Day at the Horse Ranch

I'm not sure how I heard about it, but at some point before summer I learned about a horse ranch that offers sessions for kids for free in the summer. I tried to sign up online, but they didn't have a date that would work for us, so I put us on the waiting list. Last week we were notified of an opening, so we went over to Rio Rancho and spent the morning at a horse ranch. It is a great place where everything is paid for by donations and fundraisers and all the workers are volunteers. The kids loved it. They got to:
*Ride horses (the highlight of the day)
*Groom a horse
*Hold baby ducklings and chickens
*Scoop up horse poop
*Pet goats and ponies
*Write cards to organizations that have donated goods and services
*Play in the play area which consisted of an outdoor kitchen, a saloon playhouse (with a tiny little piano inside and cowboy dress up clothes), giant tire, play trucks, playground equipment, a corn box (like a sand box, but with corn), water pump rubber duckie races and more.

I think all of the kids at one point that morning thanked me for taking them there. Good fun....and free. Can't beat that.

Independence Day

We didn't have any plans made for the 4th of July, so we asked if some people wanted to come over to barbecue that night. We ended up going to the Moriarty parade that morning, which was a pretty good parade for a small city: lots of horses and animals,tons of candy (I mean the kids had bags full of candy), some fun floats, just long enough. And before it started our good friend, Misty, did a little face painting on all the kids. Then we picked up some fireworks to shoot off later that night. 4 families came over that afternoon for food and fun. We smoked brisket and chicken drumsticks (both so, so yummy). We had star shaped watermelon and corn casserole and veggies and homemade potato salad and mashed potatoes and other fruit and cupcakes and homemade ice cream (of course - it wouldn't be the 4th without it). 19 kids were running around the house and they were all playing great together. At one point I think almost ALL of them (from ages 12 to 2) were playing the same thing. The adults chatted and played a game, and then it was time to head over to do fireworks. Moriarty, the city next to us, doesn't have any restrictions on fireworks. We went to the park and people were lighting up fireworks left and right. It was like it's own city show - it was great....and LOUD. We spread out blankets and ate popcorn and watched fireworks until the police department shut it down (people not be responsible, etc). Good times!!

Look What I Can Do

Crawling is right around the corner for this little guy. He's getting up on his hands and toes (like a good yoga "downward dog") and then he lowers his knees. He's rock back and forth and then lands back down onto his belly....but he's close. He is also a little roller. None of the other kids have been rollers. They could roll over, but then never really did it. The past couple of weeks Austin will roll all over the floor to get things that he wants.

And here are just some other pictures for fun:

Good Day for Spelunking

We had a fun family day on Saturday. We went up to Sandia Cave - short half mile hike up to the cave and then we went exploring inside. We tried to do some geocaching along the trail but we didn't have much luck. The kids loved it (except Megan who isn't so fond of close, dark spaces). Austin was all smiles inside. We all came out with a yellow film all over our clothes and skin, so we stopped at the stream at the bottom of the trail and rinsed off. Nathan went in with shoes and socks on and everything.