Then we played a little frisbee and headed back to town to see a movie (Nancy Drew).

Daddy and Cooper after the movie

happy mother's day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Kestrel's plan for the day was that I get to do whatever I want. Paul went out and got bagels this morning, which we ate along with strawberries and bananas with yogurt for dipping. Afterwards I went out rollerblading around the neighborhood, and then we headed south to amish country for the afternoon. We stopped at a Hen House for lunch, and went on to Rockome Gardens, where we walked around the gardens, played at the tree house, watched the model trains, took a horse and buggy ride, played in some bounce houses, and watched an old fashioned circus show. Kestrel visited the "haunted house" but Cooper decided to pass. The kids got ice cream, too!

Paul gave me a bunch of beautiful tulips this morning.

montreal

OK, I know I kind of fell asleep on the blogging duties, but I hadn't realized it had been so long. I was about to write that we were in Montreal last week, but then realized its was more like 2 1/2 weeks ago...

We went to Montreal to celebrate Passover with our Canadian relatives, at David and Sandy's home. It was so great to see everyone, and Kestrel and Cooper just loved being with their cousins, great aunts and uncles, Granny, etc. Here are a few pictures (we forgot our cameras so these are all phone pictures):

Paul took Cooper and Kestrel to the park near David and Sandy's house where there was this great big climbing rope structure they loved.

The night before Passover started we went out to nice Italian restaurant for dinner. Kestrel took this picture (she had to take pictures on break for her school project). From the left: Carol (Granny) behind Cooper, then David, Sandy and Sarah.

Kestrel lost her tooth while we were there, one of the front two! She's looking like a 7 year old! Apparently the Canadian tooth fairy is pretty generous. She was sooo excited she got two Canadian coins ($3 Canadian).

Here we are on Mount Royal looking down over the city. It was a great trip. We all got to use our new passports for the first time!

happy valentine's day!

Just found out they cancelled school again tomorrow! Happy Valentine's Day...