A couple more from the photo shoot

A preview of Emma's photo shoot

As I mentioned yesterday, a photographer friend of mine came out to the stables to take a few shots of Emma before her lesson. She sent me a photo she took of Emma with her favorite horse Abra...


They both look so beautiful to me! I can't wait to see the rest...

Sunday at the stables

The weather here, like many other parts of the country, has been blissfully cool this summer. Normally, Emma's horseback riding lessons can be very taxing for both mother and daughter at her non-air conditioned barn. But with the cooler temps, it has been downright pleasant all summer.

Today was probably the warmest day we've had this year...upper 80s. A friend of ours who is a professional photographer came out to the barn to take some photos of Emma around the horses - I can't wait to see how they came out!

I snapped a couple photos of her too...




Emma spent her whole lesson practicing schooling patterns...she has a horse show this Saturday and she's going to compete in the schooling pattern class for the first time (up til now, she's just done walk/trot.) We'll see how she does next week!

Emma's summer playlist

I have a really old Ipod that I gave Emma and I helped her pick out some of her favorite songs to put on it. So here's what she's listening to this summer...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndy Lauper (I think it's cool that Emma loves a song I was listening to as a teenager!)

Pokerface - Lady Gaga (this is definitely the song of the summer for us - you've never lived until you hear a group of 7-year-old girls belting this song out in the back of your car!)

Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyonce (Emma thought this song was called Single Legs until I finally clued her in.)

Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas (I'm actually not crazy about this one, but Emma loves it.)

The Climb - Miley Cyrus (I'm pretty tired of all things Miley/Hannah, but this is a pretty decent song.)

Umbrella - Rhiannon (I love it when Emma sings the chorus...ella ella ella ella hey hey hey hey.)

Love Story - Taylor Swift (Emma worships Taylor...she even has a poster of her in her room - the only non-horse poster allowed.)

That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings (I love this one as much as Emma.)

Hit Me Baby One More Time - Britney Spears (classic Britney...I'm just thrilled it's not that horrible If You Seek Amy song.)

One World - The Cheetah Girls (In Emma's mind, the Cheetah Girls splitting was akin to the Beatles breakup 40 years ago.)

As you can see, Emma is heavy into the grrrrl power anthems...but she has pretty good taste for a seven-year-old!

Orthodontia...here we come!

Emma had her first orthodontist appointment yesterday. It was just a consultation and I was hoping the orthodontist would say yes, she would need some work, but not until next year...or even later.

But no, she showed me how Emma's permanent teeth coming in are already crowded and we need to make room for them...the sooner the better. So even though my daughter is just seven years old, she is starting down the road to orthodontia (I didn't get my braces on until I was 14!) The orthodontist put in rubber spacers between her back molars, which will make a bit of a gap between the molars. That's so they can fit her with a palate expander in two weeks.

I am a bit of wreck about the whole thing - both how to swing it financially and how Emma will fare. I love my daughter to death, but I have to admit, she is a bit of a wimp. She's been complaining all day about how the spacers are hurting her teeth...I can't imagine what will happen when they put that expander on (which looks like a torture device invented by the Nazis.) And the fact that I have to insert a little key in her mouth every night and tighten the expander...I just can't wait.

Oh well, I know it's become a extremely common rite of passage for kids now - and it will be fine.

Anyway, here is Emma before we headed to the orthodontist...she looked pretty happy then!

Signs your child is growing up

I've been picking up some subtle signs lately that Emma is no longer a little girl. For example:

She's more excited about going to the mall than going to the park.

Her favorite singer is no longer Laurie Berkner...it's Taylor Swift.

When we were window shopping the other day and passed Gymboree, she said "Mommy, don't even THINK about it!" But her eyes lit up when we walked by Justice.

When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said a Blackberry so she can text her friends (uh, I meant THIS Christmas, not the Christmas when she's 12.)

The other night, the last thing she said to me before going to bed was "don't pick my clothes out for me...I want to do that now."

Sigh! Seven is a fun age, but it is so bittersweet watching your little girl slip away. Oh well, at least she still loves her stuffed animals!

Another sleepover

It seems like 7-year-old girls are obsessed with sleepovers. Every weekend this summer, either Emma has been asked to sleep over at a friend's house or she has begged me to let one of her friends sleep over here. I don't mind it all that much, although I'm trying to limit it to a once a month thing. It can kind of wreck havoc on the entire weekend...sleepwise.

Anyway, this weekend it was our turn to host...Emma wanted her friend Tori to sleep over here. The girls were pretty good and I got them to bed by 10. We went to the park and swimming the next day. The girls were starting to snipe at each other a bit by early afternoon, so I knew it was time to take her home.

Here's a few pictures of the girls...

Happy Independence Day!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I snapped this photo just as neighbors shot off a bottle rocket (I think they took out a second mortgage to buy fireworks this year because they've been shooting them off for the last four hours!)


Sorry I haven't posted anything in so long...nothing much exciting to report, I'm afraid! Hopefully something worth writing about will happen this week...