Feeling Lucky

May is drawing to a warm close here in the Mitten. My sisters and I are happily soaking it in. 

Mom's birthday the Wednesday before last was unfortunate weather-wise: 50's and very rainy, but no scary storms, at least. 

The extended family had a mass celebration last Sunday, when the weather was much more pleasant. (There are 5 May birthdays.)

The balloon Mom got to take home is still floating a week later. =)

The celebration on the day itself was small and brief, as tends to be the case with mid-week birthdays. She still received quite a generous pile of gifts, though!

Looks like the waterfowl are joining Mom's bird collection after all. And so much for no birds of prey, ha ha.

There was also a gift too big to fit in the picture, a mattress-in-a-box.

Here's the before: an old water bed Mom inherited from her parents. She's had it since she was in elementary school. It noticeably sinks in the middle, not that Mom minded.

And here's the after: a new (super tall!) mattress, complete with the new (non-holey) comforter Mom got for Christmas. The stuffed animals would have farther to fall now, but at least they don't have to worry about water tubes springing a leak. (This never happened, fortunately.) XD

We did make some time for HI3 at the end of the day. (And stayed up way too late for a weeknight, but it was worth it.) Gem was also online and even remembered it was PepsiSummer's big day, which was really sweet. 

The first wild equine we encountered that evening was literally swimming in our lavender pool. Not sure if we inadvertently chased him in or if he was already in there, but either way this was a first for us!

He was cute but too small to ride and otherwise unimpressive, so we did not consider keeping him.

We also found this wild with micro mini hooves:

This daring pony:

As well as several pots of gold and a meteorite:

Lily's lovely Groningen, Mariette, was the lucky mount for our wanderings.

Our favorite wild of the night, no contest:

It would've been even better if she'd been on a beach with palm trees, but this name is great. XD

I know, I know. Her stats and personality are far from top-notch. But she's so cute - just look at those markings and pretty dished face! <3

The following Saturday, we lassoed many more wilds. Among them was this cool one:

And this very pretty, high-stat wonderland wild:

If it hadn't been for that last personality trait, we'd have kept her, no question. 

*Sighs* At least this didn't happen on Mom's birthday. That would've been such a downer!

Fortunately, we weren't sad for long. We quick traveled to TigerTon, I think to trader some wilds (possibly even Bedazzled - I don't remember for sure), when horsie sense started sparkling. It led us to what we expected to be a normal jungle wild. Surprise! Lucky find!

Those are some holey socks and stockings, buddy! <3

Whew, personality crises avoided!

Cool, he paces! HI3 doesn't have any blurb about the breed yet in-game, but as the name suggests, it was developed in India's Kathiawar peninsula.

The Kathiawari is similar to the Marwari - both have those cool inward-curved ears - but the two breeds come from different regions in western India. How appropriate that of the two, we would find the Kathiawari, since we live in a peninsula too! =)

We have named him Sal, after the Indian sal tree, and he's not going anywhere. <3