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A Look Back at April & May 2015

Before we get too much farther into 2016 I thought I would post the rest of the pics from last year.  I can't seem to manage to keep up with this blog, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.  The below pictures are from Natalie's Spring Dance recital, a trip to the theater to see Hansel & Gretel ballet, her first horse ride (tandem with a pro) on a horse named Nugget and her Pre-K school musical which was a hard rock version of nursery rhymes.

Carnival

Last week Natalie went to a school carnival.  It was called a "Math and Literacy" carnival, but was mostly a Halloween party.  My favorite thing was the book walk (similar to the cake walk of my day).  Natalie did the book walk several times and ended up winning 5 books.  Natalie's favorite thing was walking around looking for her friends.  However, since she was wearing a blond, curly wig most of her friends didn't recognize her.  Natalie has recently become fascinated with a show called "Ever After High" where all of the characters are the offspring of famous fairytale characters...like Briar Beauty, daughter of Sleeping Beauty; Madeline Hatter, daughter of the Mad Hatter; and Apple White, daughter of Snow White.  Natalie's costume resembles Ashlynn Ella, daughter of Cinderella.

Natalie with her teacher and a classmate

With one of her best friends

With a new friend and her twin brother

Spring 2015

Natalie and Donna (one of her besties)

Gregarious Natalie loves meeting new people.  She struck up a fast friendship with this nice lady at a restaurant and wanted to take a picture of the two of them together (don't worry she knows all about stranger danger).  We will probably never see that lady again, but it's sweet to know how these two brightened each other's day.

Riding the carousel at a spring trip to the zoo.  

Natalie got to meet an adorable pygmy owl.

Natalie with Sally and Thing 2 at the Arkansas Arts Children's Theater performance of "The Cat in the Hat". 

In her Easter Bonnet

We were off to see "The Wizard of Oz"

The Nature Conservancy bought a big swatch of land right behind our neighborhood.  They gave us permission to walk our dogs there.  Katie and Louie love the chance to roam free, but they never leave my eyesight.  I love the gorgeous views.

I almost lost my boots in the swamp

Chinese New Year and Other Winter Fun

In February we celebrated Chinese New Year with a bunch of other families who have children who were also adopted from China.  Below is Natalie doing crafts with some of the other kids.

We had a couple of decent snows last winter which equated to 8 days of school missed.

During brunch at the Purple Cow Natalie ran into an old friend.

Natalie taking care of her little stuffed Newfoundland dog, aptly named Seadog (she recently started calling him "Seed"...his nickname she says).  I love how caring she is to people and her little "babies".  Natalie made Seadog a comfy bed, covered him up and left out plenty of food and water for him.

Dancing down the hallway

Ready to go to the Chinese Lantern Festival at school.

We were fortunate that Natalie's teacher was so open to celebrating different holidays in the classroom.  For CNY we took mandarin oranges and red envelopes for each child.  We also read a couple of books about Chinese New Year.  For the lantern festival a couple of weeks later each child made a lantern and then we had a parade with one child dressed up as a dragon and the kids all walking on bubble wrap to simulate firecrackers.

Happy 5th Birthday!!!!!

About 5 months ago Natalie turned 5.  Maybe someday I'll get back to keeping this blog caught up, but I doubt it.  My girl just keeps me too busy.

Natalie had her 5th birthday party at the Museum of Discovery again and like last year she chose to have a safari party. This year the animals she chose were an albino corn snake, a chinchilla, a black rabbit, an insect from Australia called a prickly stick, and I think the other animal was a lizard of some sort.

There were 20 children in Natalie's Pre-K class, but we didn't have space for all of them.  I let Natalie choose who to invite and she cracked me up by making her choices based on how the children behave in school.  Two children were eliminated because "they don't listen to the teacher".  Another was mean to other children.  Natalie is usually a rule follower and she wants others around her to do the same.

Everyone had a wonderful time.  Natalie was a very happy birthday girl!

Natalie is fascinated by snakes.  Her favorites are King snakes and Rattlesnakes.

Natalie wasn't scared to touch this big prickly stick.

Petting a chinchilla, the animal with the softest fur in the world.

Happy Birthday Precious Natalie!!

Natalie and a sweet friend check out the dinosaur bones.

One of Natalie's favorite friends. 

Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair.

Surprised face when she got one of her favorite gifts, a Sofia the First schoolhouse.

Wearing her birthday crown that she got at school.  She got special privileges all day, like being the line leader.

Natalie dressed up like the Fairy doll that she got for her birthday.

Modeling one of her birthday presents, an Elsa dress complete with an Elsa side braid