A Rockin' Dragon

For Christmas my husband Ryan built a rocking horse for our horse-obsessed girls.  He also built a similar rocking horse for our little nieces.

Homemade Rocking Horse

He promised our nephew in Indiana he would build a rocking dragon before our next trip out to see him, whenever that might be.  {My nephew is obsessed with dragons the way my girls are obsessed with horses.}  My father-in-law ended up driving to Oklahoma to meet our son a couple weeks ago so Ryan had a promise to fulfill!  Here are some pictures of the rocking dragon we sent back with Grandpa.

Homemade Rocking Dragon

Ryan altered the original design of the horse by adding teeth, claws, and a dragon tail.  Instead of a yarn mane he added "spikes" made from vinyl.

Homemade Rocking Dragon

We heard the dragon safely made the long drive to its new home and is being enjoyed by its new owner.

A Rocking Horse

My four year old is obsessed with horses.  What does she want for Christmas?  A horse, of course!  Unfortunately, our back yard is not big enough for a horse.  Otherwise I'm afraid we'd already have one.  

My husband made the next best thing, a rocking horse!

Ryan looked at some pictures online to come up with a pattern.

The girls had to take a test ride.

Ryan drilled holes into the head and neck and used wood glue to secure the mane.

All colors were chosen by my daughter.  She asked for a brown horse with red and black hair and blue eyes.

Ryan added a leather bridle.

Meet "Scarlet."  

Rocking Horse

And Scarlet's unnamed cousin who will be a Christmas present for my little nieces.

Rocking Horse

I really love how they both turned out!  It will be hard keeping the girls off their cousins' horse over the next few days before we take it to Grandma's house!