Cowboy Days

We have a wonderful little place here in Las Cruces called the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. It is an interactive museum that provides a lot of fun learning opportunities for kids, focusing on lots of different aspects of farming and ranching in New Mexico (more than I ever thought I would want to know, in fact). Every year there is a special event called "Cowboy Days." We were so excited to get to take the boys this year and they both had such a wonderful time. Jaden got to ride on a horse for the first time and thought he was a real cowboy! And Elijah would have loved to climb over the fence to join the sheep in the pen if he could; he absolutely loves seeing animals!


Playing cowboy games. I just realized that those horse shoes are are just about as big as he is!
If you know me, you know how I feel about Jaden shooting any kind of gun, even a pretend gun...so needless to say, I was a bit (okay, A LOT) paranoid as he did this shooting activity. But I figured he couldn't have the true "cowboy experience" without getting to shoot the rubberband gun a couple of times. And secretly, I wanted to try them out too... :)

This was Jaden's favorite activity - throwing the football through the cowboy's lasso.

Jaden with cousin Annie, Sam, and Elijah.

Cow milking demonstration.

This was Elijah's favorite part - seeing all of the different farm animals. He was on the edge of his seat the entire time. He's a bit like me and would have loved to pet each one.

Jaden's very first horse ride. He rode all by himself, with daddy walking right alongside, of course. As soon as the horse started to go, Jaden waved his hat in the air and shouted "Yee Haw!"

Jaden noticed that those "horses" were smaller, just like his size. He wondered why he didn't ride one of those (donkeys) instead.

We couldn't go to Cowboy Days without enjoying a few extra special treats... chocolate covered marshmallows and a snow cone (and a bottle for Elijah)!

My precious little cowboys in training!