fun florida

We spent a couple of really fun days at Universal Studios in Orlando before arriving at Paul's Dad's house this evening. Here are a few of our pictures from the last couple of days.

how much is that doggie in the window

What's he doing? Checking out that other dog that appears at the back door at night (i.e. - his reflection). He barks and asks to go out, only to just stand or lie down on the back deck once he gets out there. He'll go in and out 10 times in a row until I finally turn off the inside light and turn on the outside light, which makes that other dog harder to see, and he finally settles down. I feel a little badly for him. It must look like the perfect dog to play with.

everyone loves a cake walk

Kestrel's school had it's annual carnival today. There were pizza, smoothies, balloons, inflatables, and lots of games and prizes, all indoors in the school. One of the most popular games each year is the cake walk. Last time we went Kestrel tried and tried but never won a cake. This time she tried and tried and tried, and finally won a cake! Yay! She was smart and picked one of the few cakes left that looked homemade.

Here she is hoping they call number 4. It was a couple more tries before she won.

Kestrel and Cooper both had their faces painted. Kestrel's kindergarten teacher (and hopefully Cooper's teacher next year) painted both of them. Kestrel asked for a puppy, and Cooper asked for the statue of Liberty (he was trying to challenge her).

spring teaser

Ahhh, February is finally over, and we had some warm weather today. Temperatures were up in the 60's. The kids and I took Harrison to walk around one of the parks that has a good walking path. There were so many other people and dogs out. Unfortunately, it looks like this weather won't be lasting. We are supposed to get a couple inches of snow tomorrow, and should be getting cold again this week.

art show

Cooper's school had their annual art show fundraiser Thursday evening. All four of us went to see Cooper's art hanging in the hallways. Cooper just loves showing us around and showing off his work.

This paining is titled "Night Prairie".

This yarn sculpture is called "The Scribble".

look what i made

What is it? It's a dog toy I made this afternoon. I made it out of fleece scraps. The black straps are left over from these carrying straps I made recently for Kestrel and Cooper's roller skates.

Harrison seemed to really like the toy. I only let him have it for a few minutes, though. I want to save it as a fun toy to try to teach him to retrieve. When we played for a few minutes yesterday he brought it back a few times. We'll see!
Thanks Mom and Dad for the sewing machine! Over the past year+ it's come in handy making various doll clothes, Halloween costumes, tunnels for the rats, and other fun things. Just don't ask me to replace the zipper in your tailored pants, or I might have a nervous breakdown (as Paul found out).

furry friends

Harrison was checking out the rats this morning. We let him see Sandy when she was out of her cage. Sassy preferred to stay huddled up in the hammock when Harrison was around.

We are sure this (above) is a friendly kiss, and not a taste.

Checking each other out when Sandy was back in her cage. She comes right up and sniffs him, and he tries to kiss her through the cage.

Cooper with Sandy

This is a picture of Sassy that Kestrel took yesterday with her own camera. We love her ears!

more snow

We got some more snow today. Kestrel was out of school anyway for parent/teacher conferences. She and Cooper played out in the snow for a while this afternoon. Harrison played with them for a little bit, but he got a little too excited out there.

a lesson

Kestrel is working with Cooper on reading. She does such a great job with him, and he's so proud and happy with himself.

riding/growing

Here's a picture of Kestrel riding yesterday at our lesson. She's riding Kitty. Riding lessons have been cancelled a lot recently due to cold, but we had one yesterday. I was a little under the weather so I didn't ride, but I still went and groomed a horse (Diamond).
I found this picture of Harrison that I took the day after we got him. 8 weeks old. He's so cute!

I took the next two pictures today. He turned 4 months old last Wednesday. He's now weighing in at 60 pounds, and eating up to 8 cups of food a day. He was 20 pounds when we brought him home. That's a lot of growing. A lot more to come...

Harrison is so clean and fluffy today! Paul gave him a bath yesterday after he decided to dig and splash around in a mud puddle in our backyard (oh yeah, spring is going to be fun). Actually, he got back in the puddle today, but I was able to drag him inside before he got much more than paws and lower legs muddy. I figured it was safe to let him out today because I thought the mud puddle would be frozen over, but I was wrong. Oh well, he gives the best puppy kisses which makes up for it all. If anyone knows a quick and easy way to de-mudify a dog (or even better, keep him out of the mud), I'm all ears.

i think puppies like snow

It was hard to get him to stay still for a picture.

We had quite a bit of snow last night. The kids are home from school today. Harrison is enjoying romping through the snow.

ice skating starts again

The new ice skating session started yesterday. It was great to see Cooper going out confidently on the ice. I didn't notice him falling at all. It is such a big difference from when he started last session (which was his first time learning to skate). He's taking the same level he did in the fall, but whereas in the fall most of the kids were around his age or just a little older, this session most of the kids are bigger than him. He was talking to everyone as usual, of course. I noticed him talking to the two teenagers in the class several times.
Kestrel is taking ice skating again as well, but she moved up to Beta, which meets at a different time (unfortunately).

In the picture below, Cooper is on the end in blue.

And here he is smirking as he was coming off the ice...


And just for fun, here's another picture I took of Kestrel this afternoon with Sassy (on the shoulder) and Sandy.

oh rats!

Meet Sandy (left) and Sassy (right)

Their new home (they are in there somewhere sleeping)

Kestrel got her pet rats yesterday. We've been waiting for them for quite a while. We were on a few breeders' wait lists for a couple of months, and finally were offered a pair of female rats from Sweet Genes Rodentry. The babies were ready to go home this week, and Paul was in the area yesterday for work, so he picked them up and brought them home last night. Kestrel is so excited, and has played with them several times today. They sure are cute, and pretty friendly already. Sandy is the fawn rat and Sassy is the beige one. They are 5 1/2 weeks old.

By the way, the kids are home today because school was cancelled due to the cold. Hmpf! Right now it's about 6 degrees. Seems like they should be in school if you ask me.

it's nice to have options

Today out of the blue Cooper said to me "Mommy, you have a million options." After I thanked him he said, "Actually, you have a googol options." Don't ask me. I have no idea what he was talking about. He wouldn't elaborate. But, I do appreciate the encouragement.

Also, on the way to school this morning he told me I was the strongest and mightiest mommy he's ever seen. Alright!

just what are they planning?

Today we were driving by a lake in a nearby neighborhood, and noticed more Canada Geese in one spot than we've ever seen before. We turned around to get a closer look and noticed even more. This picture only shows a few of all the geese that were there. I couldn't fit all of them in the shot. There had to be more than a thousand. I thought it looked like they were having some kind of a meeting, making some sort of big geese plans. If you look closely you'll see they are all looking in the same direction.
By the way, Kestrel and I have been reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Can you tell?

aye aye captain

Here's Cooper driving the tugboat yesterday at our local children's science museum. He was asking to go to the museum so I took him yesterday while Kestrel was at a friend's house. He just loves playing in the boat.

By the way, its 5 degrees outside as I write this. Brrrr.

up a tree

We had another nice day today. Not as warm as early in the week, but bright and sunny. We went out to the park again with Harry.
Kestrel just can't pass up a tree to climb. Here they are in the favorite climbing tree at our park.

Sick of puppy pictures yet? Too bad.

january thaw

I don't know if this weather is technically a January thaw, because I think that is supposed to be late January, but it was so warm today (for winter). Just last week we has temperatures in the single digits. Today it was in the 60's!
We jumped at the chance to get out to the park after school. The kids rode their bikes and I walked with Harrison. It was great to be walking outside and in the park. Unfortunately, I forgot the playground is covered in wood chips. Harrison is obsessed with eating non-edible things, such as wood chips, rocks and other more disgusting things. Ah, the joys of a puppy! So, we had to keep him on the grass. Some friends of Kestrel's showed up, along with a boy Cooper's age, and they all had fun playing. Kestrel was enjoying showing off her puppy.

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.

the ledges

Cooper, Erica, Kestrel and Gillian

Gillian, Cooper, Erica and Kestrel

Cooper under tree roots

Yesterday we went on a hike through the woods in an area called The Ledges here in Hudson, OH. The kids had a great time exploring the caves and climbing on rocks. Paul and Jim took them back for another hike today.

We're spending New Years Eve here and heading back home tomorrow. Happy New Year!

sleepy puppy

We're in Cleveland now at Debra and Jim's house. Kes and Coop are having fun with cousins Erica and Gillian, and Harrison's been tiring himself out trying to get their dogs to play.