Lucky 13!!

My hair is a bit more frazzled and grey this morning and my coffee is a little bit stronger...

I have a teenage girl in the house now.

Nicole turned thirteen on Friday.  How did that happen??

Thank you Derek for procuring an iPhone 4 for her.  We hid the phone beside her pillow in bed and then called it to wake her up on her birthday morning.  When she picked up, we all sang Happy Birthday.. I'm sure thats the way ANYONE would love to wake up in the morning.

Nicole decided that for her birthday she would like to stay home from school.  It was a Friday before Halloween.. why not?  She came out to watch the littles in their school costume parade before doing   a farm store shopping trip with her Dad and I.

Nicole loves to bake, so one item in her birthday bag was a peanut butter chocolate cupcake mix.  She spent the afternoon baking these and even shared them with visitors over the weekend.  :)

Now,  funny story.

We had really hoped to have a horse out here at SchnickAcres for Nicole's birthday.  While looking through horse ads on the weekend past, we had spotted a large white Percheron standing in front of a familiar barn - the barn that Nicole sometimes takes lessons at.  I pointed this out to Derek who promptly pulled up on his phone, and showed us a selfie with that same horse that he had taken during one of Nicoles lessons a couple of weeks back!

Fast forward to Friday... Derek and our lovely neighbour a few doors down are off to bring Annie the Percheron home to SchnickAcres.  She is a lovely quiet, gentle horse though her size does cause you to pause a moment.  Or if you are a cat - run for cover from her big hooves!  She can be ridden or pull a cart/sleigh but right now is content to graze in the paddock and eat apples from little hands.  :)

And wouldn't you know it... Annie is thirteen also.

Perhaps thirteen is our lucky number.  :)

Jeanette