Thursday, April 30, 2009

Run for the Roses

Q: What's the greatest two minutes of sports?

Hint:  It's this Saturday.

A: The Kentucky Derby - it's a thoroughbred horse race that began in 1875.  It is the first race of the Triple Crown, the other races are the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness.

Wanting to teach my son about his ancestral roots (though I've never been!), we began talking about the KY Derby today.  We began by printing roses using the end of celery.  The roses are symbolic because the winning horse eventually wears a garland of red roses.

Each of the boys had a picture of a horse and we quickly went over a it's anatomy.  Specifically stopping to talk about the animal's large nostrils which allows them to breath the massive amounts of air needed to run.  And, other random facts like: horses sleep standing up unless they feel safe enough to lie down (lay down? somebody help my grammar!) 

He and a friend were encouraged to print in the horseshoe, the shape of the horse's garland.  I was able to sneak in a geography lesson.  Mr. Intensity is pointing to KY.
Our friend, G, using the squeeze 'n brush paints for his popsicle horseshoe.
Later, we used the popsicle horseshoes to play a game, that was safe for two intense boys.  Mr. Intensity and G are similar in personalities.
Then we went to the creek across the street.

I'd planned for the boys to make sock horses to race, but they were too interested in playing outside.  "Go play!"  I say.

Other Derby Day fun:
Counting by 1s - I rescaled to 90% so that it would all fit on one page.

Horse tail bookmark


On Saturday, friends are coming over and we'll be eating Hot Browns and quite possibly a Derby pie.  Mine will be a knock off, of course, b.c I'm not ordering the real thing.

So, what are you doing to celebrate the greatest two minutes in sports? 

5 comments:

The Eberle Family said...

Derby always reminds me of the weekend you all visited us in Kingsport along with the Briscoes!! Good times.... :)

Charissa said...

Oh so fun! We celebrate Derby more now that we are in SC. We will have a party with Kentucky goodies and hopefully lots of kiddies running around. It's our third year doing it.

Gidget Girl Reading said...

love the celery roses!!! great idea!

I've never had a hot brown i saw bobby flay make them on throw down and they looked good I'll have to make some soon!

W. Mark Whitlock said...

Julie,
Thought you'd get a kick out of this. I enjoy this blog for its quirkiness and occasional sharp insight into masculinity

http://artofmanliness.com/2009/04/28/kentucky_derby_style/

John and Pam Majors said...

That is great that they could play in the creek! What fun for boys. :)

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