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!
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