Little Hiccups: pony ride

Showing posts with label pony ride. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 October 2020

Pumpkin Patch 2020

Halloween is less than a week away! Can you believe it? Wasn't it March just yesterday?

Like most people, our pumpkin patch visit looked a little different this year due to Covid. Originally I wasn't even sure if we would make it to a pumpkin patch, but we did and while there wasn't all the fanfare of previous year's visits, I'm so glad we were able to have a little normalcy - even if it wasn't exactly "normal".

With the fires here in Colorado and the terrible air quality from the smoke, I'd put off visiting a pumpkin patch. I'd also been trying to avoid visiting on a weekend to reduce the number of people we came into contact with, but with snow forecast for today I knew we had to visit a pumpkin patch before the cold froze the pumpkins.

So Saturday we put on our masks and headed to 7th Generation Farm right here in Louisville. It seems that half of Louisville had the same idea as the place was pretty busy, but with everyone in masks and being outside I felt like we were safe. There was no corn maze, no haunted house, no zombie paintball, no corn pits, no pumpkin blasters, no face painting, no bounce house, no cheesy photo props, but there were pumpkins, and that's what we were there for after all.

4th of July 2018

Ahh... Summer break!

That time of year when I think I'm going to be able to play catch up on the blog because I'm not running backwards and forwards between school and kid activities all day. Ha! With three kids home all day (and still plenty of kid appointments and activities to attend) I think I'm even busier than usual. But I'm making it a priority to catch up on the blog because I have a ton of fun stuff to share with you all.

First up let's take a look back at last week's 4th of July celebration...

As usual, we spent much of the holiday at the festival at Berkeley Marina. We ate corn dogs, went on pony rides and bounce houses, made animal friends in the petting zoo, watched some fun performances, and soaked up all the red, white and blue spirit of the day. Oh, and took a ton of silly photos!

Fourth of July 2016

This past Monday we celebrated our fifth Fourth of July since we moved to America. I still can't believe that we've been here for almost five years! All three of my girls have now spent more time living in America than they have in Australia.

Like we've done in the past we spent the afternoon at the festival held at Berkeley Marina. Before we headed down to the marina the girls played construction workers and built the White House. No, not out of Lego or blocks, but out of cookies! I couldn't resist when I saw this White House cookie kit at Trader Joe's. Just like a gingerbread house for Christmas! It doesn't look quite as nice as the real thing but it sure does look tasty!

Berkeley Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival

Today the sidewalks of Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto came alive with colour.

This weekend marked the 17th Annual Berkeley Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival.

Participants are invited to take part in decorating the sidewalks with chalk art as part of a competition. Entry to the competition is free and participants are assigned spaces along the sidewalk. It's all pretty flexible and as long as the spot is available participants can choose where they'd like their assigned space to be.

Ava staked out a particularly shady spot under a tree near the start of the festival and set about creating her music inspired masterpiece. It's in front of 1625 Shattuck Avenue if you're interested. We were not sure beforehand what Ava was going to draw. In fact, I don't think she knew until she started! She had originally joked that she was going to draw a T-Rex biting someone's head off - lovely! I was a little worried that she'd settled on this idea however after a little staring at her blank canvas she started drawing a guitar. Much more civilised.

Ava's chalk masterpiece

Happy 4th of July

Yesterday was our first 4th of July here in America.

We spent most of the day at the 4th of July celebration at the Berkeley Marina. The girls went on pony rides and bouncy castles, we ate corn dogs and drank strawberry lemonade, we watched kites flying and bands playing and generally had a nice day in the sun.

The girls with their American flags and pinwheels

First up we hit the food stands for corn dogs. Much tastier than expected.

Two corn dogs please...

Mmm... hotdog on a stick!

Ava eats her corn dog

Lola attacks the corn dog!

After lunch we soaked in the sights - and a little sun - while the girls played on the grass.

Berkeley Marina

Lola seemed to enjoy pushing Ava around in circles - again and again and again...

Ava and Lola

Spin that pinwheel

The girls were so excited when they discovered that there would be pony rides. However when it actually came to it Lola freaked out and refused to get on a pony! I wasn't surprised; I'd half expected this reaction from Lola. She had never seen a real pony up close before. As far as Lola was concerned ponies are small, brightly coloured creatures that live in the mythical land of Equestria. Hmm... that could be My Little Pony !

Ava ended up taking Lola's turn and had two rides on different ponies. Lola in turn, was happy enough to walk along side of the pony. Of course, afterwards Lola would not stop talking about her "poby ride"! That's right, she calls ponies "pobies"!

Pony ride!

Pony ride number two

After pony rides it was off to the bouncy castles. Lola was pretty excited to go on a "Bob Bob Pear Pants" bouncy castle - that's Sponge Bob Square Pants for those of you who don't speak Toddler. Ava went on a bouncy obstacle course and a giant bouncy slide.

Sliding down the obstacle course

Bouncy obstacle course

Bouncy climbing

Lola was pretty excited about the bouncy castle

From the Marina we headed over to nearby Cesar Chavez Park where there was plenty of kite flying up on the windy hill. The girls loved playing with their pinwheels and little flags in the wind.

Flag waving

Lots of kites and lots of wind

It was pretty windy

Ava and her pinwheel

Lola and her pinwheel

In the evening we went home and watched the fireworks around the Bay Area from our roof top garden - along with what seemed like every other person in our apartment building. It was a little busier on the roof than it had been on New Year's Eve when there were only about a dozen of us watching the fireworks.

As always, the fireworks were pretty. Lots of red, white and blue. This time round there were fireworks to be seen in almost every direction. We could see the fireworks displays at the Berkeley Marina, Pier 39 in San Francisco, Oakland, somewhere on the Marin Headlands and various other locations.

As always it was pretty cold up on the roof so we rugged up in jackets and beanies. Ah... Summer in the Bay Area!