Spirit Surprise

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When my daughter was almost two years old, we (I) needed a little break from Sesame Street nonstop so I decided to check out Spirit Riding Free on Netflix. I’d heard good things about it and remember really liking the “Spirit” movie when I was younger. I watched the promo and Hattie happened to run over and catch a few minutes of it and ever since then she’s been completely hooked. I have to be honest – I’ve also become a fan and have had a lot of fun watching with her. It’s been so cute to see her enjoying the show and all of the little dolls and horses that she received the past few Christmases. It definitely takes me back to when I was a horse-crazy little girl, collecting all of the model horses (and all of the other horse things).

So, when we were looking for a fun way to surprise Hattie with a new toy to keep her occupied, I decided to make her a cute Spirit themed snack to go with it. I found this Melissa and Doug portable horse stable in perfect condition on Marketplace for just $10 earlier in the year. I had been saving it for a time when I thought we needed a new toy. This one comes with cute wooden bales of hay, a wooden paddock fence, and a ladder. We really try to limit the number of toys Hattie has, and do our best to choose toys that spark creative and open-ended play. So this barn was perfect for her tiniest “PALs” and their horses. These are the Breyer mini versions, which fit perfectly in this barn. The Schleich horses also fit really well. Hattie immediately put Pru (her very favorite) in charge and assigned stalls to all of the horses, complete with their own mini bales of hay!

She was so excited when she saw the little scene we set up for her and immediately asked to watch some of the new Spirit episodes while she snacked on the cookie versions of Spirit, Chica Linda, and Boomerang. If you’re looking to create your own horsey snacks, all you’ll need is an oval-shaped cookie, some frosting, chocolate chips, and colored sprinkles.

I used Nairn’s Gluten Free cookies and made a simple home-made frosting (recipe here). I already had a container of rainbow sprinkles so I chose the yellow for Chica Linda, the orange for Boomerang, and black for Spirit’s mane. The chocolate chips make perfect eyes. Then, I broke little bits of cookie up into pieces that resembled triangles to use for the ears. It was simple and cute and Hattie loved them.

We also found a little Spirit coloring book from Crayola on Amazon. It was the perfect addition to our Spirit-filled afternoon! Do your kids watch Spirit? What do you think about the show? Let me know in the comments!