Ridin' the Range

Last weekend we attended a "Cowboy" themed birthday party for one of Norah and Eli's friends. (And recipient of one of the aforementioned sock monkeys) .

Norah was excited about the party from the moment the cowboy hat-shaped invitation arrived. She brought said invitation to me multiple times throughout the week, requesting that I read it to her again and again. More than anything, she was looking forward to its promise of "horseback riding for the kids".

Literally, every morning, she would wake up and ask first thing, "Mommy, are we gonna ride the horses today!?" And I was thankful when Saturday came that I could finally answer in the affirmative. I wondered as she donned (in compliance with the invitations' request) her "best cowboy duds" if she would chicken out when it was time to saddle up.

She most certainly did not. No hesitation, whatsoever. She grinned her most-proud grin when they hoisted her up. And Jason and I just about fell over laughing when she rounded the first turn, held her hat high in the air and shouted, "Yahoo!!"(She repeated this exclamation about 4 times before she made the lap around the horse ring, and did so every other time she rode, removing her hat each time in a celebratory shout). Give you one guess what she wants for Christmas. (And no, well-meaning relatives, that wasn't a hint, it was totally tongue-in-cheek)


We attempted to get a shot of her with her good pal, Shelby...but Norah seemed more interested in smiling at the ground than the camera. Shelby, on the other hand is clearly a natural!














Watching the other kids take their turns on the horses...

















After the horse rides were over, we took a hayride together. This would have been a nice family photo, but once again, our chickadee was not especially interested in picture taking, so we took what we could get.


It was a fun, family-friendly party. And I'm confident Norah will be talking about it for a LONG time!