Princess Wear

Now really...how could I pass that up?! :)

View From Out Front

I can only imagine what passers-by must think of my children! :)

Mommy's Girl

Daddy was working a day shift this past Friday, so I dropped the boys off at school and took the girls with me for morning farm duty. I pulled the truck up to the barn, rolled down the windows, and started a Tinkerbell DVD for them. But I kept noticing that Big Sis, who usually loves her girly movies, was ignoring Tink completely and staring longingly out her window. She beamed with excitement when I made the offer to let her help me take care of the horses! I captured as much of her adventure as I could on my cell phone cam. :)

She didn't give a second thought about dirtying her pink "crocs" and went right to work delivering clean buckets to Dakota's stall.

...and filling them.

I didn't think a princess would be interested in the poop scooping part, but she was eager to help. I gave her a just-her-size scoop, and she happily scurried back and forth from the sawdust trough sprinkling fresh bedding in all the stalls.

After all the stalls were spic and span, I mixed up each horse's grain/supplement combo and gave her the scoops to help deliver breakfast. She gave it her best effort! ...She required a bit of a boost.

Then it was on to ring the breakfast bell. Okay, it's not really a bell. But rather a loud shout out to the pasture, "H O R S E S!"
And in they came!

She was delighted to see Cowboy devouring the breakfast she'd made him!

She climbed up on his gate to watch him eat and informed me that, "It so yummy!"

Great job Sis...you're a big helper!
And a girl after my own heart! :)

Almost Two Wheels

It's about that time...and Boogie B is losing the training wheels! He was a little nervous at first, but quite a go-getter about it all.

He got the hang of the take-off right away.

Continuing to pedal on the other hand, not so much.

The last try of the day...

He's starting to lean to the right, but notice, Daddy isn't holding on!!!

Great effort Bug!

You'll be on two wheels in no time!

Boy Humor

Biggest Brother came home from school today with a reading assignment about the Statue of Liberty. And I just had to take a minute and offer everyone a glimpse into the mind of a 1st Grade boy...

What about the Statue of Liberty could possibly be so entertaining to a 7yo?

I decided to take an extra minute and let Brother help me look up some additional facts about this great monument...for educational purposes.

We learned that the Statue was a gift to the United States from France. And that's about all we learned. Because after that, he was wrought with uncontrollable giggles at the mere mention of France - and inevitably, "I see London, I see France, I see the Statue of Liberty's underpants!"
Boys!!!

Excavation Station

Grandpa G got this excavation kit for Biggest Brother. I told him that we would find time on a weekend to do it together. He is very interested in fossils and dinosaurs these days, and has been highly anticipating our excavation date!

We had the perfect weather to set up our excavation site on the driveway.

The kit comes with a chisel, brush, goggles, and block of cement/sand or something like that. And inside it are all of the bones to make a model dino skeleton once they have been extracted.

As with real excavation, it was a long and delicate process...

...but he was loving every minute of it.

It took us the better part of the afternoon. And we both ended up a little sunburned, but it was actually a lot of fun!

The first full extraction!

We put all of the bones into a bucket of water to soak the remaining sand off of them. And we are still soaking a couple smaller blocks in search of one or two remaining pieces. I will post a picture of the final product once he gets it all assembled.

Thanks Grandpa G...that was fun!

"Where have all the flowers gone..."

"...Young girls picked them, every one."

Full Steam Ahead!

Aha! What is that futuristic device you say?

That would be my new external hard drive...aka a whole lot of storage to make my computer one happy camper! And not only that, but I have just received Photoshop as well!!!

The practical translation?

365 Maze Days as it used to be, will be once again!

I now have the ability to resize photos, and a cleaned off computer with which to post them!

Stay tuned as we return to regularly scheduled programming, already in progress.

Thoughtfulness and Creativity

Rewind to this past Monday...

This is a picture I took Monday of Younger Brother being "helpful". He is a very tenderhearted, intuitive kid. And I know he can tell it's been a difficult week for me. After bringing me every dandelion he could find in the backyard, he decided to "wash" the windows. His intentions were so sweet, I never did have the nerve to tell him that washing the windows with dirty sandbox water on a sponge wasn't exactly helpful! :)

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Who knew that dirty window would account for so much entertainment four days later?!

Friday was a pretty gloomy day outside. But Younger Brother and Big Sis discovered that a bench, two paintbrushes, rainwater, and a dirty window add up to tons of rainy day fun!

They "painted" tracks on the window for at least an hour!

Well done guys! You are thoughtful, and creative!

Mobile!!!

It's been a long time coming, but Littlest Sis is now officially on the move!

Way to go Sis!!! We knew you could do it!

Saying Goodbye

This past Sunday I said goodbye to my childhood horse, life-long companion, and dear friend. She was a valiant little horse, and gave her all to me even unto the moment of her passing. She was loved abundantly and will be missed tremendously! I will post a better tribute for her as soon as I'm able.

*****

Your hoof print will be always on my heart, sweet girl...We Love You!