My B-ballin' offsping...

Nice form!

Aislinn playing Varsity ball this year.  OMG!  That girl in blue is huge!

...with a whopper!!!! Ladies and gentlemen!

Mackendra participated in her very first "Showdeo".  All the participants had different tasks they had to do while riding their horse.  They were awarded points according to fastest time and whether they completed the task.  In the 4 events, Mackendra placed in two of them.  She achieved 8th place in the riding while her arms were taped down around her waist, and she achieved 4th place in the above event...the riding while holding a Whopper candy on a spoon event.

Way to go kiddo!  Not bad for 3 lessons!

...a wonderful day...ruined.

Imagine a beautiful, crisp October evening.

Imagine that you are a nine year old girl on her very first horse back riding lesson.

Imagine that you are riding a gorgeous paint horse and having the time of your life.

Imagine you have finished your ride and are running around with your new friends, the other children in the horse riding lesson.

Imagine playing "horse tag".

Imagine running away as fast a you can from the kid that is "it", and they are running as fast as they can to tag you...imagine them catching you and giving you a little shove.

Imagine you falling forward and your shoulder slamming into a post and the breath being knocked out of you.

Imagine the ride to the hospital and the pain every time you try to move your arm.

Imagine your Mom's feeling of hopelessness as she receives a call from almost 300 miles away that you are going into xray, that the doctor is sure that you've fractured your left clavicle.

That's a wonderful day....ruined.

...R.I.P. Roxy the Hamster

Yesterday was a sad day.  Mackendra's hamster, Roxy, died during the night.  We knew she was coming to her end...she hadn't been moving or eating, or doing much of anything for the last two weeks.

So, we said our goodbyes and then buried her in the woods behind our house.

R.I.P. Roxy, you were a good pet.

...what a weekend!

So, you might ask, "what did you give the kids to make them fall asleep like that?"
And my answer would have to be..."a great weekend!"

We travelled down to Portland again this weekend.  Aislinn had a 3-on-3 tournament down there.  It was such a great atmosphere.  I'm not sure of the numbers, but there must have been about 250 teams, of all age groups playing outside 3-on-3.  SO MUCH FUN!!!  Aislinn's team was called the Dream Team.  And they were in the Gr. 9 division.  They had 2 games on the Saturday to rank them and won the first game handily, but lost a close one the next game.  They ended up playing 4 games on the Sunday, the second game against the same team they lost to the previous day, and winning the whole gosh darn division!  Yup!  They ended up the Gr. 9 Girls Champions!  Aislinn played amazingly.  She took her team on her shoulders and carried them all the way to the winner's circle.  Not to say that her teammates didn't help...they were fabulous!  They all contributed.  But Aislinn was in a different mindspace...she did not want to lose...she didn't let them lose.  I think it was the best I have ever seen her compete.  It was so great.

This was right after the won the last game.  The girls made their own shirts.  Cute huh?

And these were the shirts they won!  Even cuter!!!

It was Frank's birthday today as well.  When Aislinn asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he told her that the best present would be a championship...so, Frank was one happy birthday boy.

This was the only picture that I have of Frank this weekend.  It is actually me and him trying to figure out how to use the camera on my tablet.  Haha.

Mackendra figured it out way before us.  Witness one of her self portraits.

So, after 6 games and a great weekend of basketball, this was the girls on the drive home.

...my baby turned 9 yesterday.

So, my girls are growing up.  Yesterday was Mackendra's 9th birthday.  Yowsa!  9 years old, already!

It was kinda a quiet birthday, it usually is for Mack's birthday, unfortunately, most of her friends were away on their own summer vacations and were unable to come.  Summer birthdays, what can you do?

Anyways, we had cake and presents and decorations...and I think Mack had a great time.

And that cake????  It was delicious!

Happy Birthday, my love.

...Happy Birthday to Me!

So this is a few weeks late, but check out my new toy!!!!

This little baby is called the ASUS Transformer Prime...and oh my goodness, it is like a Transformer!  It doesn't turn into a car that shoots laser and talks, but almost...

Is it a tablet?  Is it a laptop?  Is it AWESOME?

Yes!  Yes!  and double YES!!!

It comes apart and I can tap all over the screen and it does cool stuff, and then, when I need to type something, I just pop it back into its keyboard, and voila!  Its a mini-laptop!!!  No more lugging around my regular laptop (which I must say, I still love and works wonderfully, and I use for homework) while I have to travel.  Nope!  Now I have this super powerful...very high tech (probably more high tech than I will ever need) super sleek device.  I now have access to all this cool, geeky stuff, and I can finally say, "I have an App for that!"  Hehehehe

This was my birthday present, from Mr. Wonderful.

Here he is looking mighty happy about sitting on a beach in San Diego.  That man loves the beach more than Mackendra, I think.

Anyways, I was asking for a Kindle, and Frank said, "why get a Kindle that only does one thing, when you can get an Android tablet that can run all the ebook apps you want plus SO MUCH MORE???"  I said, "uh...I don't know" ('cause I really don't) and then he proceeded to research and find me the best thing out there.

Glad that man never listens to me.