Natalie's fourth birthday

My baby is four!!! It just blows my mind! She decided she wanted a princess birthday- so I made a castle cake and she was princess Natalie for the day. We invited another family over, had some dinner, played dress up with their girls and had cake and ice cream. It was pretty low key, but I have to take advantage of that while I can. Before I know it, she will be wanting swim parties, skate parties and 10 other little girls to spend the night:)
Natalie is my little social butterfly. She loves to talk to us or anyone. And she is quite loud--I am constantly telling her to use her quiet voice--although I am not sure she really has one. The other day we were in the car and she was talking, talking, talking and I was tired and just wanted to drive and not think. I finally just said, "honey, mommy is tired, can you just not talk for a bit". She also loves to sing and make up songs. A few days after her birthday, we were in the car and she was singing--I am four, I am four, I am really, really four right now. ( I need to see if I can get her to sing it again b/c it was just too darn cute.) But the thing that really cracked me up was that she was singing with her hands over her ears. Kaylee asked her "why are you covering your ears?" Her response---"it's too loud"--meaning her own singing--cracked me up. Even she thinks she is too loud at times.
She is talkative and loud, but says the cutest things.

PE

David is now in 5th grade. He likes school, but mostly for the social aspect of it. He doesn't complain much, goes to school, does his work, but I think tolerates it due to the fact that all his friends are there with him. He is a good student and gets good grades, but frankly doesn't put a lot of effort into it and school comes pretty easy for him. For the longest time, he has said that PE is one of his favorite parts of the day, b/c they get to play basketball, football and other games. Well, I guess 5th grade is the time to get serious about physical education--no more fun and games. One day he came home from school and said that they ran the ENTIRE hour!! Then today he came home and said that PE is child abuse!!! Cracks me up. I would love to be a fly on that wall.

Halloween 09

The Loot

Luminos!!

My cute little clowns

I'm a bit late, but thought I would show off my little clowns! We had gotten these clown outfits awhile ago from Dan's aunt and I thought "perfect!--Halloween costumes for free!" The girls were excited to dress up as clowns. Although at one point, (after the novelty had worn off and she started to talk to friends and see other possibilities) Kaylee (8) said, "why can't we pick what we want to be?" I said, "oh you will love being a clown and will be so cute!"--and was able to avoid answering the question. I didn't want to have to say, "you will be a clown, b/c it was free and that's that!" Anyway, it turned out well and they had a blast, ending up with WAY too much candy.

David, has been reading the Harry Potter series and watching the movies, so he was Harry Potter. There were costumes out there to buy, but I have such a hard time paying 25 bucks for a thin little robe that he will wear ONCE! So I went to goodwill, found a graduation gown, added a hood and a Hogwarts school emblem to it, threw on some glasses, added a scar on his forehead and it worked perfect! His best friend dressed up as Ron Weasley, and they ran around Malcolm together casting spells and gobbling up candy!

Veterinarian's Day

While taking Kaylee to her piano lessons yesterday, I was asking how her day went and what she did. She said she learned about veterinarian's day. I giggled and said "you mean veterans day?" and then explained the difference. I think she was a little embarrassed, b/c she had messed it up, but I thought it was cute.

Natalie--the master chef

So Natalie is 3 and 1/2 and absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen. Any time I am in there, she is right by my side or on the counter or chair, insisting on helping. I've been thinking for some time that she has to grow up to be a great chef, with as much as she is in the kitchen, helping and learning. Well, one of the things she is learning to master is breaking eggs. She does pretty well, with only a shell or two in the bowl or pan. Well today, I was busy on facebook, I mean, doing laundry and dusting and cleaning toilets :) while Natalie was busy doing this......

Yes, I came in to the kitchen to find 2 dozen eggs in the pan, all ready to be fried up!! I couldn't believe it. We will have our bellies full of eggs tonight! I have to say, I was impressed--barely a shell to be found, with most of the eggs yolks unbroken and really no mess!

Catching a frog!

Got him!


I took Natalie to the library today to check out some books and to go to story time. The theme for the day was frogs. The teacher was talking about frogs and asking the kids questions. She had a little stuffed frog and asked what color are frogs and the kids all yelled "green!" and then she asked where do frogs live. There were different answers like "in the forest", "by the pond", etc. Well, Natalie yells out loud and clear right away with "in the hot tub!" I was cracking up. To the rest of the world this makes no sense at all, but at our house, we go on a daily search for frogs in the hot tub:) You see, we have a hot tub that was given to us, some time ago. It was free and we were soooo excited to have a hot tub. Well, it has been sitting on our patio for, I think almost a year now with some collection of rain water, muck and is the perfect environment for frogs!

Natalie--ready to travel the world

We recently bought a ginormous mail box, so the mailman can leave packages and large things even if we aren't home. From the moment Natalie wakes up in the morning she wants to go check the chicken coop for eggs and check the mailbox for mail. Neither one gets any results until at least mid-morning, so I am always having to say, "not yet" and "it's not time yet", etc. Well, after lots of requests today, we finally went out to get the mail and I had a funny thought--she could fit in this mailbox. So that's what we did. Now I wonder how much it would be to ship her:)