C's first cereal

C has had a problem gaining weight since birth, so his doctor was very highly encouraging us to have him try cereal as soon as he turned 4 months old. We did eventually get there, it just took a while. He wasn't (and still isn't) a fan of plain cereal. Mix in a little applesauce and now we're talking! Have you ever tasted baby rice cereal? It's not good. I don't blame him one bit!

Anyway, here is the first spoonful. Notice the "what are you doing, crazy lady?" look he's giving me. I get that a lot.

OK, maybe it's not so bad after all!

Family photos

One of the things I really wanted to do before we left England, is to get some good, really European feeling family pictures. One of the wives in the other squadrons is an awesome photographer, and we met her for an afternoon in the Bury gardens to take photos. We were so pleased with the pictures... even with Noah's red nose from the massive allergy attack he was having. He wasn't feeling fantastic, but he was a trouper. A little photoshoping, and no one will know you were massively allergic to those flowers we had you running through! I'm thinking about getting one of these blown up to put in our living room, so I'm asking for everyone's favorites!

It was definitely e's day. He was totally in his element. The rest of us were just along for the ride.

We call this one "I'm e, these are my people..."

The ONLY smile he gave all day. Oh well, still so cute!

What is your favorite?

N is five!

N's 5th birthday cake will probably go down in history as the most stressed out over a bakery item that I hope to ever be in my life. I seriously had a little melt down over this cake, but I had to carry on, it was my eldest's 5th birthday, and I was going to make him his cake, darn it!

The whole story started several weeks earlier when N and his best bud Gabe decided to have a little joint birthday celebration at Duxford. Their birthdays are only 4 days apart, and we all thought it would be fun to celebrate together. N suggested Duxford, the massive RAF air museam nearby... and N's favorite place on the planet.

So I, being a smart mom, went online and found this adorable airplane shaped cake pan that I was thinking of ordering for N's birthday... but I thought I should run it by him first. Bad plan.

me: "Hey N, since you're having your birthday party at Duxford, would you like an airplane birthday cake?"

N: (With excitement) Yeah, a P-51 Mustang cake!!

Seriously, a specific plane. I was sort of just going for generic airplane cake here... not a specific plane. Then he brought me his model of a P-51, "Like this one." So not only a specific plane, but a specific paint scheme. Only my child would come up with this.

A normal person would have said no, but not me. Apparently I am a glutton for punishment and pain... and I agreed.

Fast forward to the day before his birthday party. E helped me draw out the outline of a cake sized P-51 mustang, and I baked a giant sheet cake to carve it out of. That's when things started falling apart, literally. The cake was crumbling everywhere. It took HOURS and three batches of frosting to piece it together into the shape of the all important P-51 Mustang. Then I had to frost it with the proper paint scheme. You might be saying to yourself, "but he's only 5, will he really know the difference?" Um, if you're thinking this, you need to spend more time around N. Because yes, yes he will. And so will his father. They are a tough audience when it comes to airplane authenticity.

In the end, we all ended up loving the cake, and I would be willing to try it again. I'm pretty sure he's going to ask for a Spitfire next year. (After all the crumbling someone told me to put the cake in the freezer first before cutting it into the shape... that will help with the crumbling.) Good to know, I'll definitely remember that next time.

Here is the final product!

After all of that we got ready to head to Duxford. Except for we now had a new problem. Spring was deffinately springing, and N's allergies and asthma decided to go crazy. This weekend. Of all weekends! He was caughing so hard he didn't even want to go to Duxford!!! This is serious. So we did what any good parent would do... gave him some benedryl and loaded up his inhaler and went anyway. He was so tired, he really didn't even enjoy it, but he did perk up a little for cake.

This is N's buddy, Gabe (on the right) and his little brother posing for his cake. They are such hams, and we really miss them! You'll notice Gabe insisted on a jet cake... complete with missiles. His dad is not a pilot, so I think we're completly to blame for this!

It was a stressful, but fun birthday. Happy birthday N!

C at four months

So smiley!

Edelweiss & Dover trip

For Easter break, we travelled to Edelweiss, an armed forces resort in Bavaria, in the heart of the German Alps. This was the view from our room!

The first day there we had lunch on top of Aspspitz, a nearby mountain. The boys loved checking out the skiers.

The next day we took the cogwheel train up the very, very steep tracks to Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany.

Of course we had to take a family picture at the top!

Miss Christie joined us for part of the trip, and held Noah to see how high we were off the ground when we took the super-high, super-fast cable car back down. I couldn't see out the window, which was probably a good thing.

We spent Easter there, and got this family photo outside the hotel after church. Beautiful scenery!

We spent lots of time, money, and calories tasting German cuisine. We went on a apple strudel hunt, trying it everywhere we could find it. This was in Oberammergau, which is the cutest town ever!

The next day we visited the fairy-tale made reality Neuschwanstein Castle. It was a really, really long walk up the hill to it, but it was amazing to see. It was built for the "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Apparently he was just a little on the eccentric side. It has a manmade cave inside of it. Yes, a cave. And apparently the castle was designed by an artist, not an architect... so it was a challenge to build!

It started to snow on us while we were waiting to get in, but it made for some really cool photos.

After our tour of Bavaria, we stopped back up at Ramstein to stay with Christie for a couple of nights. We found this amazing rock wall in their super-mega fancy BX-mall, and of course we had to try it out! N loved climbing, and was awesome. He climbed up over a story until the grips got too far apart for him to reach. Such a monkey!

Daddy climbed too. They had fun.

Then we drove back to England, stopping to spend the day at the newly reopened Dover Castle. The great tower had been completely refurbished to look as it did during the 1100s, and it was really, really neat. Plus the weather was absolutely perfect for photo taking... so I took lots!

This roman lighthouse is the oldest part of the ever evolving Dover Castle complex, it is thought that it was built around 100 A.D. 100! Wow!

I couldn't resist the combination of yellow daffodils (no one does daffodils like the English... wow), a castle, blue sky, and cute kids. I love this picture!

And of course, no trip to Dover would be complete without seeing the white cliffs!

It was an amazing family vacation. We put 1700 miles on the van over the course of 8 days and 4 countries (England, France, Austria, and Germany if you're counting). I love(d) living in Europe!

Go Reaperettes!

It's ladies crud tournament time again, my favorite night in the bar... all year. Here are my girls... everyone did awesome! We didn't win... but we did have a lot of fun. (Clearly!) And as a plus, I didn't rip my jeans this year like I did last year!

Just Me and my Brother.

Hampton Court

This was just one of those days. I was really looking forward to going to Hampton Court. I'd been there before, and remember really liking it, so I was excited to go back and take the boys. But it just wasn't happening this day. I think we were all a little tired of touring, we were out of food e could eat in the packed-three-days-ago picnic food that I was also sick of, and all C wanted to do all day was eat. So to sum up, we had hungry C, hungry e, and probably most dangerous... hungry mom. Recipie for disaster. And to top it off, it was a little chilly out, so the indoor cafes were packed. So much so that there was no way I was going to be able to find a spot to sit in there and enjoy a scone while feeding the baby.

So I spent the majority of my day in the "nursing room" which was nothing more than a folding chair in the corner of the non-heated, windowless bathroom, right next to the rubbish bin where everyone was throwing their babies' dirty diapers. Fantastic. The worst part about it was that everyone else seemed to think that it was great that they even had a "nursing room." Again, a folding chair in the corner of a bathroom is not a nursing room. But I digress.

While I was feeding the baby, or trying to find dairy-free food for e, everyone else was off touring the beautiful palace. Here is the little bit of the Tudor kitchens that I saw. Good cooking boys! Keep it up!

Hampton Court is a palace with a split personality. It was built in the 1500s, for Cardinal Wosley a favorite of King Henry VIII's... eventually he fell out of favor, and the king took it for himself. So part of the palace has a distinctly Tudor feel. Then King and Queen William and Mary took it upon themselves to give the palace a major baroque renovation about a hundred years later. Unfortunately they ran out of money about half way through their project leaving a palace that is "Baroque-Tudor." Get it, broke-Tudor. Ha, ha. OK, I stole the joke anyway. Here Grandma and e look out on the 17th century courtyard.

The boys enjoyed the hedge maze on the property, eventually finding the middle.

They also followed around costumed characters reinacting King Henry VIII's wedding day with his sixth wife. I hear there is a great picture of e with King Henry, but we don't seem to have it on our camera. So if you do have it (hint, hint Grandpa) I'd really like a copy! I'm especially bummed I missed this, because I really enjoyed the little bit I heard. But I didn't think Henry would appreciate the screaming baby at his wedding celebration (off with his head!)

Evantually, after feeding C for the fourth time... he seemed satisfied and we were able to walk around the gardens for a bit. They are beautiful and quite intricate!

It's too bad we were still too early in the season to see any flowers, but we did get to see this massive 230 year old grape vine. Very impressive!

Yup, we made it. Three major London tourist attractions in three days, with three little boys. We were tired out, but for the most part, it was a good trip!