Amelia at the Museum

Since the last blog was all about Marlene and her trip to the horse ranch, I thought I will write this one just about Amelia. On Saturday Marlene was invited to a birthday party at the Children's Museum at the Seattle Center. Jason had to work on Saturday and so I had to take Amelia as well. That was very lucky for her, since she had a great time. When Marlene was younger I took her to the Children's Museum about once a month, but Amelia has never been. She loved playing in the Mexican Cantina, the firetruck, the theater and the volcano. But the highlight was the "Bob the Builder" exhibit. There was, off course, Bob, Wendy, and Farmer Pickels. Then there were all the vehicles, in and on which the kids could climb. There was also some building to be done. The children could fit some stones into a wall, use the tools in the workshop, plant a field and pump water (blue balls) into buckets. These balls needed to be put into the pump first, so all the kids had fun, filling a tank with balls and then watching them go through the machine.

Day at the Horse Ranch

Yesterday we spent a day at Lang's Horse Ranch in Mt. Vernon with Marlene's school. For several years now, the Kindergartners get to go for a day of horse riding to the ranch. The 4th Graders get to go for an overnight camp next week. Marlene's teacher, Mrs Drown, is the main organizer of this event. For the last month the children have been learning everything about horses. Mrs Drown's daughter even brought their horse Salsa to the school one day, so everyone got to see a real horse. They have been learning about saddles, tacking, and grooming.

Finally yesterday was the day to go to the ranch. After lunch about 180 people (40 kindergartners and their families) left John Rogers to drive north to Mt. Vernon. Divided in 6 groups we went through several stations like grooming, tacking, security, riding, snack, art project, and nature walk. The main event, off course, was the 30 minute horse/pony ride on the forest trails. Marlene rode a - really tall - pony named Cinnamon, and my horse's name was Sophie. Once seated in the saddle, I did not fell so sure about this, since this beast could have gone anywhere with me. Off course, going on these rides, is what these animals do. Some children were a bit afraid, so someone was leading their ponies, but Marlene did very well on her own. She was steering this pony like this is all she does. She looked very natural on it. We will have to revisit this situation when the time comes.

After everyone had gone through all the stations we had a fabulous dinner with barbecued chicken prepared by Mrs Scott, the schools cook. Everyone had a great time. Unfortunately it started to rain just as we had dinner. It got worse as time went on, and so we could not have the camp fires. We were back in Seattle by 8pm with some very tired children.

Girls in the Garden

I have not vanished. I just did not have much time to keep up with this blog, since I set up my new Cake blog. Check it out. The address is http://www.cakeanyone.blogspot.com/.

Everything has been pretty quiet. We are trying to clean up the house and getting ready for summer. We finally installed our new garbage disposal, but now all the pipes under the sink leak. It is frustrating the there is always something. I managed to replace nearly all our light bulbs with energy saving bulbs. The garden is not doing itself either. I had not planned for gardening this year since we wanted to do the remodel. So I had to buy some plants that I usually raise from seeds. I did nor realize how expensive that is!

Here are a few pictures from the last weeks that I have not kept up with the blog.