More Catching Up...

We got home from London and headed straight to Rockville for Memorial Day.  I was excited to go because this year we were traveling a few miles away to a Pioneer home that my ancestor's built and lived in.  I have seen pictures of this house my whole life so I was excited to go and see it.  First we stopped at a small little cemetery.  

 It was neat to see this old home.  All the stones on the front were carved so smooth and neat.  I was so surprised at all the detail on the house.  

 The back of the house isn't faring so well.  The stones were never as smooth and neatly placed as the ones in the front. 

 Kirk and I have common ancestors on this side of the family so I am glad that my kids got the chance to see where some of them lived.

 My friends and I all wore the exact same skirt without any planning!

 The Queen's Diamond Jubilee was celebrated.

We spend the 4th of July driving to Lake Powell.

I am hoping to get this blog caught up eventually.  We are enjoying the summer so much!  We have always been on a year round school schedule, but this year we got a full size summer and it has been awesome!  We are busy and then we do nothing when we can.  I will be sad to see it come to an end but it will be nice to see the house clean again.  We had a great trip to Lake Powell and have been fortunate enough to get another one!  Football tryouts start next week and then we will have to slow down a little.  The boys have all signed up and gotten their gear, they are looking forward to it!

Catching Up With the Four Boys

 Tyler has begged for a long time to take karate.  I know absolutely nothing about karate!  So we found a little place close by and signed him up.  I am finding out that this karate is serious stuff!  This picture was taken of Tyler at his belt test.  He passed and got a yellow belt, he was so excited.  I had no idea he had to perform and complete such events to advance his belt.  

 Jacob and David both played basketball this spring.  We played them up a grade and I was surprised how well they fit in.  They are growing so quickly right now, it is scary!  I recently bought size 10 shoes for them.

 They also earned their Arrow of Light.  They are on to 11 year old scouts and couldn't be happier.  Unless they could some how get out of primary for the next year...

 Tyler played flag football this year and had a great time.  Turns out he likes karate even better though.  Next year he will be able to sign up for tackle football.  He seems so little, I can't believe it!  But I have to remember that his brothers started at 8 years old as well. 

 Ethan did his wax museum report at school on Thomas Edison.  I was thrilled!  Jacob did the same one last year, so I just dug it out of the basement and used it again!

 Ethan has played a lot of basketball this year and had a lot of success.  They recently played for the championship and barely won, it was a nerve racking game.  Ethan loves basketball and has really improved!

David and Jacob finished off their school year with a puppet show.  I owe lots of thanks to my mom for helping make these while I was in London.  

 The kids had their annual Fun Run at school.  All the boys ran hard and did such a good job.  Tyler and Ethan especially take these kinds of things seriously!

 The boys had a party on the last day of school.  They each invited a few friends so we had a house and yard full of boys!  It had been so warm, we planned a water party, but it turned off cold!  I started planning games and things to do.  Even though it was cold, the boys had a blast getting wet.

 We still played lots of fun games.  This was one where the boys had to eat disgusting things.  The first was a jar of baby food.  I took that labels off so they didn't know what they were getting, but it was just peaches.  It was incredibly difficult for most of them.  One boys was nearly in tears trying to drink a can of tomato juice and it turns out all the boys liked spam!  We played another disgusting game called "What's that smell?"  I smeared baby food in baby diapers and they boys had to guess what the baby ate.  It was awful.  I grossed myself out.  

 In this game, the boys had to fish out 2 gummy worms with out using their hands.  They all loved this one!

I'm not a party planning person, but I had a lot of fun doing this for all of my boys.

In Honor of the Jubilee

In honor of the Queen and her Diamond Jubilee, I thought I would share some of my favorite British things...

I have mentioned this perfume before, but Jo Malone, is one of my favorites.  This is her new scent, Plum Blossom and it is wonderful!  When I was at Harrods, they were completely sold out of it.  You can buy it locally at Nordstrom.

I would really like to have this bag in about every color.  Cath Kidston is such a fun designer and makes such fun and feminine things.  Being one of her stores is literally like being in a candy store, everything looks so great!

Boden is another one of my favorite places to look at pretty things.  Especially dresses.  They have great customer service and always offer free shipping and returns.  

If I was rich, I would have a lot of pretty things from these stores and my home and I would smell so very nice....

Happy Diamond Jubilee to you!!!  

I Can't Wait for Christmas!

London-True or False

I just got home from spending a week in London with Kirk, he worked and I vacationed.  There were a couple of interesting things that happened....
True or False
1.  We forgot the camera

2.  Lara packed for a week in London in a carry on suitcase

3.  The weather was incredibly hot

4.  The Delta Sky Lounge in Heathrow has a complimentary spa

5.  We missed our returning flights by one whole day

6.  We got in a car accident driving home from the airport

7.  I don't love my new iphone

8.  I unknowingly posted stuff on facebook

Answers:
They are all TRUE!

Now for way too many pictures....

 I figured this time I had better make it to Harrods and it did not disappoint!  What a fun place and the outside was decorated just like the rest of London for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  The gowns were amazing as was everything else in that place.

 Hyde Park was beautiful!  The weather was so warm while I was there.  I was wishing that I had a bike to ride around the park with.  

 In the city you can rent bikes to ride around, it is not uncommon to see these rental stands, this one was in Kensington near our hotel.

 Oxford and Regent street were both decorated with lots and lots of flags!

Most of Regent street was under construction, probably getting all gussied up for the Olympics.

Countdown to the Olympics.

 I did get to spend some time with Kirk and we realized that the iphone does not take good pictures at night.  Is there an app to fix that?

 I took a tour of Oxford, the Cotswolds, Stratford upon Avon, and Warrick Castle.  I have way too many pictures....These are from Oxford, Christs' Church College.

 This is Shakespear's home in Stratford upon Avon.

 And these are from Warrick Castle, which the family sold to the people who do the wax museums.  They have added a lot of wax people inside and made it really fun to tour.

 I don't know why, but I LOVE the V & A.  I stopped in there for a quick walk and I was so glad I did!  Their large exhibit right now is British Fashion and Design.  It was eye candy.  The gift shop had loads of fun stuff as well and that was where I bought my favorite souvenir, The Little Dictionary of Fashion by Christian Dior.

It says all kinds of wonderful things like, "simplicity, grooming, and good taste-the three fundamentals of fashion-cannot be bought.  But they can be learnt, by rich and poor alike."

I seriously love that little book!

On the way home we were stopped at a red light.  A car passing in front of us lost its little trailer and we sat there stopped and watched as the trailer came right for us.  Luckily we were not hurt and the driver was insured.  Now the car is in the shop for who knows how long and Kirk is driving a truck.