Our Easter Tree

This is the tree in our front yard. Every year it is blooming for Easter. It is almost in full bloom now. We'll see if it is still in bloom next week for Easter. It is so beautiful and a gentle reminder that spring is here. For now on, we will call it our Easter tree.

The weather is simply gorgeous today. The kids have been out most of the day and are running around with no coats. I even opened a few windows. The mud in the yard is also drying up, thankfully.

Our Week in Review

Last Sunday, my dad arrived in town. Steve picked him up at the airport bright and early at 7 a.m. I took the kids to church since I was on duty for nursery. Steve and dad arrived home just about a half an hour before us. We had a nice lunch together and just rested the afternoon. After naps, we headed to Burghley House for a walk. The kids had fun riding their scooters and chasing the deer and sheep. After our walk, we hit Linfords for fish and chips for dinner.

On Monday, we headed in to town to a big park with lakes and playgrounds - Ferry Meadows. We brought a picnic lunch and ate it in the car since it was a bit cool and breezy outside. We enjoyed a nice walk around the lake, feeding the geese and ducks and playing at the playground.

Tuesday, we stayed close to home so I could catch up on laundry. Although, Steve did take dad out for a pint at a local pub that night. On Wednesday, we ventured into the city centre and walked through Peterborough Cathedral. The kids were so good. We even learned a few things. For example, the tomb of Katherine of Aragon is there. She was Henry VIII's first wife. How do I know this? Steve and I have watched The Other Boylen Girl and Elizabeth recently. We learned so much about British history through these movies. It helped piece together some of the various pieces of information we have learned since we have been here. The weather was beautiful as it has been this whole week, so we lunched on McDonald's hamburgers out in the square.
On Thursday, I took the girls to their friend Gwen's princess birthday party. The girls had a great time with all their little princess friends. They boys hung out with Grandpa did a few projects for me and went for a walk to the park. Thursday night, we met Steve in town at a pub and had dinner together.

Friday morning, we went into Stamford to the market. We got some nice fruit, scones and a couple of pies.

Here are the kids and grandpa enjoying the scones with clotted cream and strawberries for a snack on Friday afternoon.

Yesterday, we decided to take the train to York. We've never been there and it was on our list of places to go. We thought it would be nice to take grandpa there since he could experience the train and see some other part of England.
We visited the Jorvik Viking Centre, walked around the York Cathedral and the boys, Steve and grandpa went up the tower to the old castle.

Don't forget the icecream for a treat.

On the wall to York.

After a long day, when we arrived home this is what I found in Nathanael's bedroom.

We've had a very busy, yet enjoyable week with grandpa. We look forward to more adventures this week.

Update

Not much new has been happening here lately. The biggest news and reason for the lack of updates is that colds are running through our house. I have had it the worst. I don't know if that is good or bad. It can be very difficult when the little ones get sick, but it may possibly be worse when mom is sick. I am discovering that this week. I got a bad cold last week which took out couple of days. The weekend I felt pretty good, but by Monday I was feeling poorly again. On Tuesday, I decided I probably had a sinus infection. I called the doctors on Tuesday, but they said I couldn't get in until Thursday and to call back at eight a.m. on Wednesday to see if there were any cancellations. I did that and thankfully got in at nine. Steve stayed home with the kids so I could go by myself. On Wednesday morning, I felt worse than I did all week. The doctor said I have a classic case of Sinusitus. I think that is the same as a sinus infection. Thankfully, she gave me a prescription for Amoxicillan. After I got home, I really didn't feel good. I asked, no begged, Steve to stay home until lunch so I could take a nap. My head was throbbing and I felt my ears were going to explode. I am so thankful that my husband listens to my cries for help and is willing to help. He stayed and I crashed hard for two straight hours. I felt much better that afternoon.

Today I am still not back to normal, as my head still hurts. The pressure is not as bad though. I have been trying to get my house cleaned. It is slowly happening. The weather is warmer so the kids have been outside tons. They discovered climbing over the back fence and exploring the drainage ditch. Oh what fun! The days are getting longer and it is so refreshing. It isn't getting dark until a bit after six. Our time hasn't changed yet. It changes in two weeks. When it does, it will be after seven when it gets dark. We are all in need of a change and it is time to get out to explore and run. Now if the mud would just go away (my house would stay much cleaner). What I would give for a mud room.

In other news, my dad is coming for his first visit here on Sunday for a little over two weeks. We are all so excited to have him. Last summer was the last time we had any family visit. The kids are so looking forward to Grandpa coming. Tristan asks almost every morning, "Is Papa coming today?" We even scheduled a last minute trip for grandpa, Steve and the older boys to Northern Ireland towards the end of my dads visit. He really wants to see Ireland and we thought it would be fun for all the guys to go. I'll be staying home with the little ones. I am quite looking forward to having a few days off school and just spending some focused time with the little ones.

Cadbury World

Yesterday, we took a two hour drive over to Birmingham (pronounced Birminum) to Cadbury World. You know the famous Cadbury Creme Eggs. We used our trusty Tesco clubcard points. We collect points from our grocery store on money spent there and those can be turned into vouchers for loads of things for free. We get lots of points because we spend a lot at Tesco. Anyways, we got the whole family into Cadbury World for 10 pounds. If we didn't have the Tesco vouchers it would have cost us 70 pounds.

Cadbury World is the factory where Cadbury chocolate is made. We got to tour part of the factory, take a little ride through coco bean land and eat lots of chocolate. They give out free chocolate a couple different times throughout the tour. When you multiply free chocolate by eight, you get LOTS of chocolate to bring home. Not to mention that they strategically end the tour in the Cadbury store where they want you to buy more chocolate. We did give in and let the kids pick out one candy bar.

One of the Cadbury employees took this photo of us while we were on the tour.

The boys as we entered the packaging plant.

The kids writing their name in chocolate.

Cason with the candy bar he picked. After we finished lunch we let the kids eat the candy bar they picked out. It was funny to see families letting their kids eat chocolate all the way through the tour. Not our kids, they each had a bite during the tour and then had to wait until after lunch for more. That was still too much sugar.

Anna with her candy bar.

Andrew eating his candy bar.

Tristan and Leah eating their candy bars.

Leah and Nate at lunch.

After we finished the tour and had lunch, we headed out to Essence. There we took another tour on how the Dairy Milk Chocolate is made. At the end of that tour, we all got to pick our own concoction to put in warm liquid chocolate. These photos are the kids enjoying those.

After we left Cadbury World, we took a little drive down to Stratford-Upon-Avon. Shakespeare was born there. We wanted to see if we should go back and visit there sometime. It was a neat looking town and decided it would be worth going back to. You can tour the home Shakespeare was born in. We also drove by Kenilworth Castle and decided we should go back there sometime too. That is the picture above.

Nathanael after a long day out and lots of chocolate. Seriously, he didn't have any chocolate.

This is a picture of all the free chocolate we came home with minus a couple pieces we snacked on. Needless to say, I passed out chocolate to our friends at church today. We don't give our kids candy so it would take us forever to eat all this.

Nathanael 14 Months

I took these cute pictures of Nate this week. As you can see, he isn't too keen on being locked in his room by the baby gate. He tries to pull it down. He has some room playtime everyday when I am putting the girls down for a nap. He just crawls around and plays with his toys or one of his brothers. He also likes to play with the diaper pail (as seen in the photo below.)

He is still not walking, although he is so close. He is taking more and more steps each day. He just has to do it when he doesn't know he is doing it. If he is focused on something other than walking, he will walk straight across the room. I will have Steve get a video up soon. He is also starting to show that he has an opinion on things. We can no longer have a cookie or dessert and not give one to him as well. He just reaches out his little hand and begs.

When we are all around the table together the kids do a lot of voting on things by raising their hands. Nathanael has picked right up on the hand raising. If we are talking about something and then look at him, he assumes we are voting and he raises his hand. It is so funny. He can't be left out.

Just thought you would enjoy a couple photos.