even though i haven't been around here much to declare it, i pretty much adore summer, home with my girl. don't get me wrong, we have our unsavory moments, plenty of them. but the overarching feeling of closeness, connection, and just pure awesomeness definitely outweighs the hardships of parenting. how freeing it is to be just mama and not all of the other titles of hats that i wear during the school year. i love being 'just mama'during our summers together.
this was the summer of horses -- horse books and stories, stick ponies, horse farms, schleich plastic horses, you name it...she's all about it. i think nearly everyone in our town has been introduced to nay, her stick horse. nay usually goes whereever we go. can you say endearing??? the downside to all of this new interest is that her beloved dolly has spent most of the summer on bea's bed. sniff. sniff. i knew the day would come, but my heart can help but break for dear dolly. some of her favorite horse books have been:
if you know of any great horse theme picture books or early chapter books, would you mind sharing them with me? obviously, we can't seem to get enough.
she is still madly in love with the ingalls. it took us just about the entire summer to read through by the shores of silver lake. just last night, we cracked open farmer boy. we've yet to complete charlotte's web though that one is in our rotation as well and oh, we've loved that one so much too.
goodness, we have quite a scattered book reading life these days!
besides having our noses tucked inside good books, we swam, swam, swam and played with pebbles a ton, and just stayed home and did nothing but play and hang out and get dirty and sweaty. pure and simple. nothing much to it.
bea has had weeks upon weeks of vibrant, imaginative play full of made up on the fly folk songs about the normal kinds of folk song topics such as sunshine, elephants, birdies chirping, rain coming down, horses galloping. we've also had dancing horses, parades, carriage rides with imaginary siblings, life on the farm, horse back riding through prairies escaping rattlesnakes, and whatnot. truly remarkable. i'm so grateful for this child.
and that my friends, has been our summer. on tuesday, we begin a new school year. summers are super special to us, but i'm eager to welcome the days of fall and winter home.
much love,
nichole
Have you read any of Marguerite Henry's books? Those were my favs growing up and now my daughters love them, too (and the Breyer horses that go with them!)
Posted by: nicole spring | August 26, 2013 at 01:22 AM
I have been hoping to find a picture book version of Black Beauty in person to preview it for the sad/scary factor. There are several:
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Black-Beauty-Picture-Classics/dp/0794522505/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377549129&sr=1-1&keywords=black+beauty+picture+book
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Beauty-Sharon-Lerner/dp/037585892X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377549129&sr=1-2&keywords=black+beauty+picture+book
I think this one looks very gentle and sweet:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Beautys-Meadow-Classic-Picture/dp/1585362964/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377549129&sr=1-4&keywords=black+beauty+picture+book
And Daphne received a "Pony Scouts" book for her birthday that is very sweet. It is a level too hard for her to read on her own but maybe next year... There are many in the series:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=pony%20scouts&sprefix=pony+s%2Cstripbooks&rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Apony%20scouts
This was my most favorite book as a child (I still have my copy!)
http://www.amazon.com/Very-Young-Rider-Jill-Krementz/dp/0975551620/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377551852&sr=1-1&keywords=a+very+young+rider
And this was second to it, but not by much:
http://www.amazon.com/Album-Horses-Marguerite-Henry/dp/0689717091/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377551989&sr=8-1&keywords=album+of+horses
I'm off to Wishlist the horse books on your list!!
Posted by: Noelle | August 26, 2013 at 04:20 PM
very sweet collage of lovely summer days~ looks like a good time was had for sure! makes me want to take Claire out for milkshakes before summer's end. this weekend we tried a couple new eateries here in town- good stuff. definitely added to the potential October visit list ;)
love from nc~
Posted by: amanda (sweetpotatoclaire) | August 26, 2013 at 06:50 PM
Who would have thought I DONT UNDERSTAND My heart is broken trying to put the pieces back together GBL O GBD --shawshank GOD BLESS USA WNY
Posted by: BRYAN LEWIS | September 02, 2013 at 09:48 AM
No, I haven't. But they are on my list. Appropriate for a 4.5 year old??
Posted by: Nichole | September 03, 2013 at 09:30 PM
Oh...I love these. I bookmarked them last week. We loved your first list you gave us. Enjoyed almost all of those books too! We haven't gotten our hands on the Sleep Ponies yet though. We also have been loving Everything But the Horse http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064X8H3O by Holly Hobbie. That pony ride at D's 4th birthday is what inspired all of this!! Thank you!!
Posted by: Nichole | September 03, 2013 at 09:34 PM
If you ever come to Georgetown, I will share with you my very favorite milkshake in all the land. Just a few blocks away from us...
Posted by: Nichole | September 03, 2013 at 09:36 PM