When life gives you mole hills...

Make sandcastles!

Yup, this is how we entertain ourselves these days!

4th of July festivities... in England!

I know, it's a bit strange, but it's true, we do have a huge 4th of July celebration here. There are enough Americans around to make it a very, very large event.

We couldn't believe how big it was, or how many people there were! There were even full up carnival rides. We told the boys they could pick one ride, and surprise, surprise, they chose the "choo choo." So we payed our money and let them go... only after they got on did we realize that most of the other parents were riding with their kids. We were too cheap for that (great parenting at work.)

So when little e started to scream in terror, he was on his own (well, he had N to help him out I suppose, but he was wearing his hearing protection, so he probably couldn't hear his little brother screaming!) You can see that he wasn't to thrilled with the ride.

However when it was over he ran up to me and said, "I have good day on choo choo mommy!" Go figure.

Then it was dinner time, we were still pretty close to the loud carnival rides, so N thought he still needed his ear muffs on. You can't be too careful!

Finally we found the bouncy castles where we camped out for the rest of the evening and let the boys bounce the night away. There was this one where kids could get on and try to push each other off pedestals with this padded bar. N wanted to do it, so E went with him. It's hard to tell in the little picture, but N is laughing hysterically. I think he thought pushing his daddy over was pretty much the funniest thing he had ever done!

Get the Rocky theme ready!

There was also free face painting, so we thought we'd let the boys try. They've never had their faces painted before, and e's lasted like eight minutes before he smeared it all over himself. N did manage to keep his for the rest of the night.

The cutest puppy ever...

One darling kitty cat...

Finally, to finish off the night we watched a concert by "Tops in Blue" which is always a family favorite, and then waited for the fireworks. One little boy thought the fireworks were OK, the other one was absolutely terrified. He was literally shaking with fear. Even with his hearing protection on, he wanted no part of that. He clug to daddy, looking the other way, and most of the time even covered his eyes. I felt so bad for him... but I did manage to get this adorable picture of my little scared kitty!

It's tulip time! (Or at least it was three months ago...)

So I'm still behind... but also still feeling the need to post in chronological order. So the next big event was our last minute trip to the Netherlands to see the tulips. Literally I put this trip together about a week before we went, I had heard the tulips were looking good, so we went for it.

The tulips were in fact looking good, the were lovely... my children however, were not. It was just one of those weekends where they were dead set against everything we tried to do, or get them to eat, or, well, you get the point. It's one of those trips that I probably won't look back on with a great deal of fondness because of the whining and complaining. But, as I said, the tulips were beautiful, amazing, and I'm really glad I saw them!

Our first stop was kinderdijk, a world heritage site that has 19 original working windmills built in the 1700s. It was just a huge plain completely filled with windmills to keep it from flooding itself. It was really cool. The boys loved running around here, and was pretty much the only part of the trip they enjoyed!

To get to and from this village we took a road that literally ended in water. We had to take this little ferry across the canal, so Dutch!

The next day we drove past all the tulip fields, unfortunately the two or three days prior to our visit were prime tulip harvesting, so a lot of the fields were bare.

Apparently if we had been just a couple of days earlier they would have been carpets of flowers. Oh well. However, we did see lots and lots of tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens, the most famous tulip garden in the world and the reason thousands of people flock to the Netherlands in the spring.

I can only describe this place as an amusement park with flowers. It was that big. A map was required, there were different "lands" with different styles of gardens, and it was packed to the gills with tourists and tulips. I seriously didn't think there were that many tulips in the whole world. Here are a couple of pictures, but they don't do this place anywhere near justice.

Yes, many of the flowers were taller than the boys!

In the middle of the gardens they had a children's play area with a swing for N and a little tunnel for e to run through.

E and N even got to practice their walking on water skills!

The next day we headed into Amsterdam. We thought we had a fun day planned for the boys including a train ride into the city, lunch at a crepe resturant. (Hello, pancakes with bananas and chocolate for lunch!) A canal boat ride, and maybe one sightseeing stop at the Anne Frank house. Yeah right. It became aparent after the crepe lunch that no one ate that any sightseeing was not going to be an option that day. So we mostly rode the canal boats and walked around the city while trying to prevent total melt down. We were semi-successful.

That night (and not a moment too soon) we got on our overnight ferry and headed back to England. But not before we stopped for dinner at the only place our boys would eat anything at all weekend long... a dutch McDonald's. Ahhh, the joys of parenting.

Conversations with N...

So I've been bad about posting these, but we've had a couple of great ones over the last couple of days.

Last night we were talking about what we were going to do today. I said I wanted to go to Target.

me: N, do you want to go to Target tomorrow?
N: Yeah
Grandma L: Do you like Target? (keep in mind, we don't have a Target, so we're not sure he even knows what it is)
N: Yeah, I do!
Grandma L: Why do you like Target N?
N: Because it's beautiful.

Oh so true, N, oh so true. He is my child! Grandma L and I were cracking up at that one... then agreeing with him!

Today when we actually got to Target one of the things I found was a new maternity T-shirt for myself. It's one of those that's long rather than wide, so I don't feel like I'm wearing a tent. I held it up to myself to size it up, and asked N what he thought.

me: What do you think N, do you like this shirt for mommy?
N: No mommy, it's too big for you. It goes all the way down to your penis!

OK, so maybe it's time for an anatomy lesson... but the middle of the Target maternity clothes section didn't seem like the right place... so I just let it go and hoped no one heard, or if they did they were cracking up like I was!

Off we go!

The boys and I are off to Iowa today.  Alone, no daddy, just the three of us.  Last time I did this it was a nightmare, so I'm a little afraid.  Two flights, customs, security... Oh the joy.  Pray for us!

Castle Rising

While Grandma was here we did manage to do a little local touring, and in case you're wondering why we're on such a castle kick, it's because we joined the English Heritage Society. With that membership we get to visit lots and lots of these castles and manor houses for free, so we're trying to take full advantage!

Our castle for the weekend was Castle Rising, built in the 11oos.  It's claim to fame is that it is where Queen Isabella was exiled to by her own son, King Edward III, after she (supposedly) plotted with her lover, Roger Mortimer, to have her husband, King Edward II, killed.  After the king's death Isabella and her lover raised her son, the young King Edward III, until he had enough, and then he had Mortimer killed and his mother exiled to this castle... which is seriously in the middle of nowhere!   Talk about some family issues!

This is what is left of the square keep in the middle.

The grand stairway... that Grandma climbed up on crutches.  (Which was nothing compared to the spiral stairs she climbed on the inside!)

Little e the ham.

The great hall.  There was once a floor in the middle here, so this would have been at least two stories tall in the 1300s when Isabella called this home.  You can see the square holes on the wall on the right where the floor joists would have been inserted.  Looks like a cozy place for a retirement huh?

And my new favorite picture of both boys.  It is still nearly impossible to get a good picture of both of them, so I love it when I actually accomplish it!

N's fourth birthday!

He's just so big.  I can't believe I have a 4-year old.  I know every mom in the world says that... but it's so true, it just seems impossible that he is such a big boy now.  And he constantly amazes me by what he understands about the world around him!

Here is the cake.  He had asked for a Thomas cake, which I thought would be easy!  Ha!  First of all the Thomas pan isn't being made anymore, so I had to find this one on e-bay, which I had never done before... so that was quite the learning process.  But I got it ordered.  I did however forget to order one critical item... blue icing dye.  And of course, the week of his birthday, I couldn't find it anywhere around here.

While I was trying to problem solve this little issue, N came up with a suggestion himself.  "We'll have to make a different engine" he said.  I suggested either Percy (green) or James (red) both colors I either had or knew I could get.  He loved he idea of having a James cake, so I went to town converting Thomas to James.  Good thinking N!  I was pretty pleased with how it turned out considering I freehanded a lot of it!

He insisted on wearing his Thomas T-shirt to what became his Thomas / James party!

N shares his birthday with a friend, (like, exactly to the day) so we just had their family over for dinner and cake.  We let both of the big 4-year olds blow out the candles together!

Little e waits sort of patiently for his piece.

The big present was his new big boy bike.  Now, I know there are some of you readers out there who don't approve of training wheels... but N loves it and is riding all over this neighborhood.  Sometimes we have to jog to keep up with him!  This frees up the tricycle for little e to ride, although he hasn't mastered steering yet... so we contain him to the back yard.

Happy Birthday big guy!