Mom's birthday

June 7th found Mom nearing the end of her visit. We celebrated by going to church, eating a turkey dinner and cake! The kids decorated with mango and strawberries. We had great celebration.

Hedgehog

The kids found a hedgehog in the backyard here and fondly named him "Hedgie." He stuck around for a few days and then left. Here are a few great pics of our new neighbor.

Palace Gardens

We took the train from the palace to the gardens. The weather was perfect for this outing!

Blenheim Palace

The sun was shining as we set out for Blenheim Palace. It was pretty neat and we learned lots of interesting facts about it. The kids loved the water garden, maze and train. We ended with the golf cart tour around the huge 5K acre grounds.

National Trust

We joined the National Trust to get into parks, palaces and gardens. We have gone to Cliveden a few times and really like it. This time they had a children's scavenger hunt. We missed the first clue, but doubled back to find it. We walked all around the gardens, saw the chapel and rolled down the hill behind the house.

Rain and sunshine

It rained and rained, so the kids played games with Nana and Didi. The boys played chess and the girls played indoor golf. They all had fun.

The sun finally came out and we headed to the quaint town of Marlow for a walk along the Thames, the brick maze and the big park. It was warm enough that everyone had a great time.

Bowling

We all headed to Blenheim Palace, but due to the typical English weather (wind and rain)that was not condusive for any sort of outing, we went to plan B. Bowling! We had a lot of fun and had many laughs over the fact that Anastasia and Joe beat some of the parents!