Pre-Halloween Surprises

Happy Birthday, Lily! It's been chilly, pretty one weather-wise: only in the 40's, but the occasional peeks of sun really make the vibrant fall leaves pop. Because her birthday fell on a Saturday, we've had time both last night and today for some of wild hunting. No wilds nearly as awesome as Cloudburst have materialized, but there have still been some cool ones!

Last weekend was a different story. On Saturday, we found another awkward, speedy sandstone wild, "Noir." 

So much leg, so little back and neck!

He's fast, but we've lassoed faster. What more makes him stand out is that he has unusually good stamina for his size. There's also that... unique... conformation. We immediately renamed him "Sharky," because he is the right color and has super distinct withers, almost like a fin.

One saddled, his angular withers aren't as noticeable. XD

Later that same day, we found our third ever ambling wild!

She's bigger than the last ambler, the palomino pony who was barely tall enough to ride, but she's still quite petite: about the same size as my rainforest pony Ossagon. Her coat color is not as exciting as our first ambler, Bethany's golden champagne dun Taffeta, but she's still pretty cute. 

She also has the third highest genetic stat total of any wild we've lassoed, which is very impressive!

Maybe it's because of the low tail carriage, but she doesn't strike me as a pony that would act nearly as showy as many wonderland wilds, despite her rare ambling ability. We've decided to stick with the fabric theme for her name and are calling her Satin.

Skittish but not ornery, thank goodness! Here she is gaiting up a storm!

We're definitely keeping Satin, obviously. We're not sure yet about Sharky. Either way, Lily's probably more likely to pick one of our speedy Septembers as her newest equine, unless we end up finding a horse she likes even more later this month.

In real-life news, Mom treated us again big time for Halloween this year. We're all really into Harry Potter, so this was like... Christmas come early, ha ha. My sisters, cousins, and I all got sweaters, scarves, and ties representing the Hogwarts house of our choice.

Ravenclaw was the most popular house: we think Bethany, our cousin Autumn, and I would all likely have been sorted into it. (I was on the fence between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, so my sisters decided for me.) Felicity and our cousin Zoe figured they'd be in Gryffindor. Lily and our cousin Haylee figured they'd be in Hufflepuff. That leaves our cousin Amber (Zoe's twin) all by herself in Slytherin... but she'd be a decent one, ha ha.

The part my sisters and I got even more excited about: we also received wizarding-world-appropriate pets! 

Felicity was the first to get one: Mom already owned Silver the Beanie Baby cat. Since Felicity's real-life pet is Silver the husky, who is also silver and white with blue eyes (but female), we thought he was perfect. <3 

I also preferred a cat to an owl. (A cat is more of a constant companion than an owl, since an owl spends a lot of time traveling or in the owlery.) Scat was very cute and available cheaply on eBay, so she became mine.

Lily wanted an owl, naturally, as it is the most practical pet. She, Zoe, and Haylee all received Beanie Baby owls from the Legend of the Guardians collection. I've never read the books or seen the movies, but the owls seemed perfect for our purposes. Lily's is a female barn owl named Eglantine. 

Bethany wanted an owl as well because she finds them extremely cute. She ended up with the scruffiest looking owl of the bunch, a great grey. He did not come with a name, so she's still in the process of choosing one, which should come as no surprise. He, along with Autumn's great horned owl and Amber's barn owl, are Audubon birds similar to Mom's - just an older style, and none of them make sound anymore. 

Fortunately, my sisters and I all have dark pants and shoes we can pair with our sweaters, so we're good to go for Halloween. Our cousins are not so lucky, which led to some interesting pairings in that photo. =) We think it would be awesome someday to all have the Hogwarts uniforms as well... but at $55/outfit, not sure that's going to happen. 

If, hypothetically, it did, our cousins are partial to the skirt version. This does make sense, since in the movies and all AG's promo photos, the female students wear skirts. My sisters and I are leaning more towards the pants version (warmer and better for riding broomsticks and large mythical creatures.) I'd hope by 2022, pants would be a socially-acceptable option for female Hogwarts students! 

As far as wands go, our aunt went all out and bought some cool plastic ones online for our cousins. We're thinking we'd be just as happy with appropriately-sized sticks from the backyard, so that's probably what we'll do. ;^)