Birthday Injustice

I suppose I'm to blame. I shouldn't give Merrody good birthday parties just because she was born in the summer. Or maybe I shouldn't have had Joel in the dead of winter. Either way, Merrody has had a number of really fun birthday parties and Joel has had none. One year we had Merrody's birthday party at the zoo, another at the swimming pool and this year... horseback riding at a ranch.

In Merrody's defense, she is a really good girl and deserves to have her birthday celebrated in style. The other morning she spent a good 2 hours doing chore after chore that I asked her to do.

And her love of horses is not a fleeting interest. While other kids jump from Hannah Montana to ponies and on to something else, Merrody has loved horses since she was two. It defines her. And it explains why all of her jeans have holes in the knees.

She was willing to settle for a horse-themed party at our house. She's not spoiled.

And she would've included as many girls as space or sanity would permit. She would even include her younger brothers.

Can you believe no one wanted to be partners with this handsome guy for the game? Give them time...

Sweet little Jack wanted to wear the helmet even if he was too young to ride the horse.

Grandma lucked out. Because one of the little girls wasn't able to make it, she was able to ride too!

Oh, and did I mention it was close to 100 degrees today? Little sweetheart spent most of the time in the air conditioned car!