Like a day at Disney to Ashley, she gets to work in the water complex. This pair loves splashing through the water. Bad mother that I am, I tell Kyle about Ashley's frog phobia and from then on his directions sound like this:"Off the ramp into the big scary frog pond to the coop" or " Off the bank into the millions of tadpoles to the log out." You get the idea. Anyway he ended up promising to cook her homegrown frog legs in six weeks. I promise pics on that one.

Scenes from Easter on the Hill:

The sleepy shuffle down the hall to see what the bunny left...NOT!

Ash finds beachy items in the tree fort.
Playing hot and cold: Austin chokes Andrew when he's hot then Ash sneaks in and finds the egg.
The boys make a huge brunch of ham, pancakes, eggs, hash browns, fruit and homemade cinnamon rolls.

Ashley makes egg dyeing an art form.
Adam surprises us with a princess egg.
Andrew makes an egg for our new bunny Jackie.

Florida at it's best: Wekiva Springs

Recognition:
Ashley gets congratulated by her coach on the Rolex Website!
http://www.rk3de.org/featured_rider.php?id=14&pid=3
Rolex is the only 4 Star competition in the United States. Kyle is a featured rider this year and is writing a blog for the website. He is proud of his students and not afraid to congratulate them in front of the world. What a great coach!
Thanks Kyle.

Spring has sprung and now I make good on my promise:
I will finally begin my rose garden. This rose I chose to be first, as much for its beauty, as its name: The Peace Rose. Happy Spring Everyone!

Preliminary Questions:


Kyle takes the kid gloves off and begins introducing some preliminary questions for this pair to solve. They are preparing to level up after the June championships in Georgia. When I asked her about this lesson she said "grueling-everything hurts."

Check out the 2008 National Eventing Leaderboard!

The Top Training Level Junior Riders in the US according to the United States Eventing Assoc.
See anyone you know?

Arden Wildasin (CT)
Alison Bean (MA)
Moraya Cleary (CA)
Kristin Daniel (TX)
Sarah Kamensky (GA)
Ryann Quigley (NY)
Julia Ennis (MD)
Rebecca Davis (CA)
Hannah Ridling (AL)

Ashley Mancuso (FL)

Zachary Brandt (CA)
Brittany Bridges (NC)
Devon Brown (GA)
Paige Garson (ME)
Colleen McBride (OH)
Hanna Owens (VA)
Benita Strini (VA)
Brittany Zajic (CA)

You continue to impress us Ashley.

Thanks boys!
I want to thank these three for doing a marvelous job chaperoning Ash and her boyfriend last night. I was a little concerned she would retaliate while they were sleeping but I just checked and they seem unharmed this morning.

It's a cousin thing...

Any Guesses?

They Won!
First show back after 12 months of tending to Retto's leg and they finish on their dressage score. Ashley felt this XC was her most technical and Retto pulled her to every jump in a 30 knot wind and soppy footing. Guess he told us he's tired of taking it easy.

We filmed this show so there aren't many photos. I did get a chance to get a few of XC warmup with Kyle.

Super Smash Brothers BRAWL!

If you are willing to stand in line at midnight then you get to be one of the first play. They were playing by 1 am and at 9 am the controllers were still out. I can only assume that they slept at some point.

Speech!! Speech!!




Andrew delivered his speech on Nobel Peace Prize Winners last night. He chose five to speak about and included examples of their work and parts of speeches they had delivered. His favorite person, whom he saved for last was Dr. Martin Luther King. With this project he watched videos, read news articles and signed petitions to help these people with their ongoing work. I will have to admit that my newest hero is Jimmy Carter. As Andrew said "If you go online to the Carter Center (http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html) you will be amazed at all they do to help the poorest of poor people in this world." Of course Austin needed to tutor Andrew on (How to properly give a speech.) Which of course turned into karate chops and choke holds.
Great Job on your speech Andrew!