Saturday was Georgia's birthday party. A handful of girls from her pre-K class came, along with her cousin Henry (her other cousin John unable to attend due to a Cub Scout conflict). The party started simply enough, with presents and playing and suchlike. Then came the birthday song and blowing out the candles (five with one to grown on, of course).


The theme of the party, at Georgia's insistence, was Backyardigans and Dinosaurs. Only fitting, then, that Backyardigans finger-puppets adorned the dinosaur cake (the dino himself is electronic and motion sensitive, hence the little hands waving to make him open his mouth and roar), that Georgia had picked out for her 5th birthday almost a year ago.


But the fun hadn't even started, yet. A short while after the kids were done with cake, they were crowded on our back porch, very excited about something...


What was that "something," you might ask?

What else? Ponies!


(That's my dad with the pipe and leather jacket, dragooned into leading one of the three ponies that were trotting around our back yard.)


Needless to say, Georgia enjoyed the pony rides. She'd ridden a couple of times before, but never in her own back yard.


Georgia rode (here giggling and grossed out by the healthy pile of pony poop on the trail behind them)...


...and rode (here with her cousin Henry)...


...and rode...


...and rode...


There were seven kids in all, and the rental company had brought three ponies instead of the two we'd expected, so by the end of the hour all of the kids had ridden to their heart's content.

If you've got a group of four and five year olds to entertain, allow me to suggest pony rides. I think when all was said and done it cost us just a hair more than one hundred and fifty bucks, but it was well worth it.

So, how did you nice people spend your weekends?