Yeah, I SHOULD have both hands on the wheel, but...

I was driving through Lexington and saw the Shadwell Farm van so I just HAD to take a picture!

My friend Bob Witham trained the Shadwell babies in Camden, S.C., for many years prior to his untimely death two years ago. His assistant, Jennifer Leadbitter, is now the trainer and graciously allows us to lurk around the barn as we used to when Bob was around so we can watch the babies train.

Cool kids

The lights before Christmas

We loaded up the car to see the lights at Kentucky Horse Park. It has been a long time since I've gone anywhere to see holiday lights and The Daisy and The Boo were, of course, along, as well as our neighbors Chris, Anthony, Michael and Cory (all brothers).
They were in awe at the lights and so excited at seeing the lights. Time and time again I heard,"Thank you, Shannon, for bringing us." It was the best $15 spent.
Here are The Boo and Cory with Bucky, the horse park mascot:
Since I'm more of a steeplechase race fan than a flat race fan, I was happy to see this light display:

Yogis hanging out

Since starting hot yoga over the summer, I have come to really enjoy a lot of the people I practice with and always look forward to times we hang out after class.

Nadine is the superstar of our yoga practice. Everyone wants to hang out with her and I just adore her! This is us after class - yeah, this is the I-just-got-out-of-the-shower shot: This was one of our "karma yoga" classes in which we had a potluck after then some of us went to the movies.
Here's Dale, Jack and Meredith (we told Dale she had to take the towel off her head in order to go to the movies with us): Sarah, Jack, Dale and Nadine having a laugh:
Nadine and Sarah pushing the ginormous beach ball:

Before & After

What to do with an old wedding dress?

Let The Daisy play in it! I'd had a wedding photo taken with my favorite dog Gili and here The Daisy and The Boo hang out with ReSet.

Snow day

Our first big snow and the kids talked me into going out in it, despite that I had the flu. Watching them sled the hill was well worth the venture outside though!
The Boo repeatedly sledded into a drain pipe and it would make him pop right off the sled. It was so funny!

Gingerbread house attempt

We got a gingerbread house kit from the grocery and made a morning of it. We had to hurry to take pictures because the roof was sliding off.
And then the kids demolished it with their friends by eating the roof and walls.

First snow this winter

Maybe she should write captions for ST Times

The Daisy flipped through my latest issue of "The Steeplechase Times." I didn't know it until I was putting it in the recycling, but she had written captions on a lot of the photos and this one cracked me up:

Field trip: Three Chimneys Farm

Thanksgiving week we went to Three Chimneys' stallion division. I'd gone in the spring with my friend Charlie Pigg and The Daisy really hasn't forgiven me for doing so without her.

The Boo with Fredericka, the unofficial Three Chimneys tour guide. This was his favorite part of the tour. I've ruined the kid on horses.

Point Given is said to be the most easy going, polite stallion there.
The star of the stallions is Dynaformer. I wish I had taken pictures of his stall door that has dents it in from him kicking it out. He's said to be very professional in the breeding shed. I wonder what constitutes as "unprofessional"?
The Daisy sat here and wrote down all the stallion names from the graveyard. Yes, this is all homeschooling.
Here is Charlie's Old Fashioned Girl's yearling. She's gotten so big since spring!
So now I think The Daisy has forgiven me.

All I want for Christmas ...

Homeschool snapshots from November

Some of the hands-on things we've done so far this month:
The Boo worked on small motor skills by matching numbers to dots:
I use a lot of Montessori materials and this was for The Boo to distinguish what didn't belong in the group: Always time for creative play and The Daisy made a huge farm operation in her room: Part of the The Daisy's physics work this year. She was making a crystal solution: Again, for The Boo to make color differentiations. I have thought he's had a hard time with colors but I've concluded he's just messing with me. This was a little hard and he needed some help. Heck, even I needed help. This was Boo's M&M game. I got beat.
Here is some math/grid work for The Daisy. She complains about it.
Well, it's not homeschooling but The Daisy lost a tooth before bed one night:
She wanted to learn sewing so I found a whipstitch project to make a felt leaf. Turns out she wants to make it a flying fish. If she were in school, it wouldn't have been allowed.
More small motor skill work using scissors to cut playdough.

Field trips: Cherokee history

While we'd been to both places before, I was compelled to visit New Echota, Ga., and Red Clay State Park in Tennessee again.
Here is The Daisy listening to the Cherokee syllabary, which Sequoyah/George Gist (pictured) wrote, giving the Cherokee the first written language of all the First Nations.
New Echota was the Cherokee capital during the time of removal.It was here the treaty was signed (illegally) authorizing the removal of the Cherokee to Indian Territory, which would become Oklahoma. This is a replica corn crib of a Cherokee homestead:The interior of a Cherokee home, in which, typically, six people lived. The kids were adamant that it was too small!But I was really obsessed about visiting Red Clay again. Here is a sacred spring called the Blue Hole, which really is blue although you can't see it in these pictures.I think it pumps more than 300,000 gallons of water a day into this spring.The Cherokee met here prior to removal when the treaty was signed at New Echota and today it is the site of an annual Cherokee pow wow.
Here is the eternal flame of the Cherokee, lit when both the North Carolina Cherokee and the Oklahoma Cherokee met in '94 (I think) together at Red Clay. And The Boo demonstrated his balancing skills before we got back on the road: