November update

Sophia turned ten years old on November 1st.  She had a party on her birthday at Build a Bear.  She had a great time with some really good friends.  She picked Olive Garden for her birthday dinner.  It was a great day.  Hard to believe she is ten years old already.

Sophia made her own cake for her birthday.  She did an awesome job.

This year's gift from China.  The character for love.

Sophia rode in the final Hunter/Jumper show of the fall series.  She did an awesome job.  She had a scare during the canter class of beginning equation.  There were fourteen horses in the ring and she was cantering between the fence and a jump when two other horses came from behind and cut her off. She had no where to go because she was up against the fence. Her horse spooked but some how did not buck.  Sophia stayed calm through the incident but then got upset when she was leaving the ring. She didn't want to go back in again.  Luckily the next class was a cross rails class which is done individually.  Her coach missed the run in incident and just sent her back in.  Sophia did an awesome job in the cross rails class and then even went out to do two other classes. She did verticals for the first time in a show.  Sophia overcame a lot of fear when she got in the ring again.  She rode through the fear and came out successful.  She was beaming with pride when she finished.  She finished the day with a 2nd place, 3rd place, 4th place, 5th place and 6th place ribbon but she came out with so much more knowing she did not give into the fear.

 We had Thanksgiving at our house. Steve's mom, sister, niece and nephew joined us. We had a wonderful dinner and yummy dessert.  Sophia created a scavenger hunt for our guests.  It was very creative.  They had to search for clues.  The found items spelled out Happy Thanksgiving.

Life is good!

October update

October was a more eventful month.  Steve and Sophia took a trip to visit Aiden in Itacha for a weekend while I was at a workshop.  They had a blast.

We were all in Christy and Troy's wedding.  We are so happy for them. They are made for each other. It was nice to be part of their special day. The wedding party was all in 18th century clothing. Christy planned a beautiful wedding and made lots of the decorations herself.  It was a beautiful, albeit cold, day.

 Steve and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary with dinner at my favorite restaurant, Pasta Plus.

We went to the farm to pick pumpkins.

Sophia had her first fall off a pony in years.  The pony, Ella, was abnormally speedy that night and just misbehaving in general.  She went over a jump and then the horse bucked her off. Thankfully Sophia was not hurt.  They put her on another horse after about 10 minutes.  Unfortunately this happened the day before the second show of the fall schooling series.  Sophia's instructor lunged Ella for about an hour before the show.  She started bucking in the show again so Sophia had to scratch from two of the five events she was registered for.  They don't know if it is the change in weather that is affecting Ella or if she is just being a mare.  I wonder if she was in some kind of pain.  Sophia has ridden Ella like a champ, several coaches have told her this.  Others have had problems with Ella but Sophia and Ella had a bond.  The coach has given her another horse to ride for the third show which will happen in November.  Sophia is hoping they can work with Ella.  While she LOVES the new horse she doesn't want to see Ella sold.

Our pets are all getting along better.  Boba and Otto are being to tolerate each other.  There is less hissing, growling (from Otto) and barking and chasing (from Boba.)

The month ended with a Halloween cookie decorating class and then Halloween itself.  Sophia was Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon and Steve was a Dragon. They have been doing pair costumes for a couple of years now.  What fun.  Sophia went trick or treating with her friends, parents tagging alone behind.  She had so much fun.

And tomorrow she turns TEN years old!

September update

September flew by.  We did not do much out of the ordinary.  Sophia continues to ride horses and compete.  She was in the in-house show where she took home three 1st place ribbons and a 5th for the obstacle course.

She also rode in the September Schooling Series.  She moved up a division in the fall series and did well in her first show.  She got 5th place for the walk/trot class, 4th place for walk/trot/canter and 3rd for poles in the beginning equation class.  She took 5th place in walk/trot and 4th place for walk/trot/ canter in short stirrups.

We rented a locker at the barn so we don't have to lug her gear back and forth.  She loves having the locker.  I guess she thinks she is one step closer to owning a horse.  She has been riding Ella.  Ella tripped after a jump and Sophia hung on.  She did amazing.

Steve and Sophia went to the aquarium on one of their days off.  It is nice they get to do special things together when school is closed.

Our pets are all doing well.  Otto is learning to tolerate Kaegogi.  Kaegogi just wants to play with him.  Hopefully in time this will happen.  Mr. Twinkletoes loves playing with the dogs.

August update

August was an exciting month.  We had our 8th annual "China Sister" reunion.  It was great to have five of the six families we traveled to China with in 2006 together.  This is something we have been doing every August since 2007.  The girls love being together. They don't miss a beat.  Some of them only see each other once a year but you would never know it if you watched them play. So great for them and for us parents to sit around and talk about raising our kids.

Steve, Sophia and I followed our China Sister reunion with a trip to Kings Dominion.  It was nice to get away as a family.  We said close to the park in a neat cabin.  Sophia loved the park.  We spent time in the water park the both afternoons we were there.

We followed this trip with the adoption of our new furry family member.  Sophia fell in love with a year and a half year old cat at the shelter before our family reunion weekend.  The cat was still there when we got back and we took him home.  Sophia named him Otto.  Otto and Mr. Twinkletoes got along well from the minute they met. We are not so lucky with Otto and the dogs.  It will be a long process but we are hoping they all learn to live together.  Both Kaegogi and Boba love Mr. Twinkletoes so we are hoping it is just a matter of time.

Sophia and I spent a few days just hanging out before she started school. We went to the zoo, something we did often when she was younger.  We played some games and took the cats to the vet.
Sophia was awesome at comforting Mr. Twinkletoes.

The month ended with school starting.  Hard to believe Sophia is going into 4th grade already.  Where does the time go?