Natalie's Ballet Class!

As a reward for successfully potty training, Natalie got to start taking ballet class! I'm not sure which one of us was more excited. :)  She has class once a week, and the half hour class that is really fun and informal. For the first few weeks, as is her way, Natalie did more watching than dancing. I don't think it totally clicked that she was supposed to do what the teacher was doing. But when it clicked, she jumped in with both feet! I die of the cuteness that is 11 3-4 year olds laughing and dancing every week.

At the end of the first six week session, Natalie had a mini recital for the residents of a local nursing home. I wasn't sure how she would respond to performing in front of a room full of people, but she loved it! I guess she's her mother's daughter. :)

Halloween Fun

Lots of Halloween photos in this post, ya'll! We started the celebrations the weekend before Halloween, when Nathan, Natalie, and Danielle's friends Trey, Ty, and Harper hosted a Halloween party at their house. It was a perfect, sunny fall afternoon, and the kids had a blast.

This year's costumes: traffic light, purple butterfly, adorable baby in a tutu

The night before Halloween, we got down to some pumpkin carving business. Both kiddos were very excited to draw their pumpkin face carving plan.

Todd and I helped with the actual carving, and then it came time to scoop. Nathan was NOT into it. He didn't like the slime. His sister, however, was all about it. Natalie cleaned out her pumpkin and then helped Nathan with his!

On Halloween day, I went to Natalie's preschool for the annual Halloween parade. I love it because it is a bunch of little kids looking mystified by the fact that they are all dressed funny, all their parents are at school with them, and said parents are taking hundreds of photos. :)  Amazingly, there were no Elsas! Just one Anna.

Purple butterfly on the move

Natalie and her best buddy Riley

Preschool room girls

In what has become a treasured tradition, we went over to Suzanne and Bryan's house for dinner and trick-or-treating. Ellie, dressed as Audrey Hepburn, had already left with her group of friends by the time I got out my camera, but the younger ones humored me briefly before heading out into the COLD evening for trick-or-treating. Yes, my friends, although it was 70 degrees on Monday, but Friday's Halloween celebrations there was snow on the ground! Sigh. It's the only time I have found myself wishing that I lived back in the South again. I love having four seasons, but trick-or-treating in the snow is not much fun, at least for the grown-ups! It was marvelous to spend time with Suz and Bryan and their kids though. They are dear friends, and they only live a few miles from us, but busy schedules mean that we rarely get together. Thank goodness I work with Suz so I get to see her on a daily basis!

Natalie's Tree, Year 3

When creating this post, I realized that I never did a Natalie's Tree, Year 2 post! So I will start this one with the photo from last year--2 year old Nat and her tree:

Both the girl and the tree have done a lot of growing this year! Here is a picture of both of them, right around their third birthdays:

Three!

Last weekend was Natalie's third birthday! She is so much fun these days. Smart, funny, stubborn, fearless, snuggly, nurturing... this girl is the whole package! 

Current interests: Frozen (naturally), playing with babies, playgrounds, puzzles, her friends at school, reading, coloring, monster trucks, swim class, ballet, legos

Talking: Natalie talks a mile a minute, and is extremely articulate. There are only a few words she does not pronounce correctly: lellow (yellow), mazagine (magazine), and loshcloth (washcloth)

Reading and writing: Natalie is starting to recognize some letters of the alphabet and can recite them all. She can count to ten and throws in an "eleventeen" here and there. :)  She loves being read to. Coloring is a favorite activity, and it seems like she is going to be a leftie!

It is impossible to capture in a blog post how magnetic Nat's personality is. She is so engaging and funny. She loves playing with Nathan and her friends from school. She fearlessly climbs the ladders and goes down the big slide on the playground. She would listen to you read books all day. Jumping into the pool and making a "big, GINORMOUS splash" is her favorite thing about swim class. She loves music--every night I sing her Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Oh how I love this girl!

For her birthday party, both sets of grandparents, the great-grandparents, and Aunt Erin came into town.  Natalie selected the menu of her favorites: hummus and pretzel chips, grilled Italian sausage, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream cake "with sprinkles on it."