Riding in cars with horses with the diva

Everyone who knows the diva knows her real love is for horses. It started with My Little Ponies, and has now festered into full blown mustangs, bay horses, stallions, jalopenos (palomenos) and so on. She eats with horse utensils (well ok maybe she would if I could find them.. so far it is just te kids meal cup from On the Border), she wears horse clothing, she sleeps in horse pj's, and at last count, she had around 20 stuffed horses.. ALL of which have some sort of food name, and ALL of which reside in her bed.



So after talking it over with the dad, we decided letting her "start" some horse lessons would be ok.. after all, she probably would not want to actually "ride" these great big beautiful creatures, they are a LOT different then her stuffed bedmates. So I called up a local (that would be a plus living down South.. the local = lots) horse ranch and found Mrs. Trisha, a rodeo barrel racer who also teaches lessons.. and will start as young as the diva.



"She may not want to ride them", I say hesitantly, "and remember, she is almost 3 so her attention span thus far is not all that long."

"It is fine, bring her over, we have lots of kids start off slow and then get more into it as lessons progress. Lets just see what she wants to do."



Ok sure, we shall see...

So we got dressed in our jeans and boots,

drove on over....



and








Meet Mrs. Trisha and Lillie (our new best friends). As you can see, the diva had NO issues whatsoever with attention, timidness, or anything having to do with horses. She listened to Mrs. Trisha as she went over how to brush the horsie, how to always let the horsie know where you are (so the horsie does not kick you), how to hold the reins, how to get the horsie to walk, stop, and turn..



Then we were introduced to Philly, a younger horse who I swear (except I don't) thinks she is a dog. No.. really.. a dog.. I personally think her name should be Cruella DeVille (hence the black/white mane hooves etc), but Philly suits her and everyone else just fine so I will keep my names to myself. She is MY favorite horse out there as she really does have the personality of a dog- she licks your face (no.. she did not lick mine) she plays fetch, tug o war, and she is just the friendliest horse I have ever met. The diva hit it off with her right away!

Along with her dog-like characteristics, Philly apparently likes Gatorade...

the grape kind best...

and did not care if a diva was attached to it or not...

The diva asks every day when we can go back. We have had two lesson and in two, the diva can now tell you every part of the riding gear, what each brush is used for, can get Lilly to walk and stop, and not only plays with Philly, but has the unheard of (or at least to the people who know these horses) relationship with a foal named Dublin (whom I will post more on later).

And I am not sure WHAT she had in her pocket but apparently Philly wanted some :)

*I just like her look...

To say she has a passion for horses would be an understatment :)

Course goes along with being a diva.. her passion would have to be something expensive!

A lesson with 12

Tuesday was a big day for Stellan. For those of you who don't know Stellan, you can read about him here . Stellan's mom asked everyone to pray for Stellan and to wear orange to support him.

So we wore orange that day and after talking it over with the dude... he thought it would be neat if the team wore orange wrist bands to show support for his new little friend. He even wanted to dedicate the game to Stellan and had the team sign a ball for him. I couldn't have been more proud of him!

Luckily I used to date the son of the lady who owns the local sporting goods store, and luckily the home team's colors do NOT contain orange... so she had plenty of orange wrist bands and quickly screen printed an S on each one for us!

But I wanted to share a few pics with you. I was humbled and awed by the response I got from our team. These boys are mostly 7.. some 8.. some 6 and yet as I was explaing Stellan's story to them, they ALL immediately took the bands without me ever getting to the part where I would "ask" them if they would support Stellan and pray for him.. they all WANTED to do this for him.. and they have never met him!

They all have brothers or sisters and pretty much ALL of them asked me at some point about Stellan's siblngs.. if they were ok, did they miss him? and talked about how they would feel if this were their little brother or sister.

I was blown away!




They dedicated the game to him, we prayed before the game that God would see to it that someday.. Stellan would play ball like they do. They played hard, and won.. with several of the boys hitting home runs and telling me "that was for Stellan"...

did I mention I was blown away?




You see, I would be the first one to tell you that my kids are getting to grow up in a GREAT city. One full of GOOD kids, parents who really take an interest in their kids and what they do and how they act and treat people (you know.. like we were all raised). But I will also be the first one to tell you that our society lends itself to more pop culture ideals and that a lot of times... religion, and who we should be giving respect to every day, gets put on the backburner for things like Nintendo DS gaming, Jonas Brothers concerts on our Ipod, or IM-ing friends that we just saw less then an hour ago.

NOT to say those things are bad.. they aren't, I will be the first one to admit that MY son will be going to the Jonas Brothers concert (and I am just as excited about it as he is as I LOVE them.. hehe), I own an Itouch and use it all the time, and the dude has a DS (and I wish I had one).. but it has been said time and time again that we live in a society of instant gratification and finding a balance is hard to do....

So it was refreshing to see these boys.. rally around someone whom they have never met, and to give praise and ask God to keep him safe.

The gameball that night went to Stellan, the boys all had to agree that by giving it to Stellan, that meant no one that night would get one as each game there is only one to give. There was not a single mumor of disagreement. It was signed and will be sent to Stellan. I think the boys rose beautifully to the occassion and I for one thanked God at that very moment, for letting these 12 boys remind us all of what is really important.

And if this is how our future will behave and react to things outside their control.. then I think our future looks pretty awesome!

At the Hop (hop hop)

Last Friday, the dude's school had what will probably now be an annual "sock hop"- yes this years PTO.. PTV.. PTA.. whatever it is they call themselves went above and beyond with this idea and I have to say this was a LOT of fun and a HUGE success! I myself did not plan on attending this event as the dude had a scheduled baseball game the same evening.. pretty much at the same time, but the sock hop Gods looked down upon us and opened the flood gates so that we could all attend (the dude's prayers had been answered as he REALLY wanted to go).

SOOO we doned our bobby socks (baby) and put on our old blue jeans.............there's a band playing down at the.. whoops sorry, got carried away there ;)

HAHA, anyway, here are a few pics from the event, I wish I had gotten more, but it was just too hard to carry the camera around, manuvering around all the "boppers" AND keep up with the diva. So I reluctantly put it away and focused on more important things -like coke floats, popcorn, and who could blow the biggest bubble (which I would have won had the diva not stuck her finger in mine thinking she would be funny.. plus I think the other kid got 2 pieces which as anyone knows.. gives WAY more elastaction for bigger bubble potential.. you know.. BBP)

;)

But here are some of the dude...


The dude's dance partner...

The diva needing to be in on the action ....

The dude and the dude's roll model, Cool Man H.. I seriously have taken cool pointers from this kid. He played on the dude's baseball team and the diva was (and honestly still is) pretty smitten with him.

So naturally, this pic would come next :)

I am kind of suprised she did not want to stand NEXT to him though.... :)

Better (a week) late then never

Well I figure a week late is better then never right? Somehow, Easter kind of slipped by me this year... I did not buy my kids cute matching Easter clothes this year (well ok, the cute matching clothes I bought them last year still fit), I did not load up my kids baskets with tons of sugar, in fact, there was very little candy in them.. and none left after only a week in our house. I did not buy eggs, hard boil them, buy egg coloring..and then send the dude off to hang out with friends while R played cards (ahem.. meaning the Easter bunny could not come till the dude ad R got home either), I did not remember to get carrots so instead, the bunny feasted on some grapes and blueberries as he left our home. I also did not get any goodies for plastic eggs so hurriedly found some stickers and scavenged through the change jar to secure coins and a few dollars for the egg hunt the next day (hey.. it all goes back into the jar anyway right?).....

But I did manage to get 2 years out of some well priced clothes and that rarely happens. I did save myself a few sugar highs this week (and maybe a cavity or 2 later). I did salvage the hard boiled egg dilema as the diva and I spent some time that weekend with my sister, her fiancee, and my mom, and colored eggs over there (thanks to the fact that my mom boiled enough eggs for an army).... which was fun for the diva and I. And the dude had fun with his friends and R managed to come away a few dollars ahead after the card game was over (or so he tells me). I did discover that the Easter bunny can survive without carrots (but will make sure to have those on hand next year). And I did see that even without all the fancy doings, you can still enjoy yourself... after all, Easter is not about the cute clothes you wear on Sunday, the sugar highs, the dying of eggs, what the bunny eats or what is in the eggs, it is a day to celebrate that Jesus has risen... and that we DID!

hehe.. and I did take this picture of my sister's dog, Scout with the diva's favorite horse... the diva did not think this was funny at all!


My mom's doggie.. Barkleigh

the egg dying process...

taught very well by Aunt Ashley to the diva

the diva giving it a go...

some finished products...

sigh.. I also discovered I have a LOT to learn about indoor photography where there is no natural light (and me being the stubborn one refusing to use auto or the flash)... so please excuse my sub-par attempt with the above... :)

Soccer Dude

Normally our Saturdays are spent on the soccer field, then the baseball field. The dude is VERY busy this time of year.. which is how he likes it (and the fast food places around town LOVE it as it makes it almost impossible for me to actually cook anymore). But here are some pics from the other days game...

guess you can pretty much figure out what our team name is huh? (heh-heh.. arghhh!!)

does he score??? I will let you be the judge ;)

the dude and this kiddo went at it the whole game.. gesh!

ok I am off to make lunches and edit more pics!

Lollipops, trees and divas (oh MY!)

Here are a few more pics from the other day's session with the diva. Course diva was not complaing too much since she got to have her choice of lollipops :)

Then she decided she wanted to climb this tree. So me, being the wonderful, mother-of-the-year I am, hoisted her above my head right into this little "nook" and said "DON'T MOVE!"

But then she started feeling more at home (I have always thought she was part monkey.. even though in this pic.. she said she was riding a horse)

My sweet girl :)

More diva pics soon- she had the best day ever (for her) the other day and I am excited for you to see.. but first I am gonna post some of the dude playing one of the many sports (we had a busy last 2 weekends playing baseball and soccer) and our Easter weekend! I just need about a week to edit.. ughhh

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter everyone! These were from this summer actually ( I know.. cheater..lol) but the diva got the chance to model this for Debbie of sugarbelle chic designs. And I couldn't resist sharing these with you :)

and this last one cause this is TRUE diva in action..