Riding, Revelry, and Revelations

Fridays are normally a big day for us because I drive Freja and her friend Moriah up to Knife River for horseback riding lessons at the Seeds of Hope Youth Ranch. This is Freja's third week and she is OVER THE MOON about horses. It is a great program because we go there for 2 hours and the first hour is chores. So far they have cleaned saddles, shoveled wet hay, planted a garden, and they always have to brush and clean their horse before they can ride. Freja is chores resistant so this is a great way to get her doing some hard labor:)

As for the riding, the girls have already learned to mount, dismount, stop, steer, and back their horse, as well as trot. I have not seen the kind of smile Freja get on her face when she is on that horse in a long time, makes it well worth the drive.

Freja's horse is actually a Pony of America named "Banjo", which is kind of funny because for a couple of years now Freja very randomly breaks into this sort of rock-n-roll chorus that she made up "I play the Ban-jo, I play the Ban-jo!" We have no idea where or why she came up with that but I think that Banjo is a great fit for her.

Naomi usually goes to Moriah's house on Fridays and plays with her little sister, but today she went to VBS. After VBS she went to Mason's house for lunch and some sprinkler time. Those two are best buds. They just love each other so much. It is so sweet.

After we finally got everyone dropped off and picked up we went home to get ready for the big VBS finale. They did a great job learning all their verses and songs. It was very cute and well done.

We came home ate a little snack and got the girls ready for bed. Freja and I had somehow gotten on the topic of fairies. I happened to say fairies weren't real, and she retorted "Well, then how does the money get under my pillow". I just looked at her with a little smirk and said "Well, I don't know" and she figured it out. "YOU DO IT, DON'T YOU! YOU ARE THE TOOTH FAIRY!" I just grinned and closed the door, and said "I knew you'd figure it out, you're so smart" Then she wanted to know all the details, how did I do it?, where did I get the silver dollars?, what did I do with the teeth? It was really cute. She kept looking at me with utter amazement in her eyes as if her Mom were actually a fairy! I asked her if she was disappointed and she said "No Way, Mommy!" Whew, I am so glad to know that I am as great as the tooth fairy.