The Christmas Parade

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we went to the annual Christmas parade downtown! It was a cold and windy day. Too cold for pictures, in fact, except for this one:

Bundle up!

We had a great time, though. Natalie was nice and toasty under all the layers of clothing and blankies. And the earmuffs were helping keep her ears warm in addition to making sure the firetrucks and marching bands were not too loud for her. And I must admit, I didn't really mind getting to hold on to such a nice little bundle for an hour and a half!

Introducing Baby Savanna

Some time ago, Natalie made her first purchase with her own money! She had been saving up for a new dolly, so we took the contents of her piggy bank with us and went shopping with Natalie. She picked out this cute doll, complete with extra clothes, a rattle, a teddy bear, a blanket, etc. A nice little set.

Natalie was sooo proud that she got to buy it all by herself.

Daddy helped unpack:

Natalie's new baby.

Natalie named her new baby Savanna. The picture is three weeks old, and Natalie and Baby Savanna have been nearly inseparable ever since!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As it is our tradition, we decorated our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving day. Natalie and I had been looking forward to it for a while, so the first thing she said that morning was "Can we decorate the Christmas tree now?" And, since a promise is a promise, even at 6:05 in the morning, we got to work. Natalie started unpacking the decorations while I got the Christmas tree up from the basement:

 Pretty...

This year, Natalie was still not quite tall enough to get the star all the way up to the top of the tree by herself...

Ehm, a little help?!?

So Daddy helped her out, and she got to put the star on the tree:

The star on top of the tree - just like it should be.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too!

The Last Halloween Bash

Well, all good things must come to an end, or so they say. And so, Halloween is all over. That means that the Halloween decorations had to come down. Sounds like such a boring chore, don't you think? Well, not if you decide to make it into One Last Halloween Bash!

Natalie and I put on the Halloween music and danced through the house while we took down the decorations:

Halloween party at daycare

As usual, Natalie's daycare had a Halloween party. And of course, we all dressed for the occasion:

Karsten was a hippie.

Now, try explaining that one to a bunch of three-year-olds... After a while, Natalie decided that Daddy was just a "cool dude"!

A black kittycat.

And of course, the witch.

There were lots of games at the party: 

Playing in a sea of balloons.

But as usual, Natalie's favorite was the room where there was lots of space and good music to dance to:

Party!!!

Well, I think there was one other favorite: 

Decorating the cookie!

Zoo Boo 2010

We went to the Zoo-Boo again this year. And as usual, we had a log of fun.

Natalie wore her Halloween costume:

Such a cute little witch!

Of course, she didn't like wearing the hat, and the broom was kinda in the way, so most of the time, Karsten walked around like this:

Super-Dad!

We did a lot of trick or treating, and we even went on the haunted hayride. Natalie did really well with that, though she thought some of it was quite scary.

And we ended the day on the playground, which is always a hit:

Hello...

The new playground

In mid-October, we had some beautiful, sunny days. We spent one of them at a playground we hadn't visited before (hence the "new" - at least it was new to us...)

Daddy came along, and everyone had such a good time!

Spin me, Daddy!

We were really too busy to take pictures, but here another one, just because... It was a kind of zig-zag teeter-toter:

Up and down.

The Pumpkin Patch

In Early October, we went to a pumpkin patch. It was such a beautiful day. Natalie had a blast!

There were many games, like ball toss and ring toss, etc., but Natalie's favorite game by far was the duckie races:

I won, Daddy!

You had to use the pumps to pump water down the ramps, where the rubber duckies were floating along. Such a fun idea.

This is great!

They also had a haybale maze that Natalie could run thru:

Here I am!

... And she could climb on top of it, also:

Quite the view!

And, there was a real corn maze - a first for all of us:

Let's see if we can find our way, Daddy!

And last, but not least, we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out...

... the perfect pumpkin!

Happy Halloween 2010!

We had the best Halloween!

At first, Natalie was kinda partial to her stroller, preferring to get driven from house to house. No, she wasn't dressed as a diva. She was dressed as a witch, though she didn't like to wear the hat, so it was somewhat difficult to guess her costume.

Natalie and Daddy.

We went trick-or-treating with some good friends, and they had a kid in a stroller, too. So, of course that resulted in this:

Stroller-race!

Not sure who had the most fun with that part, the kids or the grown-ups...

Soon, Natalie warmed up to the idea of walking from house to house:

On to the next one!

Some of the best moments were the ones I didn't catch on camera, though. Like how she took her time and took it all in, looking at all the costumes and decorations, etc., and just enjoying things in her own, unhurried style.

At some point, we were walking to the next house with the porch light on (pretty exciting), and she stopped and picked up this HUGE leaf, holding it in front of her face and giggling "Mommy, look, it covers my whole head!"

Later, when it was dark, she noticed the stars and commented on how beautiful they were. Then she slowed down and started singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star". It was just about the cutest thing ever (okay, maybe I'm a little biased, but still...)

We were out from just before 4PM till about 7:15PM. Natalie did a lot of walking, and she got a lot of candy. In fact, I weighed the "loot" when we came home, and she had almost three pounds worth of candy! Now, I don't think any kid really needs that much candy. Especially since just last week, I finally tossed the rest of last years Halloween candy... But that's okay. You see, it really wasn't about the candy at all. It was about having a great time as a family and with our friends, and we sure did.

It was a very tired Natalie that finally sat down for dinner that night (mac and cheese, pears, and chocolate milk - a special dinner for a special day).

Soo tired...