Time to Rodeo...Heidi turns 5!

I love any chance I get to throw a party around here, and birthday parties are even more special because I'm always looking at it as making a memory for my kids. My little girls are obsessed with ponies and horses. Ella had a cowgirl party when she turned 5, and Heidi liked the idea of a cowgirl party for herself this year. So of course I started looking to Pinterest a couple months ago and found so many great ideas!(http://pinterest.com/smw331/cowgirl-party/)

I had to enlist my husband's help for a few things that you'll see in here too. I told him that I wanted this to be a very memorable party for not just Heidi, but all our family and friends as well. I'm not really sure what all changes are going to take place in the next year for us. Aaron will be completing his residency at LSU in the summer of 2014 and we are planning for what will happen after that. We have had a lot of great years here and made many wonderful friends, so this party was a way to show how much we appreciate all of them! 

So the first thing I told Aaron we needed was a pony! Heidi has been begging for one for the longest time. We drive by a mini pony farm every day on our way to school and back. She has asked me several times if her daddy can just go by there and pick one up. We had to sell our Cheyenne last summer. She was old and not in the best health. Aaron found a nice family with several horses that wanted to buy her from us. We were all so sad to see her go. 

Bye Cheyenne! :'(

But in order to have a "proper" cowgirl party, we needed a horse...right? My father-n-law had a Gelding that he had come across some time ago. Our family had met him when we went up to Arkansas for a visit last fall, and of course the girls loved him! I had to sweet talk Aaron a bit, but he called his dad and they made arrangements for him to come down before the party. We kept it a big surprise, so it was really exciting to have the girls wake up the other morning and see their Papa Ken here! 

"Beau" is beautiful as you can see, and Ella's dream horse! He is so gentle and sweet, and he seems to be happy here at his new home. Beau was going to be a huge surprise to our party guests as well. I didn't tell anyone about the prospect of having a horse until I knew for sure it was going to happen. 

So the other thing I felt I had to have were stick ponies for our party friends. I mean what kind of rodeo is it without any horses for everyone to ride? I was hopeful I would be able to find some at Dollar Tree, but they don't carry them this time of year...anywhere. After a couple hours or more of scouring the internet for places I might be able to buy some cheap I came to the conclusion that they were going to have to be made. I asked Aaron if he had the right equipment to carve out some horsey heads. I must have caught him in a really good mood, because he said yes he did and before I knew it, he was out there carving out all those heads...post call! 

So now we were ready to have a real cowgirl rodeo with Heidi and her sweet friends. I'm so thankful that the rains held off the day of our party. It was a little chilly, but we had a great time! 

I absolutely fell in love with these invitations and the rest of the party package I found from 

Paiges of Style on Etsy. She was great and has so many other cute party ideas!

Another awesomely delicious and super cute cake! Courtesy of Grandma :) 

 

Probably my favorite picture of the day! Definitely going in  a frame

The ducklings were a huge hit!

Pony Express Sack Race

Amazing job my husband did on these stick ponies! I love him :)

All set to go ridin' to an Easter Egg Hunt!

Heidi named her pony, Diamond Water

Wonderful day with a wonderful family! So blessed :)

Thanks again to my wonderful friend, Beth Pierce for all the beautiful pics. Be sure to "Like" her page on Facebook! 

Milkin' a Cow

When we brought Sheeva to our little farm around a year ago, Aaron purchased this book for me to read so I could get all familiar with having our very own cow to milk, make cheese, and provide him fresh cream for his coffee in the morning :) Of course I never picked up the book until just recently when we knew the calf was coming. Aaron, on the other hand has been preparing himself for this event for quite some time. He's never afraid to take on a new challenge. I grew up around beef cattle and have never milked a cow in my life, so with him being gone I figured I better start reading this book. With that said, it's been a great resource tool and I have used the forums on line for several matters over this past week. So yes, I would definitely suggest this book to anyone who fancies having a family cow someday.

We have been taking a little time each afternoon to love on our momma cow in the hopes to begin milking her, and allow her sweet baby (whose name is either Blue Bell, Butterfly, or Ice Cream) to get to know us better. The girls get very excited and in their heads this is an easy peasy thing to do. But in all their innocent giddiness the little calf gets a little nervous and tends to run under the electric wire...thus causing momma cow to get quite angry. But this is why practice is a good thing right? We are managing to work out our hiccups and get a good routine established. Today Ella got the chance to give it a go. I was a nervous momma myself because all I could think about was making sure she didn't get a hoof in the face! Fortunately, little calf was happy lying in the corner of the stall while Sheeva enjoyed her favorite meal of the day. We had a good time out there on this beautiful February
afternoon.

I love this life :)

Welcome Baby Dexter!

We had a baby! Our sweet Dexter, Sheeva, has been expecting her first calf. We were hoping she would deliver the little one before Aaron left for Washington DC, but sadly he wasn't here to see it. We have been watching her closely for the last few weeks. We had quite the storm early this morning that lasted for several hours, and here we received 2.5" of rain. I had a feeling when I woke up that maybe the storm would have caused Sheeva to go into labor. If I had been more awake at 6 am and willing to go out in the pouring rain I probably would have seen the miracle of her birth!

Eventually the rains cleared leaving massive puddles everywhere. As always, we were running late for church. As the girls were getting themselves in the van, I headed out to the barn to check on the cattle...and there was baby!! I started running, tears of joy running down my face and screaming for the girls to come quickly. They were laughing so hard, excited to see the little calf! It is still yet to be determined if this baby is a boy or girl, as I've wanted to maintain a safe distance from momma even though she is pretty docile.

 

 We had a busy afternoon, but once we got home I spent some time out at the barn gazing at the little cutie and the new momma. They had made themselves quite cozy in one of the barn stalls, although it was not the one that Aaron had shoveled out and cleaned before he left! I'm sad Aaron is not here, and I'm even more sad that my dad is not around for me to share this wonderful news with. But I do always feel his spirit...like he knows where I'm at and what I'm doing with my life. I never thought I would have become a farm girl...developing a love for the cows like he had. I treasure what he has passed down to me. And I'm blessed to have a family who wants to share in these adventures as well!

Ginger loves the hay bed he thinks I must have made for him! Happy Fall!