April update

April was magical. Sophia was in the high school production of the Wizard of Oz. She auditioned first at her school and then at the high school back in December. She has been rehearsing since January. The showed opened Thursday evening. She performed one show Thursday evening, a school performance on Friday, a Friday evening show, two shows on Saturday and then one on Sunday. Six performances in four days. She had a blast. Nick surprised her and came on Friday night so he could see the show on Saturday. Grandma Bev, Aunt Leslie, Katlyn and Heather came to the Saturday show too. Sherry and Katelyn were at the show on opening night and JeanMarie and Abbie came to the final show. We have a DVD of the performance and we can't wait to show it to those who could not attend. Sophia is looking forward to high school so she can be in more performances. I would prefer not to think about her in high school yet!

Sophia had the Girl Scout mascot, Daisy Bear, this month. It was a perfect month to have her. Daisy Bear had lots of adventures and got to see the Wizard of Oz too!

Sophia performed in the multicultural night at school. She did a Chinese Ribbon Dance. She enjoyed the practices and performance. All the girls did a great job.

She had her first schooling show at the barn. She rode Maverick for the first time in a show. She decided on the show name of Free Spirit. Her former coach, Tracey, and her daughter came out to help me braid Maverick and to see Sophia in the show. Tracey's daughter used to ride Maverick all the time. It was nice to have them at the show.  Sophia did an awesome job. In beginning equation she placed 6th in walk/trot, 2nd in walk/trot/canter and 1st in jumping. In short stirrups she placed 7th in walk/trot, 1st in walk/trot/canter and 4th in jumping. Hannah, one of the girls that used to ride with Sophia a couple of years ago brought her horse to the show and competed with her. It is nice to see her old riding buddies.

Sophia was one of eight kids selected by her PE teacher to participate in an afternoon of golf at a local golf course. She had a blast. Her school came in first place in the competition. So cool!

 We tried making macarons again. Each time we are getting better. Daisy Bear helped us this time.

Last night Sophia saw me composing this blog and asked me what I was doing. I shared the blog with her. She had no idea I have been doing this for years, well before we adopted her. She sat next to me and we read all those early entries. We made it to the end of 2007 and it was time to go to bed. Sophia enjoyed hearing about the adoption process and all the fun things she did when she was a baby. She was giggling with joy at some points.  I am saving all these entries in PDF format so she can always have them. It takes time to keep this blog up and lately it feels more like a summary of the month than an actual journal or diary like it was in the beginning but it all proved worth it last night when we shared it together, cuddling together with the laptop on the couch and then in bed.

Closing with a few pictures of our cats.

Until next month.

March update

March was a busy month. This month we went to our first Girl Scout mall "sleep in." The girls had a blast. There was very little sleeping with all the activities at the mall. Most girls spent a lot of time in the food court, eating all sorts of fun things without their parents telling them they had enough.

Sophia and I tried to make macarons. We did not do bad for our first attempts. They tasted yummy. We made our first batch with a nutella filling and the second with a raspberry mascarpone filling. Sophia also made homemade frosting and did a beautiful job of frosting cupcakes. She made them for one of her coaches birthday.

She also made horse treats, sugar cookies and headbands for a bake sale at the barn.

Sophia got bucked off Ella again. It was at a Friday night practice, March 11th.  They were practicing coming in the gate and doing a courtesy circle before jumping the course. Sophia things that Ella spooked when the gate closed. She bucked pretty hard and Sophia came off. I missed this again. The last time she was bucked off, October 23rd,  a horse was right in front of me blocking the buck. This time I was watching another kid jump and then saw Ella galloping across the field without Sophia on her back. Sophia was not hurt, thankfully. Her coach decided that Ella is too unpredictable and that it is best that Sophia rides another horse. This broke Sophia's heart. She loves Ella. Ella is a difficult pony. Not many kids can ride her. Sophia and her worked well together and Sophia prefers to ride her but the coach knows best.

ThisAiden and Ginny joined us for a few days during their spring break. It is so nice to see Aiden so happy. Ginny is super sweet. They went to DC and Annapolis. We went to visit Grandma Bev while they were in town.

Linda, Chuck, Stephanie and Hollie joined us for Easter weekend. This is the second year they have come down. A lot has changed since Grandma Barb passed away. These trips to see each other are too short and infrequent but a lot of fun. Sophia loves hanging around with her cousins. Sophia and Stephanie did some rock climbing. Hollie broke her elbow again right before our visit so she could not climb. We went to inner harbor and had an Easter egg hunt in the park. 

We had Easter dinner at Maggiano's.  That is nothing short of a feast.

Sophia and Steve had their own adventures on spring break.They went to Philly to visit Nick and go to the Franklin Museum. What fun.

Otto loved the baskets Linda brought for the Easter bunny to fill. Linda is allergic to cats so of course this is where Otto hung out for days.

February update

February held something special for both Sophia and Anne. Sophia competed in her first off property show at Swan Lake. It was a LONG day. We got up there around 9:30 because we were expecting to ride at 11:00. Well, 11:00 became 3:00 and then 5:00 and then the girls finally got in the ring around 7:00 pm. Two of the younger girls from show team were competing. One came and watched. The girls kept themselves entertained. We took them out for a long lunch and a bit of shopping at a nearby Walmart. Sophia did an excellent job in the ring. She took 1st place in two events, 2nd place in three events and 3rd place in three events. She was Reserve Champion in her class.

I went away for a scrapbook weekend with friends. We went to Blue Mountain Retreat Center and had a blast. It was so relaxing and I got so much done. I wanted to finish all of 2014 but I didn't get quite that far. I hope we are able to do this yearly. It is so nice to be in sweatpants all day, doing nothing but chatting and scrapbooking.

We went to a Chinese New Year celebration at Steve's school and saw the Lion Dance.

Kaegogi is feeling much better than she did in January. She is more active and is gaining some of the weight she lost back.

All the other pets are good. You would think that we never feed them by the way the beg for food.

Count them--all four pets are here trying to get some scraps.

This is a fun project Sophia made in school. They were given heart candies and had to find a way to use each one in a letter.