Fourth Ride

We headed to Aintree Farm after school on Friday for HG’s favorite activity of the week- riding Beanie Baby! She woke up with a bit of a cough/cold this morning, so she wasn’t 100% but still gave it her best. We started off with a few tears (proof she didn’t feel good) because I wanted her to wear the pants and boots Ms. Jody gave her, and she didn’t dig the style. Hard times of being 5 and fashion forward. But the smile returned when she got inside. She got to paint Beanie Baby’s toenails (who knew?!), played a game where she got to draw smiley faces on the barn walls as she rode from corner to corner, and learned to do the ‘Around the World’ saddle trick (see video).

 

Addie’s 1st Children’s Museum

Helen Grace woke up Saturday morning and wouldn’t stop asking to go to the Children’s Museum, and she wanted to take Addie along with her. Since it was a million degrees outside, something indoors and with a sprinkler park sounded like a great idea. Thankfully, CB and Emmy were up for the adventure, so off we went after lunch. The girls ran and ran from room to room as HG showed Addie around, and we rounded out the afternoon by cooling off in the sprinklers (well, at least HG, Addie, and Emmy did!). We will definitely be back over the cooler months to come.

Toohig Tidbits

HG wanted to try reading nursery rhymes on her own at bedtime. I was prompting her with, “Little Bo Peep has...?” She responded, “A problem?”

“HG, what’d you do at school today?” “Chased boys!!!”

“Now we’re talking!”

She’s determined that she is magical and is intensely worried about hurting her friends’ feelings when they realize they are not magical.

“Mama, it’s not ‘martian.’ It’s ‘artian.’ It’s okay. I know it’s a big word.”

She was telling me about watching Land Before Time at Grandma’s, and she said the baby was ‘sep-apart’ from his mama.

Walking from building to building at school, her class found a cicada buzzing around upside down. She said, “I almost had a heart attack!”

“I can’t believe I’m going out in public like this!”

She heard William say something to the effect that ‘it flies in the face of everything,’ and she piped up with, “We have a lot of those here- last night we had two in the house!”

On the ride to school, she was in the backseat talking to her pretend boyfriend on her pretend phone, setting up her first date. “My mom is going to kill me!”

We’ve hit a bit of a wall about journaling at school and had our first day of ‘I don’t want to go to school.’ I emailed her teachers to let them know, and when she came out of school that day, she said that it was the best day ever. “The only tears I had were happy tears!” (Although she later recanted that she had ever cried. Regardless, I am so impressed with her teachers for turning it all around!)

She’s picked up Mrs. Mungle’s “Work that brain!”

 

We found Blue stuck in the tub with his big brothers just sitting on top laughing at him. Of course, we rescued him- after we took some quick pics! While sharing an after school cupcake, I noticed that our eyes are pretty much the same color of blue. She’s obsessed with her new purple flower headband. She made this sign for Halloween…First UNO game- she made it through one and a half games. Perusing Bubba’s jewelry box for clip on earrings Monster bubble bath… …that Blue couldn’t resist. Second night in a row that the cat jumped into the tub. He has a water problem! Can you believe this cuddle happened?!?!?! I just came across this video from winter time that I don’t think I’ve shared. Dancing to Frozen was a nightly occurrence for several months. So cute.

Third Ride

This past Friday was HG’s third riding class, and she was ecstatic to show Spiffer and Granddaddy what all she loved about it. She dragged them around the barn saying, “Look!” She learned how to do an emergency dismount, jumping off the horse while it’s moving (see the end of the video), and also did more bareback practice for balance control. She’s still madly in love!

Fall soccer at SAA has begun, and unfortunately, practices fall right after horseback riding on Friday afternoon. I guess a benefit of that timing is that no one notices our barn scent in the 95+ degree temps, right? She was quite a trooper, and we met Daddy for Chick-fil-A after practice to celebrate. She sure earned that ice cream cone, and she’s still very much interested in pursuing both of these hobbies (and dance too) so we’ll do what we can to keep up with her!

 

Emmy’s 30th Birthday

On Saturday, we celebrated Emmy’s 30th birthday around her pool. While it was a toasty afternoon, we had a great time cooling off in the pool and snacking on Gus’s fried chicken. The boys played corn hole (duh), and HG helped John strategize his game. We loved ushering Emmy into her 30s surrounded by family and friends and lots of laughs. Here’s to another great year, Emily!