Yeah, the Sandifers were here!!!

We were so happy to welcome our first guests of the summer - the Sandifers. My kids were beside themselves waiting for their cousins to arrive and DA and I were very excited too. It was a fun, fun visit, but went by entirely too quickly. We got lots done, saw all the London hot spots, Oxford, Stonehenge and even fit in a dinner at the Cricketers Pub. I wish they could have stayed longer, but we had to send them off on the 4:24am (yes, AM) train toward their trip to France. That was an early morning. Here are some highlights:



"Sisters, Sisters, born in the month of October..." (Briana and Donny - wish you were here too!!)


The cousins in Chinatown


Trafalgar Square

A Night out at the Cricketers

Jumping for joy at Stonehenge (took many frames to get this one right!)

Afternoon Tea at Harrod's

Today we had afternoon tea at Harrod's. After we sat down, the little girls decided they would rather go shopping at the big sale than sit in the restaurant and wait for the moms to drink tea and eat tiny sandwich triangles. The girl's opted at the last minute to have hot chocolate instead of tea - but they enjoyed every last drop. We had a very nice time and ended our day with a hectic walk through some of the floors shopping for trinkets and toys. It was overwhelming - I had only ever walked on the ground floor and lower floor, so exploring all over the store was mind boggling - especially on the first day of their biannual sale. It was CRAZY! good deals to be had though. From what I have witnessed, sales only happen in England during January and June/July - unlike the States where Macy's runs a Big Apple sale every month. Every single store is having a sale right now. Unfortunately with the pound/dollar conversion, even with 50% off, that still just takes it down to what it costs full price in the States. I guess that's better than nothin'. Better get my growing son into the store to buy him some shoes and trousers!!! The only thing he has requested though is new socks. You know it's pretty bad when your son has to actually ask you to go buy him new socks. really. It just made me laugh.

English Sighting

Even moving here from the Wild West (ha), here is something you dont see every day...

A horseback rider waiting for the train to pass at the train tracks. My daily dose of an English experience!

blog layout

This is for my new friend, Pat. Her feedback is that my new black background is difficult to read, so I'm trying to find a new layout that is easier to read. It seems a little more complicated to change the layout after I've added certain elements than it was when I first started. I will work on it soon. Just letting you know that I hear ya.

Oxford University???

Ok, we've all heard of Oxford University, right? But while traveling to Oxford last weekend, once again I discovered that, like Cambridge, there is no Oxford U. campus - Just a collection of random buildings in town which are actually individual "colleges". I know my American roots are showing here, but the whole concept just really confuses me. Each college recruits and teaches their own students. The largest college has 450 students and the smallest has 100 students, so they actually attend fairly small schools. Lectures are optional and the only thing required are specific sessions with a tutor. 3 terms of 8 weeks per year and it sounds like they write a paper and argue it for each class (I'm a little confused about that fact) - then at the end of their learning, they collectively graduate from Oxford U - having never attended school at "Oxford". very unusual and not at all what I was expecting. Maybe the thought is that they actually attended tutoring sessions in the city of Oxford, yeah, that's it! All joking aside, I realize they learn lots and are very educated at a place steeped in history and tradition. Regardless of my English university confusion, the city of Oxford is very interesting to walk around and look through all the colleges. Each one is a beautiful, picturesque old, old, old building with a fabulous courtyard. We toured Christ Church college and the kids were happy to see places from the Harry Potter movies, including the dining hall. We thought we might go punting down the river, but due to unexpected high winds, there was NO WAY we would have been able to get back up stream. oh well (as the dad's wiped their brow in relief).

One major, major drawback to our time in Oxford - the horrible 100 GBP parking ticket we got for being 25 min late back to our car after our pay and display parking ticket expired. what a bummer. Never the less, it didn't dim our excitement of getting to tour around Oxford.

School's out for Summer!!!

Finally, the kids are out of school. whew. Seems weird to go until the end of June when all our friends back home have been out for a couple of weeks, been to camp and are already bored! Fortunately, we had the pleasure of having some very special guests arrive (more later, dont want to publish until they are back home) so that the kids werent so sad on the last day of school. L had to bid farewell to one of his good friends who moved back to Houston, but B only had to say good bye for the summer. Her friends should be returning in August. Things could be a little quiet with our friends out of town, but luckily for us, we are going to have a few weeks of company - which we really look forward to. Major bonus - B now has 2 bottles of A1 sauce. Thanks to our visitors. woo hoo.
The summer weather so far has been fabulous. 70 degrees and sunny. what perfect summer days. One unusual thing is that we havent even been to a swimming pool yet. B was riding in the car yesterday and said, "I would give anything if we would be driving to the KC pool right now." She really wishes one of her friends here had a pool at their house, but no such luck. The pool at school is closed for camps, so I guess it will be mid July before we ever touch a pool.
L is growing like a weed. Taller than his ole mom now and feet are bigger too. Bought shoes for him today in a size 9. Told me his knees are hurting, he thinks it is growing pains. I think he gets his height from his Uncle Hugh. ha.
As for now, the kids are just enjoying being able to watch a little tv, play the Wii and relax. Summer time fun.

Living in England with "bubba" roots

My sweet daughter's country (read Tennessee/Mississippi/Texas) bubba heritage was showing through today. She has been building a little tree house in one of the trees. There is no house per say, but she climbs up and ties all her necessities onto strings, so there are scissors, hole punch, cups, bowls, paper, pens, etc tied into the tree. Today she was playing over in the tree by herself, cleaning it up since we have guests coming this week. She finds some duck tape in our garage and is using it to "cover" a brick step and for other misc. needs only she understands. After a few minutes, I hear her say out loud, to herself, "THIS IS THE BEST TAPE I'VE EVER USED!" ah, the sounds of duck tape users everywhere are singing "Amen". You can take the girl out of the country, literally, but...you know the rest. ha.