Dresses and school

Erin suggested checking Lands End for dresses on clearance, and I ordered a bunch for Natalie (I ordered more than I intended so I wouldn't pay shipping!)  They arrived today and I took them into Natalie's room while Lukas and Konrad were playing a train game on the computer.  Natalie was overjoyed!  She tried on all the dresses, one by one, and loved it.  Here's a little video of her checking herself out in the mirror.  She is such a girly-girl!



Then after quiet time, I thought it would be nice to have a practice walk to Natalie's new school for the fall.  Since she's going to gen-ed kindergarten, she will attend our neighborhood school and not ride the bus to a special ed class.  The school is about half a mile from our house, and, as I expected, Natalie didn't want to walk...she wanted to ride the stroller.  I told her if she walked to the school, she could ride the stroller home.

Here we are, all ready to head out.  Lukas pushed Dominik the whole way there.  Natalie's in one of her new dresses.  Konrad also walked the whole way.  This was a unique walk for us, because usually the older three kids ride their bikes/trikes when we go for a walk, but I wanted Natalie to not be the only one walking.

This is what she wanted:  to ride the stroller.  And she did, on the way home.

Natalie had fun looking through the fence at her future playground, and then we turned back.  I plan to do this several more times before school starts.  I'm even thinking ahead to how this will help her walking stamina.  I know she can walk more than a mile...she just doesn't want to.  But with walking to school almost every day, and hopefully also walking home from school each day, she'll have more walking practice on a regular basis than she's ever had.  And that should really help her hiking ability (our family hikes!)  Go Natalie!