Dear Mom

Dear Mom

Happy Mother's Day

I love you more than a horse

I like it when we spend time together

You are more beautiful than a rainbow.

You are the best mom ever

I hope you have a great mothers day

I love you

It's the little things that make my heart melt...

Circus Juventas

Seth and Sam's Cousin Jaidan, 13, has been a part of Circus Juventas for the past three years and LOVES it. We were invited to come to their big event to watch her performance. It lasted just about three hours and not one minute passed with boredom.

Jaidan's performance was on the ropes. She is wearing black in the top right picture.

What amazes me is that there is nothing but her and the rope preventing her from falling to the ground. There is a person who holds the rope at the bottom and swings it around. While it swings in fast circles, Jaidan holds on, wrapping the rope around her body. You must be able to concentrate on how to wrap yourself, while ensuring you don't let go, and most importantly, that when you do let go, the rope was wrapped in the right fashion to prevent you from hitting the ground.

Some Lessons Can Be Fun

As a Christmas Present to Sam, we bought her two private one hour horseback riding lessons. I wasn't sure what to expect. It definately wasn't this...

We got there a little early and walked out to the corrals to look at the beautiful horses. Her trainer found us and led Sam to the horse she would be riding. She hooked Casa up to a lead rope and handed it to a bright-eyed happy-go-lucky girl.

"Would you like to lead Casa to get groomed?"

Sam's smile said a thousand words.

First she needed to brush the dirt and straw off of Casa's coat with one brush.

Then she was given another brush to make her hair shiny and smooth before putting the sadle on.

After the fine brushing, Sam learned how to wrap Casa's legs for support.

Sam led her into the arena where she spent about 40 minutes learning how to tell Casa to turn left or right, how to get him to trot and how to get him to slow back to a walk.

During this lesson, Sam learned how to ride English,

which to my understanding is the way you ride a horse in Show Competitions.

Prim and Proper.

Sam didn't quite understand the purpose of "two-point" where you stand up in the stirrups and place your hands on the horse's neck. She did great at it while Casa was walking, but tended to stay on her butt while Casa was trotting. Shortly after we left her riding lessons she was passed out in the back seat of the car. The rest of the day she kept reminding me how her hips hurt.

Lesson #1 a success

Benihana's

I have been wanting to bring the kids to Benihana's for quite some time. The closest one to us is in St. Louis Park, which is a good 45 minutes from our house. With Sam being honored with Student of the Month for April, we decided this would be the place to go. We invited Melanie, Dan and Maddie to join us, which made it even more memorable.

Seth wouldn't take his eyes off of the chef. He didn't want to miss the next move. Sam was impressed with how fast he could flip his tools around.

Our chef made an onion volcano, then an onion train, a beating rice heart and Mickey Mouse.

He liked to mess with Nick by pretending to shake salt into his drink, flipping his drink upside down without spilling a drop, and even tapped the salt shaker on top of his head to provide him with a little extra seasoning. What we all enjoyed the most is when he was cutting the tails off the shrimp and flipped the tail into Seth's hat rather than his own.

It was also funny that all three kids ate their meals with their chop sticks while the adults used forks.

Memories

I don't have the time like I used to to scrapbook.

I love these new photo books. But not as much as my printed blog book. (when I get around to finishing October and November of last year.)

The Hot Chocolate Did

Nick: "Did you burn your tongue honey?"'
Sam: "No, the hot chocolate did."

She cracks me up.

May Day Flowers

Seth gave me this flower for May Day. It is perfect!

I don't have to worry about killing it and it will last forever.

I brought it to work so I can look at it everyday.

Everyday I look at it, it brings a smile to my face.