A Visit to the Alpaca Farm or Sheep Jujitsu

We went to the annual Toes to Clothes alpaca and sheep shearing event this past weekend where Gabriel and Cali were able to feed and walk alpacas, and watch them get sheared.

Paula Deen waits patiently for her turn in shearing.

The alpaca's were very friendly and got quite close to people. This one is Chaz and this was his first shearing.

We also got to see a couple sheep get sheared, hence the sheep jujitsu. The sheep really didn't fight the guy and were in fact very complacent and just rolled around like a lump of dough.

The whole shearing process took less than a minute and the wool came off all in one piece.

Foiled by a Leprechaun!!!

Gabriel and Cali have been working hard the past couple days, trying to come up with a fool proof leprechaun trap.

They set it up on St. Patrick's Eve only to wake up this morning to find they'd been foiled by the leprechauns. Chocolate gold foiled to be exact.

They didn't catch a leprechaun or his gold, but everyone knows chocolate is a nice consolation.

Better luck next year.

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY EVERYONE!!

Cowgirl Cali

Yep! It's all about Cali this week. She started horseback riding lessons Friday and looks like she'll be a natural. Miss Karen is her teacher, along with daughter, Sarah.

The first lesson Cali learned how to groom, harness and saddle Tappy. She then guided Tappy around the corral and then after earning the horses trust, she saddled up and went a few rounds.

Tappy is a retired Amish horse, who still loves to pull a carriage, play tag with Hank, the horse dog, Louisa, another retired Amish horse, and Karen's 5 kids. Seriously, it's hilarious to watch.

Ride em' Cowgirl Cali!

Cali Does Hand Building

Cali loves her hand building pottery class. She's made a great friend in class and together they create masterpieces and play with the resident studio cat named Petey.

Here she shows off her family of catapillars resting on a leaf.

Let's hear it for the Arts!

Gabriel Throws Pottery

Gabriel and Cali started pottery classes yesterday. Gabriel is learning to throw pottery using the wheel and Cali is in a much more subdued and age appropriate hand building class.
As you can see Gabriel wasn't very happy when we showed up; a definite signal class was coming to an end.

Here he is cleaning up his wheel and workspace, one can only hope that enthusiasm spills over to his bedroom.

Both love their small homeschool class and their teacher, not to mention time away from mom and their sibling.

Cali was done by the time we arrived, so we'll get pictures of her next week and post them then. We are so excited to see what our budding artists create!

Family Reunion!!

Just a little reminder to save the date for our Family Reunion in August!!

Cali Reads to Rover

Every Tuesday our Central Library has a program that allows kids to practice their reading with specially trained Caring Canines. Cali has been attending this for the past few months and has loved every minute of it. It's my temporary solution to her, "Mom, can we get a dog?" fix. Their owners say reading to dogs make them smarter and as you can see the dogs love every bit of the attention.