Ride 'Em Cowboy!

A couple weeks ago, Jack was trying to play cowboy and he announced, "Mommy, while we're at school tomorrow can you go to a cowboy store and get me one of those horse heads on a stick?"  If I'd had food in my mouth I would have spit it out laughing.  I like that he didn't ask for a toy horse, but for a "horse head on a stick."

I didn't come across any cowboy stores in my travels so he had to rein in (pun intended) his cowboy ambitions for a bit.  Luckily for wanna-be cowboys, Nana and Pop Pop came in town this weekend and Nana's friend, Miss Deb, let her know about a potential cowboy store.  Sometimes it's called Big Lots and sometimes it's called The Cowboy Store.

After lunch out with Nana, we headed over to the store to see if they had any horse heads for sale.  In the meantime, Jack had gotten a little hung up on some Cars 2 toys that he wanted.  He's pretty sure that if he talks about something for long enough and is very serious about his "needs" that he will get what he wants.  He decided he needed some special Cars 2 Action Agents cars and the Battle Station that they accessorize.  Of course this Battle Station can't use the same size cars that we already have.  It needs newer, smaller, specially built cars.

It's really my fault that he even knows about the existence of these cars in the first place.  I let him watch YouTube videos that review a lot of the toys.  It started off with reviews of some of the Lego sets that he likes/has and has moved on to Cars 2 toys.  He knows a lot of random facts about toys that he doesn't even own.  I think it's safe to say that his letter to Santa might have a long list in it.

Anyway, while Jack was busy searching for Action Agents, Nana found the horse barn and as soon as Jack saw Nana holding his new pet, he forgot all about those cars.  The horse heads on sticks turned out to be pretty nice.  They even had a pink one for Casey.

The nice lady at checkout spent some time putting the horses in bags and covering them all up so they wouldn't get wet in the walk to the car.  Jack and Casey were appreciative but it really was a wasted effort since it took her longer to cover them that it did to walk to the car and rip them out of the bags.  These horses had to get saddled up immediately!  Or at least get named.  There were a few trial names, but I think they've settled on Tipper for Jack and Marley for Casey.

Tired Cowboy

Fashionable Cowgirl

Since then, we've been living all rodeo, all day.  I can't buy apples and carrots fast enough.  In between watching YouTube videos about toys we don't have, that is.

Jack just figured out that he can record the music he plays on his toy piano and he has composed a special cowboy song.  Today they also attached the horse to a storage box that has wheels so that it would be like the horses pulling Cinderella's carriage.  I love their imaginations!  It never would have crossed my mind that my kids might like one of those horse heads on a stick, but now I'm the proud mama of two little equestrians and I hope they continue to ride the range as far as their imaginations can take them.