One day Natalie saw one of the older classes jumping off the diving board, and became obsessed with it (which I thought was funny since she was kind of scared of the water and hated putting her face in it).  On the last day, the three kids in her class got to jump too.  I was really surprised, but she came up smiling, then jumped a second time!

At three years old, it is pretty hard to be coordinated enough to swim with arms and legs at the same time.  Natalie got a lot of practice with the kick board and empty milk bottles (genius idea).  As you can see, she is all smiles in these pictures.  She gained so much confidence by the last day, she even let go of the side and floundered around a bit, whoops… thankfully she’s become practiced at holding her breath, and managed to come up not even sputtering.

She can float like this for 10 seconds! Hopefully we can get enough pool time to keep her skills up this summer.

The garden is in full swing!  Corn, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, various herbs, and a couple mystery seedlings that came up on their own.  We are super excited to make our completely homegrown, made from scratch organic salsa this year!

Natalie wears her swimsuit around the house and yard just because (“choose your battles” and all that).  We have yet to go to the pool or even play in the sprinkler this year, but don’t tell her!

Finding “roly-poly” bugs or pill bugs is a big thing for Natalie and her friends right now.  She is studying one in the photo below.  When she finds one she comes running to tell me excitedly, and wants me to put it in a jar and make a little home for it.  Don’t ask her to touch it though– guess she’s not much of a creepy crawlies person.

The other day I asked Natalie to write her name, and this is what she came up with all on her own:

Okay, so it may not look like much, but– the first letter is “N” (she really likes to write N’s but gets carried away sometimes), the second letter is “t” (obviously) and the third is “0″, which makes sense to Natalie because she pronounces her own name “Na-toe-lie” and routinely insists that there is an “o” in her name.

I asked her to do it again and she improved a bit on the N:

I know I’m just an overly excited parent, but I was really happy to see her little thought process playing out here. I’m sure sure she will be writing “Nata” (or maybe “Nato”?) before we know it.

She also likes to “i” and “w”, as seen here, along with more “t”. She has no interest in “a” for some reason.

PS- I promise there will be a Ben post soon, since he did have a birthday and all!

Well, this is a picture of how Natalie spent her first ballet recital.  She got a little nervous and didn’t want to go on stage, but it’s okay (though I think she regretted it later when her class came on and she knew the dance!).  Natalie has learned a lot of ballet steps since beginning the class though, and gave us a personal recital afterwards.  Perhaps there will be more performances in her future.

Natalie had her birthday on March 1, after months of anticipation.  Check out that straight-out-of-bed hair she is sporting on her birthday morning!  Her special request was a donut for breakfast.

After breakfast we let her come out to the patio and find her gift, a playhouse.  She and Ben love it and play very nicely together inside!

Three year olds are so much fun!  Natalie has an amazing imagination.  In this picture she is completely in her own world.  That stick is actually a fishing pole and she is going to “catch a whopper” with it.

She is also becoming a great helper, happy to assist in any chore.  The other day she climbed up on the counter and peeled two whole heads of garlic for me all on her own, which was actually extremely helpful to me through the following week!

Natalie started ballet classes back in January and is learning so much!  It has been wonderful to see how well she listens to the teacher and participates in the class.  As soon as she puts that outfit on, she is completely in character!  Her first recital is coming up, so that should be quite entertaining!

I hope this gives you a little peek at what Natalie is like right now… she is so very lovable and we are looking forward to everything her next year holds!

Natalie and Ben are becoming fast friends… mostly.  Ben adores his sister, but sometimes she gets frustrated trying to play with him.  The other day I reminded her to be kind to Ben and not push him.  She responded cheerfully, “I’m not pushing him, I just want to poke him in the eye!”

Don’t worry, this is a genuine hug happening!

The bathroom is Ben’s favorite playground, he takes every opportunity to sneak in.  Tearing toilet paper into tiny pieces is actually one of his least mischievous bathroom activities.

Natalie and her girlfriends are already putting Ben to work and he is only too happy to help out!  He is tiny but he can push them around in the little wagon.

Here’s just a cute one of Nata and her BFF Bekah cozied up watching a movie in my bed on a cold and rainy morning!

This recipe for Lemon-Vanilla Tart with Candied Lemon Slices was found in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine  and promised to be “Sunshine by the Slice”.  It was a nice treat in the middle of a very gray week.  So good and tangy and simple, I highly recommend it.  Though if I do it again I might try it with a different pastry, I like a thicker and sweeter crust.

Coloring is Natalie’s favorite rainy day activity.  We went through an unbelievable amount of paper last week.  She especially loves these princess coloring pages.  She’s starting to get the concept of staying in the lines, but truly her favorite thing is watching ME color and directing me what to color next!   Fortunately for her I think coloring is relaxing and I had extra time on my hands last week, so we had nice times together.

We have three rules about crayons:

1. No snapping crayons in half.

2. No tearing the paper off crayons.

3. No dropping crayons on the floor or Ben will eat them.

We make Natalie repeat them to us and it’s always so funny to hear her say them.  She tends to forget numbers 1 and 2 (she seems to have an uncontrollable urge to do those things), but is VERY concerned about #3.  “Ben will eat them ALL GONE!” she says.  Yes, he really will.

I drag Ben’s high chair into the middle of the kitchen so he can watch me cook and clean while he eats snacks or plays with toys.

Natalie hangs out at the table painting, coloring, or doing playdough.  Or eating snacks.  Did I mention how much my kids like to snack?

Not from the same day I but I wanted to show it anyway… they had so much fun discovering this new playhouse.  They are playing together, or at least alongside each other, a lot these days!

My kitchen creation of the day was these red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, from scratch of course.  The frosting was rich but so yummy!   I disapprove of store bought frosting (inherited that one from mom).  The special occasion was having my girlfriends over for dinner.  I made Fancy Macaroni (with 4 types of fancy cheeses) and it was a hit!  Notice the empty plates.

Every year at the McLaughlin family party there is a Santa, who hands out gifts that each parent brings for their own kids.  In the future we plan on telling Natalie that Santa is not a real person but a fun tradition based on Saint Nicholas, however this year I don’t think she could quite comprehend that.  In any case, she was SO EXCITED.  I thought she was going to be too shy to go up and claim her gift, but no!  She knew just what to do.  Yes, her present was the strangest looking one.  And no, its not a mop.

She loves her pony, who has gone through a variety of names, including Carol, Noni, Pink Mr. Ed, Rudolph and Pink Texas. Such typical Natalie.

Here’s all the McLaughlin cousins.  Nata had such a fun time dancing and singing with the other little girls.  She is very friendly and gets along easily.  She was a little worried that the baby next to her was going to touch her stick pony, though, and kept inching away while we were taking pictures.

I think this is such a cute picture of Natalie with my sister Laura!

We came home late that night, and while we were putting Ben to bed, Natalie made up a little bed for herself and her pony on the couch.  Isn’t that sweet?