Summer at the Stables

Young Isabella and Giselle can walk and trot a horse like a professional at the mere ages of 10 and 8. (Must be that their daddy went to Kentucky and their love for horses, the Derby and Kentucky Downs, in which they have gone several years!)

Their mere love for stately animals aside, what helped them flourish was the staff at Cedar Stables, a family-run horse farm here in Homer Glen.
This marks the second year in a row that the girls have participated in this camp.  It is beneficial for them because it gives them the opportunity to learn more about the animals and their day-to-day care.  In addition to riding lessons, the children at the camp get a chance to learn how to clean stalls, feed horses, take care of saddles and bridles and how to tend the barn.  At the end of the week, parents are invited to watch them ride and see what they have learned.
I really enjoyed watching Isabella and Giselle blossom from last year to now with their equestrian friends named Trouble and Louie.  Can you guess which little girl had which horse?  Kind of ironic that Giselle's horse was named "Trouble."  Hmmmmmm……..

To my surprise, the Homer Horizon came (our local newspaper) and WHO was featured on the second page of the newspaper?  MY GIRLS - Giselle and Isabella!!!  They were SO EXCITED that they got to be interviewed by a reporter and that their story was in the newspaper!

All in all, it was a great week and in addition to horse camp, because it was so close, we took the back roads every morning and I let each girl drive the gator to and from camp.  Giselle was a pro at driving and Isabella almost crashed us a few times and rattled my soul, but that's why they call it "lessons."  Pretty soon they will be ready to drive a car!

Isabella on her horse

Giselle, with her horse..."TROUBLE"

The horseshoe craft the girls made with a photo of all the girls

Giselle driving.  I couldn't get a photo of Isabella because I had to concentrate!!

The Homer Horizon newspaper article.  Giselle is pictured in top right and Isabella is pictured bottom right

Another Soccer Season.....

Giselle finished another soccer season with a medal!  When I signed her up at the beginning of the season, I signed her up to play 3rd and 4th grade.  Well that was a mistake!  She was supposed to be playing 1st and 2nd grade soccer leagues!  She was the smallest player on her team and the only girl out there often times!  Epic mommy fail moment.....

With all the rain this season, several games and practices were cancelled so we didn't get a lot of field time, however Giselle continued to grow stronger and refine her soccer skills.  As always, we enjoyed watching her play out on the field making her competitive faces and Isabella enjoyed the season playing at the park and petting all the dogs.

Receiving her medal

The 3rd and 4th grade team

Last Soccer Game in the Rain!

Schools Out For Summer!!

Schools out for summer and we couldn't be more excited!  We are enjoying sleeping in a little bit, no homework, not packing lunches and freedom!!

Isabella EXCEEDED her IEP goals for the school year and finished strong with 7 A's on her report card and 1 B!  She finished 4th grade with a BANG!

Giselle finished 2nd grade strong too with 6 B's and 2 C's!  We are so very proud of how hard both girls worked this school year, especially improving their reading and math!

Now it's time to celebrate and enjoy the summer.  We have a few camps planned with activities that the girls enjoy participating in.  This week they are attending Invention Camp where they are using recycled items to build creations!

Great job ladies and we are on to 5th and 3rd grade this fall!

Giselle's Report Card

Isabella's Report Card

LAST DAY of 2nd and 4th Grade

Is May 23rd a Historic Date? Maybe?

It feels like we are living in Seattle with all this rain....It's almost Memorial Day Weekend and it just keeps raining and raining.  I don't recall a Spring such as this in quite some time!  While the weather was nice today, the girls got a chance to play outside on their play set.  I love that they LOVE to play on their play set after all of these years!
And this got me to reminiscing.  When was this play set built?  I felt like there was a coincidental date and then I looked it up.  Does a date ever come by you and you say to yourself, "I know something happened this day!" But you can't quite put your finger to it?  To my surprise, on May 23, 2011, we started assembling this play set.  8 years ago!  And it wasn't easy.  Everything came in a box and it wasn't labeled, and it took 2 whole weekends to assemble with friends and family. Isabella was 3 years old, and Giselle was 5 months old. LOOK at THEM TODAY.....Still enjoying this!  I am going to SAVOR IT!!

Some things are not coincidental, they happen for a reason : )

TODAY! Isabella @ 10 and Giselle @ 8 loving their play set!

In 2011, when we started building

HOW?  We DID IT! 2011

Pura Vida!!

For spring break this year, we traveled to Costa Rica where we learned the term "Pura Vida."  Simply translated, it means “simple life” or “pure life”, and Costa Ricans use this term to say hello, to say goodbye and not surprisingly, it has been named one of the happiest countries in the world.

We spent most of the week relaxing poolside basking in the sun and swimming.  We did manage to pry ourselves away from the pool for a day and traveled to Guanacaste for ADVENTURES!  It was there that we rode horses to and then hiked to a beautiful waterfall.  After wards, we visited a natural hot springs and then covered ourselves in volcanic mud and baked in the sun.  We took a ride on Costa Rica's longest water slide (which was super fun)!  And lastly, we went zip lining in the Rain Forest.

Before we went on our big adventure, I asked the girls which one they would like to choose and out of all of them, they chose the "Original Mega Combo."  I was surprised they picked this one.  It was the grandest adventure of them all that included 5 adventures (zip lining, riding horses, hot water springs, tubing and hiking) and a 12 hour day.  I will was feeling pretty confident as a mother that they could handle all of these.  They had taken horseback riding lessons so I knew they wouldn't be scared to ride a horse.  I had taken them to Great Wolf Lodge where we went tubing together, so I knew they wouldn't be scared of large slides.  We go hiking all the time.  The only thing I hadn't prepared for was zip lining.  They had NEVER zip lined through a rain forest way up in the sky over trees filled with monkeys.  There were 7 zip lines and we started off really good!  Both girls were cruising high in the sky.  The third line in, Isabella was crying and wanted to go back home.  The thing is.....once your in, your in.  You can't walk back home because its so high, you have to zip line home.  Once Isabella started crying, Giselle didn't want to zip line by herself anymore either.  After lots of deep breaths and wiping the tears away, a guide finished the rest of the zip lines with the girls.  I am super proud of both of them for being brave enough to try something new, even if it may have been scary.  I am also proud of Bob for being afraid of heights and trying out zip lining for the first time as well.

We enjoyed relaxing, spending time with each other and I especially enjoyed a break from not cooking for an entire week!

The food was excellent, the people were friendly, the company was even better and we would definitely go back!!  Costa Rica is truly an unspoiled destination!  Until our next vacation "adventure."

Zip Lining (Giselle is in front, Isabella is hidden behind the guide)

Fun in the Pool, Costa Rica

Lots of mammals in Costa Rica

Bella relaxing after the zip line!

A picture is worth a thousand words!

Tubing

A hike to the waterfall

Gigi is ALWAYS ready to ride!

Big Guy

It has been a while since we have talked about Baxter, I bet you are wondering how he is doing!  After all, this blog is about Isabella, Giselle and Baxter!

About a month ago, we had quite a scare with him.  I had just come home from x-rays because I sprained my ankle and just as I put my ankle up with ice, the girls said "Mommy!  Is your ankle bleeding?!  There is blood all over the floor!!"

I got up and to my surprise, there was blood all over the floor everywhere.  Baxter was fine before we went to the doctor.  He was fine when we came home.  In a matter of 15 minutes, something burst on his left eye and it wouldn't stop bleeding.

We got in the car and took him to the vet.  They treated his eye and gave us a cone and said it should be better in a few days.  A few days turned into 5 trips to the vet, 3 different medications (they told us he would have to take pills for the rest of his life) and then a chemotherapy treatment called vincristine.  They wanted to do surgery on his eye, but couldn't because his eye wouldn't stop bleeding and they didn't want him to bleed to death during surgery.  They told us that the chemotherapy treatment would stop his immune system from attacking his own cells and it should help him to stop bleeding - and it worked.

Isabella and Giselle were very upset during this time to say the least.  At one point, Isabella looked at me and said "Mommy, can you PROMISE me Baxter is going to be okay?"  Before I started to tell her yes, I thought long and hard about my answer.  And then I just looked at her and said, "No, Isabella, I cannot promise you he will be okay."  Very bravely she looked at me and said, "Well, can you promise me we will ALWAYS remember him?"  YES ISABELLA, I CAN PROMISE YOU WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER BAXTER!  Forever and ever, no matter what happens!

Here we are, a month later, and I am ecstatic to tell you that Baxter is back to himself.  He is off all medications and does not have to receive any further chemotherapy treatments.  And, we even bought him a NEW bed to sleep in that's BIGGER and FLUFFIER!!

Baxter has been with us 15 years, here is to another 15 years Baxter!  We LOVE YOU!!  Woof Woof

Baxter and his bad eye

All better

ALL SMILES that her doggie is back to normal

Happy Easter to YOU and YOURS

Happy Easter to YOU and YOURS!  We are having a beautiful day here in Illinois!  It's 77 degrees and the sun is shining on Easter!  I can't remember the last time the weather was this nice on this day!  The girls enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at the church on Saturday with over 3500 stuffed eggs.  Giselle won a GOLDEN ticket inside an egg and won a jump rope.  Last night, I gave them a bag of marshmallows and told them that if they sprinkled them all over the front lawn, the Easter Bunny would be sure to stop at our house.  I'm pretty sure they consumed half of the bag before they made it onto the lawn.  (BTW, Bob was really happy with me that I came up with that bright idea, lol.)

Wouldn't you believe those marshmallows worked??!!  The Easter bunny placed eggs all over our front yard for the girls to have a hunt and they woke up to a nice basket!

Lastly, we went out to a phenomenal Easter brunch at Capital Grille.  Our bellies our full, the weather is beautiful and it's a good day to relax and kick your feet up.  I almost forgot to tell you....Giselle and Isabella learned how to ride a bicycle today with NO training wheels!!  BIG NEWS!!  

Happy Easter everyone!!  XOXOX

Before the Easter egg hunt

Opening Easter Eggs from the hunt at church

If you leave MARSHMALLOWS all over the front yard and don't eat them all, the EASTER BUNNY WILL COME!!

Easter Morning

Easter Brunch @ Capital Grille