Park, Park, Park & Park

Here in the UK, the earliest stage of Boy Scouts is called Beaver s.  C and a few of his mates joined recently, and last night C made it official- he was "invested".  That means that he said the oath, holding up three fingers.  A video snippet to follow in a few days.

As we saw earlier , C is practising his writing alot.  Here's a few recent examples: All in the family When D was sick, C wrote this.

D is starting down the path of reading- sounding out words, identifying other words that begin with the same letter and mimicking C's reading. Learning to read now a days seems to be about phonetics.  Words don't begin with D(ee); they begin with D(uh). So, we're finding lots of D(uh) words-  Duh Oo Arr Oo Thy.

Usually, this blog is about the kids.  They're the ones with the interesting lives right now. But we passed a milestone recently around here that didn't involve the kids. Bella finished up working at COI - The Central Office of Information; the UK governments communication arm- on Monday. It was a really great experience for her that lasted 11 years.  Good work.  Good people.  And the flexibility to balance kids and professional work. And she is already on to greener pastures.

I can see the trees blowing in the w(ind).  CRP Found this on the floor of the kids bedroom one morning...

Bowls that Nettie made herself for the kids.

There is a genuine excitement with C and D about me as transport.  Whether riding on my shoulders to the high street or on my back going upstairs, they perceive it as a treat or reward.  At 6 and 3 (and coming up to 43!), I can still manage to carry both of them up the stairs -one on front, one on back- at the same time. Here is D after a family drinks party, in pjs, going up for book time.

Christian- 47 1/2 inches 45 lbs. Dorothy- 37 1/2 inches 28 lbs. Here's the score last May .

Slightly blasphemous taking pictures in church, but the moment needed to be captured. This is D and her good friend Gwyneth waiting in line for a communion blessing.

We all had a drink after bath time Friday- toasting the tree before we take it down and to open the last Christmas present. Ironically, the gift should have been the first one opened but US Mail and Royal Mail conspired against that idea. The emerging family tradition is a gift of PJ's for the kids from Grandma and Grand-dad which gets opened on Christmas eve. Here they are modelling their new footie pjs.

Notes on our holiday in Somerset: D poolside We stayed in a converted farm/barn , and across the courtyard there was an indoor pool.  That helped a bit because it rained often. The rain was balanced by the fact that we enjoyed some good pub lunches in little villages- The Bull Inn and The White Har t. And we came prepared with a box of food and wine, plus stuff to keep C and D active and engaged- Legos, dominos, etc.  And we had some nice walks in the countryside. And The Seymore Arms - no food, just local cider! C and I built this catapult on a rainy evening. At Alberts Tower

On our trip to Somerset for the New Years Eve holiday, we made a side trip to see Elinor.  She enjoyed seeing the kids, I think.  Here's our last tri p in April.

Pants being the British version.

Here she is with her efforts at a D.  This is from the great cafe where we had PB&J's, in Frome, Somerset .