It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

School starts back up tomorrow and can you guess what we spent our day doing? Getting haircuts! OK, just Nate, but after I tried to style his hair and he looked a little too much like Robert Pattinson, I did make sure he got a haircut this morning. The highlight of the day was riding horses! Karen's parents own two of the sweetest ponies ever and invited my kids over to spend some time on their little mini-farm.

Ellie may have been the first to actually get on a horse, but she definitely wasn't the bravest of the day. Please note her "I'm Going to Die" smile. She got really good on the ponies and even was able to get on herself by the end. That's my cowgirl! Not so brave when I put her sister up there with her. Sadie's problem was being TOO brave. We put her on a pony and off she went without even holding onto the saddle, so she ended up having to always ride with another person.

Nate had no desire to ride the horses until I put him up there and then he was HOOKED! Nate is pretty well known for despising animals and nature in general, but he LOVED their house. He was climbing treesfeeding chickens out of his hand even HOLDING the chickens

Sadie, on the other hand, is well known for her adventurous spirit, so she had no problem getting down and dirty with the animals from the minute we got there. She spent a lot of time mooching rides with the other kids And when she couldn't ride the horses, she rode the dog. I was worried about the chickens' safety, though, since the first thing she did was grab their little faces.

My kids favorite part was doing "The Trick." Basically while on the pony, you ride under a bar and grab onto it. While the pony keeps going, you slide ride off her back and fly through the air with the greatest of ease.
The first few times required a little assistance, but by the end the kids were doing it all by themselves! One time Nate was just hanging there because we forgot he needed help getting down.
At the end even Karen and I went for a little ride. Except the ponies were a little tired and spent most of the ride trotting us back to the barn. Also, I am allergic to horses. REALLY REALLY allergic and I looked like a swollen strawberry by the time I got home. Time to shower.

Thanks for the fun day guys!!!