All Saddled Up

The girls went horseback riding today. Keira and Katharine each had a half hour private lesson, and Kassidy went on a pony ride, led by me.
There is a place very close to our house called Story Book Ranch. The girls were super excited, and had a great time!

Her they are, ready to see meet the horses:


The ponies had to foals, one of them came right over to us. Keira, who is usually afraid of almost everything, went right for it.


Before they got to get on the horse, they got to brush Jethro down to make sure no dirt would be on him to cause saddle burns, and to familiarize themselves with the horse. Again, Keira knew no fear.


Katharine went first, after the teacher explained to her how the horse get saddled and how the bridle gets put on.


After a short explanation on how to sit correctly, how to hold the feet in the stirrups, and how to steer the horse, make it go, and stop, off she went.


Katharine learned how to make the horse trot today, too. And she did I it.


Here is Kassidy on the pony. She held on tight. I made sure to go slowly. Leading a pony was nothing new to me.


Next up, Keira:


The teacher had to get body stirrups for her, as her legs were still not long enough to reach the saddle stirrups when shortened all the way.


Keira, too, had to do everything by herself. Watching my girl, who is usually so full of fear out there on that horse without fear, brought tears to my eyes. It was the exact same feeling I have watching Katharine dance. I am so proud of her. She seemed to have found a happy place! She too, trotted, but with a little help from the teacher, as her legs weren't strong enough to squeeze Jethro's sides.


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More Hagerman Wildlife Refuge

Here are the remaining pictures that Iria took on my camera.

Quite a cool place!

Monkey on a Stick

Witness the strange and wonderful world of Lennon.

Hagerman Wildlife Refuge

The kids and I have found a new favorite place in the DFW area: Hagerman Wildlife Refuge. 

We took two trips there in the last couple of days, and I am sure many more are to come.

Katharine is studying geology, biomes and the weather, so we are trying to go to as many places outdoor to experience the world around us and to understand it better.

This is a picture from our drive through the refuge last week, after we took a hike. 

The kids loved seeing great blue herons, little blue herons, cormorants, cattle herons, snowy egrets, a field of American lotus and much more! 

What a cool place!

The refuge is at the southeastern end of Lake Texoma. The town of Hagerman was located there until 1943, when the government decided to build Lake Texoma. All that's left of the town is the church ( not the original building) and the cemetery. The refuge covers more that 11,000 acres, and is the Winter home of up to 30,000 geese, as well as bald eagles, merlins, osprey eagles and more.

As we were leaving the refuge, we saw two bucks and two does, the highlight of our day.

These are pictures I had on my phone, there are more on Erik's Canon camera. Today we took the tram ride, watched a movie about hummingbirds, and got a group picture with the refuge's mascot.

Corner Kick

Corner kicks- street ball style.

Credit Lukas with the flag art.

Corner kicks- spectator style.

Lukas can barely watch as FC Dallas takes a corner during a late rally.

Explorers, Lewis Carroll and the Doeschers

 The kids and I took advantage of the "cool" morning hours and went to the Dallas arboretum on Thursday morning. We also took advantage of the August Dollar Days, which made me cringe less when paying admission. The kids and I had a blast, and as usual, our adventure also served the purpose of learning, this time not just about nature, but also about history and literature.

 This is the cockscomb, or coselia cristata. The kids loved the colors, shape, size and texture of this beautiful flower that can reach up to two feet across.

Verbena  'Lanai Candy Cane'

Yellow Candle Flower

Babywing Begonia, white

The arboretum does a wonderful job bringing history, art, literature and music to life in a fun way by making giant displays with the help of plants. Above and below is Juan Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth and a map of his travels.

This is a tiki hut, honoring Captain James Cook. Katharine figured out why sandwiches are called sandwiches, which is a question she had this week. Who knew a trip to the arboretum would answer that question, without using the internet!

Incidentally, all the explorers on exhibit, we had already learned about in school, well, at least Katharine did. Below is a picture of Marco Polo.

An Aztec pyramid was transformed into a wooden slide. Don't know if Cortes would have approved.

This Spring and Summer's special exhibit was dedicated to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

The kids always love to sit by the koi pond for a while before heading down the big meadow at full speed.

Recently the kids have been wondering where all the bees went. I told them that scientists are working trying to figure out what is happening to bees around the world and why they are disappearing. So they were very happy to see bees collecting pollen from the moss roses!

It seems like everytime we are at the arboretum, there are hispanic girls there to get their Quinceanera pictures taken. The girls are all dressed up in gorgeous dresses that look like giant flowers. I captured one hitching a ride on the tram.

Now look who did all the work!