Sunday Stills: The Letter S

For this week's Sunday Stills challenge, The Letter S, I took the opportunity while I was waiting to meet some friends for supper near the downtown. 

The first one was stairs. These were on the side of a building that's being converted into condos.

The second one is, apparently, a "standpipe". It's also steel, so double-hit with the "s".

Sunday Stills: Flags

The challenge this week, Flags, had me on the lookout for flags everywhere I went. Strangely, I couldn't find many! So, the first one I took a little closer to home -- the back of my car. The reflection is purely accidental, but I thought it was a nice touch.



This one I took out the front windshield on the way home from a weekend in Kingston with my brothers and their families. Not too bad for a dirty windshield, speeding down the highway. (And thanks to George for spotting it for me.)

Grade 4

Faith started Grade 4 this week. (Grade 4!!!!) None of us were sure how it would go. Faith found out on the weekend that her best friend wouldn't be in her class, so she was pretty bummed and nervous about her first day. It didn't bode well.

But, when I picked her up at our sitter, Karen's, Faith was walking about 5 feet off the ground. Karen said she talked the whole way home, and I don't think she'd stopped by the time I picked her up. "My teacher was really FUN and my class is right next to L's and the classes do lots of things together and we've got two field trips already and we're going to the ZOO! and we've got a spelling test on Tuesday and ...." So far, grade 4 is looking like it will be a pretty good year.

Another weekend, another horse show

You may be detecting a theme this summer, and that theme would be horse shows. We've done three! This last one was at my hometown fair, so it was a great chance to see our families and see Faith, my dad, and Sydney show off their horse skills. George's parents even came up from Florida for the event. So, it was a mini family reunion.

First up for Faith was the carriage driving class. She drove Indigo, Sydney's horse, and for those horse lovers out there, they drove bitless -- no  metal piece in the horse's mouth. For this class, it's mandatory to have an adult with the kid, so Sydney is sitting next to her, holding the whip. As Faith explained, "That thing's too heavy for me." Faith's hands aren't big enough to hold the reins and the whip at the same time. But this year, at least, her feet can touch the floor of the carriage. She ended up with a second in the class, partly because she wasn't holding her own whip! (I could insert some sort of stage mother comment here, but I'll let the exclamation point speak for itself.) She did a great job!



Next up was the costume class. Thanks to the dollar store, we had lots of skulls, pirate hats, etc. to decorate Faith and Indigo, who was a very good sport about the whole thing.



Then it was Blake's turn -- stick pony race time! Note the pirate look. He was devastated when Indigo took his pirate hat, so he spent the previous 15 minutes crying (note the runny makeup). He snapped out of it as soon as he got his hat back, and wouldn't change out of it for the pony race. Just him and all the ladies.



He didn't win the race, but he gave it a good try. He should have won for fashion statement, at the very least. The spiderman face and pirate hat were priceless.



After a quick break, Faith rode Indigo in the next class. I know...she's on the lead line, which Faith finds particularly galling. ("I don't need a lead line!") But that's the only class she can ride in on Fridays, so lead line it was. Sydney had the honours again. And Faith finished third. Why? The judge told her she needed to be paying more attention. She was busy looking around at the great grandparents, her great aunt, her Nana, and Papa, her grampa, her dad, her brother...you get the idea. Basically, she was way too relaxed, which is kind of a good thing in my book. But, she was sitting up much straighter than at her first riding competition, which even the judge remarked on.



For her next class, Faith took the judge's comments to heart and actually paid attention! It was showmanship, and she got first prize because "I was the only one who knew my squares." (To which I replied, "What are squares?") From my meagre knowledge of horse showmanship (my years of dairy showmanship with 4-H doesn't translate), the class involves trotting the horse, walking the horse, and then standing it properly. The class was huge--about 10 kids--so Faith was pretty excited to get first. I think the skull and cross-bones on her cheek helped her along too.



Sydney and Indigo are both very good for Faith. Faith loves both of them and would happily spend every waking moment with horses and Sydney, so we really appreciate the time Sydney takes with her.

But of course, it wasn't just a show for Faith. My Dad had his two-year-old, Stormy, out again for carriage and showmanship classes. She was mighty pretty...Dad didn't look too bad either. But he's always so serious when he's driving.



And, of course, Sydney got her horse back to do her driving and showmanship classes, in which she won multiple prizes.





Not enough pictures for you? You can see the entire horse show/fair set on flickr.

Sunday Stills: Glass

This week's challenge was Glass, but the bigger challenge was actually finding time to take pictures of it, then get them processed. It was a long weekend, which included the fair and horse show, plus the first week of school. Busy. Busy. So I took some liberties interpreting this one.

This first one is taken on Friday morning, at about 7:00 am as I pulled into the Tim Horton's parking lot.  I grabbed my cellphone when I saw this guy parked there, obviously getting a coffee before work. I liked how the glass in the windows was dripping with morning dew, and the sheer amount of junk you could see collected through the bottom of the window.


Next one is from my cameraphone on the way out to dinner on Friday night with George. We drove over to the next city to meet a very nice couple of supper at a golf course. The clouds were amazing that night (even though I blew out the backgroud...it's a cameraphone, after all.)



And, to pull one from the archives, here's one of my favourites of the year, taken in April:

Sunday Stills: Shoes or Boots

This week's challenge, Shoes or Boots, was fun because I like taking pictures of feet. When I go on vacation, I always try to take a picture of my feet wherever I go...a self-portrait, if you will.

This week, I used the kids as models. The first two are Faith's "high heel" sandals, plus her dual-colored toenails. The second two are Blake's feet - one in his dad's cowboy boots and one in his crocs, playing in the sand at the stable.