3-d

A couple of weekends ago (after we got back from Montreal) I took the kids to see Meet the Robinsons, in the new digital 3-D. The 3-D effects were really cool, and so were the kids.

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!

sprinkler play

Cooper can't stay away from the faucet. Turns it down, turns it up, turns it down again (mostly down). Drives his sister crazy!

Yesterday we had the first sprinkler play of 2007! OK, it really wasn't that hot, but it was warm enough. The kids have new bathing suits they wanted to try on. Once the suits were on, well, I just couldn't say no to the sprinkler. Remember, we're really dreaming of summer here! We had music playing and they were dancing and playing in the sprinkler and relaxing on their towels. Felt like a real summer party! Kestrel was dancing the Macarena, which she learned in PD (gym) class, and has tried to teach it to Cooper. I was thinking about how I danced the Macarena at our wedding. My niece Emily, who was about 8 at the time (and now about to graduate high school), had requested it. Now my own daughter is into it! How time flies...

rollerskating!

Kestrel and Cooper got new rollerskates this week, and this afternoon we took them skating on a nearby bike path.

toes

Kestrel wanted me to paint her toenails this morning. Of course, she came up with the pink and green stripes/alternating colors. I told her I would try it, but wasn't sure how well I could do it. In the end I think they came out pretty cute! Dreaming of summer here ...

just for fun

I am always finding pictures like this on my phone. Cooper gets a hold of my phone without me realizing it, and apparently he loves to take pictures of himself. He's loved phones and gadgets since he was a baby!

I bought these roses at Schnucks the other day just because they looked pretty. They are opening up really nicely. I love having fresh flowers in the house. Happy spring!

indianapolis children's museum

Kezden, Cooper, Kestrel and Zanden pretending to be dinosaurs in the "Dinosphere"

Kestrel took this picture of T-Rex!

We took a trip to Indianapolis today to go to the Children's Museum. We were planning to meet up with some friends there. Unfortunately, we had some trouble getting out of the house this morning, and then got lost in Indy, so we made it there pretty late. I forgot my "real" camera, so these pictures were taken on my cell phone again. I think Kestrel does a better job with it then I do!

We only got to see a few exhibits, but they had a lot of fun anyway, especially playing around in the Dinosphere exhibit where they spent most of their time.

the start of spring break

The kids are on break right now. Cooper is off this whole week, and Kestrel is off this week and the next two. Kestrel spent Monday at a neighboring town's recreation center for their "Vacation Club". I signed her up for two days this week and three days next week. Of course, Kestrel now wants me to sign her up for a couple more days. We'll see if we can! I know it's great that Kestrel likes to do so much, but sometimes I worry that she doesn't get enough down time. She is definitely high energy!

I am planning to take the kids to Indianapolis for the day tomorrow. We will either go to the Children's Museum or to the Zoo, depending on weather and what we feel like tomorrow morning.

The week after next we will be travelling to Montreal to visit Paul's family for Passover. We're excited as we haven't been able to make it there the last couple of years. I wish we could make it to Boston for Easter, but it doesn't look like that is going to work out. I'm hoping we can plan a trip to Boston this summer, and get the kids to the beach!

Here's a picture of Kestrel and her friend Caitlin selling Girl Scout cookies Sunday. Their Brownie troop had a cookie booth at Wal-Mart and we were there for a few hours.

i'm starting to like this town again

The nice weather continues! It got better, actually. It was up in the 70's today. Kestrel had the day off of school, so while Cooper was in school we had a nice time at Meadowbrook Park. This park has a preserved prairie (though not much is growing on it yet, as you can see) with a path for walking/biking, etc. that circles around it for a about a mile, with various sculptures along the way. We brought Kestrel's scooter and she rode the path while I walked. Kestrel was excited at seeing a pheasant along the way, and kept talking about how much she loves nature. These pictures were taken on my phone which is why they're a little fuzzy. Kestrel took the prairie picture.

After we picked up Cooper we met our playgroup at another park and spent a couple of hours there, until we came home and the kids spent the next few hours outside. I could really get used to this! Unfortunately I think we only have one more day of this before the temperature drops again. But now we know what we are looking forward to!

spring is in the air, finally

The past few days have been wonderful. We've finally had some nice weather, and the kids have been able to play outside after being cooped up for most of the winter. They've been playing a lot outside at parks and outside of our house. I took this picture today, with Kestrel on her scooter and Cooper on his roller skates. I was able to get out rollerblading a couple of times this weekend, which makes me pretty happy.

I don't have too much else to report. We hosted Kestrel's Brownie meeting here last week, and the girls decorated wooden eggs with paint, sequins and ribbons. Cooper got to make one, too. We also distributed all the cookies to the girls so they can deliver them (did I mention I am Cookie Mom?) Unfortunately, Huxley go into a few of the boxes (what a surprise) so I had to pay for a few extra. So now all the extra troop cookies are up high on top of the bookshelf.

Paul and I have been furiously watching Lost episodes over the past month. We had never watched Lost, and started by renting Season One, moved on to Season Two, and then got caught up on the current season. We are now all caught up so all you Lost fans out there feel free to discuss the show!

Here's hoping the nice weather continues!

art show

This one is titled "It's A Rainbow"

This one is titled "A Painted Painting"

Friday night we attended a student art show at Cooper's school. The pictures above are the two pieces of art Cooper had in the show. The children's art was displayed on the walls in the hallways, and they were showing videos of the children making some of their art projects. They are studying music for their current project, and Cooper was excited to show us some of the instruments they had in the classroom ("A real saxophone!"). There was also a pizza fundraiser (they were selling pizza by the plate) but by the time we went to get our pizza they had run out. That was OK though, we just went home and ordered pizza and ate while watching our movie for our weekly Family Movie Night.

happy valentine's day!

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

drifts

I took this picture out of our front door last night, to show that our steps are completely buried by the snow drift. Paul didn't like my picture, so he went outside (which I wanted to avoid) and took a picture of the front of the house, below.

I guess I should have taken pictures during the day, but I didn't think it about until late. We had a little blizzard here yesterday. The city stopped trying to plow in the morning because they couldn't keep up with the wind, although it kept snowing all day. School was cancelled yesterday and is cancelled again today. We did make it out of the house yesterday and drove (through unplowed streets) to a neighbor's house a couple of blocks away for a playgroup (we were the only ones we showed up). We were literally driving over big snow drifts, and got stuck a couple of times, but eventually made it through the snow with my trusty all-wheel-drive Subaru. I figured we weren't going far and the worse that would happen was that Paul might have to walk over and shovel us out. Paul was home because his office decided to close when they stopped plowing. Pretty much all businesses were closed.

So everything is calmed down today (aside from the stir crazy kids stuck in the house). Its actually a nice, sunny, blue sky day, with a foot of snow and huge snow drifts on the ground.

sledding

She's going down backwards in this one

I took Kestrel sledding this afternoon. There is seriously only one hill in town, and everyone sleds on it. It snowed last Tuesday, but a lot of the hill was bare just due to people sledding and walking up it. Still, there were a few patches left with enough snow to sled down. I went a little reluctantly, because I thought I'd be cold and tired, but once we got there I had a good time helping Kestrel sled, though I didn't actually sled myself. I helped her carry that sled up the hill over and over, though. There is something about being active in the cold weather that really makes you feel good!

FYI - I added pictures to the post on Jan. 28th about Kestrel cheerleading, so check it out.

circus!

The entire first grade at Kestrel's school performed in a circus this afternoon! They've been planning this circus for months. All the kids got to perform. The kids were either ringmasters, clowns, animals, animal trainers, horseback riders, acrobats, jugglers or tight-rope walkers. Kestrel was a juggler (which was what she really hoped for) and juggled scarves. She's been excited about this circus since they started planning it. They all did a great job and it was so cute to watch them. They performed for parents today, and kids were handing out popcorn as we walked in. Yesterday they performed for the rest of the school. This is one of the things I love about Kestrel's school. They often do these special projects or performances that bring together a number of different classes and teachers all working together to to make it happen. Kestrel always seems most interested in school when there is something special such as this going on.

buddy

Buddy the guinea pig has been visiting us this weekend. He is a pet at Cooper's school we got to take home for the weekend. We had Buddy once before; two years ago when Kestrel was in the same school. The kids have been playing with him and feeding him and cleaning up after him all weekend. He is actually pretty friendly and affectionate, and makes these squeeky noises when we hold and pet him. Kestrel is especially in love with Buddy, and has been trying to convince us all weekend to let her have her own guinea pig when she turns 8. She's been doing research online to find out how to take care of guinea pigs, and printed out several pictures she hung up in her room. They are sad to have to bring Buddy back tomorrow, but are hoping we'll get to take him home another weekend.

our cheerleader

Kestrel went to a cheerleading clinic at one of the high schools in town last Sunday, and performed during halftime at the JV basketball game Friday night. She really enjoys doing these, and wanted to stay for the whole game when her show was done. This was the 3rd or 4th time she has done one of these clinics (including a 1 week camp), which are led by the varsity cheerleaders. Paul took a picture of her Friday with his camera phone. I'll try to download it later.

"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.

snowman

We finally got some snow last night! Other than a dusting early in the season, we've really had no snow so far this winter. Until last night. Kestrel spent 2 hours playing in the snow this morning. She and Paul worked on this snowman together. Cooper was playing outside for a little while, but came back in long before Kestrel did. As I write this Paul and Kestrel are both back out there building an igloo on the deck (Kestrel's idea of course). It's great for Kestrel that Daddy loves the snow, too.

Speaking of last night, Kestrel had her friends Amy and Caitlin sleep over. They had fun and were all really good, except that they wouldn't go to sleep, of course. I think I heard them still whispering and laughing at midnight! This was Kestrel's first time having friends sleep over here (besides cousins).

some updates

I know its been a while, so I thought I'd give a few updates (my friend Amy said she was tired of looking at Kaya on the blog:)).

Kestrel is so excited about selling girl scout cookies. Her personal goal is 709 boxes, but lets just say she has quite a ways to go. She's not shy about going up to doors in our neighborhood to peddle cookies (we go with her, of course).

Remember the PTA Reflections project that Kestrel entered (you can read about it here)? We found out, thanks to my friend Trish reading the PTA school newsletter, that Kestrel's work was one of 7 from the school to advance to the council level, and one of 2 from the school to go on to the district level. Go Kestrel! We don't yet know which work it was, the painting or the poem, but I'll try to find out.

Cooper is just as cute as ever. He got a new pair of shoes the other day, because his Cars sneakers are getting small. He really wanted the "shoes with eyes" that were on sale at Stride Rite. Yes, they really have little snake eyes, and are reptile inspired shoes. Yes he loves them, but now insists his Cars shoes still fit too.

Cooper has been singing Paul's praises, going on and on about how smart Paul is. Yesterday out of the blue he said "Daddy is AMAZING with science!" And went on about how Daddy knows about sea animals (I think it might have had something to do with Spongebob, but I'm not sure). Later, he was getting frustrated with himself and said "I don't know everything!" I tried to talk about how nobody knows everything, but he kept insisting "Daddy does!"

Last weekend the kids decided that Daddy is the fun one, and Mommy is the nice one. Hmmm. I think I'd like to be the fun one. When I said that to Kestrel she said "Sorry, that one's taken." And sometimes I don't feel like the nice one, especially when I'm being told how mean I am.

I started making a doll bathrobe, for Kestrel's Anna. I told Cooper if he picked out one of his stuffed animals I'd make some clothes for it, too.

clothes for Kaya

Kestrel got a new American Girl (Kaya) from Grammy for Christmas, and I got a sewing machine. We decided it would be fun to make clothes for Kestrel's American Girls. Here is the first completed outfit. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. Kestrel basically did all of the designing. She decided what she wanted, picked out the patterns and all the fabric (brown and red micro suede), and came up with the idea of adding the fur trim. I suggested some beading on the top, but she decided what it would look like and where to put it. I just finished the top late this evening. Next project: a fuzzy yellow bathrobe for Anna (her other doll). Can you tell I still love playing with dolls?

salami?

We just finished watching Ice Age: The Meltdown, and we were all playing around on our bed. Cooper started saying "I'm a salami" while rolling around on top of all of us, and kept saying it, including "I'm a salami from the shore!" After a minute I thought to ask, "Cooper, what's a salami?" and he said "A really big wave!" (tsunami)

happy new year!!

more fun with cousins

We left Boston Thursday and drove to Cleveland, arriving late Thursday night. We spent the day today with the DeRoches, and are sure to see them all weekend. Kestrel and Cooper have such a great time with Erica and Gillian!

museum of science

We made it back to the Museum of Science today. We spent a couple of hours exploring the exhibits, including the Butterfly Garden. Cooper's favorite things at the museum were seeing the model space shuttle, and going into the capsule. Kestrel's favorite was "the spinny thing" in the Science in The Park exhibit.

merry christmas!

We spent a nice Christmas here in Brookline. Kestrel and Cooper of course once again had a blast with their cousins. Here's who we spent Christmas with: Mom and Dad (Grammy & Papou); Charles, Heather, Adam, Halle, Heather's brother John and his son David; Stephen, Julie, Tegan, Kelsey and Kale; Nancy, Bill, Emily, Holly and Jake; and Wally. Hard to believe how grown up all of our nieces and nephews are!