Several people have asked me lately about Ali. She's doing very well and enjoying Junior High. Many of her friends went to a different school this year, so Ali has made many new friends.
She is now playing on a select soccer team. The teams she was on in the past didn't win very often. I admired her love of the sport, despite the losing record. Now she's on a winning team and loving it even more!
Hopefully, she will miss the blogging and get back into it. Things will slow down a bit for her on the weekends with winter coming on. Perhaps she'll spend some weekends here and get back to posting. For now, I thought I'd post these pics her mom took last week. It was 80s day at school. Ali makes such a good valleygirl!
Saturday I went to a balloon fest. I had a blast, and so did my sisters. First we woke up at 7:00 in the morning. We had gone in the morning because they had a breakfast event. There was a guy named Chris cooking the pancakes. You get in line with a plate and when it is your turn, he flips them in the air and you have to catch them. I caught two. One for my little sister Melody and one for me. When I caught it the people behind me said, “Wow”. We also had sausage and orange juice.
After we ate, my little sister Gracie saw her two friends and ran over to them. All the sudden you here, “Gracie!” They were screaming and hugging. Her friends are twins Riley and Sidney. Gracie brought them over and they started hugging my dad because they think he’s funny and they like him. Then their mom comes running over saying that their uncle said, “Your kids are hugging some man.” But she was really scared.
After that we went home and waited until it was almost time for the balloon glow. Then we went back to the park. We counted down the time for the balloons to glow. It is so cool, especially when it is dark. Have you ever been to a balloon glow?
Tuesday I went to an indoor water park called Coco Key. It was so much fun! There was a hot tub and big water slides. The water slides are huge. There are two that you can go on with an inner tube; in one you can see and the other is pitch dark. Then there are two water slides that you can go on without a tube. They also have one pitch dark tube and one that is light inside.
There was a playground area with smaller water slides and things you can use to squirt people. Here is a picture of that.
Around this area is a canal they call the Lazy River. You have a tube that you sit on and just float all the way around the river. Here is a video of me in the Lazy River. There’s a little area for small kids. It is only a foot deep and it has three water slides; one is bigger than the other two. It has cones that dump water on you and a little fountain.
There is also a pool with a net that you hold on to while you walk on these Styrofoam lily pads. That pool also had two basketball hoops.
They have a bar called The Wet Lobster. They also have an A&W and a Pizza Hut. We had Pizza Hut for lunch. It was delicious. After we ate, we took some pictures.
We were there all day. Here is a self-portrait I took on the way home.
Coco Key is the best! Have you ever been to an indoor water park?
In June I went to a soccer camp. At first I loved it, but then I started getting cramps every day. It was so hot out every single day! But I guess it was still fun any way, even if it was hot and I had cramps. First we spread out into three teams. There was Coach Chelsea. There was also Coach Jeremy. There was Coach Pete, which was my coach. Last but not least was Coach Sarah. I made a few new friends: Rachel, Emily, Kristin, and Amorah. We would play games like castle. You have two teams and each team has a castle and you have to line up all the balls on the middle line. Then when the person says go you have go get as many balls as you can and take them in your castle. Then the other team has to come over the line and since they crossed the line the other team has to tag them. But if they don’t get tagged they can get in your castle and they can take your balls and they are safe in the castle so you can’t tag them in the castle you have to take the ball away from them and take it back to their castle. Who ever has the most balls wins. We also learned like four moves. One is, the Mathews. Another is, the fake Mathews. Also, there is the step over. And like a few others I can’t remember! But I had so much fun at soccer camp.
The other day I got to ride Maggie and it was fun. I had to say whoa a few times and she didn’t do that all the time. I guess it had to have been better when she went fast. I like Maggie a lot because she is sweet, loyal, and very gentle. Nekoda is also a sweet horse but pretty much the stubborn horse. Buddy is just a very sweet and gentle horse. Nana got video of me riding Maggie and Nekoda. Have you watched them yet? Have you ever ridden a horse before and what was it like? Do you have any horses? Well that is what I did just the other day.
Yesterday I had two friends over. They had a lot of fun. First we went and saw the horses. They got some pictures of them. We walked in the pasture where the horses were. We hated it in there because the grass was too long. We ran out as soon as we could.
Then we went swimming and played Marco, polo. We also played do you trust me? It’s where you stand up and fall back. The two people have to choose whether they want to catch you or not. It was Camden’s turn. He fell on Mikala’s head. She was crying and she told us she had a headache. It left a big knot on her head. So I told them let’s not play this game anymore. They said that was a good idea. Then we played color where you guess a color that the other person is thinking. If you get it wrong that person dunks you and if it is right you get flipped forward. It was very fun in the pool.
Then we went to see the goats and Mikala was scared of them. Camden and I were running and Mikala was right behind them screaming. Camden and I were cracking up. After that we had a bonfire. It was big. We had about two smores and four plain marshmallows each. We had a blast. They stayed until about 11:30.
I am going home this weekend and this weekend is the balloon festival down in Middletown. My family and I are going.
PS, sorry I forgot to blog in such a long time. I’ll keep you posted on Monday about the balloon festival.
Ali had a great time on Maggie Mae, but since Maggie pulled that stunt with Dani, Ali won't be riding her except in the round pen. ...and to think, I trusted her!
I have a borrowed saddle that I wanted to check out on Nekoda, so I saddled her up to work her a bit. She is green broke, which means she's broke to ride but doesn't know her hind quarters from a hole in the ground. I decided to let Ali test her horsemanship skills.
I'm glad I recorded her ride. I can use the video clips as teaching tools to show Ali what she did right, what she did wrong, and the response she got from Nekoda. A lot of people have someone record them riding to evaluate their own performance. After watching the videos, I can see what a help that would be.
Ali has pretty good balance. I don't let her use the stirrups yet, because riding without them is a great way to hone your balance. Plus, I don't have to worry about her getting hung up. The biggest danger in riding is not falling off... It's falling off and having your foot stuck in the stirrup. Once the girls are ready to trail ride, I'll probably have to invest in some break-away stirrups. They're designed to detach if they are tilted too far. It helps prevent being dragged by a run-away horse. I don't think I could survive watching that happen!
Ali decided it's too much work to ride Nekoda. She kept stopping! She's pretty buddy-sour (no pun intended) and kept stopping at the gate to look for Buddy. I thing once Ali learns to use her hands a little better, it will be much easier to keep moving.
Some friends from church came over today. Ali is having fun with them in the pool and in the woods. If their mom lets them stay late enough, we'll be roasting marshmallows tonight! Tomorrow, I must make her blog...
Hi. I'm Ali's nana. If you read my farm blog, blahwg!, you'll know that I have a beloved old mare named Maggie Mae. She has been gone for three years, but I brought her back home on July 4th. She is old and sweet, but still healthy and energetic. She is the only horse I would trust in open areas with my granddaughter in the saddle. Hopefully, Ali will be learning to ride this summer. But until then, she can mosey along on Maggie without worry...
Last week I went to a banana split festival. It was so much fun. First, we went to see the booths.
We went to all kinds of booths. A lot of them had jewelry and some had clothing like shoes, hats, T-shirts, and hair stuff. Then we saw one booth that had free cookies with a donation. The cookies were good but we had to get a banana split. I got two scoops of ice cream and it was chocolate. Then I got lots of hot fudge and got whip cream and of course cherries. So good!
Then we met my aunt and uncle there. We all went to see the old fashion cars. We saw all kinds, like trucks and vans and even just cars.
There was one that they let my uncle get in it and honk the horn. It was so loud me and my aunt screamed. My aunt said, “Next time warn me when you are going to do that!” A lot of people just looked at us!
The car was from the army. It was small. My nana got some pictures of me and some cars. Then we went to the games and some were rip-offs because I couldn’t win any of them. So I decided to go play on the bounce houses.
I went in to the challenger’s course and I ran through a plastic bar and got stuck! Then after that I noticed there were two more tickets left. I played this one game which was also a rip-off, but there was one game that I won and it wasn’t a rip-off. I won a football but I traded it for a yellow smiley face ball! I also got to pick a duck with a certain number and what ever number that was it would go with a bin and I got a two, so I got to pick a prize from that bin and I got play dough. Of course you have to get cotton candy, which we got. I also got a balloon. The festival was so fun!
Have you ever been to a festival? And what kind of festival was it?
PS from Nana... Wilmington, Ohio has bragging rights for inventing the banana split! It's about a half-hour drive from Xenia.
I had a surprise waiting for me when I got online today! Charmine at my favorites gave me my first real award! It is the Lemonade Stand Award or the Attitude of Gratitude Award. Thank you, Charmine! Nana is teaching me how to post it and put in links.
The guidelines are:
1. Post the award logo on your blog.
2. Nominate at least 10 of your favorite bloggers.
3. Make a link of your list in your post.
4. And let them know about this award by leaving a comment on their blogs.
I would like to pass this award on to the other people that follow me and leave me nice comments. (besides Nana)
I was Lexi, but now I'm Ali. I'm 11 going on 20! If you read my first post, Hello Blogville written by my Nana, it will pretty much explain the whole point of this blog.
