spring break, selling a house, birthdays, and so on

A lot has been happening in our lives lately. The kids are on their third week of spring break right now. Right before break we worked hard to get the house ready to go on the market. The kids and I left for Rochester to spend their first week of break with Paul. The house went up for sale while we were gone, and we ended up getting an offer on our house within the first few days. This is a very good thing. The inspection was last week, and so far things are working out. The one down side to this offer is the buyers want to close early May, which is much earlier than the kids and I were planning to move. More on that later.

We had a great time with Paul in Rochester. I took the kids around exploring the city most of the week. We went to the Strong Museum of Play, the Seneca Park Zoo, The Rochester Museum and Science Center, saw Dinosaurs Alive at the Planetarium and even got a peak at the beach and Lake Ontario (the kids had a hard time believing it was a lake and not an ocean). We also had a lot of fun swimming in the pool in Paul's apartment building. We started looking at houses out there but didn't find our house just yet. We stayed with Paul for over a week (stopping to see family in Cleveland on both ends of the trip).

Our moving plans are to stay in this area through June, so that the kids can finish school and attend some camp in June. There is a 4H overnight camp that Kestrel has been looking forward to since last summer so we promised her we would work it out so she could still attend. The folks buying our house were pretty firm that they wanted to close early May, so that means the kids and I need to find temporary housing for May and June. I ended up finding a 3 bedroom furnished apartment in the area that will let us take a 3 month lease. It is an apartment complex geared towards students, but will work out well for our situation. I can't believe we'll be packing up and moving out of this house in less than a month!

Paul was in town with us this past weekend, which was great because we got to help him celebrate his 44th birthday. We had a nice family dinner out and the kids and I had a cake for him (Kestrel insisted we had to get Daddy a carrot cake).

Here are a few pictures from Rochester and Paul's birthday:

At the Museum of Play, inside a giant kaleidoscope

Kestrel and Cooper (below) loved this "tippy room" (as we called it). The floor was sloped down, but all the visual cues made the room look level, so it created a kind of illusion that made you feel really dizzy, and like you were going to fall off the floor.

"On my way to where the air is sweet..."

The Museum of Play had a great Sesame Street exhibit.

Shopping (and cashiering) in a kid sized Wegman's Supermarket

Cooper with the Mastodon at the Museum and Science Center

Kestrel is riding on a hoover chair. It is actually floating on a cushion of air. Very cool!

They loved watching this miniature roller coaster.

We went back to the Museum of Play so we could take a picture of Flat Stanley there. After we got the picture, we discovered this cool city park next to it, so we stopped to explore the park.

Here is Kestrel with Flat Stanley at the beach. For a school geography project, she was supposed to take pictures of Flat Stanley (who is decorated like a Flat Kestrel) in various places around a new city.

We had a really nice day on Friday so we decided to check out the Seneca Park Zoo. .

These Arctic Wolves were our favorite animals in the zoo. They were just feeding them when we were getting ready to leave, so we stopped to watch them. The food was put in a closed box and the wolves were cautiously attacking the box to get at it. It was really interesting to watch the interactions between the two of them, named Niko and Luna.

Paul's birthday cake!

At Jupiter's for dinner

big and little

We we arrived at Debra's house we found a surprise: they had a new puppy, a Miniature Australian Shepherd named Nicki (who joined their good dog, Socks). Nicki is about 9 lbs, and Harrison is over 125 lbs. right now. The loved playing together and it was so cute watching them.

some new pets?

Just a few more pictures of the kids at the Museum of Natural History, on the Stegosaurus and Bear statues. While we were in Cleveland we also had a fun time hiking, had some great meals and a nice time visiting with everyone.

cleveland visit

Right now we are driving home from a few days in the Cleveland area where we got to spend some time with Paul's sister Debra's family and Paul's mom. The kids have a blast spending time with their cousins. This picture is in front of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

sorry it's been a while

I know I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. All is well here. The kids are doing great in school and having fun. We've been busy with school, piano lessons (Kestrel's taking them now as well), Brownies (did I mention I'm one of the leaders this year), playdates and now soccer is starting up (Kestrel).

I just got back Monday from a fabulous long weekend away with the girls. It was our second annual girlfriend trip. This time thirteen of us were able to get away (and left 29 children behind). We rented a GORGEOUS house on Lake Michigan in Michigan City, IN. Thanks to my wonderful husband who showed the kids a great time while I was away. I believe they had a fun movie night, went to the Sweet Corn Festival and played mini golf.

I'll leave you with a few pictures from my weekend (taken by Amy, Michelle and Mary, respectively):

The view from our upper deck. The house had three levels, with a deck on each.

The view from the middle deck at sunset. That's the Chicago skyline just to the right of the sun.

Looking up the stairs from the lower level.

If you'd like to see more pictures of the house, check out Joanna's blog at http://blondeinabottle.blogspot.com/.

summer vacation

We just got back yesterday from a couple of fun family trips. We didn't have time this year to do a longer summer vacation, so instead we took a couple of shorter road trips. First, last week we spent two days in Indianapolis. Thursday we had lunch downtown, went to the zoo, had dinner downtown, and stayed overnight. Friday we spent the day in the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

Here are a few Indy pictures I took with my phone:






We were home Saturday for Kestrel's swim meet. Saturday was the big conference meet where all the teams swim. Kestrel swam in two events: freestyle and backstroke. Sunday we left for Ohio, to spend a couple of days at Ceder Point, a big amusement park famous for its roller coasters. Monday we went on tons of rides. Kestrel went on just about every scary roller coaster, and loved them all. I believe there is no longer a ride too scary for her. Ask her about the Dragster, which goes from 0-120 in 4 seconds, is 420 feet high, and has a 90 degree drop. Yeah, Paul went on that one with her. Cooper was too short for most of the roller coasters, but he could go on some of the smaller rides. His favorite was the Woodstock Express in Camp Snoopy.

Tuesday we spent the day in the water park attached to Ceder Point, called Soak City, where we went on rafting rides, water slides, the lazy rivers and of course the wave pool.

A few pictures in the amusement park, with my phone again.

Now its back to school!

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!