Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Karsten's birthday was here in March, so here's a somewhat belated birthday post...

The day before Karsten's birthday, we went to Walmart to buy a birthday cake for Daddy. Karsten and Natalie decided on a nice, big carrot cake. The lady behind the counter recognized Natalie, because Natalie always goes there to look at the pretty cakes when we go grocery shopping. So the cake-lady (Sorry, I didn't notice her name) asked who's birthday it was, and if Natalie wanted her to decorate it. Natalie was so proud that she got to pick out the color for the lettering - green, of course, her current favorite. The cake-lady also put a few "extra's" on there - some Hello Kitty rings for Natalie to play with. It was such a great experience, so nice of the cake-lady! Here's the final result:

Daddy's pretty birthday cake!

Of course, we had a wonderful celebration. Natalie helped set the table, open Daddy's presents, and blow out the candles. Here are a few birthday pictures:

Time for cake!

Yummi!

And here's a video that Natalie and I made for Daddy for his special day:

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Springtime puddles

Spring is here! These pictures are from a weekend or two ago, while there were still huge puddles on the lawn, and a bit of snow still left in the corners.

Natalie and I decided to go jumping in the puddles. I think she liked the idea: Yay, spring time!

Of course, I had to ask her to make a silly face for the camera - so she did:

Happy spring!

St. Patrick's Day

We had such a great St. Patrick's Day! What a perfect day to have some extra fun!

We started the day with an extra special breakfast. I bought a small box of sugary cereal for Natalie - a special treat:

Lucky Charms and green milk - yummi!

In daycare, they had a Jammie day - according to Natalie, that's the best kind of daycare day there is.

Then, after daycare, we had a little treasurehunt around the house. Natalie would find little bags with a picture clue of where the next clue was hidden, along with a puzzle piece:

Hmm, I wonder where to go next...

One of the clues was hidden in the washer. Natalie really liked that one.

We glued the puzzle pieces to a piece of paper as we went along. Here's the completed puzzle:

A rainbow with a pot of gold at the end, of course!

Natalie called the treasure hunt her "rainbow hunt" for obvious reasons. And she did find a pot of gold - or goodies - at the end of the rainbow:

Natalie's pot of gold.

Lots of goodies, such as small toys and a few pieces of candy. And the bigger present in there was a Curious George book that she has been wishing for for a long time.

One of the items in the treasure was a box of chalk to use on the front step. So after it was all unwrapped, we sat outside for a while:

Such pretty colors!

Here's the view from the front step as we colored away and watched the sunset:

Not a rainbow, but still lots of beautiful colors.

At the end of the day, Natalie stopped and looked up at us, and she said "You guys made this the best St. Patrick's Day ever!" And yes, I think it was a pretty good one, too.