"Nee-haw!"

This morning we went to the gym so I could do back-to-back classes (I think in the future I will just do one.) Anyways, afterwards we went to the grocery store to buy a turkey for next week. We are very excited that our friend Lori, John & Rachael are coming from WI to visit us for Thanksgiving weekend. Anyways, this particular grocery store has a horse you can ride on for a PENNY! That's right, a ride for a penny. Nothing costs a penny anymore, actually the only thing I ever remember costing a penny was penny candy (the bar down the road for us sold penny candy and when we were old enough to be allowed to walk down the road by ourselves we would occasionally go there to buy penny candy - until the bar was torn down.)

Anyways, back to the grocery store. It's so great that it only costs a penny because I can let her ride on it a couple times and she just has a blast. Frequently this grocery store has samples around the store. The bakery usually always has small whole cookies (during bakery hours) out to sample. Isabel loves that. Their video store also "rents" kids videos for free. We haven't done that yet, but it is something we can always do with her if we are looking for a free & fun activity. Between a free cookie, penny horse rides & free kids videos, it is a parents idea of a great activity to do with the kids.

Isabel has increasily become infatuated with horses & riding them. She has never been on a living horse, but everything she can imagine to be a stick horse, she rides on. Even a slotted spoon has become a horse, long stick of mega blocks, a broom, a cat toy wand....you get the idea. I am glad she has an imagiation and that is evident when she imagines everything is a horse. It may have started when she was an infant and we would have her ride on our foot/ankle as we bounced her up & down and said it was a horse.

The only thing is that she thinks you say "Nee-haw!" on a horse......I try to correct & tell her it's Yee-haw and she will repeat it correctly once but then forgets and reverts bak to Nee-haw! again.

Next summer when we take her to Bay Beach when we visit grandma & grandpa we will have to take her on the ponies. I think she will do great on a pony, but I think an actual horse will scare her.

I never understood why there were always references to little girls loving horses & ponies. I have no recollection of being obsessed with horses or ponies, although I remember my cousin Lori and friend Rebecca were pretty obsessed with them when we were in grade school. Now I have a daughter who is in love with horses.