I have been slow to upload the photos from your granddaughter’s 17th birthday extravaganza. Here they are. Katie had about a dozen of her closest friends over for cake, presents and a sleepover. We loaded everyone in the cars at midnight for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We had a blast. Hope you enjoy the pix.

Jesse and Cleo

I’ve been a little lax in uploading photos to Flickr, but Bill has inspired me. Here is a slide show of Jesse’s week at horse camp with her friends Katie and Val. Read more about her adventure below.

Photo originally posted by humanflowerproject.com

Bill mentioned the playlist I loaded up on my iPod for the trip to Brooklyn Park Saturday for the Ghost Wings Challenge (read all about it here and here). The playlist was heavy with songs from my iTunes database that contained the words “Fire,” “Burn” and “Ghost,” with a few others like “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” thrown in for their predictive appropriateness. Here is the list, in case you are curious. Rock on.

Jesse and Cleo at Lone Rock Ranch in Rosemount (Photoshop goodness by Laurie)

Jesse spent all last week at horse camp at Lone Rock Ranch in Rosemount, part of the summer offerings for teens by ISD 196‘s award-winning Community Ed Department (full disclosure: I sit on the school board for the district and approve the CE budget, so take what I’m saying with an appropriate grain of salt). She had fun, even though her horse, Cleo, was “stubborn and mean,” in Jesse’s words. Cleo apparently bit Jesse and kicked her when Jesse tried to put on the saddle. Nice horsey…. Anyway, the camp was a great way for kids to get a taste of life on a horse ranch and to get in some riding time pretty inexpensively.