At the jumpy place

We went to "The Jumpy Place" with Grandma:

Everyone had a great time!

Natalie also played some of the arcade games. At one point, she hit the jackpot and got a lot of tickets:

Tickets - yay!

Natalie, the backpack

Another great family picture:

Catching a ride!

At the amusement park - with Grandma!

Summer is for trips to the amusement park. And look who came with us: Grandma! She was here to visit for a couple of weeks.

Family picture! Karsten, Grandma, Natalie.

Natalie is getting to be a big girl. So, on this trip, there were a few "firsts":

Natalie can ride the helicopters all by herself!

Look who's big enough to ride the scrambler!

I think Natalie went on the scrambler at least five times!

More outside playtime

Here are a few pictures from one of the last days that Grandma was here. Both Grandma and myself were trying to take pictures of Natalie - who, of course, doesn't stand still for long...

I'll run this way now, away from the camera...

I did get a few shots in, though, like this one:

 Look, Mommy, a dandelion...

This concludes the series of posts from the time when Grandma was here. We'll now return to the regular scheduled program of posts I didnt' get around to posting when they were in season...

Inside playtime

While we did spend a lot of time outside, we also had time to play inside with Grandma.

Natalie and Grandma got along great:

Natalie reading a book for Grandma.

Being silly and playing with Ms. Potatohead.

And of course, a current favorite: Dress-up!

Peek-a-boo...

Dressing up is fun!

Fast food

While Grandma was here, we went to a fast food restaurant - something we don't do very often. Natalie didn't really care for the food - yay for healthy eating habits, or maybe she just wasn't too hungry that day... Anyway, she did like the playland a lot:

Look, Mommy, I'm inside the tractor!

And of course, Natalie wanted to sit next to her new best friend:

Say cheese!

At the park

Natalie, Grandma, and myself spent a great day together. Even though the rain was threatening to come in, we still went to the park. It was a really great time:



Ready for adventure!

It rained for maybe five minutes, and we just waited it out under a tree.

Afterwards, we went for a "bike-ride": 

It's always nice to get a little push...

Some of the paths lead us down towards the river:

Enjoying the view

More Grandma stories and pictures to follow...

Hi, Grandma!

And the reason for blogging so little lately: Grandma came to visit!

We spent two weeks having a great time together.

So instead of blogging, we spent the evenings drinking cofee and hanging out. It made for a lot of pictures, though, which I'm sure you'll see over the next many days...

Just hanging out

Grandma can always make Natalie laugh



Natalie loved having someone to push her on the swings!

To be continued...

Treasure Hunt

One of the days while Grandma was here, we did a treasure hunt with Natalie. While she was napping, I took pictures of various places in our backyard, and I packed up little trinkets (stickers, small toys, a few pieces of candy, etc.) with the pictures. The pictures were "clues" to where she would find the next treasure and the next clue.

I wasn't sure if Natalie would understand the game, but she got it right away, and she was sooo into it:

Looking for the next clue!

Grandma!

Sorry I've been a little absent from blog-land. We've been kinda busy. For instance, Natalie's Grandma came to visit for a couple of weeks. We had such a great time:

Just hanging out...

Having an improvised party...

And of course, lot's of hugs!


We did lots of fun things together. Stay tuned for more pictures...

Reading is best - also with Grandma

Natalie still loves books. When Grandma came to visit in November, they shared lots of great times like these:

Grandma-Monster

I was looking thru some "old" pictures from November, when Natalie's Grandma came to visit for a few weeks. I had to post this one:
I guess some explanation would be in order:

I had some big googly-eyes laying on the table from an artproject. One night, Karsten took them and stuck them to his forehead. Natalie thought it was hilarious that Karsten was a "Daddy-Monster" with four eyes. She would take them off him and say "Daddy-Monster" all gone, then put them back on and say "Daddy-Monster". Of course, the Daddy-Monster was very good at tickling. Well, it evolved into playing with these stickers. And of course, Grandma got to be part of the game, too. So the above is a picture of the "Grandma-Monster"!