Giddy up, Dragon!?

We found a way to ride horses in the air conditioning: the carousel at our local mall! Of course, Molly (4) chose to ride the dragon, which meant Ben (1) had to ride the zebra next to it, so we didn't actually ride horses, but it was still fun. Molly did pretend to be a Dragon Cowgirl, so I got my point across at least. On a cooler day, we headed to the zoo (no horses, there, though) and rode their endangered species carousel. Molly again chose a non-horse animal and rode the hyena, but Ben finally rode a horse! Woo hoo! MOMS Camp success! Here's my Cowgirl and Cowboy at the mall:

I finally convinced Molly(4) to sit down with me and make a cute craft I've kept from the September 2010 Parents Magazine. We changed a couple things from the original in the magazine, but it turned out really cute and Molly is enjoying playing with it. Here's what we did, step by step:

1. Hot glue (my job) Popsicle sticks to a toilet paper roll.
2. Cut four slits in the bottom & stick four Popsicle sticks in those to create legs. Use a couple dabs of glue to help hold them in place.
3. Have your child paint the legs and "body", and also a paper cup which will become the head.
4. We glued on some yarn as a tail, then cut fringe on a strip of paper and glued it in the cup for a mane. I glued on two little beads for eyes, and two paper ears. Molly added a couple jewels. ;O)

You can see our horse started as a natural color, but then turned into a pink horse with bling! I don't mind though, because "a horse is a horse, of course of course."