Natalie, the dolphin

Today Natalie was supposed to dress as her favorite book character at school. She has a bit of an obsession with dolphins, so her favorite book is "Dolphon Diaries". She had requested a dolphin costume:

Natalie, the gymnast

Natalie and I have been taking hula-hoop classes. Natalie is learning a lot of cool tricks, and I'm at the point where I can almost actually hula-hoop! We're both enjoying it and getting better each time, even though we are obviously at very different levels.

After the class is done and everyone else leaves, the gym we are in is just too tempting. A big open gym floor just needs to be used for some gymnastics:

I know she's a little sassy towards the end of the video, but I think it's worth it to see her eyes light up with a big smile at the end. She asked me to record this video for her, so she could see herself - she wasn't planning on me posting it for the world to see...

Student council

This year was the first year that Natalie was old enough for her class to be represented in the student council. Natalie decided to run for the post. She had to make a poster, and she had to do a speach in front of the whole class. She didn't get enough votes to get the position, but I'm still so proud of her for trying! Her poster is in the picture below. By the way, her school colors are black and orange, WDP is an abbreviation for her school district, and the scary looking ghost is their school mascot (they are the Phantoms). 

Natalie, the scarecrow

As usual, daycare had a Fall Fest. One of the activities was to dress up as a scarecrow - complete with straw hat and hay:

Time for fun.

Natalie had a friend over for a sleepover last weekend. The best sound in the world is hearing Natalie giggle with her friends - and they did a lot of that. In fact, they had the dress-up bin in full use before breakfast:

Field trip to the botanical garden

Natalie's class went on a field trip to the botanical garden - and I got to tag along as a chaperone! We had such a great time. The weather was a little on the cold side, but with no rain. The teacher from the garden was very good at showing us all kinds of things about plants and seeds. It was very enjoyable and educational, even for the grown-ups.


Natalie's teacher took pictures and made a really cool video out of the pictures:

Happy Halloween

For Halloween, Natalie requested a "special" breakfast. Here's how she started her day:

Poptarts decorated with a jack-o-lantern, a spider, and a bat (with edible markers), and a jack-o-lantern apple (so we could pretend it was almost healthy...)

Here's her reaction:

I think it was a hit.

This year, we went trick-or-treating with Natalie's good friend Izzy:

Natalie was a monster, and Izzy was "Intelligent Girl"

The girls had a blast. I don't think they were more than a foot apart for most of the time:

Going trick-or-treating

Fortunately, they both had their priorities in order - when they came across an old birds nest on someone's lawn, they just had to stop and investigate:

Such explorers.

This year, the weather on Halloween was very windy and very, very cold. Because of that, we were only out for about 45 minutes. Afterwards, the girls watched Halloween episodes of their favorite shows on tv while they dug into the loot. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed that part a lot, too. 

This was a great Halloween! We had so much fun, and we enjoyed the company of good friends. Couldn't ask for anything more!

Portrait time

Natalie needed a picture for a school project. I think this one turned out really well:

Beautiful dancer

Natalie and I went shopping, and one of the items we found at the second hand store was a leotard. She's been wishing for one of those for a while for her dress-up bin, so she had to try it out right away when we got home:

The twirl.

The ballerina.

Gotta love that smile.

Time to buy new socks...

What's the missing piece in this picture?

Hint: Look at the socks. Like father, like daughter...

"Oh, No, Our socks are missing a toe!"

All about me poster

One of Natalie's first pieces of homework this school year was an "All about me" poster. She had to decorate a sheet of paper with pictures, stickers, and whatever else she wanted to describe herself. Here's the result:

 

A little bit of interpretation:

Natalie loves soccer, swimming, and the monkey bars. Her favorite foods are icecream, cupcakes, mac and cheese, and risengroed (a danish dish). She is American, hence the US flag, but her parents are from Denmark, hence the two Danish flags. Her family consists of Dad, Mom, and herself. Her favorite animal is a dolphin. And she likes peace signs and glittery things.  

First day of second grade

Last Tuesday was Natalie's first day of school. She's now in second grade. Of course, we had to do the obligatory first day of school pictures:

Posing for the camera.

Getting ready to learn.

Of course, we also waited outside of daycare so we could wave as she went on the school bus.

And staying true to tradition, Natalie got a special cookie when she came home.

Glad Camp

Last week, Natalie was at GLAD camp. It is a day camp for girls, based on developing girls’ confidence and positive self-image.

The camp put a video together with pictures from the 5 days the girls were there. They played it for the parents at the closing ceremony on Friday. If you are patient enough to watch it (it's kinda long), you'll see Natalie in quite a few pictures (Hint: There are some good pictures at around 2:26 and 8:30). I think this was a great experience for Natalie, and she really seemed to enjoy it!

Toys, toys everywhere...

Natalie's latest obsession is to make elaborate displays of her toys. Here's one using her dolls:

Arranged in groups by size, etc...

She'll even do it with her "friends" (a.k.a. stuffed animals) in her bed:

Fortunately, she still has room for herself, too - but just barely!

Girls night out

Sometimes, girls just wanna have fun... So Natalie and I had a girls night out.

We started by going out for dinner. The dessert was pretty special, so Natalie wanted me to take pictures of her (we texted them to Karsten so he could see all the fun we had):

Gotta love the expression on her face. Had to include this picture, even though the light i a bit off.

And here's another cute one!

After dinner, we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. Natalie got really hooked at this "jump-rope" game - and she got really good at it, too:

Just a couple of cute pics

The other day, I was cleaning up looking thru some of my pictures on my phone, and I came across a couple of cute ones that definitely are worth sharing:

On our way to jammy-day at daycare.

On our way out to go to a hockey game. Natalie had won the tickets at school thru their jump-rope for heart program.

At Barnes and Nobles - having lunch. Her school had a reading program / book fair at the bookstore on a Saturday, and of course we went. We had a great time listening to the teachers and some of the older classes read stories / do plays / sing in the chorus, etc... We decided to have lunch at their cafe. Don't worry, Natalie had "real" food first before this huge desert.

Family activity night at school

Natalie's school had a family activity night. One room was filled with board games, etc. The other room was the gym filled with fun things to do. Knowing Natalie, it isn't surprising that we never made it to the board games...

Slalom obstacle course - Natalie competed against one of her friends.

Natalie loved the climbing wall...

... and she was really good at it, too!

But I think her favorite was the hula-hoops:

St. Patrick's Day

This year, St. Patrick's Day really started the evening before. Natalie made a really cool leprechaun trap. Well, it really was more like a house than a trap - made out of shoe boxes and doll house furniture:

The living room, with a bridge into the pink reading room...

The pink room, the bathroom, and the kitchen.

The Leprechaun came overnight. He went in the window and out the door. And he even dropped a couple of gold (chocolate) coins:

Leprechaun footprints.

The day itself was also full of fun:

Traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast: Lucky Charms and green milk.

And no St. Patrick's Day would be complete without the treasure hunt for the pot of gold (or other goodies) at the end of the rainbow:

Reading the next clue.

Where to go next...

The goodies included a big beach towel this year.

Swimsuit model

Before going to the waterpark for Karsten's birthday, Natalie had to check if her swim suits from last year still fit. So, she put on a fashion show:

Pose number one.

Ready to take on the world.

The sassy one...

As you can see, it turned out they all were a little small on her, so we ended up picking up a couple of new suits. But the fashion show pics were just too fun not to post.

Happy Birthday, Karsten - part two

To celebrate Karsten's big birthday, we went to Blue Harbor Resort with Aubriella and family. We had a blast!!!

The kids even drank "beer" (apple cider).

Natalie picked out Daddy's cake - I think she chose the perfect one!

The kids had such a blast...

I wonder if Karsten made a wish...

Karsten let each kid have a "tool" from the cake.

Karsten seemed to enjoy the day. It's always good to be surrounded by friends and family. 

Of course, we spent a lot of time in the waterpark:

Natalie is such a good swimmer.

She also loved the waterslides. She did them both on her own, and with Karsten. One time, after the two of them came down the slide, I was in the right spot at the right time with the camera:

That's Natalie behind that innertube - tipping it over...

You did it - no, you did it...

It's all good - so many giggles!