Janurary Birthdays

    Noel turned sweet sixteen this year, and got to go horseback riding at a nearby stable to celebrate.

    During her lesson, she worked on transitioning from walking to trotting smoothly, as well as turning tightly and backing up. The owner, who gave her the lesson, says she has "a natural touch".  She had a good time, but was very sore the next day!

     To go along withe the horseback riding adventure of the day, I attempted a horse cake, but  it ended up looking like a terrified horse.   It still tasted good though.

     Always fun to catch Noel smiling on camera!  She has the best smile and laugh.  Here she is on the verge of setting off smoke alarms from all her candles.

     Mattias turned 13 this month, and had several friends from his scout troop over to play Minecraft all afternoon. We had five laptops hooked up to the same game.     It was a fun party, with lots of loud laughing,  and cries of  "Troll!" , "Fail!"  and, "No Griefing!".   (All phrases common to teenage gamers apparently.)  My job was to just keep the snacks full on the table.

    In honor of the Minecraft party, I made a Minecraft-pig cake.  (You would have to be familiar with this computer game to get the goofiness of it all.)   It was a lot of fun to make, and even the teenage boys thought it was pretty cool.

     Mattias didn't have quite the forest of candles that Noel had... but enough to look impressive.  (Also a funny point about the picture below,  is that Mattias has his trusty Rubik's cube within reach.  We gave it to him for a birthday present, and he is a serious addict.  He has spent hours a day this week trying to memorize the pattern of solving it.  - He is getting pretty good at it.)

   It is fun to see the interesting people my kids are turning into.  We are so lucky to have these two January kids in our home.