Saddle Up!

The boys' favorite song right now is "Rodeo," by Garth Brooks. That probably doesn't make us parents of the year, but we probably weren't nominated for that award, anyway.  Oh well.  That is always their first request when they hop into Daddy's car. They sure do enjoy rolling down the windows and belting out that tune.

Caleb has just been all about all things rodeo over the past few weeks.  Which means Seth has been all about all things rodeo over the past few weeks. We were even flipping through the channels the other night before bedtime and stopped at one of the bull riding scenes in the movie 8 seconds.  (Remember that movie from the early nineties?)  Caleb was just mesmerized. 

Well, tonight is the Franklin Rodeo.  What appropriate timing!  I knew the boys would be very excited to go, but unfortuately Eric will be in workshops all weekend, so I knew if we were going, it would be me taking my squirmy cowboys solo.  I was not so eager to take on that challenge, but definitely willing to do it for my boys.  Thankfully, though, when I was discussing the rodeo with my friend Cheryl, she suggested our families go together.  Yay!  Extra hands, just in case.  So, this means that not only will the boys get to experience their first rodeo, but they will get to experience it with one of their best buddies, Aidan, and his family.  (Yes, Seth thinks that Aidan is one of his best buddies, too.)

And to add to the Rodeo mania, last Friday Poplar Grove School had a "rodeo" for all of the kindergarten kids. There were no bucking broncos or barrel racing, but there was a lot of cool games, "rodeo food", fun prizes, and a whole bunch of five and six year-olds dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls.  And some pretty cute siblings who also dressed the part. They were adorable!

And I loved the fact that each kiddo was given a bag of pennies and had to judiciously spend their alotted amount to purchase their own meal, play games, buy ice cream or popcorn. It was a really neat lesson for them. And was the fun over when the pennies ran out? Nope, the teachers had them come to them with their empty bags and then they had to earn more pennies by helping out or doing a task for the teacher. Loved it!

Granny got to come along for the fun, since she was here last weekend.  I volunteered to help out with some of the games, but for the majority of the time, I got to take in the rodeo with the boys.  It was a lot of fun! Seth just had a ball!  He felt so grown up standing in line with the big kids and handing his penny to the taker, so that he could play, too.  And of course, Caleb was like a flash running from one game to the next.  He actually held on to his pennies much longer than I anticipated, but did have to do some work to earn some more.  Granny and I got such a kick out of it all.

So...YEEHAW...Rodeo, here we come!! I really am a little more excited than I expected about this outing. Just sad that Daddy will miss out on all of the fun.