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Mom Blog: Mother's Day
Today's Horse Crazy Blog Topic: Backpacks and Calling Cards

(May 10, 2009)

Your Horse Crazy Kid: What's in her backpack?

Opening the backpack that comes home from school is a chore I abhor.
Usually I find encrusted bits of food glued with yogurt or applesause, half
eaten sandwiches, and a badly bruised banana. The cookie bag is as empty
as my hand with a horse treat. I also find crumpled papers (important ones
mixed in with drawings of hearts and horses), along with interesting
specimens of leaves, rocks and twigs.

Friday was different. Sure, there was the usual squished banana to
contend with, but this time my little yearling came home with a very special
Mother's Day card. At first glance it didn't look much like a Mother's Day
card with its hearts and horses and such. It was probably a lesson in
similes. None-the-less, I was as tickled as the toes of a newborn when I
read the card: "My mother is as beautiful as a mare nuzzling it's foal."

I inhaled and cried a happy cry and called my daughter for the biggest hug,
this side of Texas. Then, faster than a Kodak moment my little horse crazy
First Grader was off to play, and I was left holding the bag.
Mom-Blog
That bag has weathered a couple of years with our sloppy little equestrian
lover, and we're ready for a new backpack for the upcoming school year.  
Thankfully I know where to find backpacks for horse-crazy kids: Amazon.

Last year we sported the Crocodile Creek lunch box and backpack combo. It's
been great. But since she's six going on sixteen, I thought next year that
the Little Packrats backpack would be a more sophisticated way to scream "I
love horses." It's red and black and the ears that stick out. She'll love it.

One thing I'm going to pack in that backpack is a calling card. No, not the
kind for a telephone booth, but the kind to make play dates. It seems that
every time I'm at school I meet a parent who wants to arrange a play date or
invite us to a birthday party. I leave my handbag or cell phone in the car as
does the other parent, so we scramble for bits of paper and a pencil to
exchange pertinent information. And while I'm sure these floating scraps of
paper eventually make it to an organized list, as do mine, I thought it nicer to
introduce the old fashioned custom of a calling card.

A calling card is a bit like a business card, but for the safety of the child, the
information is reduced to first name only and an e-mail address or telephone
number of the parent. Ours will be from Amy Adele featuring a sweet crayon
illustration of a pony and a pansy.

Coming soon to Mom Blog about a horse crazy kid: Play date ideas, Horse
Camp, and the school report on the Horsefly.
Mom Blog: Mother's Day
with a Horse crazy kid.