We had a short vacation last week.....which I imagined would be filled with watching snow fall, knitting and cup after cup of coffee......it turned out to be filled more accurately with playdates and slumber parties.... ;-) but that was okay, too.
I knew about the sleepover ahead of time, though -- it was actually planned two weeks in advance. Our friend from Eliza's class lives for horses, so I thought it would be fun to go with the "night in the stable" theme. Nana had an 19" horse in her gift stash, and offered to mail it off super fast. We cooked up together the clever notion of pretending that this small horse could be, in fact, a newly-born FOAL amid the larger mares already belonging to Eliza and her friend.
I planned a dinner menu of either eating like a horse (plain "hay" noodles, carrot sticks, apples) OR eating like the stable-hand (chicken soup OVER the plain noodles.....)
....and felt almost smug as I put together two makeshift Large Animal Vet Kits.
I knew they would especially like the addition of the thermometer....
It's funny how quickly a theme can turn vivid, detailed, realistic......
I was chopping carrots in the kitchen and saw suddenly that they were coloring their palms bright red with a marker in the middle of the living room.
How foolish of me to not realize that in order to EXAMINE the expectant mother horse, one has to have it be as realistic as possible. I'm sorry I can't show more of the photos -- the friend had taken her shirt off, and it was like a scene from All Creatures Great and Small.
;-)
No matter how much I think I'm ahead of them......kids can ALWAYS startle me with just how far they are willing to go with imagination.
5 comments:
Eliza definitely needs to add Chincoteague and their annual pony carnival, auction, and swim to her "to do" list. I'm sure Andrew would love to show her around. Maybe mom and dad can even bid on one for her!!! :-)
Ha! Very funny....but the bidding is for "sponsoring" right? NOT for taking home.....
I'd forgotten about the Chincoteague Pony Book you gave us! She would really like that right now -- plus, we can talk about where Andrew and Ethan are moving to next. You know how I love the maps.... :-)
Oh there are one or two that are for sponsoring (to keep the heard steady) but all others are for taking home! :-) You can buy it and she can live on our alpaca farm....hahaha
herd....I haven't had enough coffee yet!
Papa swiftly printed these last two blogs for us. I can't tell you the total joy I've gotten from this horse party.... especially. Beyond the creative fun for all, I love that the world is a softer place, for a child whose world can be harsh, ( because of your kind love...and Eliza's). I'll warm my heart on this for a long, long time. I'm so proud of you both...
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