Princess Coats, Pony Rides, & A Board Game

This morning Autumn was so excited to get up and get dressed for school so she could wear her new pink princess coat and show her teachers and classmates.

After work/school Autumn was super excited to get over to Papa & Mimi’s house b/c she knew Andrew was there.  Mom had made a big pot of Maggie’s homemade chicken noodle soup and it was so stinkin good.  The recipe is HERE.

Jon was at a chiropractic conference (which is the reason they came up this weekend) and Lexie was gone getting her hair done.  I wanted to take the kids to a fun (and free) rodeo thing the lady at McDonald’s last night had told me about, so I got them packed into the car and off we went.  They had a bunch of booths set up where the kids could do fun activities.  The first one we saw was a booth where they take a 15 second video of you dancing around and then turn it into a flip book.  The kids weren’t interested in dancing around and waiting for the flip book to print off, so they just dressed up in the hats they had there so I could get a picture and we moved on to the next tent.

At this tent, they had bottled sand art and the kids had a blast filling up their little jars w/ sand and then getting some fluffy hair glued on the top.

They had a little area set up as a petting zoo.  There were rabbits, goats, chickens, and a baby pig.  It was really crowded in there w/ so many people and Autumn didn’t care for the little goats, but she found a bunny she could pet.

Andrew was brave and went over to pet the llama.  He liked that it was so soft.  We didn’t spend long in the petting zoo area b/c it was just that…a zoo w/ all the animals and too many kids.

As we were walking through the tent, this pretty Rodeo Princess was going around handing out candy and Autumn wanted to get a picture w/ her.  However, she wouldn’t look at the camera for me b/c she was so enthralled w/ the Rodeo Princess and her blingy outfit.

Andrew really wanted to stop at this station where you could swing around a rope and try to rope a fake cow.  This guy was there showing the kids how to do it and was being so cute w/ Andrew.  Andrew did a great job and was a real ropin’ ranch hand.

After Andrew had a turn, I was surprised when Autumn said she wanted to try it, too.  She’s such a girly girl but at the same time likes to try new things.

She was able to rope the cow around the head (with a little help) and pulled on the rope to tighten it.  After that, she was done and wanted her candy back that the Rodeo Princess had given her.

After we had stopped at all the stations inside the big tent, we walked outside and noticed they had set up the front of the tent to look like a saloon, complete w/ a watering hole for the horses.  The kids took a rest on the bench while they finished their Skittles.

We walked over to where they had this big old Western coach and just around the corner from this, there was a band practicing a few songs they were going to play at a concert after the Rodeo inside the events center finished.  Autumn had a blast dancing and jumping around to the music.  Andrew was getting cold b/c it was windy and he just wanted to go back in the tent.

We wandered our way back into the tent and sat down on some little bleachers they had set up near a pen full of goats.  They were having a roping contest for the 13 year old category.  But, in the middle of all the 13 year olds, they let this little guy have a turn.  He was so stinkin’ cute and couldn’t have been older that 2.  He swung the rope around and it fell around him instead of the goat, so when they released the goat and he tried to tighten the rope, it just tightened around his legs.  Everyone was chuckling b/c it was so adorable.

We had passed the pony rides when we first walked in, but I told the kids we were NOT going to buy anything so don’t even ask to ride the ponies.  However, when I saw that it was only $5 a kid, I decided to splurge and let the kids have a good memory.  Andrew had so much fun riding around and pretending like he was a cowboy.

I didn’t think Autumn would want to do it once we got over there, but she was just as excited as Andrew and had a grand old time riding around on the pony.  I kept trying to get a good picture of her, but this was the best I could get.  She was yelling, “Yee haw!”

The kids got to ride for quite a bit, and when it was finally time to get off they were really good about it.  I took them over by this sign and asked them who had fun and they both raised their hands and yelled, “ME!”  It was definitely worth the $10.

We had to stop and get a picture by this huge John Deere tractor so we could show Papa.

Since we had done everything there was to do and had seen everything there was to see, we decided to leave.  Also, it was getting cold and windy.  As we were walking to the parking garage to get in the car, this big carriage that was being pulled by horses went by and the kids were mesmerized by it.

We came home and the kids were so animated and excited as they told Papa about the horses and goats and ponies.  They sat down w/ him on the couch to watch a movie and he shared a bowl of Clementine's with them.

My absolute favorite board game of all time is The Winning Ticket.  I was looking for one on Ebay and found one for $25 plus shipping and I knew we had the game at home but that it was missing a few pieces.  So, before I bought it on Ebay I decided to see how much of the game we were missing.  So, I busted it out tonight and talked Lexie & Nick into playing it with me.  We were only missing a few pieces, but could still play it so we did.  We didn’t have the rules, so we kind of made them up as we went.  It was just as much fun as I remember and what made it even better is that I won the big blue lottery!  I was joking that the game let me win b/c it so grateful that I got it out of the dark closet after all these years, like the toys on Toy Story 3!

Poor Autumn was so tired (it was about 10:30 pm by this time) that she fell asleep on the couch while reading herself a story.  Since I didn’t want to wake her up to take her home, we just went and slept in Nate’s room.  Today was such a fun-packed day.  I love days like this where good memories are made.