Thanksgiving at the Farm

We are finally unpacked from being on the road for the past two weekends so we have lots of pictures to post from Thanksgiving weekend in Vass.  It is a bit harder to get 5 minutes to blog because Carter went from barely crawling to "I can make it to the other side of the house and start a fire" in just a couple of weeks, so we can't take our eyes off of him.

First thing up on Thanksgiving morning is the "Blessing of the Hounds."  They have a big fox hunt in Moore county where all the horse people get all dressed up with their hounds and go run around the woods.  They get upset if you call them dogs, so don't.  Supposedly they are hunting foxes, but Laura didn't take any pictures of someone in fancy horse gear galloping back holding a dead fox by a tail, so I think it is all just a reason to go horse riding together.  Either way, Avery loves horses and dogs so she had a great time watching the show.

Avery amongst a throng of hounds and small children rocking her halloween costume shades.

 Meanwhile at the homestead, Carter was working on his crawling skills doing laps around the kitchen island.

 Of course Avery had to ride Bucky when they came back from the blessing of the hounds.

 Luckily the weather was awesome all weekend so everyone got to spend lots of time outside.

 Avery, Bucky, and Mimi working on their trotting skills.

 Mommy's little turkey!

 2 seconds later you can see how far he made it from the blanket.

 We had Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Stephanie's house which is just across a horse pasture from Mimi and Papa's.  They have a giant porch and Avery was blowing bubbles to entertain her brother before dinner.

 This is a great picture.  No more comments needed.

 The ladies waiting on me and Joe to make dinner...

 Avery and Jude jumping on the trampoline the day after.

 Me and carter out for a walk trying the backpack out.

Avery got to ride Bucky some more due to the nice weather.

 

Are we a horse family now?

 Carter even got in on the great Thanksgiving leftovers.

 The kids cuddling watching cartoons on Saturday morning.

Lily's birthday

BFF Lily's birthday is 2 weeks after Avery's.  She is really into pirates!  Avery can sing the whole theme song to the cartoon "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" because Lily taught her.  Avery doesn't watch the show at all, but they "play pirates" at school on the playground.  They also play Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty so it sounds like a fair deal.  I have no idea what "playing" any of these means, but I guess they have fun.

Lily often comes to school with her pirate gear on as you can see from the photo collage.  Her cake was made by the same lady that did Avery's mermaid cake.  This cake, however is vegan.  Avery and I both had a piece - it was pretty good!

 

To be only 2 weeks apart in age, Lily is much taller than Avery.  You can see in the other photos that Lily and Hunter are both tall (Hunter is 3 months older), but I think Avery is line with other classmates.

The gang had a fun time making pirate hats, treasure bracelets, and treasure maps.

 

Charger and Me

Caught a few picture of Avery playing with Charger the other day.  They have taken to each other pretty well recently.  Charger has started snuggling with Avery on the couch and Avery does a good job feeding him and throwing the toy for him.

Bestest Friends Pt 29

Avery is learning the value of charger's toys.  She laughed pretty hard at playing tug-of-war with him.  This was a short clip of the end of it.

Bestest Friends Part 28

Guess who is just out of frame of this shot?

 The very next shot.

 Charger is learning to play with Avery.

And Avery is learning not to grab Charger.

Bestest Friends part 27

About the only laugh we have ever heard not from tickling or swinging her around.



Charger is no longer afraid to be near her, but he tries to stay just out of grabbing distance.  The few times that she has grabbed his hair, he dealt with it very patiently.

Charger will now anytime Avery is playing on the floor or even sitting come over and sniff her eyes.  Yes, it is about the weirdest thing ever, but that is how Charger meets people and says hello.  Avery doesn't grab for him while he sniffs her eyes.  It is like they have worked out some sort of agreement.

Bestest Friends part 23

Something exciting is happening off to the right!

Best Friends

I think this is both Charger and Avery's favorite part of the day.  Charger gets played with and Avery gets to watch.