Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Summer begins

Its June! Summer has begun. The pool opened on Memorial Day. The pool opening always marks the opening up summer. The pool is normally cold at the beginning of June and this year was no different. However, it seemed to warm up quicker than usual. Evening swim team practices started, teachers stopped giving homework. It was a taste of things to come.

Sophia was in the last schooling show of the series. This show was a rough one. It was hot and the judge was hard. Sophia got dinged for twisted stirrups and cutting the corners of the ring but overall did fine. She placed 6th in walk/trot/canter and 3rd in jumps for beginning equation. She placed 4th in walk/trot in short stirrup. She took home reserve champion for the series in beginning equitation based on how she performed in previous shows.




The last day of school was on June 17th. She finished the year with perfect attendance. This was no easy feat but she did it. She was very motivated all year long to reach this goal. She was hoping to be recognized on school announcements but that did not happen. That was a real downer.

Swim team started up with practices and a time trial. She had a blast and improved her time from last season in the three strokes she did. We will miss some of the swim meets because it conflicts with her riding time. We are trying to balance things and do a little of both.

Sophia designed some really neat T-shirts using iron on vinyl and my Cricut machine. She is very creative. She made some for her and a friend and both her riding coaches.


When Sophia was younger I worked four days a week.  We spent the day I had off as a "Mommy and Me" day. We haven't been able to do that since she started school. We vowed to make that happen this summer. It is a bit trickier with her work schedule but we are trying.

Our first Mommy and Me day was spent going to the library and then to the mall to get her ears pierced. She had been asking for earrings for about a month now. She was great. They did not hurt at all. They told her they were measuring her ears and in went the piercing. The back got stuck in the gun on one side but they managed to get it out without even a wince from Sophia. Sophia knew one of the ladies who did the piercing. She worked for years at Build a Bear and even hosted the party she had there in November. This made the ear piercing that much more comfortable. She picked out lady bugs as the earrings for piercing and then picked out a pair of horse earrings she can change into in eight weeks. Sophia and I went on Ebay to look for earrings. We bought her two pairs, one horse show with a horse and a unicorn. These are gifts from Grandma Barb. If my mother were alive Sophia would have gotten special earrings purchased from Ebay. I have no doubt of this.



Sophia started working at the barn as a junior counselor for the pony pal camp. She LOVES it. She helps lead the horse, hold onto the campers legs as they ride, helps with lectures and arts and crafts. She loves leading activities for water day, which she comes home very wet from. This is a great experience for her. It is building work ethic in her. She is earning lesson time every time she works. It is a win/win.

The members of our furry family are all doing well. Mr. Twinkletoes and Otto like escaping out the back door. We always catch them, well all except once this month. Mr Twinkletoes must have escaped out a door when Sophia had a friend over. The dogs are constantly wanting to go in and out so a door is open pretty often. We left for the pool and didn't return to the house for at least four hours. Sophia went home with her friend so it was just me. Mr. Twinkletoes was not there in the window to greet me. I frantically called him, opened the back door calling him then ran upstairs to see if he got locked in a bedroom. He didn't. When I got downstairs he was sitting at the back door with a let me in now PLEASE face. Boba and Kaegogi did not like the way he smelled. They cornered him, barking. He was so scared. It all resolved itself the next day but it was some adventure.
Mr. Twinkletoes recovering from his adventure!

The boys longing to go outside