Harper graduated from preschool on May 21st, and today was able to enjoy the first session in her long-awaited graduation present – horseback riding lessons!
Harper’s instructor is Miss Julia, who owns and runs Over the River Farm. Miss Julia is wonderful!
Miss Julia’s very patient pony’s name is Honey. Today Harper groomed Honey, helped put on her saddle, and learned how to tell Honey how to stop, go, and turn.
That is one happy little girl!
And one well-fed (and well-mannered) little pony!
While documenting Harper’s first day of lessons (and seeing the joy on her face) I was reminded of one of my favorite, favorite books from childhood. My sport, or passion, of choice was gymnastics, and my grandma gave my the best book ever: “A Very Young Gymnast.” Page after page of primarily black & white images document the progress of the gymnast as she practices and competes, struggles and succeeds. The book is actually part of an essay series published in the 70s by photographer Jill Krementz. Other books in Krementz’s series include “A Very Young Skater,” “A Very Young Dancer,” and “A Very Young Rider.”
While this series by Krementz is unfortunately out of print, you can still find fairly reasonably-priced copies of each book through Alibris, Amazon, or the occasional Friends of the Library book sale. Although the suggested age range for these books is 9-12, you can probably guess which one is next on our list to purchase (and now you know the reason for the title of this post.) After all, even if you don’t want to read the whole book, you can still enjoy the photos!
PS. Actual horse-riding attire is in the works – this lesson was just a “test run” to see if she enjoyed horses as much as we thought she did.
Monday was Meet the Teacher Day at the kids’ school. Harper chose her own outfit (of course) and her favorite new accessories are the cowboy hat and boots from Uncle Mark. Thank you, Uncle Mark!
Cole’s first day of 2nd grade was on Tuesday. His teacher is lovely and sweet and I think it’s going to be a good year! 
Here’s my handsome boy on his 2nd day of 2nd grade (a little more casual on day two)…
…which also happened to be Harper’s very first day of Kindergarten! She was excited and nervous all in one, as you can probably tell by the photos.
She rode home on the school bus, which was extremely exciting for her, and announced, “I had a very good day, Mommy!”
