Easter Egg hunt at the Zoo

On Saturday, we went to the annual easter egg hunt at the Zoo. Natalie was so excited about going. When I told her that we were going, we were both still in our jammies. I told her we both had to get dressed before we could leave. I went to get dressed myself, and she went into her room. I assumed she was just playing around (I could hear the happy sounds from in there), but then I turned around and there she was, all dressed and ready to go. She had picked her outfit out of her dresser and gotten herself dressed faster than I could get myself dressed! So I guess she really, really wanted to go.

She was smart this year, bringing two baskets with her. The thing is, the easter egg hunt is set up so that the kids are to find easter eggs, then trade them in a different colored stations for candy. The pink eggs at the pink station, the green eggs at the green station, etc. So, she had two baskets, one for the eggs, and one for the candy. Pretty smart move!

Lookit! Eggs AND candy! How lucky can one girl be?

One of the (many) things I adore about Natalie is how she isn't just in it for the candy. She took her time, making sure she stopped to see all the animals. Here, she's looking for the penguins - though they actually weren't there, the water had been pumped out (for cleaning?) and the penguins were on the other side of the exhibit...

Where did all the penguins go?

Of course, we had to make sure we had time to play on the playground. Because who can say no to a turn on the swings?

Whee!

The easter egg hunt also included breakfast. The pancakes with whipped cream (or beep-beep, as it is nicknamed here in our house, because, well, that's a long story...) were a big hit:
Pancakes! Yummi.

It wasn't until a while after this breakfast that Natalie asked to open some of the candy. I'm soo proud of her, and how she just enjoys everything about a trip like this, not just the candy.

It was a very tired and very happy girl we brought home for naptime on Saturday!

Scenes from an Easter morning

Sunday morning was all about quality time. When Natalie woke up, we spent some time in her room cuddling and reading her stack of letters (she get's a lot of mail from her family, and we read each and every letter many, many times).

Then she got her easter basket, which conveniently contained a movie... Which she watched some of while we made breakfast (she helped make cinnamon rolls with yummi, gooey icing). After that, a bath was in it's place, and it was soo nice not to have to rush. We must have spent more than half an hour just playing with all her toys and having a teaparty while she was in her bath.

Then, we made these: Birds nests.

Or more accurately, rice crispy treats, green (food colored) roasted coconut "grass", and peeps and robin eggs. So much fun. Of course, we had to sample the goods a little while we made them.

After that, Natalie got a little easter surprise - a little bottle of bubbles with a bunny on it. Look, easter bubbles!

We went outside to blow bubbles and ride her trike, and we went for a walk with her in the stroller.

Now that's a great morning!

The Easter Egg hunt, stormy edition

Today, we had an easter egg hunt right in our back yard! Natalie was soo excited about it! It was very, very windy, though, but that didn't stop us from having fun...

Look, a purple one!

She thought this one was really funny, with the stick sticking out of it:
Lookit, there's a stick coming out of this egg!

I love this "action shot", with Natalie running around next to the tree that's actually smaller than her:

No time to waste!

And she didn't miss any spots:

Maybe there's an egg under this tree?

Natalie was such a sweetheart, sharing her eggs with Daddy and making sure he had one of each color:

Here, Daddy, you can have the pink one...

Another "action shot":

Run for it!

Since it was so windy, we decided to wait until we got back inside to open up the eggs.

Look, a sucker! Who would have thought?

I must admit, I had so much fun planning this out for Natalie. On Friday, I went to the local party outlet store to pick up little things that would fit into the eggs, like stickers, little bracelets, a small stamper, etc.

Now, of course, I counted the eggs before I hid them (during naptime). I counted them twice and came up with twentyfour eggs both times. And, of course, we only found twentythree... I must confess, I can't remember where the last one is hidden, or what was in it. So I guess there's three possibilities: I counted wrong, one blew away in the wind, or we'll find the last egg sometime later this summer...

Happy Easter!

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago - easter fun can easily take up a couple of weekends!

Look at the pretty eggs we colored!

Happy Easter, everyone!

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.