We had a fun week - not much planned for this week, so I had the chance to spend some time with my favourite girl and do fun summer stuff. For the first couple of days of the week, she was camping with friends. Being away is good for both of us. It gives her some independence from me, gives her time to spend with friends doing totally fun things, and gives her a chance to miss me. It also gives me a break, allows me to get things done around home on my own schedule, and allows me to miss her.
She did fun things like go-karting, riding some little rapids, tons of biking, campfires (surprisingly, they were allowed where she was, even though they aren't allowed here at home right now), riding on a monster truck, and lots of swimming. She did miss us and her cats of course, and was happy to be back home.
On Thursday we had planned a horse-themed day. Jaymi has been begging for horseback-riding lessons and we finally registered her for her first one. She did amazing! She is such a natural with animals and I think it is right up her alley. She did everything that the instructor told her to do exactly the right way the first time, and the horse listened to her beautifully. She learned so much just in the first lesson.
I'm loving this place, because they teach the whole experience - reading the horse's body language, communicating with the horse, riding the horse, grooming the horse, and cleaning up after the horse. There is a lot of work ethic taught at this place and what parent wouldn't love that?
She did fun things like go-karting, riding some little rapids, tons of biking, campfires (surprisingly, they were allowed where she was, even though they aren't allowed here at home right now), riding on a monster truck, and lots of swimming. She did miss us and her cats of course, and was happy to be back home.
On Thursday we had planned a horse-themed day. Jaymi has been begging for horseback-riding lessons and we finally registered her for her first one. She did amazing! She is such a natural with animals and I think it is right up her alley. She did everything that the instructor told her to do exactly the right way the first time, and the horse listened to her beautifully. She learned so much just in the first lesson.
I'm loving this place, because they teach the whole experience - reading the horse's body language, communicating with the horse, riding the horse, grooming the horse, and cleaning up after the horse. There is a lot of work ethic taught at this place and what parent wouldn't love that?
So after the lesson, we hung around with the horses and then discovered a couple of the barn cats - they needed a cuddle, of course - and then headed over to a couple of places to look for the rest of Jaymi's gear that she needs for riding.
The whole day's meals HAD to be centred around "Horse Day", so we ate things like oats, apples, eggs (apparantly horses eat eggs), sugar cubes, etc.
Jaymi did some word searches and code puzzles that I found on the internet, as well as a dot-to-dot. We re-learned the story of the Trojan Horse and learned how to draw one. At the end of the night we watched a show called Saddle Up and then the movie "Amazing Racer".
Here is my about horses, in case you want to take part in any of the fun stuff we did. Pinterest page
On Friday we returned some bottles & cans (I let Jaymi keep the dollar we earned from that), we visited a friend of Jaymi's & mine to chat, we went to Tim Horton's for a treat, Jaymi did her paper route...did a bunch of errands like that, and then after having a quick bite to eat, gathered up two of Jaymi's friends that we had invited to head out to a baseball game. Jaymi and her friends know nothing about baseball and I hadn't been to a game since I was young, but we won some tickets and I thought it would be a fun summer event to go to. And it was!
It was fun explaining how baseball works to the girls. It was hilarious, hearing the questions and comments:
"What's a batter?"
"Why are they wearing white uniforms? They're getting all dirty!"
"I'll just cheer when I hear people cheering."
"Is that good or bad? Is THAT good or bad? Do I cheer now?"
Here is a bit of one funny conversation with one of the girls:
Me: "Do you see that guy standing on the base?"
Girl: "What's a base?"
Me: "That white block that he's standing on - there, that guy in the blue. Do you see him?"
Girl: "Yes."
Me: "He's on first base. He's on the other team. We don't want him there."
Girl: "Can we just shoot him?"
Really?
So, they loved the mascot, especially when he came over to give them high fives and hugs. They had a lot of fun whenever the little bits of music would play. They liked it when the game got exciting near the end and the crowd was cheering like crazy. And they liked the food of course - we HAD to have hot dogs - it's a baseball thing.
The whole day's meals HAD to be centred around "Horse Day", so we ate things like oats, apples, eggs (apparantly horses eat eggs), sugar cubes, etc.
Jaymi did some word searches and code puzzles that I found on the internet, as well as a dot-to-dot. We re-learned the story of the Trojan Horse and learned how to draw one. At the end of the night we watched a show called Saddle Up and then the movie "Amazing Racer".
Here is my about horses, in case you want to take part in any of the fun stuff we did. Pinterest page
On Friday we returned some bottles & cans (I let Jaymi keep the dollar we earned from that), we visited a friend of Jaymi's & mine to chat, we went to Tim Horton's for a treat, Jaymi did her paper route...did a bunch of errands like that, and then after having a quick bite to eat, gathered up two of Jaymi's friends that we had invited to head out to a baseball game. Jaymi and her friends know nothing about baseball and I hadn't been to a game since I was young, but we won some tickets and I thought it would be a fun summer event to go to. And it was!
It was fun explaining how baseball works to the girls. It was hilarious, hearing the questions and comments:
"What's a batter?"
"Why are they wearing white uniforms? They're getting all dirty!"
"I'll just cheer when I hear people cheering."
"Is that good or bad? Is THAT good or bad? Do I cheer now?"
Here is a bit of one funny conversation with one of the girls:
Me: "Do you see that guy standing on the base?"
Girl: "What's a base?"
Me: "That white block that he's standing on - there, that guy in the blue. Do you see him?"
Girl: "Yes."
Me: "He's on first base. He's on the other team. We don't want him there."
Girl: "Can we just shoot him?"
Really?
So, they loved the mascot, especially when he came over to give them high fives and hugs. They had a lot of fun whenever the little bits of music would play. They liked it when the game got exciting near the end and the crowd was cheering like crazy. And they liked the food of course - we HAD to have hot dogs - it's a baseball thing.