Rodeo Roundup    

Little Man's penchant for all things cowboy got a boost recently ...

A sweet young mom recently invited us to the rodeo in her hometown of Plymouth.

Can you say "Giddy-Up!"?

It was our first time going to the rodeo ...

and the cowboys AND cowgirls were amazing -- 

particularly because they were ONLY IN HIGH SCHOOL!

These teenagers impressed us with their riding...

roping...

and round up skills ...

And talk about TRUE GRIT:

You couldn't help but cringe watching them get tossed around like rag dolls.But oh, the admiration!  What these kids were able to do showed hard work, determination, perseverance, courage -- all the stuff that built this country! Gotta love it!

And the kids ... 

They had a great time, of course! 

Fun on the Farm ...

 A while back we went on a play date field trip to a friend's home farm out in the country.  

They have at least two acres, nine kids, lots of laundry...

and during our visit ...

a pen of new piglets PLUS some precious little peeps!

Little Man and CoCo had a great time handling their new feathered friends (scientific observation, right?)

Not sure if the little critters enjoyed our company ...

But we had a great time!

Now back to the books ... sigh ...

A Big Day for Little Man

Our Little Man is not so little anymore...or at least his age isn't. He's still a pint-sized bucket of mischief and fun. We celebrated his sixth birthday a couple weeks ago and got up some big fun for this little mister.At his request, Mom the older girls planned a cowboy and Indian party.

Our little cowboy got himself into big trouble accidentally locking himself to a chair with Dad's handcuffs. He dragged the chair around trying to pick the lock with anything he could find sat patiently waiting for Dad and the keys to get home and deliver him from bondage.
After this little escapade, our guests began to arrive. Entertainment for the night included bb gun shooting in the back and making dream catchers and Indian headdresses.

Annie Oakley Jr. shows up the boys with her shooting skills.

Angel and her friends make dream catchers and headdresses.

The food-decorating skills of Meemz and Edna are decidedly opposite. While Meemz can make outstanding and delicious looking cakes like this....

Edna's tend to end up looking well, not as pretty....

Looks aside, both desserts were wolfed down by Indians and cowboys alike. After we sang Happy Birthday, that is. 

When everyone had had their fill, we proceeded to gift opening. The little cowboy made away like a bandit with the generous gifts from friends and family. 

 

He got a phone call from Grandma and Aunty in the middle of gift opening which induced big smiles.

 

 One of his favorite gifts was a pair of real cowboy boots to complete his cowboy get-up.

 In addition to his boots he received Lincoln Logs, puzzles, guns, a snow disc, horse and wagon action figures, books, shoes and clothes. A big thank you to all the family and friends!

Happy 6th Birthday, Little Man!

A (Belated) Christmas Chronicle

Many apologies for the untimeliness of this post. But without further ado, a Christmas chronicle.


Sticking to tradition, we hied (no typo, real word, look it up) it up Davis Ranch to hunt for and cut down the perfect Christmas tree. After an hour of hide-and-go-seek  searching for a tree, we picked our favorite and carried it away.

                                                                   Cutting down the tree.

 

 

 Mr. Muscles here carried the tree all the way to the car. In past years, both Dad and Big Brother had to drag the tree back, but the tree being small and his muscles being not, only Twitter was needed this year.

A word about this tree. We named it Winnie the Pooh. It was very fat and very round and very cute.  We loved it so much that we had to hug it. And then it was just so fat, round and squishy looking we just had to jump on it. It was the only pragmatic thing to do.

 The tree was the finishing touch to our Christmas decorations. We had been slowly but surely decorating the house, adding new little touches every day.

 Christmas Eve the whole family attended Midnight Mass. The three oldest sang in the choir and the three youngest prayed from the pews. And what of Twitter? He was given the great honour of bearing the Baby Jesus to His manger.

Christmas morning dawned clear, bright, and sunny; none of us were awake to see it. But later in the morning when we were all awake (some more so than others) we were treated to a scrumptious breakfast strata, the result of Dad's midnight cooking skills. Big Brother had to go back to church to sing for morning mass, and when he came home, the time for present opening began.
We were all very happy with our gifts and there were some pretty big smiles floating around the house.

An Indian headdress from his big sisters and a gun from his big brother. Little Man couldn't be happier.

Our prima ballerina was all decked out in frilly finery.

Angel will be sure to spend many quiet hours studiously graffiting our driveway.

Our brand new black belt was very proud to show off all the belts he's earned over the past years with a his new display (handcrafted by Dad).

Whose idea was it to give the boys a knife set? Well, whoever it was, the boys are certainly thankful for them.

Mom's turn. Her annual photo album. Also, Big Brother got her her dream machine: a Kitchen-Aide mixer.

Our Christmas was calm and peaceful, a perfect end to a busy year and the perfect way to bring in a new one.