An Eventful Weekend

Saturday was such a fun day with the little girlies!  It rained on and off all day, but they were happy & content & didn't even ask to watch TV. (we only get pbs as we can't afford satellite anymore-needed that money to pay for rising animal feed costs, you know)
Anyway, they got up & were busy little beavers all day.  They made blanket forts, they made landscapes out of playdoh for their plastic animals.  I wish my camera wasn't broken!!  Susanna's landscape was quite detailed-pastures for the horses, a pond & nests for the plastic ducks, etc.  Alyssa (3) mostly made nests with her playdoh using the inside curve of a bowl & then sticking grass & little sticks & moss to it.  I was pretty impressed.  We've been learning about birds for school & she told me, "Mom, migration is for gooses!'
Then they caught rain in containers that was coming off the porch roof for awhile, twirled around in the rain on the end of the porch that doesn't have a roof.  During a period time that the rain stopped, they painted the rock garden wall with chalk dust paint.  (ground up chalk dust w/ just enough water added).  That kept them happily busy & content for a long time.  When it rained later, it all went away.
We read books & did puzzles & made cookies.
Jonah was doing work at a neighbor's house.  He's been working to earn money to buy a new dirtbike.  His old one was too small.  Also Saturday morning, his friend & his Dad came over to check out Jonah's old dirtbike.  They bought it for $700!!  Jonah was so excited.  He now has over a thousand dollars towards a larger used dirtbike.  Now, to find a good one.  Plus, he's still earning.  I'm proud of him & this is a good lesson for him to learn.  Our neighbor who hired him last summer & now this summer told Pat what a good work ethic Jonah has.  
In the evening Hannah had a friend over that we all enjoy having over.  It was a fun family evening.
Friday (I know this is out of order, but oh well-lol) when Pat got home from work we got the bull loaded up on the trailer & took him back home.  That was a bit of a fiasco.  The bull is really tame, but our cows are not.  Pat thought Hannah could herd him while she rode her horse who's done some cow work.  Well, our cows get running into the woods, so naturally the bull wanted to follow them.  He's quite large & Hannah was intimidated by him.  She couldn't do it.  So, we had to herd them all into a different pasture & separate the bull from the cows.  Once we did that, he hopped on the trailer just be us patting him on the rump.  On the way home from there (the little girls came with us) Susanna dramatically appealed to her father, "Dad, I am so hungry.  Can we please stop somewhere to eat?  I have forgotten what food even tastes like."
LOL!!  That girl...she is a character.
Sunday we had a barrel racing show.  All the kids were in it & we brought 2 horses and the pony.
They all did really well.  Susanna got 2 blue ribbons in the walk/trot class (she trotted).  Alyssa got a red ribbon (second) in the leadline class.  Jonah didn't place in the junior class, but he stayed on the horse this time & did a nice job on his patterns-he's a beginner.  Hannah got 3rd & 4th place ribbons in the senior class.  She & Copper did amazing.  Their turns were perfect & their speed was really good-especially considering that the arena was a swamp & was 5 inches deep of mud with huge puddles everywhere.  She had a 20 second run & a 19 second run.
When came home to a dead chicken in the yard & all the beef cows loose!  grrrr.  Hannah & Jonah were saddling up & Hannah's friend down the road was also saddling up her horse & they were going to meet 2 roads over where the cows were found.  But, before they could take off, Pat & some other neighbors were able to herd them in on foot.  That's a huge blessing considering 6 yrs ago we had loose beef cows for 5 weeks...and had to use a tranquilizer gun. 
So, it was a busy weekend, but a good one.