Memorial Day weekend

Thanks to Natalie's school, we brought home a special reminder on Thursday afternoon that the weekend wasn't about it being a 3-day weekend, about the great sales on mattresses, about the hamburgers/hotdogs or about the pool ... it was about all the people who have given their lives to help keep us safe.

Mommy and Natalie went to the grocery store on Sunday morning (while daddy was out mountain biking) and she enjoyed her patriotic donut...

We hosted a pool party with some friends and their kids on Sunday - which was pure chaotic fun (that's life after kids, right?).  And then we followed the pool party up with some chill family time in the pool on Monday...

 

Bobbi Conzet -- didn't you send us this swim suit when Nat was real little??  I seem to remember it came in a box along with the fleece Husker mascot costume and a pair of denim overalls.  But I don't remember the story behind it...

 

Chopsticks and a brainstorming toddler

Daddy was planning to ride his bike after work today and I didn't feel much like cooking (or doing anything, really).  So on the way home from school, I asked Natalie if she'd like to go on a date with me.  After she agreed, I asked her if she'd like to go to the noodle place or to the hero sandwich (I was referring to a Greek gyro restaurant but called it "hero" thinking she would associate it with super heroes and flying and capes and other fun things) restaurant.

She was uncertain.

So we pulled up and parked right in between both of them.  I pointed to the "hero sandwich" restaurant and then to the noodle restaurant.  She looked back and forth between them.  Then she asked if we could go look in the windows at both of them.  OK.  So back and forth we walked.

She chose the noodle restaurant.  So in we go.  We order and wait.  She finds chopsticks and is instantly curious about them.  She looks around the restaurant to see what other people are doing with them. I showed her how I use them and the rest of this was all her brainstorming as she went.  I narrated the photos based on her facial expressions and what I can remember of the conversation.  Here are a few photos that capture the evolution of the chopsticks experience...

It started with her trying to pickup Edamame beans while we waited for our dinner to arrive, but I'll admit that it is tricky even for me.

Once dinner came, it progressed to trying to stab the big pieces of chicken...

But that wasn't reliable or super successful.  "Mommy, are you SURE I am supposed to use these to eat?"

Ok, let's try pinching food between the chopsticks with TWO hands.

Maybe....?

Nope - that didn't work either.

Ok, let's try holding them with one hand (like everyone else) and then putting the food I want to eat in the sticks with my other hand and then squeezing the chopsticks with a death grip until it gets to my mouth.

The two-handed assisted death grip WINS!!!!

Updates coming...

March was a little insane in the Hayes house.  April -- well I don't remember much of April but apparently it is already over.  And now it is not only May, but it is mid-May.  Wow.

None-the-less, over the next few weeks, I will be working on slowly updating the past few months worth of photos and stories on the blog while I simultaneously work on catching up on Natalie's baby book.  I figure I should probably get that up-to-date before we have another baby...

Spring Swim Season - the Final Meet

Each swim season has four meets in which each swimmer earns points for their placement within each rate (it is weighted by heat and place).  At the end of each season, the top 8 swimmers in each age group (separated by gender) are awarded medals.

For the first time since she began swimming, Katie was among the top 8 finishers in her age group.  She finished in 3rd place - and only missed second by 2 points!

Each swimmer was called by name, awarded a medal, a "Top 8" t-shirt and called out to stand in front of the lane representing their place.

The Top 8 11-12 year old girls (minus 2nd place and one girl who got cut out by accident):

 First and third place winners (again, 2nd place was not there):

Katie with her medal.  I told her that olympians often bite their medal (as a tradition to see if it's real) but she wasn't so interested in trying.

 Backstroke:

 Her usual block-side cheering squad:

She makes the most inefficient stroke ever invented (butterfly) look graceful and so easy...

Friday funday!

Today mommy took me to the super fun pool with all the buckets and sprinkers and sprayers and slides.  We were supposed to go last week with my friend Ben and his mommy, but I had such a hard time listening and following directions on Thursday night that mommy and daddy had to call Ben's mommy and tell them we couldn't go.  I was really sad.

But this week I got good reports from my teachers at school everyday and had good behavior at home -- so mommy said we could go to the pool.

IT WAS SUPER COOL!!

Mommy had told me that there were buckets and sprayers and slides but I had no idea that THIS was what she meant.  When we first walked in and I saw all the cool stuff, I stopped in my tracks and gasped with a giant smile on my face.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before!!!

We put sunscreen on all over me so that I wouldn't get any sunburn.  It was cold when mommy put it on.  And it smelled funny.  But I held still and let mommy put it all over me and then sat still while mommy put hers on too.

After we were all sunscreened up, I took off for the pool.  It's pretty neat because you can just walk into the pool and it gets "deeper and deeper and deeper" as you walk towards the play thing.

My favorite thing to play with was the strings that you pull on which then activate a faucet above you and dump water on your head.  But I was smart and stood on the opposite side of the faucet so that when I pulled on the string -- I got water on some other kids instead of on myself. 

We walked around the play thing a lot and I'm so tall now that I can touch the bottom in the 3' section... but I have to keep my mouth shut because the water is over my mouth.

And now that I've seen other big kids swimming around underwater with goggles, I told mommy that I want to learn to swim.

Thank you, Grandma Becky, for the Sofia swimsuit and matching towel.  No one else at the pool had a suit like mine but lots of little girls pointed at me and said, "Look mom, she has a Sofia suit!"

Final cello concert

Katie decided to switch gears a bit and signed up for Choir at school next year.  She is very excited to try something new and we are excited to attend different concerts next year.  But that made the Spring Orchestra Concert her final cello concert.

Here is an unsteady recording (Natalie was sitting next to me continuously asking for a lollipop) of one of their songs from the concert.

http://youtu.be/5LUh4ugaTDI

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday Natalie

Mommy and daddy remembered to have Gus sleep in their room this year so that he wouldn't scare the Easter bunny away like he did last year.  So when I woke up in the morning (I waited for the stoplight in my room to turn green), I walked out of my room and saw a few Easter eggs.  When I picked them up, they jingled.  I opened one and there was "noisy money" inside.  Each egg had a different amount and combination of "noisy money" inside.

I began to look all over for eggs.  But first, I went out to the family room to grab something to help me carry all the eggs.

Poor Katie was still sleeping so I had a good head start on her.  I think she heard all the commotion and all the "noisy money" and came out to discover my basket full of eggs.  She helped me find the hard ones and the ones up higher than I could reach.  That Easter bunny sure can hide eggs up HIGH in our house. 

Grandpa Larry and Grandma Judy came over for a lazy Easter Morning breakfast.

After breakfast, Auntie and Katie worked on making my birthday cake.

Poor lazy Gus was humiliated because he had to wear the Easter bunny ears...

 

Then we got to go SWIMMING in our pool!!!  This was the first swimming day of the season.  My crazy Auntie was brave enough to take Katie and I in the pool and play with us.  The water was pretty chilly but I didn't care at all.  I had a BLAST!

And then, after all that fun in one day, we got to have BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

Natalie's 3rd Birthday party

Mommy and daddy got smart this year and held my birthday party at the "big big" park, which is really the City of Chandler park near our house.  After we went to my friend Griffin's party at the same park, mommy decided it was the way to go (they offer fantastic birthday packages for kids -- complete with pizza and bounce house -- and take care of all the setup and cleanup).

So I invited all my friends from school and lots of my friends from the neighborhood and friends I know through mommy and daddy's friends.  It was a great turnout and I think everyone had a lot of fun.  My Auntie Adrienne even came to the party!!!

Special thanks to Griffin's daddy for braving the bounce house and helping
all the kids dunk on the basketball hoop inside.

 

 

 

After the party I came home and took a really BIG girl nap.  When I woke up, mommy said I could open all the presents that my friends brought to the party for me.

 As I opened my presents, I hung any clothes I got up on the nails we ususally hang our Christmas stockings from.  In the photo below: pretty new birthday dress from my Grandpa Husker, jammies from the De Marrs and day of the week panties from my Auntie Adrienne.

 After all the presents were opened, we had dinner and played outside.  I wanted to eat my dinner in the garage while daddy worked on fixing the window in his big white truck.

It was a great birthday party!!!

Big sassy eater

Natalie tells this piece of toast what she thinks...