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.