Macaroni the Pony

I have a "cute" attack every time I see this little guy!!

My Gift

I've been drooling over the Apple TV for a while now...and I got one!

I'm not much of a TV watcher but when I want to watch something it's usually not on.  I also am totally hooked on Australian TV shows.  Sitting at my iMac isn't horrible, but it's not the most comfortable place in the house.  With this tiny gizmo, I can easily move it around - it's only about 5 inches square!  I have a streaming only subscription to Netflix and love all the stuff I can get to....


Slowly but surely I'm turning us into an Apple kind of family!

Christmas Crazy!

I'm starting to long for the days when the kids were babies and would sleep in on Christmas morning until 7.  This year they were up long before the "legal" time to come downstairs at 6:15.  I could hear them.  This isn't hard considering Equestrian Girl's bedroom is over ours and the door to the stairs was open which is right outside our bedroom door.  You can see in the pics that it's still dark outside the window.

Motocross Boy got some badly needed new pajama pants.  He lives in these things in the winter.  One of the joys of homeschooling - not having to get dressed to "go" to school in the morning!

Equestrian Girl kept seeing all these warm snuggly blankets at various stores and wanted one in the worst way.  This one took the cake.  It's like a lambskin on one side and mink on the other. Both are synthetics of course but man oh man are both sides soft!!

Motocross Boy looks happy with his new basketball.  His sister suggested this gift and it turned out to be a good one.

I don't think he could possibly look happier with this RockStar motocross sweatshirt.

And the excitement over the Wii was contagious.  We've all had fun playing with it.  Parents beat the kids in bowling the first night.  Second night girls beat the boys.  They laugh that I bowl EXACTLY like I do in real life - this really slow straight ball.  But I can honestly say that my accuracy is much better on the Wii.

These cute little Ugg-type boots were high on Equestrian Girl's list.  I think Abby the Wonder Dog liked them too.

It was a wonderful Christmas for everyone.  An hour after presents were unwrapped and the papers cleaned up, everyone was busy checking out their new stuff.  Equestrian Girl had her Wii out and was setting it up on the TV.  Motocross Boy took off with a new XBox game and was battling the bad guys. Scott got a new super-duper remote for the TV and spent the next couple hours figuring out how to program it.  Then gave it to me to do.  Go figure.

Merry Christmas!!!

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas!!

Sibling Love

I take a lot of pictures.  What I don't often get though is a picture of both of my children in the same place at the same time.  Getting them together and sitting still is like herding slimy cats.  Last night I was able to capture this brief moment of sibling togetherness.  Later on they spent several hours playing X-Box games laughing and having the best time.  It was musical and lovely.

Winter Trail Riding

Equestrian Girl and her friend went trail riding this afternoon in the brisk 25 degree weather.  It looks pretty dark like close to sunset but it was actually 2:00 in the afternoon!

They rode bareback to stay warmer.  Probably helps the horses from getting sweaty under their pads too which in turn keeps them warmer as well.

Tequila was looking around for Stanley afraid he was going to leave without her!

Later they came into the indoor arena and played around some more and "cooled" off their horses.  It was a good horsey day for the girls.

Every Big Girl.....

And most of us horse crazy big girls would love something like this awesome wall hanging for Christmas!

Every Little Girl...

I would have done anything for this bike when I was little!!  I mean seriously, wouldn't every little horse crazy girl love one of these if she couldn't have he real thing??

After the snow storm

This was early this morning - the sun was just coming up.  The temp is 11 and the wind chill is -3.  A lot of the snow has blown off the trees from yesterday's wet start but it still looks really pretty out.

This is looking south.  You can see Scott's tire tracks from late last night when he pulled out.  They say the total is 6 inches but I'd say it's closer to 4.

Looking north out towards the lake which is behind the big tree in the middle on the other side of the street.

Looking up, up, up at the giant pines in the back yard.  That play structure is about 10 feet tall to give some perspective.

This lonely tree is a giant too but not nearly as big as the others out back.

Hey Frankie!!!!

Pssst...hey Frankie?  I hear you gots a Blackberry Curve.  You craaaazy man you!  I have an EnV Touch - used it to take this oh so sexy picture of myself.  Meoooow Big Boy!!

Love,
Miss Kitty

For more on Frankie visit:  http://meadowcreekfarm-md.blogspot.com/2010/12/me-wanna-smartphone.html

Planning for Show Season

At the shows that last more than one day we usually get a tack stall.  More often than not, we share that tack stall with 1-2 other people but we've had as many as 5 sharing!  That's a lot of stuff.  Figure at least 2 saddles per horse if nobody brings a practice saddle, 2 bridles per horse, a show halter per horse, a regular halter, all the grooming products, all the show clothes, boots, and on and on.  We all have a multitude of hooks we use to get stuff up off the floor but we also have saddle racks, big Rubbermaid bins, hat cans, etc.  Lets just say it gets pretty crowded.  And messy.

I've been tack stall stalking at shows looking for a set up that I like but won't totally break my budget.  Everything I found and then looked at to buy was ridiculous.  Then I somehow stumbled onto a site that sold retail store displays based on a wire wall grid system.  Huh.  Looks one heck of a lot like one I saw that was specifically made for tack but cost a whole lot more!!

I was off and running with my fingers walking the web.  Here's what I came up with for $42.

All the attachments are held on with hooks.  The panels themselves will hang from hooks from the top of the stall walls leaving the floor space open.  We still need to add the hook on saddle racks that are about $19 each. but I'm so excited!!  This is going to work out so well to get so much of our stuff up off the floor making WAY more room!

Since I already had someone ask, HERE is a link to the place where I ordered everything except the saddle racks.  

2010 Great Lakes Motocross Banquet

This banquet was surprisingly nice.  It was held in the biggest auditorium at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort which is one of the nicest in Michigan.  The stage was huge - full size production stage flanked by gigantic screens on either side showing movie clips and the placings.  It was quite the production!

Motocross Boy on the left with a couple of his friends before the awards started.

You can't really see Motocross Boy in his picture but this was his class.  The bike on the left was given away in a raffle.  MB forgot to put his ticket in to enter...

The placings for the fall series.

These young boys were VERY interested in watching the pretty young announcer who was doing their "winner" interviews.  She's actually a motocross racer herself.

NOW you can kind of see Motocross Boy holding up his #14 with both hands.  

We've always wanted to be rock stars!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Reunions

Once upon a time there were 4 little girls that all lived in adjacent houses (and one little boy).  The little girls were all friends and all within 2 years in age.  The oldest and youngest (sisters) moved away but not too terribly far away.  Then the next oldest almost lost her daddy to a heart attack.  Before long the cold weather was just too much for him and they moved to Florida.  She's the little girl in the fuzzy pink swearer next to Equestrian Girl in the navy sweater.  Her nick name was Rose Bud.  Rose Bud came to visit last weekend!

Those cute little girls, then 4 and almost 6 are now almost 13 and 14 y ears old.

Motocross Boy still thinks of her as a sister.  

They used to be such great friends and they friendship rekindled instantly this weekend.

Rose Bud ended up spending the night but they started the evening with a rousing game of Monopoly.  

Teaching Consumer Math

One of the hazards of homeschooling is that you start looking for educational opportunities in just about everything you do.  We can be driving up north and the kids will ask, "How long until we get there?"  Normal parents would say, "Two hours".  Homeschooling parents would say, "Well, we are traveling 70 mph and it's 137 miles so how long do you think it will take us to get there?"  Sometimes just to be evil I'll throw in, "and if the train has 183 miles to go but is traveling at 80 mph - who will get there first?"  I think that's hilarious.  The kids don't.

I guess I never thought about it growing up since I was a product of the public school system but playing Monopoly is an awesome way to teach consumer math.  There's lots of addition and subtraction and plenty of opportunity to find that fine balance between having cash on hand and being a slum lord.  I mean land baron!

We started with a children's Monopoly game when the kids were pretty young but didn't play all that often. It was still really hard for Motocross Boy and his patience to sit through a game was just about 0.  Later we moved on to regular Monopoly but kept it at the cottage so we didn't play very often.  Recently I bought a new game and we broke it out on Thanksgiving after dinner.

Scott is considered the king of the game.  He always wins.  We work on ways to strategize into blocking him from becoming the land baron and squeezing every last dollar out of the rest of us.

Motocross Boy started out strong with a ton of cash on hand landing on Free Parking almost ever trip around the board (along with many troublesome trips to Jail) but he must have made it around 60 times before he finally landed on a property he could buy - Boardwalk.  He was very happy!  Then he made a critical deal in buying Park Place from Dad for over $2000.  This left him cash strapped and minutes later he was mortgaging both properties and was out of the game.

It wasn't long and I was out too having had to hand over all my money and properties to Equestrian Girl.  the head to head battle with Dad was viscous.  Thousands of dollars were going back and forth as they collected rents from each other on properties with hotels but Equestrian Girl was getting the lucky dice and landing on safe zones WAY more than Dad and in the end...she was the victor!

Riding Lessons on Thanksgiving

Motocross Boy hasn't sat on a horse in a very long time.  About 2 years I think and the last time wasn't a great experience.  This time was better!

Started out with a quick lesson from Sis on how to hold the reins while Stanley waited patiently.

And off they went at a walk...

Then to a trot and later a canter!

It was a pretty sweet brother-sister bonding moment!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving doesn't mean dressing up much when it's just the 4 of us for dinner but it does mean eating good food!

We started in late afternoon with some shrimp and cheese.

Daddy and daughter took time out for a hug.

And then the serious eating began.

With plenty of good drinks too!

Equestrian Girl made an awesome cherry jello that was just the right touch of cold tang to all the hot turkey foods.

The Pony Club

There used to be this TV show called The Pony Club that Equestrian Girl liked to watch when she was younger.  It was about 3 girls and their horses.

This is her version of the pony club.  These three girls were unstoppable at Spur this year and pretty much took the top 3 awards in every single pleasure class in 13 and under.  What was cool is that they are such good friends and were always proud of each other for doing well.  Slick Girl - in the middle - also rides the speed classes and took several championships there as well.  Irish Girl may very well have won the overall pleasure award if she had stayed for the last show - she was neck to neck with Equestrian Girl going into that last show.

Sadly, Irish Girl will move up to the 14-15 year old age group this year but I bet they still remain great friends!

Big Prizes

Equestrian Girl was really proud to win the over-all Pleasure Champion Award at Spur this year and we were proud of her too!  It's a pretty big accomplishment considering she was competing against ALL ages and many very good horses.

This tack trunk is WAY heavier than it looks.

What a proud smile!

This young man won the over all SPEED Championship award.  He got a set of pole bending poles and bases.  I heard he was really happy since he's been practicing with pvc pipes stuck in traffic cones.

Equestrian Girl and the Speed Boy.  She's 12, I think he's 15 or almost 16.