West we travelled.....

We Came West


We Visited & Made Memories


We Returned East

....Pooped!


More to come....

Inspired by "Degas"

Following in the footsteps of her older sister, and her nieces, this young gal has become very inspired by the artist otherwise known as "Degas". His painted depictions of lovely and dainty ballerinas dressed in their fineries has enticed her, actually excited her to someday, be (at least look) just like them. She's become encouraged and motivated, with the odd thought of perhaps, becoming an expressive dancer someday herself, worthy of winning the inclusion into the prestige status of "PrimaBallerina", though truly she knows nothing of what that would entail at this moment.

For now at her young age, a crossroads of sorts has led her out of the more recreational ballet , and into the wonderful world of the mandatory stretching and barre work, exams in the spring, simple competition with other energetic young dancers, allowing for a healthy bit of peer pressure, if only, for the advancement into proper ballet positionings and steps. ("Gotta do it right you know mom"; she says...wink) The mirrors allow the gals to catch glimpses of their turn-outs, body positions in general and of course, their radiant and beautiful smiles.

All the ballet movements are wonderful and so very graceful, until...they put on their tap dance shoes for the next class. Incredible chaos then ensues making a parent wonder how it can be their little darling exited one dainty class, only to then become clod hopping, noise making, long legged monkeys jumping up and down, slapping those noisy shoes onto the floor in the next class.

And on that note, she's been given a little booklet of the Degas ballerina stickers (Dover publishing company) to add to her sticker collection, so maybe she'll remember the way a dancer should be poised with gentleness. heehee

With pink skirt floating around her legs like the movement of delicate fluffy clouds, she tiptoed to the end of her new dance classroom for this picture on her first day back in class. Oops, no outdoor shoes were allowed, but did this deter her? Nope....

"But mom, these are my NEW church shoes!" "Aren't they clean enough?"

Gifts of summer practised...as preached.

Practising what I preach is at an all time peak these days.

The "gifts" of summer are still upon us,
naturally at hand for the enjoyment for all.

Today, we were eager to get outdoors and suck back some breezy air.

Don't you wish you were here with us?

Flippity Flop

Off to our favorite

Beach Spot

My new towel, my very own!

Sand and Surf

Daddy flipflops

Mommy flipflops

Sonny flipflops

Gal flipflops

Bunny flipflops

Baby flipflops


Nest treasures

Builders

Splish splash

These eyes!!! The FLY

Digging deep

Mermaid sculptures

I want one of those....someday

Rest time

Skipping rock collection

His and Her new towels

Imagine that - Hawaii?

The trickle effect

We've become accustomed to finding our children curled up with their beloved markers or colorful crayons, little artists that they are, seeing their hands clasped with a lovely color gently stroking, brushing to and fro, horizontally and vertically over a blank white piece of a paper, totally absorbed in their artistic endeavors.

As in my last post, give a child a new package of colorful artistry supplies, and...

"You've got color"!

Give a child new crayons and even Dad gets involved

...................................................

Then son tries tries to copy Dad's work

Then daughter joins them to create this lovely frog princess

(Pssst....And...she didn't even know about the all new
"Stampin up - Frogettable stamp set" in the artsy rage, now on at Karina's house!)

And a ceremonial flower presentation to mommy

Guess what the latest still is in hot fashion here?

What else? MARIOooooooooo

Goodbye my horse friends

The horse our younger daughter had at her lesson on the right,
and the smaller horse she was supposed to get on the left.

Maybe this week...hopefully she'll ride it.

"Rocky" and "Chester"

The horse camp's weekly duration has come to a close.

Truly a happy camper emerged at the end of this day, though first, she preferred to continue completing the barn sweep duties awaiting "someone" to volunteer to get it done.

One long stroll through the hallways of the barns afterwards, for giving personal goodbyes to each individual horse, by name, at their stall doors was in order, with little tidbits of information given on each by our horse camper attendee, as we followed along behind her.

Still love this horse!

Grabbing her reference book with accumulated quizzes and informational material given over the course of the week, her lunch bag, and last of all, her brand rope lead (for hooking up to the horse halters) she crafted and braided with its hook attached on its end. Her lips slowly twitched and then began to smirk at their corners, with a lovely smile eventually appearing, radiating in fact from her face, knowing this isn't really the end, as she would be back for a shorter riding lesson next week.

Yes, she was smitten now, especially when she found out seven of the horses in the barns were actual thoroughbreds, sometimes taking part in “the sport of kings”, racing or showing in horse shows. Perhaps there’s no turning back on this wonderful experience for her. She even found courage to offer her barn service duties next week, or for future possibly opportunities.

Poop and scoop 101 right in the hay feed

Oh, and the day wouldn’t be complete without mentioning an incident leaving the riders quite anxious and flapping about. A rat had made its way through the barn and into the riding ring this afternoon, swaying strangely and zigzagged about, moving sloppily here and there, as the effects of the rat poison it had dined on, slowly began overtaking its system. A dog caught sight of it and grabbed it in his mouth until a hired hand discovered the gross rodent in his mouth. Disgusting! Just as the rodent in “Charlotte’s Web” had tunneled and meandered about in the story, so too, had this pesky rodent had been hiding, moving swiftly to gather food and nesting within the horse stalls. At long last, the instructor shouted for glee, though a body bag duty now awaited her on her list of priorities.

My horse for two days = "Allie"

Also, did you know young ponies can have a biting problem, an intolerance to other breeds so intense, it continues to bite and bite at a horse's skin until it breaks the surface and blood oozes? One horse boarding in a stall was just that sort of culprit, necessitating the owner to take the whip to it to cease its damaging tantrum. The horse victim was literally having its wounds licked medically all week long, and what a horrible mess he was in.

Poor horse "Dan", bitten by a pony with a biting problem