summer rewind: for the love of a horse

i can't remember when caroline's love of horses began, but i can tell you that at any given moment, she can be found drawing horses, reading about horses, playing horses, talking about horses, building stables for horses with legos... you get my point. so when i heard about a somewhat local stable having an open house way back in the summer, i knew she would jump at the chance to go. we invited her sweet friend madelyn, and we headed out to the farm.


we were greeted by a long stable full of beautiful horses, and the girls wasted no time meeting the gentle friends.



a couple of fellow homeschoolers have horses that are boarded at this stable, so it was fun to say hi to their horses!

after getting acquainted with the horses, caroline and madelyn each grabbed a tack box and were ready to work!


first order of business was to brush the horses... there were several different brushes they used... hard, soft... that's about as technical as i remember. :)




next, they dug poop out of the horse's feet. there was an actual term for this process, but let's just call it what it is, shall we? i think madelyn opted out of this activity, which was completely understandable.


and finally, the moment the girls had been waiting for: time to ride the horse!


here is the stable owner, amy, preparing caroline to mount guinny, her horse.


and she literally handed over the reins to caroline!


as amy walked caroline and guinny around the ring, she taught caroline how to use the reins to guide guinny.



caroline was kind of having a good time.


love this one of caroline listening with the red barn in the background.


then amy unhooked the lead rope, and my little girl was riding this horse all by herself.


she also put on the brakes all by herself.


this one is my favorite. check out that look of concentration.


ok, i like this one, too. i never expected her to get to ride the horse all by herself. i think caroline was just as shocked!


on top of that giant horse, my little 6 year old looked so big, yet so small.



madelyn was also excited about riding a horse, but when it came time for her to saddle up, she was a bit hesitant. amy was so great with madelyn, gently encouraging her to give it a try.


madelyn stayed on the horse...


and before long, she and guinny were walking around the ring!


i was so happy to see this girl smiling on that horse!


and she just kept smiling. :)


the girls hated to say good-bye to the horses, but the offer of a cold treat made it a little easier to leave the stable.


wanna see more pictures of sweaty kids on horses? never fear... madelyn decided to have her birthday party at the stables in july, so we will head there soon enough. just hold your horses!

summer flashback: my birthday

for my birthday back in june, we took the kids to a hibachi grill for the first time. we got off to a fantastic start when the kids' waters came complete with really cute straw decorations!



there's just something that makes your water taste extra special when there's a 3-d paper fruit hanging from your straw!


next came the soup. my kids are not real big "soup fans" in the first place, so i wasn't expecting them to jump up and down at the sight of brown broth with some mushrooms and scallions floating in it. but ethan and caroline surprised me! they took a few slurps and still had smiles on their faces!


it wasn't long before the hibachi guy came out to do his stuff. wow, he looks pretty mean here.


i tried to take a picture of him lighting things on fire. i am super proud of this shot.


the kids loved his show, especially the part where i was the only one to catch a pea in my mouth, and the guy yelled "big mouth!"... some things never change. :)


i did get another chance to document fire, and the pictures turned out a little better this time!


behold, the favorite... the onion volcano!


my kids all liked the zucchini, too! amelia and hallie especially scarfed it down. i have been roasting it at home since!


and this was my birthday dinner! yum. double yum.


here is photographic evidence of my finicky four-year-old trying new things! happy birthday to ME!


hallie kept grabbing for my fortune out of my fortune cookie, so i cracked up when i read what was printed on the little paper: "what you seek is within your grasp." yep!


here we are... one big happy (and very, very full!) family!


the kids could've stood looking at this fishtank for another hour.


so next year for my birthday, we will get fast food for a fraction of the price and then go stare at fish in the pet store. ha!

for my birthday dessert, we all picked out a cookie from the cookie company. you can't tell, but mine is a gluten free, fat free, calorie free cookie made only out of kale, coconut oil, and grass-fed beef. well, besides the thick layer of perfect icing in the middle. ;)


love this shot of amelia and her "happy birthday" cookie, a new recipe that the girls both chose. we all agreed it looked better than it tasted.


the kids really did love the hibachi experience, and they agreed that we definitely needed to go back soon. we told them that the last time we ate there was for my birthday 8 years ago... when i was super pregnant with ethan. so we joked and said we'd come back in another 8 years, and it hit me that ethan would be driving then. wowzers!

it was wonderful to celebrate my birthday with my crew. i am beyond blessed!

the cutest mess!

here's a quick commercial break from my summer rewind... i couldn't help but grab the camera tonite as we enjoyed our spaghetti dinner. as you can see, hallie is growing up and, while she has indeed mastered the sucking down of the pouch now, she has moved on to newfound messes!


feeding herself is a beautiful milestone-- freedom for the both of us! i will gladly clean up the aftermath if it means eating my dinner without spooning out baby food in between bites. little miss messy face happily scarfed down her veggies and then went to town!





you would think that surely hallie was full! but nope! she signed "please" like crazy... who knows how much spaghetti she would have eaten if we hadn't cut her off there!


hallie went straight to the bathtub after dinner and was clean as a whistle in no time! love this girl and her smiles!!

summer flashback: father's day

we celebrated father's day this year at brian's parents house! adorable sign courtesy of my amazing sister-in-law. :) my kiddos are blessed to have a daddy, a pappy, and a papa who love them like crazy and think they are pretty awesome. the feeling is mutual, i can guarantee you!


this post truly calls for a heart-spilling paragraph about how much these dads each mean to me...and they do mean a lot to me. but we are pushing october here, folks.

moving on. :)

the kids climbed on my dad's lap for a picture, but we failed to do the same with brian or his dad... not sure how that happened! so dad, you got the grand prize for father's day!:) and hallie's thinkin, "where's my prize!?"


father's day fare included these mouth-watering, fall off the bone ribs! yum yum yum. i think we need to have these again soon! we honored the guys by letting them grill their own lunch. they did a fantastic job.


ethan was so excited to get a sneak peek at dessert.


adorable cupcakes courtesy of.... yes, my amazing sister-in-law. i think the only thing i brought to this lunch was my appetite!


my dad and ethan especially liked the golf cupcakes.


my father-in-law is a downright funny guy, and he always gets a kick out of silly cards. what is on the front of that card? no, it's not a picture of a big, big man in his underwear. no, no, we are much too refined for that.


see?! he's still laughing! i love this one. :)


like father, like son, like son!


we loved spending this day with our grandmothers, too!


thanks to brian's parents for a wonderful day, thanks to kristie for her cute little celebratory details...


and thanks to God for the gift of these men!


we are blessed!

hang on, fall!

is it really possible that the entire summer flew by without a single blog post? brian sighs a big sigh every time i blog about blogging. but i feel like i owe my (3) readers (well, 7 if you include my kiddos who will surely visit this page and read about their childhood one day) some sort of explanation. my excuse is 5 words long. ethan, caroline, amelia, and hallie. yep! my days are filled to overflowing with their giggles, stories, requests, hugs, kisses, tears, questions, and smiles. (and add in hallie's hilarious gibber-jabber that will just make your day.) they are my reason for blogging, and now they are my reason for never blogging. however, i refuse to give up on this enjoyable and convenient medium for preserving the memories that matter to me... i refuse for tenlittletoes to be yet another journal that is 1/3 written in, 2/3 blank. i have a whole box of those from the years gone by. i am determined to continue to chronicle the important and not so important happenings in the lives of the 40 little toes that run circles around me day in and day out. so don't give up on me! i thought that i would surely catch up on summer by the end of september, but here we are with pumpkins and candy corn and trips to the farm just around the corner. so it is my goal to do a whirlwind catch up of our summer. i know most of us here in florida have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of some cooler weather.... but if you just wanted summer to last a liiiiiiittle while longer, then this is the place for you! put down your pumpkin-flavored coffee, grab your swimsuit, and come on in! the water's not too cold yet!

1-2-3-go!