Other Goings On

Even though I haven't been posting regularly, there have been quite a few things going on here; it's hard to remember all of them when I sit down to write!

For one, Danny has started going to our new church's youth group activities. The last Sun of August, they held an end of summer/start of fall kick-off at an indoor sports arena, just for middle/high schoolers (ie., the extremely jealous 9yo couldn't go). He invited 2 of his friends, and they played indoor soccer, basketball, some video games someone had set up, and used the batting cages. For my sedentary, non-athletic son, this was quite impressive! Because we had invited the one friend, Ian, at the last minute (b/c Ian had been out of town that week and had only just gotten home the night b4), his parents had already planned dinner, and since K had already finagled an invitation to Grandma's for the day, we were invited to eat Ian's dinner! lol My friend Michelle is Ian's mom (read all about her in last year's posts!), so we had no hesitation in saying yes, especially b/c she was fixing fondue. Yummy! C and I rarely get to eat fondue, mostly b/c I don't own a pot, and eating out is pretty expensive (as in, costs way more than Hometown Buffet). C and Lee (her DH) get along really well too, so we had a great time. The food was excellent - Michelle is an awesome cook, and she had an amazing spread! Then later that night after we picked up the boys, Ian stayed overnight. On Monday, Danny went over to his friend Hunter's house for a few hours, and they spent most of their time swimming in his backyard pool. One last hurrah before school!

On Tues night, Danny got to go to his first youth group meeting, which is where the middle school boys all get together at the leader's house (there are corresponding meetings for the middle school girls, and the high school boys and girls). This first meeting was mostly a get to know you night, so they did more video games, which of course D loved. Then this Sunday night was the first youth group hang-out, which they call The Mill. Half the evening is spent in "worship", which is singing along with the youth praise band, and a message from the youth pastor, and the second half is hanging out playing ping pong, corn hole, and yes, you guessed it, video games! Danny is absolutely having a ball, which is so awesome. Our old church was really nice, and had great people, but the youth group consisted of 3 boys, including D. We really wanted to get him into a bigger group, and I'm so glad this is working out as we'd hoped.

For Katie, she is having fun at our new church, too. Her age group has a special Sunday morning program called Kid's Jam, and there are lots of other kids her age too. Although she is jealous of D's activities, she will get to go to AWANA on Wed.s, and I think she'll be surprised at how cool the meetings are when there are so many more kids attending. Of course, K has way more going on than just church stuff. On Sat., she went to another park program called My First Horse, which was pretty similar to the Camelot program - but without costumes, lol. I didn't stay for this one, since I'd have to pay my own admission again, but the instructor was the same as last time, so I trusted they'd take good care of my girl : ) They basically did the same stuff: looked at the various breeds of horses, took out 2 and groomed them, and then got to try out both western and English style riding. This time, at the end of the program they got to have lunch at the park's little cafe. No pictures this time, since I didn't stay, but K loved it.

Then today, Katie had her first official riding lesson!!!!! We found a young woman at our county fairground who was willing to teach K for a really good price. We've actually been waiting all summer to hear from her, but since the horse owners have to move their horses out of the barns during Fair, she wanted to get started after the summer was over and they'd moved the horses (and all their stuff) back into the stables. Today's lesson was mostly where Katie and her horse, Snoopy, got aquainted. She groomed and saddled him (much like at her park program, only one-on-one) and then Bridget led her around the yard at the end. Here she is learning how to tie the girth on the saddle:



And here she is on Snoopy! Loving every minute of it, without a doubt.



After the end of the lesson, Bridget led us through the barns and let us see some of the other horses she's familiar with. There were 4 new foals, born last spring, and they were sooooo cute! They were wearing "pyjamas", which were close-fitting covers over their backs, necks and faces. I thought it was to keep them warm since the nights are getting so cold, but she said they were to keep them clean and neat b/c they're going to be shown this week. We visited another horse, Maynard, a Percheron, and he was absolutely gigantic, especially compared to the babies we were looking at, lol! Overall, I was very pleased with Bridget's knowledge and style of teaching. She was really good at making sure K understood what to do, without going over her head or treating her like a little baby. I think K will do really well with her, and I'm looking forward to seeing her progress - almost as much as she is herself, lol!


In other news, Danny left for 6th grade camp this morning. This is a tradition in our school system, and although there was some question of how it would work out this year (due to the switching around of grades/schools), everyone made sure our 6th graders wouldn't miss out. They stay at a camp about 1/2 hr away for 4 days. They stay in cabins with attached bathrooms, and eat in a dining hall, so it isn't camping in the roughest sense of the word. Each day is packed full of all sorts of activities, led by teachers from the school and camp staff. Some of the stuff he gets to do includes boating and fishing, nature walks, archery, something called When Art & Science Collide - led by a teacher who broke his foot over the summer, lol! - and of course the obligatory bonfire on the last night. There's tons more stuff, but I'll wait until he gets home to put all the details down. You will note, I have lots of pictures of Katie doing stuff, but none of Danny. This is because, as I have mentioned earlier, D hates it when I pull out my camera. So, no pics of D headed out for camp. Sorry!

-----> an update: as I was composing this post, the camp nurse called (yes, at 12:15AM) -on the cell phone, since I'm online - to tell me D has a bad sore throat, which he caught from K, and was worried he might have strep. He was crying b/c he was afraid he'd have to come home (plus he felt icky) but I reassured them that K didn't have strep, in fact she feels better already after only 3 days, and he should be ok by tomorrow except for an annoying runny nose and cough. Mostly he just needs to rest, so I encouraged him to ask to sit out of anything if he felt he needed to. Poor Danny! He has been so psyched about this since last year, and of course he had to go and get sick the first day. They can't even give him Tylenol without a Dr's note, so I have to go down to the office, get a form, then go to the dr's and get them to fill it out, then drive down to the camp (thank goodness it's only 1/2hr away, and the dr's is on the way) and deliver the forms and the medicine. Phew! A mother's job is never done. I just hope he feels better quickly and can enjoy most of the week at camp.

I had more to write, but I'll save it for another post since this one's so long and now it's 1AM. I have a lot to do tomorrow!