He's growing up...

I was using the restroom this morning and I heard the water hose being used in the backyard.  I knew Luke was in the backyard and I just assumed he was watering the garden.  He likes to do that.  Then...I heard the chicks start sqwaking.  UGH!

I opened the bathroom window just in time to see Luke spraying the chicks with the water hose!  I couldn't believe what I was seeing?  What was he THINKING?!?!  In true horrible Mom fashion I yell at him at the top of my lungs, "Luke, STOP!".  Thankfully, he complied immediately.

I went out back and grabbed the hose from him and squirted HIM with the hose to demonstrate how NOT nice it is to squirt someone/some animal with the hose.  Especially on a rather cool day.  As his punishment, Darre said that he needed to clean out the chicken coop as he had made all the bedding damp.

Below are pictures of Luke cleaning out the coop.  As you can see, our punishment plan backfired.  He is having a BLAST!  That bedding is HEAVY as it is all soaked with water and tamped down.  But he was a trooper and cleaned it all up!  I have a short video clip below too.  I didn't think he could/would clean the whole thing.  But he bucked up and did it all by himself.  When he was done he asked, "Can I do that again?".  A little hard work is good for the soul!

My son the cowboy

 My son the cowboy...

Luke was invited to a 'farm' a couple of weeks ago to help feed the animals and ride a horse.  He LOVED it!  He was so excited about riding the horse and he did a GREAT job.

The owner of the horse noticed that he knows his right from his left already at only 3 1/2.  Because of that, she offered to give him lessons for only $20.00 per month.  One lesson a week!!  Such a great deal!  I of course agreed and he starts his lessons this coming Tuesday August 2nd.  We are BOTH so excited.  His trainer's name is Courtney.  Courtney is actually Darren's 3rd cousin (or something like that).

She said he will need to have boots for his lessons.  He currently doesn't have any boots and as you can see from the picture above, his flip flops really don't work all that well in this instance.  Ha!

So tonight I was off in pursuit of a pair of cowboy boots.  Did you know those things (on the cheap side) new run about $50.00 - $80.00??  He's only 3 and a half for heaven's sake!!  No way am I going to spend that kind of money.

I inquired on facebook about where to get reasonably priced cowboy boots for children.  Most of the replies were to shop the thrift stores or to try eBay.  I am not a patient person by nature and I wanted them ASAP so I tried eBay.  I figured if I couldn't find any there, I would then try the Thrift shops.

I found the cutest pair of pre-owned cowboy boots for only $18.98 and shipping was FREE!!  Ha ha!  I LOVE it!  I can't wait to see them on him and to take him to his first lesson!