cheerleading

Sarah had her first basketball game that she cheered at. I think all the girls were exhausted when they were done. They cheer for the girls team then the boys team. All in all they cheered for at least 2 hours. The girls did really well. unfortunately our teams both lost. Her are some pix and video. I hope to get better video when the game is at home.

Cat Fight

The cats are definetely enjoying each other. They love to wrestle and fight. It is fun to watch and they sure do get going. They run all over the house stalking each other and attacking each other.

new fireplace

Brian and the girls decided to finish the fireplace in style. The fireplace usually is just open and we had to keep a screen in front of it so the cats didn't play in there. We bought a set of glass doors that looks great especially when the fire is on. Here are some pix.

We are now working on re-doing the half bath. Pictures will be coming soon.

Trick or Treat

The girls had a great time trick or treating. We decide to go to our friend's home, the Duncans, for beggars night. The girls got their usual stash of candy which is way too much but I am sure they can find a few helpers to eat it up. After the trick or treating, we had a fire and roasted marshmallows and hung out for a while. It was fun. Here are some pictures.

Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our pumpkins. Usually the whole ordeal takes about 2-3 hours but we actually finished in an hour and a half. I think this was becasue the girls can do most of the carving on their own and also because Brian decided not to do an intricate ohio state design on his pumpkin this year. Sometimes I wonder who is having more fun, Brian or the girls. He brought out the hand tools this year which created a bit more of a mess but it was fun. Emily's design was artistic as expected with her pumpkin eating a piece of itself, Sarah's says Trick or Treat, Brian's and mine are both just faces. Here are some pictures of the carving process and the finished products.

cheerleading

Well, I never thought I would see the day that one of my girls was doing cheerleading but Sarah has made the cheer squad at Cypress. Now this team does not do the big stunts and all but they are good. There are 12 girls on the squad and try-outs were last week. Sarah had to work very hard to learn a new cheer and a dance routine. As soon as she gets her uniform I will post pictures. Congrats to Sarah!!!

Belpre Horseback Show

Today, Sarah and I woke up at 5 am to travel down to Belpre, Ohio for a horseshow. As most of her shows go, we waited until around 2:30 in the afternoon for her to ride. This time she drew a wonderful horse named shifty. He behaved beautifully. After all the riders in her class performed the requirements the girls were asked to line up facing away from the judge so she could see the number on their back. There were 9 riders lined up. The announcer calls Sarah's number and asks her to walk forward. This has never happened before. We didn't know what to think. Sarah thought she was disqualified for some reason. Next the announcer requested all riders to Sarah's left start walking along the fence rail with Sarah. Suddenly all 9 riders started to go. These poor girls were so nervous they couldn't tell their right from their left. The coaches were yelling for them to stop and halt. It was quite amusing. The judge wanted to watch smaller groups so she could better assess their skills. I loved this idea. Anyway, when it was all said and done Sarah got a second place out of nine riders. Yeah!!!
We had a rather exciting day. One of her temamates (who seems to have a ton of bad luck) was going to jump over 2 foot fences. This girl had a great horse and they both looked great on the practice fences, but when she started over the first fence in competition the horse stutter stepped and she leaned to the left and couldn't recover. The stir-up on her left broke free as it is supposed to do and she fell. She landed very hard on the ground and hit the back of her head pretty hard. She wanted to re-ride because she thought it was an equipment malfunction but the judge said no. She was upset but it was for the better considering she hit her head. Thankfully there were 2 physicians to check on her. About an hour later she started to feel weird and lethargic so a squad was called to pick her up. We haven't heard the what the findings were.
Here are some videos from the show.