Skip to main content

Who wants a pony?!?



Blink and yet another week is gone, and what a lovely week it’s been. We have had amazing weather and I’m so pleased we didn’t do what so many others did and head for some sun - I’d take a sunny english autumn day over one from further afield any week.

The highlight of the week for the girls was their loan ponies which they have been very excited about. The deal is 3 days over the week where you can go to the stables and basically pretend that the pony is yours, including the need to do all the  grubby jobs as well as the nice ones. There was a bit of debate as to who they would choose. Abi was quite clear, either Jethro or Henry. Izzy on the other hand wanted Phoebe but was a bit worried about her being a bit feisty for her. Regardless this is who she went for. I was keen to have 2 ponies that worked well together irrespective of shape or size!

The riding started well. We had to poo-pick first then they could get their ponies in and start grooming. We had agreed we would do some ring work and some outdoor riding but over the week it became clear Izzy feels safer in the ring. We tried a hack but phoebe was a bit spooky and Izzy lost confidence to the extent Abi ended up walking her home on Jethro while I led Phoebe. Day 2 we said we’d stick to the ring but after a great session decided to walk around the xcountry course with the ponies. Abi popped over one of the small jumps and Pheobe got excited that it wasn’t her turn and so yet again we had tears with Izzy. Day 3 (after a break of a few days) and Izzy swapped to JuJu. We headed to the ring and Abi was doing a great little session of working on her transitions between walk-trot-walk-halt and then wanted to do some serpentines and Izzy crumbled again saying Abi was making it all look so easy. She just gave up as All being too difficult. I did wonder whether she would not want to go to her lesson on Saturday but she jumped out of bed and was all smiles, having a brilliant lesson on JuJu. Conclusion of all this? Abi hates group lessons but is probably ready for a loan pony. Izzy loves group lessons and probably isn’t ready for anything more just yet. £50 well spent together that straight in everyone’s head!!

In between all the riding I had to work on Wednesday - not such a bad thing given I crammed all of the ‘must do’s’ into one day. While I ate dinner in some posh restaurant in London, Glenn and the girls entertained Kerrie who was up for the night before we did the only cultural activity of the week, our theatre trip. On Thursday morning we all set off to Southampton to see The Band, a story of 5 young girls who follow a band, lose touch and meet back up again in their eyes early 40s when the band reform. It’s set to Take That music and was absolutely brilliant. Despite the swearing (which the kids thought was hilarious) everybody just loved it and we all agreed it was a fab way to spend a day together. How far we've come with Kerrie that she is now coming to the theatre with us and haw great it is to see her and the girls so close and happy together.

Friday dawned sunny and bright thank goodness as we had agreed to host a little get together for the kids friends before they go back to school. The deal was that they invite up to 6 friends each (ideally ones who get on with each other and don't mind an outdoor party in November!), and we would do drinks / hot dogs / fire pit and marshmallows.  They set about decorating the pod with me asking countless times - are you sure I don't need to plan anything? - while responding to multiple texts from parents checking the time / day / dress code - seems like everyone had lost track over the holiday. The allotted start was 3.30 but people started arriving at 3 with the last girl arriving at 4:30! Equally the planned finish was 5:30pm but we still had kids here at nearly 7pm - good job it all went well otherwise Id have been a wreck! I have to say it was the easiest party I have ever done and they were all fab. They ate their own body weight in sugar but they all seemed to enjoy themselves with no mishaps. I hope the parents will forgive my lack of parental guidance - I gave them a safety brief about the woods and the fire pit and left them to get on with it - seemed to work perfectly. Might even make it an annual thing!

So we wrapped off an amazingly relaxed week with a trip to Salisbury Plain today with the motorbikes and dogs - a bit of air for Freya after a worrisome evening of fireworks the night before (she does not like them at ALL!). The girls are getting very capable - much to my concern at times - and it was lovely to be out in more sunny weather, particularly after all of Saturday's rain.

The kids go back to school tomorrow and I (smugly) have another day off - I cant say how much I'm appreciating this 4 day week lark - worth every penny!




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...

Blame the jet stream...

Shed prep, with oversight from the dogs Apparently we have the jet stream to blame for the truly awful weather we are having right now. I blame our builder - if he had got his act together and sorted out Glenn's workshop roof as he promised, sods law the sun would be shining from dawn to dusk. Instead it's still pouring every half hour and Glenn is constantly worried about how much water is coming though the roof / walls / floor etc. Apparently he 'literally' just needs to put the ridge on the top and the gully down the side and it will all be fixed. We are literally at the point of wanting to do him some actual bodily harm. The moment he disappears the better. This week he was also literally going to clad the office ("done") and has failed everyday to turn up and do it (which in my book is literally not "done"). He was also going to have Gary come and finish the electrics (not done), whack down the paving slabs (not done), render the last of the bri...

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...