April- full of excitemen

April was a very exciting month for all of us.  Is was a busier month than most.  Sophia and I started the month by going to Connecticut to visit Grandma Barbara.  We spend two days with Linda and the girls.  Linda had her annual Easter Egg Hunt while we were there so Sophia could take part.  It was a blast.  The kids hunted for eggs in the dark with flashlights.

Linda got me a cake to celebrate my birthday- a little early.
















Sophia was in the schooling series show.  She placed second place in one class, third in another and got disqualified in the poles class because her horse refused to to the "jump" and she did not know to go back around and do the pole again until she got it.  She also got third place in beginning equation which is a huge accomplishment seeing this is a class where she competes with kids of all ages.  There are even young adults who compete in this class.

After the show Steve brought her to me during the Etna workshop and she stayed with me Saturday night and Sunday while Steve went to hike Hadrian's Wall in England.  This was a 50th birthday wish that his mother helped make possible.  He hiked the wall with his good friend, Troy.  He will add more pictures to his blog detailing the trip  http://acrossthefrontier.blogspot.com

Sophia and I had fun dying Easter eggs.  We spent Easter with Grandma Bev and Grandma Beadle.  It was a nice day.

While Steve was away Sophia and I had a mother daughter date.  We went to the Melting Pot for the cheese fondue and dessert fondue.  We had to wait a while for the table but it was worth the wait.

Sophia is part of an enrichment class at school called Friends of the Earth.  She worked on an up cycling project for the schools Enrichment Fair.  It is a pencil holder made out of all recycled items.

Sophia and Noelle sleep together almost every night.  I often find Sophia with the arms around Noelle.  It is very sweet.

 We finished out the month going to Fort Frederick for Market Faire.  It was a lot of fun.  It rained on Friday but we managed to stay dry.  It rained again as we were leaving on Saturday and the field were I was parked was so muddy Sophia and I got stuck.  A pick up truck pulling me out got stuck too.  They had to get the tractor to pull the ranger's pick up truck and my car out.  It was a mess.  It stopped raining which meant we stayed to see the fireworks once my SUV was parked on higher, drier ground.

March- What a Month

March has been a wonderfully, busy and fun-filled month.

We had a couple of snow storms which meant hours of fun outside.  Sophia played with the kids in the neighborhood and went sledding for hours on end.  They all had so much fun together.

Sophia finally went on her second grade field trip to see a play.  This is a big event in second grade that had to be rescheduled once before due to snow.  Thankfully it went off without a hitch this time and everyone had a blast.  Steve was a chaperone on the field trip and I stayed back at the school to help set up for an after play lunch.

 

Aiden visited for a weekend and we hit all the March birthdays at once, Aiden's, Aunt Leslie's Mauro's and Grandma Bev's.  We had a nice afternoon together.  It is always good to be with family.  We also went over again to celebrate Grandma Bev's when it was closer to her actual birthday.

The weekend that Aiden visited was a jammed packed one with Sophia's performance in a talent show at her school on Friday night.  She did an awesome jump rope routine that she made up herself. She told us that she wanted to be in talent show to help her be more brave on stage for her spring Drama performance which will be held at the end of May.  She is a forward thinker and seems to be developing wonderful coping strategies to face things that are new.



Sophia was also in the Hunter Schooling Show on that Sunday.  She spent hours at the barn on Saturday, first riding and then getting her horse, Mirage ready for the show.  She cleaned her tack, cleaned Mirage and her stall.  Sophia had so much fun doing this.  The morning of the show was COLD but Sophia didn't seem to mind.  She did really well during the competition.  She got 2nd place in the equation walk, equation trot and first place going over poles.  She competed in the next level of riders and got a 5th place in equation walk.  She is amazing.  So small but so strong on a horse.

Sophia completed a project for the science fair.  Her experiment focused on what type of bread would mold the fastest in different conditions.  She had a blast working on this.  She loves science.

February update

February went by very quickly.  The month started with a Chinese New Year celebration with Sophia's China sister.  The kids all had fun together.  It is so nice to see how well they all get along.  There is a special bond between these girls.

Sophia is learning how to jump small cross rails as a stepping stone to higher jumps.  She loves it.  I have to close my eyes.

We got snow on February 13.  We ended up with around 11 inches which is a lot for us.
 Sophia loved playing outside in the snow.  She goes out and stays out for hours without ever complaining about how cold it is.  Steve helped her build a really cool snow fort.  She played in the fort and went sledding with the neighborhood kids.  Those nights she falls asleep in minutes.

We had a Clue party with her friends.  We all picked a character and dressed in the character's color.  It was a lot of fun.

The school had Wacky Tacky Day.  Sophia wore a very wacky outfit.

Noelle still sleeps with Sophia every night.  Noelle has been on insulin since January and the change in her is amazing.  She is a fourteen year old kitten now.  She jumps and plays like I haven't seen in years.  She also stopped her excessive grooming and her belly is starting to grow fur again.  I can't believe the changes in her. 

January update

We had a very exciting January.  The biggest thrill was celebrating Steve's 50th birthday.  He didn't want a party but Sophia and I could not resist.  We planned a dinner with some of Steve's closest friends and family. There were 14 people at dinner.   It was supposed to be a surprise but Steve pried some information out of Sophia so it wasn't a total surprise but it was still nice.  Sophia and I made a cherry pie and had people back to the house for some pie and German Chocolate cake.  Steve really enjoyed the evening.








































We had a couple small snow storms.  It was enough to shut down the schools so that was fun.  It was very cold so playing in the snow had to be limited.

Sophia and I went to a basket bingo event held at her school.  Sophia won big.  She won a door prize, a bingo game and a raffle for a basket.  She won every way possible.  The basket she won in the raffle was filled with pool stuff.  We can wait to use it next summer.

Sophia was also in a small drama performance as part of her after school drama class.  She did a great job.

Sophia continues to ride horses.  They started jumping over poles this weekend.  The poles are low but they are learning to jump.  Sophia loves it.  I am quite nervous.

We found out that Noelle was diabetic.  She is now on insulin and a totally different cat.  She has stopped her obsessive over-grooming.  She is more playful and seems much happier.  In fact, Noelle and Shadow have been playing with toys that Grandma Bev gave them this Christmas.  If we don't pick the toys up at night we are woken up to them playing and tossing them in the the middle of the night.