Family photos.....

Richard in the restaurant in Farnborough.....

Marie in the same restaurant

Marie and Mum at Bradgate Park

Sisters......

Mum and her cuppa

Mum & Dad doing what they do best-sitting in the sun

London photos

Finally getting around to posting pictures from my trip to England. Maybe the best trip ever, made so much better by the fact that the weather was beautiful and it didn't rain at all.  We did a trip to London as soon as I got there.   I finally got to see the London Eye.

Had to take a picture of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament for Ben, he wanted to see what it looked like

Walked close to Trafalgar Square

Found this store in Covent Garden

We went to see Shrek, The Musical while we were there

Found this really cool store with a window full of old Singer sewing machines....

...and this brilliant paleo/non-paleo ad in the Underground

Early Spring

Goodness, I went away for less than two weeks and came back to full-blown Spring. The dogwood is spectacular this year and we have been able to enjoy it for quite a while, although it's almost over

We bought several Japanese maples in a Lowe's sale when we moved in and they are doing very well

Everything in the garden is growing like crazy, haven't figured out if we lost anything over the Winter yet

The azaleas are all flowering and doing well.

Puberty!!!!!!

Ben now weighs 66.2 lbs and is 4 ft 6 inches.  He has had a growth spurt and has grown almost 2 inches in 6 months. The doctor says he has started puberty and so we have to see her every 4 months until this is all over.  They did his bone age again and it is at 10 years, so still almost a year behind his chronological age.  He is growing very well and his bone age has almost caught up because his growth is in the normal range.

Never a dull moment

Maggie brought this note home from school.  It says, Dear Dad I cussed two times at our room and the lunch room.  I said Dammit.  I know not to talk that way.  She brought the note home to get us to sign it, but she signed it herself ('mom' in marker!!), so the teacher sent it back with a note that says "Maggie brought this home last night and signed it herself"

Seriously????  She's 7!!!  Should she really be doing this already.....

What a girl, just gotta love her!!!!

Is this global warming?????

This is the first Easter that I have been at home & able to buy Easter Eggs (like we had growing up) for Ben and Maggie. I opted to bring back Thornton's chocolate animals for them and very carefully hand carried them in my luggage back home. Maggie decided she was going to keep hers in her bedroom. After the 93 degree day yesterday, we decided that we should put the air on upstairs, so I went around closing the windows. When I went in Maggie's room, her "Charlie Chick" had turned into this......

I took it out of the box and put it in the fridge until it set again. Then, I smashed it will the rolling pin and put in a bag. It still tastes good.....

...but it used to look like the chick version of Ben's rabbit!!!!

Yeah, we really should have put the air on earlier!!!!

Ben's last gymnastics meet

Ben's last gymnastics meet was yesterday. It was an unsanctioned meet that was at his home gym. He did a great job and won first place, although he did not do as well as usual on some of his strength events and did better on events that he usually doesn't do that well on. He is always consistent on pommel for some reason.....

His strength is that he does reasonably well on all events. Even though he came first overall, he only won one of his individual events!!!

Floor-2 Pommel-1 Rings-2 Vault-2 P-bars-3 High bar-3   Overall-1

He should have done much better on P-bars because it's his best event, but for some reason the judge wouldn't let his coach spot him on his kip and he didn't get up properly.  They let the judges spot everyone else!!  He was really mad about it...

Carmin and Tariq came to watch him yesterday, it's great that his friends are so supportive

Yeah, he's full of himself right now, but what else is new???!!!!