Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What a show

Natalie's best friend Aubriella (and family) came for a visit. The girls rehearsed, then put on a great show for us, complete with music etc:
You can almost hear the music, can't you?
However, just in case you actually would like to hear the real thing, here's a little video:
I think it's worthy of a Tony!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Good morning, princess

Some days we all get out on the wrong side of the bed:
Bed-head!

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Children's Parade

In the summer, there is an annual Children's Parade in a nearby city. This year, Natalie was in it! Somehow, she talked me into being a princess along with her. We had a blast, preparing our costumes and making her wagon into a princess castle:
Two princesses!
We met up with Aubriella (and her family), and the two princess girls were in the wagon/castle together for the parade:

Two princesses!
After the parade, there was a lot of entertainment for the kids in a park where the parade ended. One of the "attractions" there was a school bus that the kids could get into. Natalie was so excited (this was before she was riding the bus every day for school...
Let's go - I'm ready!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Beep, beep

Check out Natalie's new ride:
Beep, beep...
I found it at a thrift store for shall we say a very reasonable price. Of course, Karsten "updated" it a little, so that it got a better battery with higher voltage. So now the car can really go! And of course, Natalie wanted to be just like Daddy: 

Natalie, the mechanic!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

What an expression

This picture is one of my recent favorites! It was taken at a jumpy-place at our local mall - unfortunately the place closed a few weeks after we were there...Anyway, Natalie had a great time. Here she is, running from one of the inflatables to another:

This is fun!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

At the beach

Summer means time to go to the beach! We went several times this summer, and all of them were really enjoyable. Natalie loves the water, the sand, and the picnic we usually bring:
Running out in the water to fill the bucket...
Making mud, and experimenting with where the water would flow (she's such an engineer - surprise!)
Picnics make for fun picture time...
Our goofy little beach girl!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We interrupt our regularly scheduled (summer) blogging program with a short newsclip...

Just the other day, Natalie and I were talking about what she wanted to be when she grew up. She had it all down, and was very adamant both about what she wanted to be, and in which order:

1. Ballerina
2. Princess
3. Singer
4. Computer class teacher
5. Nurse

I think that's an excellent mix!

And we now return to the regularly scheduled (summer) program...

Friday, October 14, 2011

Sassy, messy girl

Part of summer fun is bringing picnics to the local playground. Natalie loves the monkey bars (and she's pretty good at them, too). And the picnics are always a hit. 

One of the picnics was pretty messy. We went to Subway for our lunch, and Natalie got a chocolate - chocolate-chip-cookie for dessert. And I got this picture out of it - couldn't help but share it, it is just so full of personality...
I'm not gonna smile for the picture - Naaah-nah-nah-naaah-nah...

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Happy Independence day!

Well, better late than never! 
Remember, I told you I was going to re-live summer, one blog post at a time...


What would Independence Day be without some red, white, and blue treats:

Yummi Strawberries, dipped in white chocolate and blue sugarsprinkles...

And another patriotic treat:

Lady Liberty's torch!


Yeah, I had to get a little artistic with the picture. It is really just a boxed cake mix baked in ice-cream cups, with yellowish frosting and sugar-wafers as the flames...


We actually had a great extended weekend, even though Natalie spent a lot of the time like this:

On the couch, watching a Barbie movie...


She came down with a fever on the first day of the extended weekend (thankfully nothing all that serious), so we kept things pretty low-key. But  cuddle-time is always good, and fortunately she didn't know that she was missing out on our plans to go see the fireworks.

She did spend some time out of the bed / sofa, though: 
Posing as Lady Liberty             
 

And if nothing else, she could still lay down and cuddle up by the firepit, enjoying the fire, while we waited for it to get dark enough for our own fireworks:
Is it time for fireworks yet?

And we did have a lot of fun with some fireworks at home, which of course required the proper safety gear:
Ready for fireworks!

So, Happy Independence Day! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Weather for swimming?!?

So, what's wrong with this picture:
Splish, splash...

Well, nothing, except it was taken this weekend. In October! You can even see the fall colors on the trees in the background. And it really was warm enough, the temperature was about 80 degrees F (27C). Weird. 

So we made sure to enjoy it, this last chance at summer. 

Speaking of summer, I guess summer kinda went missing on this blog - or rather we were too busy to post. So, for the next many posts, please bear with me as we re-live the summer, one post at a time...

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

At the pumpkin patch

Natalie and I went to the pumpkin patch the other weekend. We had such a great time! 
Most of the games etc. there were the same as last year, which was great, since we enjoyed them last year also! Natalie definitely recognized:

The duckie races!

The corn maze.
The hay bale labyrinth. "I'm on top of the world!"

There were also the bean bag toss:
Look at the size of that cat!
And of course there were pumpkins:
Mommy! I got one!


And of course, there were pumpkins:
That's a big one.

We went on a "haunted" hayride, and Natalie got to pick out our pumpkins to bring home. And we brought a picnic lunch to have at the place, which was really nice. Afterwards, someone was a bit tired:



Zzzz....


But we still had time and energy in the afternoon to make this:
Here's Jack!