Therapeutic Riding Update

Emma has made so much progress with her horse riding. When we started, she cried incessantly and mostly had her head touching her knees! When she was introduced to the goats, she fell in love and started smiling at the horse farm for her sessions. Her trunk control started getting better and eventually she was sitting on the pony with less help from her instructor (Miss Kris!). Her head control started to improve dramatically last year and we were able to turn her facing forward without worrying (too much) about Emma hitting her head on the handle.

Now, Emma is able to sit facing forwards for a good portion of each session and carries her head up high and her hands on the handle a bit more. Here is a photo of her during last week's session. How far she has come since she started riding 11 months ago. Congratulations on all your progress, Emma. You worked so very hard for it and we look forward to seeing you riding on your own one day.

Easter Egg Hunt

Today was a picture perfect day for an Easter Egg Hunt, and we were lucky enough to get to go on one at the horse farm where Emma rides. Have I mentioned before how much we love that place? We had a fantastic time at the hunt and want to say a huge thank you to the staff and volunteers at C Line stables and The Center for Therapeutic Riding for hosting this event!

Enjoy these photos from our wonderful day.

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Happy Birthday, Chris!

We're jumping for joy around here to celebrate Chris' birthday. Happy Birthday, Chris! I hope this year treats you well and is filled with lots of love and happiness.

Family Walk

Last week I saw the first tree in the area start to flower, so that means Spring is finally here! With the nicer weather we've been able to take the girls out for a routine walk again. I took my camera along one night to capture some photos of this routine - because I'm sure there will come a time when the girls won't want to join us for our walks after dinner and I'll want to remember when they were younger and always were ready for a jaunt.

When we set out for the walk, Julia wanted me to take her photo and she was all smiles. Shortly after that, though, she didn't really want me to bother her by taking her photo. Apparently, her baby really needed a walk and I was crimping her style!

Emma loves our walks and is usually bouncing out of her stroller with excitement. The side effect of this is she often kicks off her shoes. I think she might be doing this on purpose, though, just to see us put it back on for her. What do you think?

And, no walk would be complete without Finnegan making a pit stop (or three!) and that's when I'm the most happy that it's a family walk and the pick-up duty falls to Chris. He seems to be much more thrilled with that job than I am - take a look.

Let the good times roll

Last weekend was wonderful weather so we headed to our local park for some fun. A couple of great things happened while we were there -

• Emma was able to sit and swing in the bucket swing while holding her head upright with only a little receiving blanket tucked under her legs to keep them in a sitting position. She has never been able to sit in the baby bucket swing before, let alone swing in it, so this was a huge milestone for us. She didn't last too long in the swing, but we have all spring and summer to build up her stamina.
• Julia caught up with a friend from pre-school at the playground and they had so much fun playing together. We don't usually run into people from school at the playground, so it was so fun to see Julia playing and interacting and just having a blast with the girls.