Mostly birthday news

Wow! We have had an eventful couple of weeks! Last weekend we went to SweetHeart's hometown for his homecoming and 20th class reunion. We enjoyed the game and visiting with friends. SweetDoll had said she wanted a surprise party for her birthday. Well, that was going to be a trick to pull off being far from cousins and friends, and we don't know a lot of people here. But since we were going to be at hometown anyway...we invited some friends and took some cousins with us to the park and had a surprise party there! SweetDoll didn't have a clue until we pulled out the party stuff to decorate the table. (Meme totally made it a party with the decorations!) That was fun to surprise her and play with friends!

There are several family birthdays within these couple of weeks, so we just had a birthday bash for all of them while we were visiting. Here are the birthday girls--the twins, Meme, Aunt J, and SweetDoll.

This week for SweetDoll's actual birthday...(my kids are masters of stretching out their birthdays!) Granny came for lunch at school. Then it just happened that her class was going on a field trip to a local corn maze so Granny, SweetTate, and I went along. We had a great time getting completely lost in the maze! Seriously, we were so lost the lady running it was watching out for us on the tower. She tried to give us directions, but eventually came to our rescue and led us out herself! I'm sure there is a devotional in that, but we'll go there another day.

For birthday supper SweetDoll wanted chicken nugget kabobs. (Dad was at a ballgame.)

Our present to SweetDoll was going horseback riding. SweetDoll got new cowgirl boots for her birthday. I dug mine out of the closet too. Haven't worn them in years! But there is just something about putting on a pair of boots! We are ready!

Miniature horses greeted us at the ranch. SweetDoll loved it!

We found a great place to take a picture. Here is my 6 year old!

SweetBoy was so excited that he got to ride alone. He rode Lightnin'.

SweetDoll rode with Daddy on Star. SweetTate and I got Slim. (Infront of SweetBoy is Toby, the huge Belgian Mule who wanted to have his picture taken too!)
The kids' favorite part was when we would go down and up the creek bed ravine, the horses would trot. And every time they did, the kids would just giggle! Which was our favorite part! Priceless. We had a glorious ride through some beautiful country! The pictures don't do it justice. (Your next photography challenge...get a good picture on horseback with a three year old in front of you!)



I hate to end this on a sad note, but it has been part of our week too. Our dog, Daisy, had been really good about staying close to the house, but this week she ran off a couple of times. Friday she ran off and the big kids chased after her. They saw that she got to the highway and turned back and came home. Thankfully they didn't see what happened for many reasons mostly their safety. But Daisy was hit by a car and she died. It has not been nearly as hard to deal with as loosing Sadie last October, but it is still sad. SweetTate got his B'noculars out to look for her today.



On a happier animal note...(aren't you glad!) SweetBoy is getting a show lamb this week, so I'm sure we will have new animal adventures to talk about!