Sports day

Summer is finally here. It is hot. It is nearly 90 and the other day we were barely at 60. The children participated in two teams- red or blue. They competed in egg races, rely, skipping rope, ball passing and a dash. The blue team won by a few points. Everyone had lots of fun.

Lego creations

Here is Joe explaining his lego creation. Anastasia made a similar craft out of legos, too.

Donkey Derby

Tennis was cancelled as they set up for and housed the donkey derby. Here are some pics. They had

a race on donkeys sponsored by St. John's ambulance. Unfortunately, they were needed as the rider hit quite hard and knocked the wind out of himself. The kids had a great time on the carnival

type rides: bouncy castle, slide, obstacle course, tea cups... The weather is finally warm. I nearly had my hands on some Wimbledon tickets, am still trying...

Airport visits

I certainly know my way to the airports- both LGW and LHR as we had lots of visitors to both.

Before Mom left, we visited Dorneywood. This is an estate that is usually given by the Prime Minister to the vice or secretary of ... Currently, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, (finance) is living there. The gardens were amazing. Here is a picture that we took of the typical cottage garden.

Eric came in from his business trip. He played with the kiddos and they even got him on the trampoline. He was able to see their new school before detouring to Marlow and the airport. We got lucky, too. After dropping him off, the highway was at a standstill. There was lots of traffic due to Ascot races and events.

Chilling with Nana

As we left Windsor, we saw the children walking home from school dressed like the girls in Madeline. We then picked up the kiddos from school and chilled after swim lessons. Nana helped piece together some puzzles and played a bit of wii. The kids have really enjoyed having Nana and Didi visit these past few weeks.

Windsor / Savill Gardens/ Runnymede

Mom and I made one last trek to Windsor today. We had a really nice walk in the Windsor Great Park, Savill Gardens. We even saw some hydrangeas that were similar to wisteria. We topped this off with a side trek to Runnymede where they signed the Magna Carta and a quick stop at the Royal Windsor Farm shop. It was a great day.

Backyard sprucing up!

Mom and Dad helped us clear out and spruce up the back garden. We got some beautiful perennials to add color. Now it looks great.

As we were taking a break, we had a hoola-hoop competition. Wow, everyone did really well. :)

Mom's bday week

Today the kids woke up and sang happy b-day to Nana. Joe left a trail of notes saying happy birthday .... Anastasia drew Nana some great pictures. We walked the kids to school and had a nice walk afterwards. This was followed by a fantastic lunch at The Apple Tree. It is a gastro-pub that specializes in seafood. Mom had the swordfish and I had the sea bass. Both were great. We walked to the bakery to top it off with a pastry and tea. Later in the week we are going antiquing and to get facials. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Anastasia's Marble Madness

Anastasia loves her marbles. She has gotten the entire family to have marble games on the rug. It has been a lot of fun. Here are a few pics taken by Anastasia.

Oldest pub in London

We headed to the Royal Standard in Forty Green before Dad headed out. He was able to try the ale sampler while we feasted on some good pub grub. We then took the pub walk which was really nice.

High Tea

We all went to Cliveden for High Tea. I invited some friends and Mom and Dad had some friends as well. We had the blue room. We had a huge assortment of teas, cakes and finger sandwiches. It was a really nice affair and we topped it off by a nice walk through the gardens.

Windsor Castle

Dad admitted that he had actually never been to Windsor Castle. So, we made a trip to tour it. The kids grumbled, but then Joe did not remember having visited and enjoyed the day. We got the kids guide and went all around- the doll house, estate rooms and St. George's church.