Natalie Can Read 10 Words

Natalie can read ten sight words and she is very proud!

Mother Goose

Today Mother Goose visited Natalie's Pre-K. She thought Mother Goose would actually be a goose, but it turned out that it was the director of the daycare who dressed up. I was only able to get a couple of pieces of information out of her about the experience. Number one: Mother Goose wore a hat. Number two: No one knew any of the words to her songs. So, I'm not sure it was a rave review, but she probably had more fun than she let on.

After I picked her up from Pre-K I had to run to our district's human resources office to get a new ID badge made for my new school. Natalie was not thrilled to go along to say the least. She was pouting in the car and doing her mad walk. Everything changed when she got inside the office and the ladies gave her lots of attention. Then one of the ladies said she had something for Natalie that she would like: a lollipop. The attitude sure changed quickly and the frown turned upside down. She was a happy camper! She remembers who gives her treats so I'm sure she'll be asking to go back again soon.

Natalie & Grandma

She's Got the Shopping Gene

Yesterday Natalie and I spent a record three and a half hours in one store - Target! Natalie looked at pajamas and tried on headbands, cowgirl boots, and shoes. She spent a lot of time in toys telling me her list of items she'd like for her birthday. (She's been counting down until her birthday since March or April.) The list is extensive; pretty much one of everything in the girl toy aisles! We spent the majority of our time in the school supply section so I could look at things I needed to get for the fall. (Not that I truly wanted to look, but the selection was right as well as the price.) Natalie ended up getting quite a few school materials for herself even though she won't be going to kinder for another year. All of that shopping was exhausting! (I know - WAH!)

Z-O-O

Lately, upon being asked what she has been doing, Natalie has been responding by telling people, "just hanging around doing nothing." Nothing? That's when I direct her back to the blog and remind her of all of the "nothing" we've been doing all summer. But in a way, I can see her point. Most summers we've had passes to go to Sea World and have spent lots of time in the waterpark or we've gotten tickets to Fiesta Texas or passes to the zoo. Ever since I read the warning label on her medicine that states: "prolonged or excessive exposure to direct and or artificial sunlight SHOULD BE AVOIDED (on the bottle it's underlined too) whike taking this medication" I've been leery about taking her outside to do too much. I asked the pharmacist to define prolonged and excessive and she said about 30 minutes in the sun maximum! The Gastro doctor said she's okay out in the sun as long as she has sunblock on her and reapply often. If she's out too long she may break out in a rash, and believe me we're always on the lookout for it!

She's been doing well on her medicine this summer and has been fine with sunblock applied every hour, so we discussed getting zoo passes. Of course she was in the room when we were talking about it, so I spelled the word zoo so she wouldn't know what we were saying. She immediately said, "I want to go to the zoo!" So, now that she can spell I guess Mark is going to have to learn Spanish!

A couple of summers ago we had passes to the zoo and used to take her often, however, she has no memory of ever having been there. So, when we took her today it was like she was going for the first time. She loved looking at all of the animals. Her favorites seemed to be the elephant and the gibbons. The gibbons swung all over their cage and one of them had a little baby gibbon hanging onto its mom while it was swinging and climbing. They really made her laugh. I sprayed her down with sunblock every hour, and we made sure to go early enough in the morning so we could leave by lunchtime when it was really getting hot.

Natalie and Mark


We fed nectar to the few lorikeets that were hungry. These guys must be fed all day long because they didn't seem to have much of an appetite.


A girl's gotta have her essentials along! I didn't notice she had "packed" a lipgloss until she climbed up to see the Nile Crocodile!


Excited to be at the z-o-o.


The elephants were one of Natalie's favorite zoo animals.

Aunt Kris' B-day Party

Tonight Natalie celebrated Aunt Kris' 40th birthday at Grandma Lou's house. She saw lots of familiar faces and met a few new people too. Her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all there.

Natalie with her Aunt Kris, the birthday girl.



Natalie and her cousin, Austin. We reminded her that at her first birthday party she kissed Austin on the lips. She was grossed out by the story and said, "yuck!"



Natalie ate a popsicle and played with Serenity, her second cousin.

Hair and Nails

Natalie and Mark get their hair cut at a place that just happens to be next door to a nail shop. So, while they signed in to get a hair cut, I went next door to get a manicure. Natalie has had her nails painted at a nail shop before (I know she's only 4!) and really wanted to get her nails painted. Since there was a long wait at the hair salon, she went next door and got her nails painted a pretty red color. It was a really big deal for her! She dried her nails under the dryer like a big person and was extremely well behaved. She got lots of smiles from patrons at the nail salon. When her nails had dried she went next door to get her hair cut. She only waited a couple of minutes before they called her name so it was perfect timing! She loved her morning of beautification!

Natalie Visits Ms. Debbie

Natalie has been dying to see Ms. Debbie all summer, so today she finally got to visit her at her house. They caught up on their summers, looked at pictures together and we chatted. It was fun to see her again! Natalie can't wait until she gets to visit her the next time!

Gymnastics

Natalie has expressed a desire to be a gymnast, so today she got her chance to try it out with her friend Bella. The gymnastics place we went to today had an "open gym" so she got to try out the equipment that she wanted. She seemed to like the extra long trampoline, especially running on it. She tried out the parallel bars, the rings, the knotted rope swing, another trampoline, and various other equipment. But I couldn't see everything that she was trying out because parents weren't allowed in - just kids. I did manage to get a couple of pictures through the window. Anytime Natalie wanted to try out equipment there was someone there to help her. She was excited to try out the balance beam and learned how to properly mount it, walk on it, and dismount. She and Bella seemed to have a great time!

Ice Cream

After the trip to Artworks, Natalie and Bella enjoyed some ice cream at Chick-Fil-A.

Fun at Artworks

Natalie and Bella had an enjoyable time at Artworks yesterday. It was hard to drag them out of there because they were having so much fun!


Natalie and Bella making blueberry pies.


Making balloon art.

Ice Cream Reward

Today after going to the library and eating lunch I needed to bring some things out to my new school. (Yes, even after all of the trips into the school with cartloads of things I still had more to bring in!) The last time Natalie was at school she was not a happy camper, so today she took toys and a doll to play with. I also had to bribe her with some ice cream. Once she got to school today she was fine because she had some things to play with, but the ice cream reward just added an extra incentive to maintain a positive attitude. She got ice cream from Baskin Robbins and picked chocolate fudge in a cone.

I can Swing!

Natalie can swing all by herself now and she is very proud! It's a major accomplishment for her because she's been working at it for so long.



Saying hello!



Waiting until the bugs are all cleared off the slide before sliding.


Natalie raking the back yard. I wish she knew how to run a weed eater!

Kamryn's Bday Party

Natalie went to Kamryn's 5th birthday party today at Chuck E. Cheese. That place is hard on the parents, but the kids enjoyed it. Natalie had so many tokens she didn't know what to do with all of them!

Natalie and Bella

Waiting for food at a popular Mexican restaurant in town.

New School Move in Day

Today Natalie helped me move into my new school. (Thanks mom and dad for doing all the heavy lifting and moving to save my back!) She carried boxes and rolled the rolling cart through the school (once she made it past the door!) She was such a great helper today. The one complication to our move in was the elevator. Yes, the school is multilevel and, of course, I'm on the second floor. We had flashbacks of moving me to the fourth floor of my college dorm many years ago. Although I remember not having a good place to park that day and fighting the entire dorm to get in the elevator.

For the first couple of trips up the elevator we had sole posession of the key that made the elevator work. After the next trip back home and then to school there were others moving in too so we had to share the key. Luckily it all worked out and I'm all moved in. Now I'll just need to spend some time sorting things out - especially the books and organizing the wonderful closet. Natalie will not complain about going back - she loves it there and says she's ready to start kinder this year. I think that statement came after she saw the brand new kinder playground. I hate to break the news to her, but kinders don't spend the day out there on the playground. She'll have lots of work ahead of her because, after all, they must start preparing for the TAKS test (soon to be STAAR test) early!

Now to express my jubilation over my new school:
I've never taught at a brand new school before where EVERYTHING is brand spanking new - desks, chairs, computer, walls, shelves, filing cabinets, etc... I am used to rust, dustbunnies, broken things, no storage, cleaning out other people's trash they left behind...so this is unbelievable to have all NEW things and a clean room! Plus, the added bonus is that there is a HUGE walk in closet. No longer will my stuff have to sit out and visible in the classroom taking up space. It ALL fits in the closet! There's even a sink with storage above and below it. I should have taken pictures, but I was too busy trying to pick my jaw up off the floor the entire time. I'll get pictures posted soon.

Natalie and Bella at the playground/storytime

Natalie and Bella had a good time at the playground and at storytime. They listened to two stories about rain, made an art project, and checked out books and videos.

Natalie's New Outfit

Snow White and the 7 Amigos

Today we went to go see Snow White and the 7 Amigos. It basically followed the same storyline as Snow White, but the setting was Guanajuato, Mexico. Bella and Natalie really enjoyed it.

Anyone Remember the Griswald Family?

Natalie's Trip to Conn's

Don't ever say that we never take Natalie to all the cool venues in San Antonio! No, we didn't take her to Bass Pro Shops today - this week it was Conn's. One never knows how a four year old will react in a store like Conn's. To our surprise she had a great time trying out most of the couches, chairs, beds, etc...She was disappointed to leave! Good free fun!

Mark's Freaky Fish

Mark's longnose Hawkfish decided he'd try to see what life is like outside of his saltwater habitat today. I didn't see him jump, but Max must have. When I looked up I saw Max moving closer and sniffing something and backing away from it several times. I thought there was a mouse in the house at first, but when I moved closer to it it turned out to be the hawkfish on the hardwood floor! I quickly picked him up by the tail and returned him to his fish tank. He survived the ordeal and is now continuing his daily vertical pursuit of waiting for prey in the corners of the tank. Natalie proclaimed Max a hero for finding the poor fish on the floor. Good thing Oliver wasn't there at the time or it would have been a tasty kitty treat!

Circus Hat

Natalie is showing off her circus hat she made at Pre-K today.

Cotton Candy Ice Cream

Here is Natalie trying out her new ice cream flavor, cotton candy. She says it's delicious! We probably won't be sampling it since she claimed the entire container by eating out of it!

Happy 4th of July!

Natalie had a great time celebrating the fourth with her friends Bella and Kamryn. They dressed up, danced, ate, played, and watched fireworks together. Why go anywhere to watch fireworks when you have people in your neighborhood shelling out big bucks to give you a free show from your driveway? We had a few small fireworks too, some sparklers that were pretty much duds, and one large finale of about 15 fireworks in a row. The cul-de-sac is the perfect place to set them off because there's relatively no traffic. It was a fun fourth!

Picking veggies & feeding horses

Today was a special day for Natalie because she got to pick a green pepper from a plant that she planted with her Poppy. At dinner she took one small bite of it and didn't like it much, but she was proud that she had picked it.

One of the veggies that is grown at Natalie's Poppy's house is carrots. Natalie doesn't want anything to do with carrots (or most vegetables in general), but she is happy to help pick them.

Natalie took a few of those carrots she picked across the street to some horses that belong to the neighbors. She was a little intimidated to feed them, but with some guidance from Poppy she fed them quickly and then backed away once the horses grabbed the carrots. One of the horses stole a carrot right out of the other horse's mouth. I think it's the horse's extra large teeth that are kind of scary. Their chompers look like they could do some damage!

Happy Birthday, USA

Okay, so it's a day early, but Happy Birthday, USA!

Lazy Rainy Day

Today was a lazy rainy day and Natalie just wanted to stay home. Hurricane Alex is just leaving us with a bunch of rain and it's going to continue through July 4th. Today Natalie made Smores in her Easy Bake oven, played with assorted games, and watched Tinkerbell.

Artworks

Natalie sure had a busy day today! This is why I wonder why she refuses to nap. It seems like one would need to rest after so much activity. But what do I know?! This afternoon Natalie enjoyed herself at Artworks. It's called "open art." Kids can rotate among 10-12 art stations and create different pieces. She thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Pre-K Parade

Natalie's school had a Fourth of July parade today that the parents were invited to attend. She had a blast! After the parade HEBuddy came to visit with the kids. She gave him a high 5 and a hug. This is a major step for her in overcoming her fear of homo sapiens frolicking around in tights and oversized clothing with no visible facial features present.