Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna turned six this week, and today was her birthday celebration with best pal Joanna.

Lisa and Tony came to our house this afternoon, dropped off Emma, and picked up Joanna and me so the girls could go ride horses!  It was a surprise for the girls.  They were excited!

Joanna’s horse was La Bamba, and Anna rode Patches.  They practiced leading their horses around.

Then they got to mount up.

Mr. Mike and Miss Mary showed the girls how to stop and start and go left and right.

The girls got to ride pretty much unassisted – they told their horses where to go and we watched.  The horses are old and very trained for children.  They put up with everything – yay La Bamba!

They graduated from the little arena to the big arena.  Joanna got pretty good at “kick-starting” her horse and pulling on the reins to get him to turn.

She LOVED it.  LOVED. IT.

Joanna doesn’t gush, but I could tell by the look on her face how much fun she was having.

And she has now had an experience I’ve never had.  :)

You can kind off see her “turning” the horse to the right in this shot:

Trying to get La Bamba to do what she wants --

Love this one!

Mr. Mike said that was good that she was getting frustrated with the horse – she’d be showing him who was boss soon.

I was shooting on Manual, and oh, boy was it hard to make adjustments for the different directions I was shooting.  Clearly, I did not always succeed.  :)  But I had fun doing it, and the pictures help me tell the story, even if they’re over-exposed.

I could tell she was tired toward the end.

She told Miss Mary she was ready to get down.  And then she started to just slide off the horse with no help!

We stopped her – she’s watching for Mr. Mike to come help.

Leading her horse out of the arena:

Awwwww!!

Setting him loose to go graze or whatever horses do:

I just love these next three.

I think if I took these same shots in 10 years, they might not look so different.

They had a great time – thanks for bringing us along Anna!

Mr. Tony stopped to treat for ice cream on the way home.

Joanna had quite the mess.

I forgot to take a picture of Anna’s cone, which was expertly licked.  I guess Joanna just needs more practice with ice cream!  :)

They dropped me off at home, retrieved Emma, and headed back to their house.  Matt, Natalie, James, and I went over for dinner (YUM!!!) and cake and presents.  Natalie got sick while we were there (sorry!!!), so we took our cake to go, but left Joanna for her very first sleepover!  It felt very strange to be packing her a little overnight bag today.  I simply cannot wait to hear how much fun they had!!!