Horse Riding

I am only 5 days late with this post. I am not sure why I forgot about it, since it was such a big deal to us all. Any way, last Sunday afternoon, J, W amd M had their first horse riding lessons. I am also not sure how I managed to wait almost 10 years for my children to continue the horse riding thing. It brought back alot of memories for me, it was pretty much my life for almost 10 years and even after that I had horses for another 10 years (perhaps a little more). So finally we ventured off to the riding school and they and I were very excited.

M went first and was amazing, his little legs barely reaching below the saddle, the horse was called Lilly and she was lovley. So calm and gentle and he did such a fabulous job, he took it all very seriously.

W went next, I could not make him wait for a whole hour for his go. He also did a great job, was very serious and listened well to what he was being told. He rode a slightly bigger horse called blankie, and as you can see in the photos, his little legs did not do much better than M's.

J went next and as usualy gave it all of her attention, loved every second of it and managed to TROT as well. We call it rising trot (when you rise out of the saddle with the horses gate - well we did call it that 30 years ago) They call it Posting here and she managed it.

We have booked another lesson in two weeks (which is almost only one week away now) and they are all looking forward to that. On Monday however they start Ice Skating lessons. I am totally over loading them at the moment, but it won't last. Ice Skating is just for 8 weeks, so that they learn how to stand, move, turn and stop independently and safely. Then if they want more lessons, we might wait a while and just enjoy some casual family ice skating days. I would love to take them Ice Skating in Central Park, that would be sooo cool.

It was D's 44th birthday on Wednesday, I found Coopers Sparkling Ale in a local supermarket (well not actually local, a little more upmarket than the places I usualy shop :-) ) the children picked out a D bookmark and I pained a D at 'Paint your own Pottery' with Happy Birthday Dad on it and the Childrens names on the back. He loved it all of course. Oh and J, who is becomming quite a little baker made a chocolate cake - used the donut tin, so it was a donut shaped cake - D for Daddy and D for donut. I also made a special dinner, we had grilled haloumi and cucumber salad for an entre, chicken with proscuito and lemon, cauliflower with garlic bread crumbs, hassle back potatoes and green beens, then for desert we had Chocolate cake of course and Pistasio Kufli (from the Indian Shop...YUM) The Haloumi was as exciting a find as the Coopers was, I have looked every where that cheese is sold and finally found it, compared to the crappy American Cheese(sorry but really American cheese is so sad, they don't know what they are missing so I guess they just eat what they get, but for a start it is orange, not sure how they do that!) it was a reasonable price.

The Children have started learning spanish from a woman who comes and spends a couple of hours with them on Thursday morning. The boys were a little bored, J lapped it up, wrote down every word and leanred new words (they have learned a tiny little bit already). Both boys I am sure thought they would just know it straight off and would not have to practice anything.

J is having Piano and they are all having recorder lessons, the teacher comes to our home, is frightfully expensive but she is lovely and they are enjoying it and learning. So, we are busy and it will get busier. They are all doing Gymnastics (well J is part Gymnsatics and Cheer leading, which she loves - it is new for her this session).

We have booked a week to go skiing and will be off on the 2nd March for 6 days, we are all very excited about that and I am already anticipating the sore shins, muscles and joints (poor old me) but there is loads to do, so if I don't feel like 5 days of skiing, I'll try the heated pool, gym or even Ice Skating. Or maybe reading a book....

I joined the New Residents Club Book Group last month and we read 1000 Splendid Suns, totally recommend it. Excelent book. This month we are reading On Beauty by Zadie Smith (I add the author because when the person in the book shop looked it up for me there were aparently lots of 'On Beauty' listed. And, well you might just want to go read it, maybe). The jury (my personal Jury) is still out on this one, I am not sure that I like the characters very much, I am finding them a bit difficult to get to know. It has however been nominated for prizes, so I'll keep reading and the Jury will remain out for the time being.

Ok, I shall go and you can see the photos of the children and horses. Of course they have all had pony rides before, but this is the first time they had independent control of a horse...fantastic.