Grandparent Weekend

Grandma & Grandpa visited us last weekend. Here's some of what we got up to...

 

 Trying out our new sandcastle-making equipment

 

 

 

 

 Geraniums planted by Grandpa & Sophia

 The girls help out with a kids' action song at church.

Thanks for coming to visit us, Grandpa & Grandma!

Family Photo

 

I suppose family photos are essentially the art of deception--since we're trying very hard to be (or at the very least to make our children be) people who sit still, look forward, and smile at the same time as everyone else, which rarely happens in real life...

Easter Holiday Tidbits

Sophia attended our church's Holiday Club (like Vacation Bible School) during the mornings of the second week of our Easter holiday. The clip above is from the closing ceremony, where families came along with the children who'd been all week. It was an Olympic theme this year (as London's hosting the 2012 summer Olympics). Sophia and Alathea are the two tiny figures on the right-hand corner of the stage singing, "Go, go, going for gold!" Alathea was too young to attend the normal Holiday Club sessions, but don't tell her that. She was happy to sit with "sister" and copy everything she did on the final evening.

 Reading with Grandma

We introduced Grandma to as much English food as possible, like this breakfast Wes cooked.

Grandma Does London

Here are highlights from a few hours of showing Grandma some of the major sites of Central London:

Church bells ringing in the City of London

 On London Bridge with Tower Bridge behind

 Here is the modern London Bridge, unimpressive to at least one tourist I've heard incredulously exclaim, "This is it!? This is London Bridge!?" Part of one older version of the bridge (and some of the houses on it) burned down in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

 Steps into the River Thames

Sophia & Grandma outside the Tower of London, where people such as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both wives of Henry VIII, were executed.

 "Traitor's Gate," where prisoners entered the Tower of London via boat

 World War II museum

 

 Outside Buckingham Palace

 Near St. James' Park and Buckingham Palace

 

Kettle and tea cups: essential for any line of work in Britain!

It is Finished!

We've been building up to Easter for 6 weeks, and we're all excited to be celebrating the risen Lord today! Thank you to Grandma English who taught us the great Easter song Sophia sings in this video:

It's hard to make out the stone from the tomb in this photo, but this is the "empty tomb cake" Wes made as our final Easter treat. Thanks to Grandma English for inspiring us with this idea.

 Our finished Easter "Advent" Calendar

 Sophia requested Easter decorations this year to aid our celebration. (banner says "Christ is Risen!")

The girls created a makeshift beach to use with their Easter gifts until we can get to a real one!

Cambridge

The girls thought it was pretty cool that they got to see two grandmas at once Friday--a rare occurrence for us. Here they are, plus some other things we all enjoyed together on a day trip to Cambridge...

 

 I saw more bicycles in Cambridge than anywhere else in my life.

 Where Wes is studying for a masters in pastoral theology (on Jesus Lane)

 

 The Round Church, built by the Normans in the 1100s and based on The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

 At Trinity College, where the race around the courtyard in Chariots of Fire happened in real life

 

 

 Punting on the River Cam

 Transcript of End: Sophia says, "But those ones are males, not girls..."

 

Something about this view struck me as quintessentially English or Cambridge-ish--the church, the telephone boxes, the bicycles.

Flowering Trees

I love flowering trees in spring, despite having horrible allergies when they all start coming out. Here are some I've seen recently...

 

 

 

Kelsey Park

Today we took Grandma to see one of our favorite parks. We also got to play with Sophia's good school friend again.

 

 

ducks and geese

heron in the water

heron nests