THE FAMILY PREAKNESS PARTY

 Even though you're growing up, you should never stop having FUN!  Nina Dobrev

My 10 real old granddaughter, Gili, is horse crazy! She takes horse lessons, reads books about horses ( both fiction and nonfiction ), goes to horse camps, has toured Churchill Downs, goes to the local Canterbury Downs to watch horse races, has a miniature ranch with horses, and someday would like to own a horse! I was the same way!

She loves to watch the three big horse races: The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness, and The Belmont. She and her mom and dad  don't believe in betting but they enjoy making their own "picks" and watching the events. So every year they host a Kentucky Derby Party. But this year they were on vacation during the Derby so they had a Preakness Party! The whole family is invited and Gili takes care of most of the details! She provides a colored paper and a rosette where we are to write our first pick on the rosette and the second and third picks on the card stock paper. She also encourages us to use different colored rosette and card stock paper so as to see the rosette better. 

Gili and my daughter give instructions, the table is set, and we're ready to go...

           The rosettes and card stock sheets are ready to choose from and write down our picks.

Then the picks are put up on the wall in the family room next to the TV where we will watch the race. Notice how everyone followed the rules by picking contrasting colors of rosette and card stock paper? Well a couple of people came CLOSE to NOT following the rules! Can you tell which ones?  

              

                 Of course there are snacks to eat while making our picks... and dinner later! But no pictures were taken while the race was on because everyone is screaming and shouting for their horse to win! AND it's only two minutes long, give or take!

                          And the WINNER is.....Early Voting....whom NOBODY picked!  But no worries, we don't give out prizes! It's all in fun!

But WAIT! The winner DOES get first pick at the delicious homemade almond sugar cookies!! AFTER dinner of course! In this case since there was no first winner the first cookie picking goes to the second place picks or third place!

           See how we can make a family gathering an EVENT that everyone looks forward to?

                                                        MAKING MEMORIES!