weekend of fun

The fun started on Friday night with a potluck and family night at church.  Then throughout the weekend we enjoyed Jillian's first horse show, family visits and a halloween party!

The farm where Jillian does horse riding lessons had a horse show on Sunday morning.  Even though she's only had a few lessons Jillian was very excited to participate in the beginner section.  There were only a few other little girls in her age catagory.  We were so proud of Jillian, she did a fantastic job and came home with 1st (walk/trot/canter), 2nd (walk/trot) and 3rd place (single jump) ribbons!!  It was a freezing cold morning but still a great day to be outside and watch Jillian ride.

I absolutely love seeing Jillian in her riding gear, I think she's just about the cutest little rider I've ever seen

Jillian with her ribbons - so proud of my new little rider!

Nana came to stay over and join us at the farm.  She used to ride horses and is excited to see Jillian take up the sport.  We also had a visit from Aunt Tara, Uncle Bob and Brent for lunch. 

Later in the afternoon I headed out with Kyle and Leah.  Kyle's friend had arranged a Magic the Gathering tournament for the afternoon.  Leah's best buddy hosts a fun Halloween party every year and this year it was bigger and better than ever.  Leah decided on Rapunzel this year as her costume.  Fine by me because we already have the costume from Jillian last year.

the long hair braid from last year managed to survive a year of dressup playtime. I only had to fix it up a bit and shorten it to fit Leah.

and finally, thank you pinterest...I got some neat ideas for h'ween inspired treats

(even though mine don't look nearly as good as the ones on pinterest!)

programming skills

This is what Kyle likes to do on the computer.  He found a neat website called Code Academy (www.codeacademy.com).  So now after creating his own webpage, Kyle is picking up some programming skills.  Kyle is my little computer geek...I guess he takes after Jeff and me!

PA Day

 

No school for the kids today.  Kyle was off at Great Wolf Lodge with a friend and his family (who chose to take Kyle to GWL with their family instead of a birthday party!).  The girls and I had a nice relaxing day...baking pumpkin chocolate chip mini-muffins, having a picnic lunch while watching The Lion King and playing outside with the neighbours.

Afterwards it was time for Jillian's riding lesson.  Today was filled with firsts...first time wearing Nana's riding helmet (with added padding and adjusted straps it fits nicely), cantering around the whole arena, jumping her first jump and finally, her first fall...YIKES!  Jillian was at the far side of the arena and I could see her slipping down sideways as the horse was taking the corner.  Thankfully it wasn't a hard fall, she slipped sideways and rode that way for a few seconds before falling onto the ground as the horse stopped.  Thankfully today she was on a small horse.  As I was hyperventillating I could hear Jillian laughing and as she stood up she said "that was fun!"...crazy girl!  I was so proud of her for getting right back up on the horse without any hesitation.  Later in the lesson she started slipping again but managed to get a good hold on Shimmer's neck and got herself back into the saddle.  It was an exciting fourth riding lesson!

how to eat an apple in style

Leah enjoys an apple almost every morning while sitting on the couch catching up on the latest on the news (you know, what mischief Max has gotten himself into, how many dragons Mike the Knight has slayed...the usual).

 

I couldn't resist taking a picture of her the other morning when I saw her sitting in her princess dress and purple fairy wings. 

 

Now, that is how you eat an apple in style!

busy days

Stay at home mom?  Who came up with that title, because I'm a full-time mom and I feel like I'm hardly at home.  Between kid activities, volunteering at school and basic things like grocery shopping I feel like I spend more time in the van than at home.  Not that I'm complaining.  I love being on the go and having things to do.

 

That being said Leah and I do have some time when we hang out and make forts

Practice gymnastics using the couch and craft table

 

And posing with the new brown boots and her favourite purple sheep

fall fun part 2 - leaves!

 

Leaves - we live in a relatively new subdivision so we don't get a lot of them.  However, on the Thanksgiving weekend we went for a walk with my parents in an area with many beautiful mature trees.  The kids found this pile of leaves and we had to literally drag them away after a little while, they loved it so  much.  Gotta love something my 11 year old, 7 year old and 4 year old all enjoy together!

It was an overcast day which made for nice lighting.  I still had to adjust the brightness and contrast on all the pictures to get the colours to really pop (they looked pretty washed out in their original form).  And as with almost all my outdoor shots I increased sharpness.  You can see the leaves in motion are fuzzy in most of the pictures, I was in auto mode and it took a little while for me to think about switching to sport mode to get clearer shots.

 

fall fun

I love the fall...it's my favourite season.  School has started, the weather is perfect, the trees are pretty, what's not to love?

 

We visited an apple orchard on the weekend but there was no apple picking this year due to low crops (the trees blossomed early with the warm weather in March, the froze when the weather turned cold again). But there's still plenty to do on a farm in the fall...

hanging out with friends

Jillian missed our weekend farm trip because of a mystery fever.  All was well on Monday morning when we headed to yet another farm for her grade 3 field trip to learn about soil and do some experiments along with the wagon ride and corn maze.

Jillian with 2 of her bestest buddies

they've been in the same class for grades 1, 2 and now 3

After her field trip it was off to yet another farm for Jillian's riding lesson (if you are keeping count that's 3 farms in 3 days for me!).  The weather was so nice they rode outside which meant much better pictures than last time.  While I enjoy living close enough to the city to enjoy museums, art galleries and downtown life at times, I also love living close to this...

Leah hates dogs but she sure is loving the horses at the farm

 Leah had a turn riding on Boo with Jillian back to the barn

how many kids does it take to brush down a horse? 

If they are my kids it takes all three apparently.  I love that Kyle and Leah are enjoying spending time at the farm while Jillian is riding.  Kyle even gets to help Jessica out around the barn and getting the equipment ready.