Cavalia

We have been staring down the Big Tents, me knowing exactly what's inside of them, for weeks. The girls ask about it on our way to school and I tell them that in those tents they do a very neat show with real live horses. I took my niece Alisia to a show about 6-years ago. It left an indelible mark on my heart. Of course they want to go, but I tell them the tickets are too expensive. That's one draw back about having twins. Or perhaps two girls or multiple children, for that matter. You become more limited in what you can do or see without spending hundreds of dollars. One night of Cavalia for the three of us in "bad" seats is nearly one-month board for one of the horses. Then Grandma brought it up. She wanted to know if I thought the girls would enjoy it. "Yes," I answered. "But for that money, they need to be older and really into horses so that it is truly special." But, Grandma likes to spoil. She bought all the things to get the girls outfitted for their pony, Checkers. She wants to be known as the "Pony Grandma," I guess.
Grandma got us tickets to Cavalia. We asked her to come along with us, but since she's highly allergic to horses, she was worried the show would trigger an asthma attack like it did when she saw the Lipizzaner Stallions in Austria.
The show was, of course, fabulous. The girls enjoyed seeing the Roman riding, trick Western riding and the two 6-month colts. They got a kick out of knowing that Mom used to do some vaulting when she was growing up. They wanted to know if I also did the trapeze like the acrobats did around the riders. No, but Mrs. Branaugh did. "Ohhhhh!" Afterward, they waited in line for some autographs and got some pictures with the performers as well. We left the Big Tent, but they were still high off the show. Bettina is visibly galloping down the sidewalk like a trick pony and Ava's chattering about this and that. "Can we go again tomorrow?" she asks. "Remember what I told you about it being expensive and very special? Perhaps next year." She thinks about this while Bettina is trotting circles around us. "Maybe if we practice for a long time, like until we're 7-years old, we can do our own Cavalia! We can ride Checkers and you can do Misty!" I compliment her idea and ask her to who we give tickets. She immediately starts planning - the guests, the tricks and all the practice that it's going to take. When I take down the dictation for the thank you card to Grandma, Bettina makes sure that Grandma knows that she most of all will be invited to the Cavalia that she and her sister will do in 2-years time.

Welcome Checkers!

They always say, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." However, if you're going to have to feed it and cover their vet bills for the next number of years, you better make sure it's a good fit. So, I checked the mouth, his feet, temperament, confirmation, and gaits. And, he had to be cute, too.
One early September day after school, the kids and I drove down the the South Bay to see a woman about a horse. A pony, that is. An Amish-breed painted pony, 12.2 hands and about 7-years old. I didn't want to like the pony because I wasn't sure that we were really ready. I had tried to get a friend to give lessons on her pony first to make sure the girls were ready. They had been clamoring for months about wanting to learn to ride independently on a horse more their size. But, my friend's pony had been lent out and leasing one was more expensive than owning one. We arrived and met "Checkers." He was a little taller than I wanted, but the upside was that the girls wouldn't out-grow him. He'd also been trained to pull a cart, so that could be fun in the future, too. Each girl rode him fine and liked him. I spent some time in the round-pen trying out his ground manners and communication. Well, I couldn't find anything "majorly" wrong with him. He bent to natural horsemanship cues, was hard to spook and had a good head on his shoulders. He was curious but still mindful of manners, so I did a very scary thing: committed to picking him up on Saturday.
We go to see him before school (the girls start at 11:40). We moved both horses to a barn just 6-miles away from there. Checkers has been great in everything, however, he has learned that the girls' hands are not very strong. He will often pull the reins out of their hands or ignore them until either the crop comes out or I start walking next to him (he loves to play Follow the Leader). He and Misty are tighter than anything. If I pull one out, the other is running circles and whinnying until they are in eyesight again. Checkers is also a talker in general - whenever he sees any of us, he will knicker and beckon us closer, hoping for extra treats. He's a real friendly guy who follows the girls and me around the pen like a little pull toy. We are so happy to have Checkers in the family!

School

I can't believe that we're heading back to school already! You'd think I was writing this in August, like I should have, but it's nearly December and we're heading back after a week of gorging ourselves with turkey, trimmings and all the other delicacies of the season. While thinking about writing about these nearly-winter activities, I remind and chastise myself that there is some catching up to do.
You'd think that the girls' first day in Kindergarten would be one of those milestones that I'd run back to write about, ensuring that every detail of the day would be fully documented in picture and prose. Equally important was Alessandro's first day at pre-school two-weeks later. However, with all the transition, paperwork and taxi-ing, the blog was one of the many things that got pushed to the wayside.
In short, everyone LOVES school. The girls come home with a healthy portion of curiosity and have shown already tremendous growth. As luck would have it, the education curriculum-pendulum is pretty much at the same place it was when I was teaching. So all the skills I started with them will be useful to them (yea!). In fact, at their first assessment, the teacher says they have most of the Kindergarten reading skills and suspects they will be early readers. As a former reading specialist, this makes me very happy. They get older 5th grade reading buddies, which is thrilling enough. However, when they are matched with one of their friend's sister, it's enough to send little Bettina over the moon. I can't tell you how many pictures she's drawn that bear Cali's name or how many times she talks about her at home. I sometimes worry that the original friend, Stephanie (Cali's younger sister), may feel less important or dissed as Bettina blabs on about her sister.
Both are blooming socially and are doing very well in counting and basic addition as well. We have also signed up for the Kindergarten's version of Girls Scouts. Ava and Bettina are Daisies. They have vests on which I am continually sewing on something new. They have 2-years to earn all their pedals. And, since no one mom wanted to be the troop leader, we have started a co-op. It's my turn to help host next month and in January. So, I've been spending time on the Girl Scouts of America's website, getting trained and preened to become a "trained leader ." My big give-back is that for one day every month until June, I can pick up the girls one-hour later than usual. Host 2-events and pay about $100 in registration and clothing for 9-extra hours. Eh - it's about even.
Alessandro, of course, continues to think he's five and gets confused when he has to go home for a nap instead of line up on the green line when the Kindergarten bell rings. He pines for them, unless he's already at his school, which is 2-days a week.
First impressions about school? Bring you checkbook - it seemed like they were asking for money at every single opportunity! I almost resented having to walk to the door to pick up the girls because I knew that someone somewhere was going to remind me to pay for something new. However, it is also the cutest, most hopeful, tender-hearted part of their lives thus forth.