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.

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

go fly a kite

The weather warmed up yesterday but it was REALLY windy. After school Kestrel was begging me to take them to the park to fly a kite. At first I didn't want to because I thought it would be too windy, and we'd break the kite or something, but I agreed. It ended up being really fun. We brought a couple of the neighbor kids with us and one brought his own kite as well. The kids had fun flying their kites. The wind was strong and I almost felt like we were going to get carried away at one point.

watching the kids

belly rubs!

he doesn't really need a sweater

This winter I've seen several little dogs out and about with little sweaters or coats on, and I always think that's one thing Harrison will never need. Just for fun today Kestrel put her sweatshirt on Harrison. He was a really good sport about it, even though he must have been warm, and even seemed to want to show off a bit.

lost tooth

Cooper lost his first tooth this morning, one of the top front. His tooth has been loose for a little while, and at breakfast he was crying because it hurt to eat. All of a sudden his tooth came out and he was much better.

Here he is at lunch being tickled by Paul.

And showing off the gap at dinner...

songs from the heart

Cooper's Kindergarten Music Program was last night. The program was titled "Songs From the Heart" and had a Valentine's Day theme. Cooper's big part was singing "You Are My Sunshine" with just a few other kids. It was so cute!

Cooper is in back in the middle, with all the hair.

Cooper with his buddy Ethan on the stage after the show

Kestrel, Olivia, Cooper, Ethan and Elliot. Olivia, Ethan and Elliot are siblings. They are all great friends.
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Here is a short video clip of Cooper singing "You Are My Sunshine":

rochester here we come

We are moving to Rochester, NY! Paul accepted a position with a health insurance company there, and will be starting his new job early spring. The kids and I will probably stay here to finish out the school year and sell the house, although we really haven't figured everything out yet.

I can't believe our time here is coming to an end. The Midwest has really grown on me over the years (though I hear that Rochester has a very Midwestern feel to it). We are sad to be leaving all the great friends we've made in this area, but are looking forward to our next big adventure. It will be nice to be closer to our families, as Rochester is pretty much right in between Boston and Cleveland.

kestrel, cooper and harry

Christmas in Brookline

Kestrel loves this vest she got from her cousin Halle. She's been wearing it ever since.
Cooper with his cousin Tegan.

Who's that crazy uncle in the back?

Christmas cupcake!

Young Indiana Jones.

Kestrel got a new outfit for Anna (OK, technically a Chanukah present, but the holidays do overlap this year). By the way, Anna got her ears pierced today, at the new American Girl store. She wasn't nervous at all.

...Mushface!

happy chanukah!

another recital

Kestrel and Cooper had their Winter Concert with the school where they take their piano lessons. I tried to take pictures, though it was pretty dark from the audience so this is about all I managed.

Cooper played "Lightly Row" and Kestrel played "Rain Dance". They both did great and were fearless up in front of the auditorium full of people. They both do seem to like to perform. The concert was held in the music building of the university here.

Kestrel received her trophy for 100 days of practicing. Cooper received his 100 day trophy at the last music get together a couple of months ago.

Below are two short videos of each of them playing (I only caught part of the piece). Again, it was pretty dark, but perhaps the grandparents would like to see these anyway. :)

ice

We woke up this morning to ice covering everything outside. School is cancelled, which would have been the last day before winter break.

9 girls who did not sleep

Kestrel had 9 of her girlfriends over last night for a birthday sleepover party. She wanted a dog theme (the girl loves dogs) and everyone got a stuffed dog when they arrived. We also had a jar of Scoobie-Doo Grahams (Scoobie Snacks we call them) and they all made guesses as to how many snacks were in the jar. The winner (which was Rachel) got to keep the jar of snacks. We had pizza for dinner, and s'mores for dessert. Kestrel had been talking about s'mores for her birthday for many months, including asking us if we could get a fire pit. We finally told her we would try to make s'mores on the gas grill out on the deck. Unknown to Kestrel and me, Paul and Cooper had gone out earlier in the day and bought a fire pit, which was a great surprise. It was pretty cold outside, but the hardest part about s'mores in the winter was the wind and smoke. Still, it was quite an adventure, and I think everyone had fun trying to roast their marshmallows out in the snow. The girls also made their own fleece pillows, out of various dog prints of course! Kestrel definitely had a lot of fun, and very little sleep.