Rodeo

When I went to write a post about our trip to the Florida beach I realized that I did not have any photos of our beach trip. The pictures some how did not make it onto my CD. I emailed my sister and she has sent them to me and now I just have to download them all. So, until I do that, I will play some catch up. Before we went on our trip we had a rodeo. We had a good time. I tried ground roping for the very first time. I have absolutely no roping skills what so ever. It is funny when Big Cowpoke tries to give me pointers. I just stand there holding the rope and looking blond. I do that part well. While I was getting ready to rope Big Cowpoke took some pictures.

Big Cowpoke took this! I was really nervous. Really I was! I hate standing in front of a bunch of people. Not that anybody was watching me rope, but I was still nervous. I do not know how to do anything with a rope. Well, not totally true. I can use a rope to make a halter and lunge rope. But to actually rope anything, I stink.

Here Mr. Cowboy is giving me some last minute instructions. I am scratching my head and I think I might be saying something like, "Are you sure I can do this?" When the boys practice at home on the dummy they will ask me to try roping it too just to get a good laugh.

Here I am, the roping cowgirl. Funny! See that girl in the orange shirt behind me? She fell off her crazy barrel horse twice that day. Well, I don't think her horse is crazy, but I do think the way she rides it is crazy. Then when she lost her balance around a turn and fell off, which was totally her fault, she grabbed her horse and started jerking on its mouth. I could just kick people who do that. They beat their horses because of something that was totally the rider's fault. It's sad what animals put up with from us humans. I will get off my soapbox and move on to some more mad roping skills.

Here Little Cowpoke joined in on my photo shoot. But you see that girl in the background? Her name is Leanne. She is a crazy roper. She can rope that dummy in 2.4 seconds. She beat Mr. Cowboy by .1 of a second.

This photo shows a lot. Leanne is taking her rope off of the dummy after her awesome rope. I aspire to rope like her. You see the flagger? He is super nice. He is riding his super nice horse that was given to him. That is a son of Petoboonsmal. That colt is three years old and so awesome. His name is Guapo. I rode him, and I love him, and I tried to buy him for 5 bucks, but for some reason his human would not take the deal. Then there is me. I am getting some last minute instructions on what to do. Just look at how natural I handle that rope! It's like a second nature!! Whuahahahaha!! Here I go......

I am defiantly awesome! I can't even get that rope over my head! Maybe I should practice more before I go out in public again. I lack in the form department. While I was roping this is what Little Cowpoke was doing.

Awe yes, life as a boy is just never quite complete without some dirt. Arena dirt is nice and clean right? Enough of roping and lets talk about Buttercup. She is our small pony mare that is crazy about barrel racing. We brought her along with us for me to ride on barrels and for Mr. Cowboy to ride on poles. But when we got there a little boy wanted to ride her. His name is D, well that is what I have been told to call him. He has a really long name that nobody pronounces right so we all call him D. D rode Buttercup in every event and did really well, despite his stirrups being too long. They even got a fourth place. Here they are doing the straight away barrel pattern.

She is a spunky pony. I have a hard time with her raising her head and then flipping her tongue over the bit. I need to have her teeth floated. But she did really well with D. I did hear that this past weekend at the rodeo D fell off of Buttercup when she turned too fast around a barrel. But he got back on and kept on riding. That Buttercup is a fireball. I think some work on balance and D will be back in business. Our next rodeo is in two weeks, so we will have some time to work on it.

Tomorrow I will try to have my beach pictures up. So, until next time, y'all come back now ya hear.

Made it Back!

I am now home and very tired. So, my post today will be so short. I just want to see the back of my eye lids. The first thing the boys did when we got home was run and let Joe out. They both came running and said, "Look how bigger Joe got!" Joe has grown some. Then the goat tried to come into my house. Nothing like getting back into the swing of things. I then said hi to all my animals and went back inside to a really messy house. I have decided it can wait until tomorrow, and I will just have to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs tomorrow. I promise I have not forgotten you all. So, off to bed now. I can not wait to lay down in my own bed! But if you really want some interesting reading about my trip you can go and check out the really awesome princess castle cake my sister make for Ella's birthday. It's so super cool. My sister is so talented. So, until tomorrow. Good night!

Energy Release

My Cowpokes have a lot of energy. It seems that the energy level rises by 100 when we go some place new. I am not sure why they do this. Possibly the excitement, the newness of the place, or they are just wild and crazy boys and I really have no control over them at all. But non the less, they were really hyper the first day were got to my sister's house. Even after we went to the airplane museum, they needed to exert some energy. My brother in Law took us to a really fun park.

There were digging pits, and tall castle passageways, lots of swings, and a misting area where one can stand after you got all hot and sweaty from running around everywhere. This park was really big, and even better it was in the shade! It was hot.

Big Cowpoke and Little Cowpoke enjoyed the large red swing. Big Cowpoke would twist it up as high as he could get it and then he would jump on and let it go. They love to spin super fast.

Cowpokette loved the swings too. She was so happy to be "flying". Even Tori got in on some of the flying action.

She had fun swinging. Then she tried her fling skills. And boy does she ever have some flying skills.

There she goes, up up and away!! She has taken off. Perfect form and perfect speed. But wait, what has happened?

Is something wrong? Mayday!! Mayday!! She's coming down!!

Just a small crash landing. But that's okay. She recovered with no injuries and lived to tell the tail.

She even took time to pose for photo afterwards. It was really hot outside so we took a small break when the Ice Cream truck drove by. Can you see the sweat on Big Cowpoke's face?

Uncle Anton stopped by the ice cream truck and bought everyone a Popsicle. Uncle Anton told me that he had never bought anything from an ice cream truck before. If I had known that I would have snapped a few pictures of him buying the Popsicles. The treats were greatly appreciated by all.

These two goofs were smiling for the picture, but I guess I was taking too long so they both took a big bite. It's funny how they eat the same!

This little cousin here was so happy to have a Popsicle. It was so very good. We stayed at the park until 8:30pm. My two boys were still running around like crazies. Do little boys ever run out of energy?

We have been busy!

We have made it here to Florida! The Cowpokes, me, and my little helper. My good friend's daughter has come along with us. She has been such a wonderful help. I wish I could keep her forever. I love that she was able to come with us. The Cowpokes are having a wonderful time. We have been keeping very busy. The first day we arrived it was already 9 pm so we just went to bed. Then the next morning we went to the Navy Aviation Museum. This was by Big Cowpoke's request. He has been begging to go to Aunt Amanda's house so he could go to the air plane museum. The boys were so excited.

Here they are in some plane seats. They all were buckled up and Big Cowpoke was ready to drive them all away. In this museum everything is just about hands on. Which is great for the little ones. I also convinced Tori to get in on some of the air plane fun.

Isn't she so cute? She is such a good sport. She climbed right in there and smiled away for all the photos. I had a camera and my sister had her big Nikon SLR, I am so jealous. Some day I will have on like that. Until that day, I will just have to steal photos off of her big camera and use them on blog. Sisters are good for that.

Big Cowpoke had to get his feel of the cockpit. He was all about driving. Now, that would be scary! I know someday it will come when he drives, but for right now, I just can't think about that, I will think about it tomorrow. (Can you name what movie that last line came from?)

There are big guns there too. The boys all love the big guns.


I love it how boys are just drawn to "manly" things. Boys just love dirt, trucks, planes, dirt, guns, more dirt. These two even shared a seat. They must have known the importance of the manly gun.

But girls can join in on the fun big guns too!

We also saw the Blue Angels. They were hanging from the ceiling. My sister told me that the way they were spaced here is how close they actually fly. That is amazing. That makes my hands sweat!

Cowpokette says, "WEEEEEEE!!!" She was such a good baby, she sat in her stroller the entire time. Not complaining once.

Here I am sitting in the Blue Angels plane. You can also see little Alex looking into the air intake. That is not a good place to stand when the plane is really getting ready to take off!

Big Cowpoke doesn't quite fit in there. But that doesn't stop him. We then went to the upstairs part of the museum, where there are about 10 different cockpits for kids or adults so to climb in and play with all the buttons. There are names for places like that. Boy playground heaven.

They were pumped. But the girls had fun too! They climbed in there just as fast as the boys did.

Here Ella looks a bit concerned that Big Cowpoke is in the drivers seat.

Just look at all those buttons and knobs that you can play with. I was even turning the switches. Just one of those things where you have to touch.

Wonder, curiosity, fun. I love it all. Kids are too much fun!

I wish I could keep her. I will love her, and squeeze her, and take her home, and call her my own. (What movie is that from?) She is such a wonderful help.

Then there were some really cool models. My sister took some fun shots of the model ships with all the planes on them. Look at the detail!! I so have camera envy. I will repent later. After a full morning and part of the afternoon of air plane fun, we decided it was time to take the little ones home for naps. They were getting a bit cranky! I was so grateful to have an extra pair of arms to help me with grabbing run away children.

Thanks girl!! I really appreciated all your kid wrangling skills. She is really awesome. If I could only convince her to stay with me all summer long. Whuahahahahahahaa, that is funny! She knows my wild boys, and I am so sure she would run with fear if I ever asked her to stay.

Happy Birthday Little Cowpoke!

Yesterday we had a small birthday party for Little Cowpoke. He turned three. He was the most excited birthday boy I have ever met. I did not really think that a three year old would understand the whole birthday thing, but he knew. He knew he was going to have cake, and presents and he asked if he could have a pinata. Little Cowpoke is very much into two things. One is Thomas the Train and the other is Lightning McQueen. Those are his two favorite things. He picked his birthday to be Thomas the Train. Do any of you know how hard it is to find a cute Thomas the Train birthday cake that isn't a sheet cake? It was hard. So, with some coaching from my sister who is an awesome cake maker, I made a four layer round cake. Here is what it ended up looking like.

Little Cowpoke also wanted a waterfall. He wanted a mountain too, but he just got a large green hill. I don't think he noticed.

I then made a tunnel on the other side. Big Cowpoke asked, "Is that train going to come out into the waterfall?" I told him to go away. I am by no means a pro at this cake making business.

That is it. Finished. The cake even has a finger print in it due to a really excited cowpoke. This picture makes it look like it was leaning a lot. I don't think it was leaning that much. Oh well. When the party guests arrived they all went to play on the slip and slide.

Crazy wild wet fun. Boys, that is all I have to say. I do not think a single girl went down that slip and slide. Just the boys. Then came the pinata. I am lazy and didn't get a stick. So, I picked the tallest child and he held the pinata up while the smaller kids pulled the strings.

Little Cowpoke was so very excited. He smiled all evening. I love pinatas. I love it when the candy falls out and the kids all rush to the piles of candy like they have not eaten in weeks. It's so much fun.

If you could only hear Little Cowpoke right then. He was so happy. He was so excited he was having trouble picking up candy. He just stood there jumping up and down. Then it was present time and the pure joy didn't stop. With every gift he opened he would say, "Dis is my favorite, it's awesome. I www-ove it!" Just look at his facial expressions, I love it!

He was so thrilled to be getting a bag of Hershey Kisses. Evey gift was opened and greeted with pure excitement.

After the gifting, it was time for Little Cowpoke to blow out the candles. I lit the candles and the wind blew them out right before we finished singing. He was so sad, so I quickly lit them again. That darn wind, trying to ruin Little Cowpoke's perfect day.

That is one happy boy. He had such a fun day. I wish I could bottle up all his happiness and keep it for ever! Happy Birthday Little Cowpoke!!

Today we had a rodeo and tomorrow I am going to visit my sister. So, my blogging will be sporadic this next week depending on time that we have.

It's Hot Outside!

The last couple of days here have been in the low 90's. You add 90 degrees to 90% humidity and you have one yucky, sticky day. So, to beat the heat we have a pool. But what good is a pool when it's rolled up in a box in the storage shed? Not a whole lot of good. I am so mechanically challenged, so, for me to put up the large pool by myself is just not going to happen. So, what do I do, I go to the Dollar Store to find some water entertainment. I wanted a sprinkler but they did not have any, so we went for the slip and slide. Which I think the way you are supposed to write that is Slip 'N Slide. But who knows. All I do know is that it entertained my cowpokes for a good two hours.

Have you ever tried doing this as an adult? It is not fun. You seem to hit the ground a lot harder as an adult than you did when you were a child. We did get a slip and slide last year, where the slide part blew up and was all bouncy when you slid. It was so much fun. Little Cowpoke was not as slippery as Big Cowpoke. It was funny to see him run, fall, and not slide anywhere. But he started to get it.

Here he just decided it was easier to run as fast as he could down the slide. It was fun for a bit, but he wanted to slide like Big Cowpoke.

I mean that boy can slide. She was crazy wild! He would go frontwards, backward, feet first, head first. He was just out of control. It really didn't take Little Cowpoke long to get the hang of going fast!

Such joy! You would have thought that this was the coolest thing ever invented. I just love three year olds!! They are so much fun.

He was just a wild man. He really tried every different way possible to slide down that slip and slide. Boys are so crazy. I love it!

That slide is worth every bit of the 10 bucks I paid for it. Even though I saw it at Wal Mart today on sale for 8.95. Man I hate that! Then Cowpokette needed to get in on the water action. She was not too sure she wanted to get wet.

She was content on sitting in her rocking chair. There is a funny story behind her bathing suit. My oldest sister bought it for her daughter, who is now 12. She wore it, and it was passed on to my other sister, then onto me. I am not normally a fan of a two piece on a little girl, but this one is just too funny. Plus, Cowpokette doesn't go out in this one, she just sits on our back porch in it. Then if you ask her, 'Where are the boys?" This is what the princess does.

That is how she points. She thought she wanted to do what they were doing. But when she got a closer look she changed her mind.

Way to go Little Cowpoke, that splash there is a 10!!

That slide is almost not long enough for Big Cowpoke. After Cowpokette decided she didn't want anything to do with the water slide, I put her in her little pool. She was not impressed.

I think maybe the water was a bit cooler than the bath water she is used to. That is not a happy face. Then she wanted to try the slip and slide. We turned the water off for her. But halfway down Little Cowpoke turned the water on. Big Cowpoke came to her rescue and stood in the way of the water. He tried so hard to keep it from hitting her.

She really has such wonderful big brothers. That will come in handy when she gets older. I am glad she has them to protect her.

Back to her pool she went. Still, she was very concerned about those two brothers of hers. She didn't understand why they were falling over and over again. Well, Cowpokette, some advice from your mother, "You will never understand those boys and why they do the things they do." I am still trying to figure that one out!