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June 30, 2006
Thanks, Ryan and Danielle!
Ryan and Danielle visited us and brought Derek a really cool pirate ship! Arrr!
We really enjoy playing with the pirate ship! It has a parrot, two pirates and accessories. It even plays pirate songs! Derek has already figured out how to make the pirate figures walk the plank...hmmm, this is the same kid who likes running over "Little People" figures with Thomas and Friends. (He hates it when the trains get into accidents on TV, though!)
Ryan also hooked up a wireless router on our computer-yay! Now my laptop is out of the stone age, too!
In other happy news, Cheryl and Dave are back safely from Ireland! They promised to show me their photos soon. They brought Derek a cute toy soccer ball for his birthday. Not to mention a lovely claddagh sculpture for me and a bottle of Irish mead for Brian!
Kai has a "new" saddle. It's a used saddle, but it's new to me. At last, I think I've found the right one. I've only ridden in it twice (it just arrived on Tuesday) but it is the most comfortable saddle I think I've ever ridden in, and Kai seems to like it. It appears to fit him well. We'll see how it goes!
Posted by Jessica at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2006
Derek's 2nd birthday!!!
Derek turned two years old today!
We celebrated by having Doodah and Poppa visit (they actually brought Derek back home from an overnight visit)and eating "choo-ah" (pizza)and cake and ice cream. The cake had a little Thomas train on it that went round a tiny track. Very cute!
He received loads of presents. Doodah and Poppa bought him a swing set. Brian and Poppa put it together Friday night. It was difficult to keep Derek from seeing it until he went to visit his grandparents on Saturday morning.
I had bought him a tricycle at a charity shop last year, but I put it away until his birthday this year, as he was too little to ride it until now. He was thrilled to find the swing set and tricycle in the backyard today!
Doodah bought Derek a Thomas balloon and a Bob the Builder balloon! Derek was one happy little guy!
Derek calls presents of all types "ho-hos." I think he associates them with Christmas, because that is also what he calls Santa Claus and Santa-type hats! He happily opened all of his ho-hos, and was thrilled with each and every one!
A really special one was the "happy birthday" Thomas wooden engine and box car. He did not want to let go of these little choo-choos!
After Doodah and Poppa went home, we walked across the street to the high school grounds. The annual Balloonfest was this weekend, and we wanted to see the balloon launch. Well, I wanted to see the balloon launch-Brian already saw it last night with Ryan, Danielle and Ryan's mom and baby Eily while I was at the model horse show!
The balloons were spectacular, and we also wandered through the SCA's medieval village. Kind of like a small Ren Fest! It was cute! I don't know what it has to do with balloons, but it's there every year and keeps getting bigger.
The model horse show on Saturday was much smaller than usual. I guess people didn't come this year because of the economy, or maybe they didn't come because the show was non-NAN qualifying. I don't care about NAN, it is not interesting to me! I just want to have fun with my plastic and rubber horsies!
I did have fun at the show-I won the crazy "Performance Showdown" where you get a surprise traditional model in a brown paper bag, then have to tack it up and show it in four crazy classes (silliness earns extra points!) I was very silly, so I won the "goodie bag" of weird, old and amusing model horse accessories. I donated two cool-looking ones to my competitor, the "Evil" Sue (so named to distinguish her from the "Good" Sue!) because she loaned me her tack (I had left mine at home, alas!)
Also this weekend, I made four forty-minute drives to pick up and deliver my friend Cheryl's children to the farm to visit their horsie. Boy, was I tired after that! The kids have been staying with a relative while Cheryl and Dave are in Ireland.
Speaking of Ireland, Cheryl and Dave had quite an adventure before they ever got there! Their flight on Monday missed their connection, and so they had to spend the night in the airport (no hotel room available.) The airline lost their luggage. The next day, they boarded another flight to Ireland, only to have one of the engines explode right before takeoff! By Wednesday morning, they STILL hadn't made it to Ireland. They said the second airline was great, and put them up in a hotel and that they met lots of really nice people. I hope they had a good time in Ireland when they finally arrived there! They are due home tomorrow.
Posted by Jessica at 11:00 PM | Comments (1)
June 01, 2006
Stable Expansion
This news has just arrived from England-Havillands has expanded their stable!
Among the horses checking out the new stalls is Lindbergh, the famous piebald who crossed the ocean twice!
This looks like a great addition to Amanda Massara's collection! She found it in a charity shop, which (along with rummage sales, flea markets etc) are also some of my favourite places to shop!
This year I haven't found any horse stuff, but the garage sale season is just getting started. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
Posted by Jessica at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
Choo Choo!
These choo-choos are chugging into the home station any day now.
I found them on eBay, and they are sure to delight Derek! We have the most fun with the trains we have, and we like to put together different track layouts with tunnels, bridges and stations. This helps Derek with his motor skills and problem-solving abilities. It also gives me a breather from having to chase him around all the time. He is a perpetual motion machine! But he really loves his trains.
Posted by Jessica at 12:04 AM | Comments (2)