August Adventures

{Castle Rising}
The kids and I went to Castle Rising one day and had a little picnic and walked around. Fun day!

{Day at Daddy's Work}

The SOG (Special Operations Group) that Derek works in had an introduction meeting for all of the newcomers over the summer and their spouses. Derek was leading it and asked me to lead the childcare. So the kids had fun playing with other little ones for a few hours. Then afterwards they had some static displays out. Blake was in heaven! The girls really enjoyed it too.

{Weekend in London}

During the month of August kids go to the theater for free! We just have to book the tickets a couple months in advance. The shows we really wanted sold out super fast so we settled for The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Stomp, and Wicked. It was a fun weekend. The shows were great! In between shows we would just find a park and relax!

Playground in Hyde Park

kids wanted to go to Hamley's again

Covent Garden

{Birthday Photo Shoot}

I already posted some of Blake and Avery but here are some of Allie and all 3 together.

{Afternoon in Bury St. Edmunds}

Such a cute city! Made us wish we lived closer to a city/village like this. The city centre was happening! Lots of shopping and restaurants too. We did look at one house here when we first got here. The house was super cute. Your typical english cottage look/feel. It was just too small for us. We never really explored the city before. We had been there once before for a birthday party but that was it.

This outing was after Allie's baptism.

We had so much fun play hide and seek in the abbey ruins. It's our new favorite thing to do at abbey's and castles!

{Framlingham Castle}

After church one Sunday we decided to take advantage of a beautiful sunny day......and went for a picnic at Framlingham Castle. It's about an hour east of us on the coast. They had a lot going on that day so it was pretty crowded. We had a good time though.

Allie participated in a dance. Can you see her?

There was a knight sword fighting show.....that went on forever. We ended up leaving to tour the castle some more. Here is a view of the show from up top.

And I just realized I didn't get a picture of the castle. Here is a view from the castle though.

{First Day of School}

Allie - 3rd Grade, Ms. Shutak

Avery - 1st Grade, Mrs. Kautz

Allie was so excited and anxious to go back to school! She is extra excited because her best friend, Penelope, is in her class. Avery was nervous. She knew some people in her class but wasn't really good friends with them. Her teacher is new to the school. She seems great though. I thought Avery was going to get over her nerves but just as they were getting ready to walk to their class she started crying. :( Her teacher came to the rescue and took her hand and walked with her. She is loving school! Huge relief for us! She says it's not hard yet except for writing. 

{A Few Randoms}

Blake at the Dallas Airport

Getting ready for bed one night and the kids decided to dogpile on me

Blake at the playground

Happy Birthday, Blake Emerson! {3}

My baby is THREE! It really doesn't seem possible. I love him so much. He is the sweetest boy. Just this morning he told me I was a princess. :) And, oh my, is he ever so handsome!  The boy loves to dance and he is VERY good at it. He has some serious moves. He loves his sisters, loves to eat, still loves cars, and is now getting into role playing (cowboys, ninjas, knights......you name it).

No party for little man. He actually has never had a big birthday bash yet. Poor little guy! We are never around family this time of year and I think it's silly to have a friends party for little ones this age. We just celebrated as our little family....in the Lake District! I think that is pretty special. We got a small cake and some ice cream and he had his presents to open. Last night we ate at Frankie & Benny's and he got sung to and got his ice cream.....again.

Allison's Baptism

August 23, 2014 ~ Allison's Baptism Day

She was nervous but also very excited. The weather has been really rainy lately but Saturday was absolutely gorgeous out. It was mentioned at her baptism that the sun shines on those that are most righteous. She truly is a special girl that brings a lot of light into our life and those that she meets.

 

I knew there wouldn't be a lot of people there as we are new to the ward and haven't made a lot of friends. We decided to forgo refreshments and instead just made these little "8's" out of white powdered donuts (one of Allie's favorite things) to hand out after the baptism. We made 30.......this was all that was left so it was a fairly decent turnout.

 

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the little table setup I had as people walked into the chapel. Here it is set up at home...minus the white table cloth.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Avery! SIX

 

Our sweet little Avery turned six last week! Can hardly believe it! The day of her birthday called for rain so we did our day out adventure the day before. I showed her a few places I found online and let her choose. She chose Skylark's Maize Maze. It was a really fun place! We got there shortly after it opened and there weren't many people there at all. Perfect, just the way we like it!! They had bouncy castles & slides, a pedal tractor course, lawn games, sandbox, goats, pigs (and pig races!), a tractor ride where you have water guns and shoot pigeons, and of course the ginormous corn maze.

 

On the morning of her birthday, she was treated to one of her favorites......doughnuts for breakfast!

 

We gave her the choice to eat out for dinner, restaurant of her choice, or we could stay home and she could pick out the meal for the evening. She chose to stay home and have chicken & noodles, mashed potatoes and corn.......but it all had to be mixed together. :)

 

Then I surprised her with a dessert I though she would love. She loves peanut butter and this dessert is a peanut butter lovers dream!

 

On Saturday we had her birthday party. She chose to have hers at the bowling alley like Allie did. It was tough to get ahold of people being summer break and all but we managed to get ahold of a few friends. They definitely spoiled her! She had a great time!