halloween funfest (or, halloween part I)

Tonight I took the kids to the mall for the annual Halloween Funfest. Yes, it was pretty much the same as last year with too many pushy people and long lines, but they really wanted to go again, and didn't believe me when I said they didn't have that much fun last year. Besides, there was a costume contest, which was just way too enticing for Kestrel. I figured they are only kids for a short time so if they wanted to go, I would take them.

They both participated in the costume contest. Cooper as the Black Power Ranger didn't win anything in his group (crazy judges), but Kestrel got called up as one of the top 10 in her group. She was very proud!

Power Ranger and Scarecrow - on our way out to the mall.

Kestrel on stage with the top 10 costumes!

Her top 10 prize was a token for the carousel. I bought one for Cooper so they could have a ride together.

goin' buggy

The 2nd grade at Kestrel's school performed their music program last night, titled "Goin' Buggy". It was very cute and was all about bugs demanding respect. They had studied bugs in science all first quarter. Kestrel was Little Miss Muffet. The way she described it, she was the only bad guy in the show. The rest of the kids were various bugs. Kestrel did a great job with her lines.

Here is a very short clip I took while she was saying her lines. I missed the beginning, but at least you get to hear her famous "eeek".

with baby

I meant to post this a while ago. This was October 9th, during Kestrel's fall break from school. I meet up with a group of my mom friends every once in a while for breakfast and Kestrel came with us a couple of times while she was out of school. These were taken at Panera, and she's holding my friend Erika's baby Oscar. I just thought they were cute!

leaves

It finally feels like fall! We were at the park yesterday and Kestrel found some leaves she could make into a leaf pile (we don't know the other girl in the picture).

Today it was about 30 degrees cooler. The kids and I bundled up in coats and hats and took a long walk around the neighborhood late afternoon. Actually Cooper road his bike but Kestrel and I walked. Kestrel was having fun searching for colorful leaves.

roller kids 2

We went back to Skateland Wednesday evening. When we were there Saturday afternoon the kids each won a free family pass for Wednesday evening and were excited to go back. It was nice because there were only a few people there so the rink was pretty empty. Cooper was definitely getting better with his skating!

Both of the kids entered the race. They stop the skating and have a race for anyone who wants to participate. Kestrel has been wanting to enter the last several times she's been there, but keeps missing it. This time she went right out there and so did Cooper. Usually they separate the girls and boys, and have them race within their age group. However, there were only 2 young girls, so Kestrel raced against a girl who looked about 5 (but could skate pretty well). Kestrel won, and they gave her a card for a free soda. After the race Kestrel noticed that the other girl looked sad, and Kestrel felt badly for her. She said to me "I would be sad too if I was little and had to race against a big kid like me. I'd think it wasn't fair." So then Kestrel went up to the girl and gave her the prize for a free soda, and told the girl "you deserve it". The girl looked happy after that!

Cooper was the littlest boy there, so he had to race against a boy who looked about 10. The other boy won of course, but Cooper did great and didn't even fall! They gave Cooper a free soda prize anyway, for doing such a good job trying. We were so proud of him, and he brought the free soda card home to show daddy.

After the race we were skating a little more, and the girl who raced against Kestrel came up and asked Cooper if she could give him a hand, and the two of them skated around the rink together holding hands. So cute!

I decided that Skateland is one of the hardest places to take a picture with my phone, but I thought these were cute anyway.

This is Cooper when he came back from racing. He was so proud of himself!

And speaking of skating, I was rollerblading yesterday morning and it was such a beautiful day! It is still hot here, high in the 80's this week, but not such a miserable hot like it was in the summer. It stays cooler in the morning, and was such a nice blue sky morning while I was skating. Here's a prairie picture for you. I've decided my phone definitely takes better pictures outside! Or perhaps the big blue sky is more forgiving.

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!

huxley

Goodbye Huxley. We miss you and will always love you. You were the best dog anyone could ever hope for.

five!

Cooper, 8 weeks old.

Cooper, five.

He's holding Squawkers McCaw, a present he got from Grammy and Papou.

Today my baby turned 5. When did he get so big?

happy birthday cooper!

OK, his actual birthday is tomorrow, but Cooper had his party today. He had a lot of his friends over for a space theme birthday party. We rented a bounce house and the kids spent most of their time outside in the yard. Lots of bouncing! Even some of the moms got in on the fun. We had pizza and cake and ice cream and a pinata. The weather was just about perfect.

The bouncy castle.

The birthday boy, waiting for his turn.

Waiting in line for the bouncy castle. The blond looking right at you is Cooper's friend Elise from school, whom he just loves!

The cake. Once again I was up way too late making the cake. Paul had to run out to get more cake mix in the middle of the night because of my silly mistake, but it came out nice.

The planet pinata.

The kids, waiting for their turns to smash the planet pinata.

The moms.

butterfly

The 2nd grade is finishing up their insect unit, and they have a tradition that the kids get their faces painted as butterflies. They asked for a few parents to come in to help with the face painting, so I volunteered. Kestrel wanted to be the first face I painted. I think I got a little better with practice, but Kestrel seemed to like her butterfly.

sunday afternoon

Today was such a beautiful, clear, blue sky day. A perfect day for being outside. I talked the kids into going over to a nearby neighborhood which is quite pretty and has a nice walking/biking path. Kestrel and Cooper brought their bikes, and I walked. After riding on the path for a while we stopped at the park. Kestrel and Cooper love this park because it has the "spinny things" - these poles that you can sit or stand on and spin around. They get them going pretty fast!

bee happy

Kestrel's family project for school was to create a 3-dimensional bug and list three interesting facts about it. She decided she wanted to make a bee. She designed it and made most of it herself. I helped putting some of it together. It sure is a happy bee. She's holding her three bee facts.

"bee facts" by Kestrel (as she wrote them):
*Bees are helpful, they make candles so you can see in the dark, they pollinate flowers to make the world beautiful and honey so we can eat something sweet.
*They live with a big group of bees.
*What makes a bee an insect is they have a head, thorax and an abdomen. They have six legs.

just a little marble slab

We had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. I got to sleep in a bit Saturday morning and then out with Paul and some friends Saturday night. Another nice, lazy, stay-in-pajamas morning on Sunday, and Paul took the kids swimming Sunday afternoon. Kestrel's friend Caitlin stayed over Sunday night, and we took them out for ice cream at the Marble Slab Creamery after dinner. Kestrel always gets her favorite: vanilla with cookie dough. We had just about a perfect day Monday. We drove down to a friend's lake house and we relaxed and ate and watched the kids fish and swim all afternoon.

guitar man

Both Cooper and Kestrel have been talking about wanting a guitar lately, so Paul pulled out his old guitar from storage and tuned it. They've both been having fun playing with it, but Cooper especially has been spending a lot of time playing the guitar and making up songs that he sings while he plays. Most of the time he sounds pretty good!

Here's a picture Paul took yesterday on my phone, and a short video I took of him playing and singing a cowboy song this afternoon.



Cooper has shown an interest in music since he was little. I signed him up for a pre-piano class that starts in a few weeks. I'll let you know how that goes.

sweet corn!

The Sweet Corn Festival is definitely one of our favorite midwestern traditions. We went Saturday evening, and brought Kestrel's friend Amy who was spending the night with us. We all ate sweet corn, and the kids had pizza as well. They had a great time climbing the rock wall (Kestrel and Amy), feeding the animals in the petting zoo, taking a pony ride (Cooper's first), playing on all of the inflatables, and winning their own inflatable toys by showing their super strength ringing the bell with the big hammer.
We just love the sweet corn!