This year she wants to go as a fairy. Surprise!

My apologies to the faithful who have been checking this page over the last few months and finding nothing new. I'll try to post more regularly.

It's been a fun and busy few months for Annabel. Some things haven't changed a bit: Her favorite past time remains dressing up as a princess and living the fabulous life. Yesterday, for example she wanted to wear a hat to school so that she looked good for her morning tea party with her friends. Today she dressed up as princess Cleopatra, whom she discovered on a recent episode of her new favorite TV show, the Backyardigans.

She is also looking forward to Halloween. This year she wants to go as a fairy. Surprise!

In some other areas, she is progressing noticeably. She is getting more and more comfortable with technology, for example. She now regularly requests computer games as a leisure activity and sometimes prefers them to television. She can write and type her name and she often asks to borrow my cellphone to take a pictures. When we were lost in the car last week driving around downtown Des Moines, she even offered from the backseat "We can google the map on your iphone, Daddy." (I am not kidding!)

Kristin and I have been looking at schools for her over the last few weeks, and it's been an eye opening experience. So far, we've only been to three schools. They generally speak a bit about the philosophy and then introduce you to the 8th grade class as if to show the finished product. It's incredible how much the 8th graders seem like such adult and how different the schools are from each other.

It certainly makes the school decision seem absolutely huge! We've been having a look at some of the research on public vs. private and on single sex vs. coed. And as if thats not enough to think about, Annabel's birthday happens to be only one week before the cutoff for the 2008 class, so if we send her next year she will be one of the youngest in the class, and if we wait, she will be one of the oldest. Stay tuned for more on this.

Last weekend, she and Gaby were flower girls in their aunt Heather's wedding. They both loved it, but it really made an impression on Annabel. The picture above is from the wedding as are several of the ones below.





This one is from an Iowa Pumpkin Patch.