 |
| We went to the strawberry farm and picked berries and bought these yummy cookie pops. |
 |
| This is my nice friend and walking buddy Kathy. |
 |
| Some people are growing some beautiful large poppies. |
 |
| Lidia is progressing with her riding but needs to work on her posture. |
 |
| These are the nice people that lead the organized walks I go on sometimes. |
 |
| wild orchids |
 |
| buttercups |
 |
| Sports Day, I must have a pic of Aiden throwing the discus somewhere. |
 |
| Avery's sports day, his house is yellow. |
 |
| The head teacher is the one with the speaker. He is very nice. |
 |
| Come on Avery! |
 |
| Ice lolly! |
 |
| We made a gas mask out of duct tape for evacuation day. |
 |
| My cute little evacuee |
 |
| Everyone looked so nice in their 40's clothes. |
 |
| Carolyn and Louise |
 |
| Tristan's class about to get on the bus |
 |
| Bourton on the Water |
 |
| lavender |
 |
| Queen Anne's lace, lavender, poppies, rape seed... |
 |
| Cory said this is a field of barley. I wouldn't know. |
 |
| Upper Slaughter |
 |
| Lower Slaughter |
 |
| back in Bourton for lunch |
 |
| Cory had a tuna melt and I had bacon and brie. It was good. It would have been even better with cranberry though. |
 |
| Primary activity at Crickley Hill |
 |
| Afternoon tea for Lizzie's birthday |
We've got summer fever! The kids are so ready to be done with school. Just a few more days and it's just the fun stuff now, not many lessons. Tristan and Avery already brought home their report cards. It's hot here this week. 80 F is hot when there is no AC. We may have to go to the movies every afternoon to cool off. It's actually not too bad with windows open and fans blowing but all the bugs start coming in. Guess we just have to live with the bugs and hope we don't get robbed while our windows are open. A friend of mine did get robbed last week. Pretty scary. They were home. Her husband fell asleep on the couch and he heard them and started to wake up and so they took off but they took his wife's keys, wallet and phone. They traced the phone and found one guy and he had a knife on him. Scary.
We had a nice fourth of July. The kids had school but Cory was off work so he and I went on a nice walk. We parked in Bourton on the Water and walked to Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter and back to Bourton. It was 6 miles long and very pretty. The lavender, rape seed and poppies are all in bloom so it's red yellow and blue across the fields. We had lunch in Bourton before heading home. I was glad we managed to somewhat follow the trail map and not get lost. We came across three ladies on holiday from Minnesota and chatted with them a bit while walking.
Tristan had his evacuation experience with school on the fourth of July. It was really cool. They all dressed up like evacuees and took the steam train to a town in the countryside. The train had actors and when they got to their destination they caught a German spy and had an old fashioned sack lunch and helped shovel coal into the steam train etc. We made Tristan a pretend gas mask and everything. He looked cute. He had a really good time. He said he got to sit up front with the engineer and blow the whistle and pull the brake.
Thursday night Cory and the boys tried out a karate class with the neighbor boys and really enjoyed it. They are going back for another free lesson today and then may sign up to go regularly. It's a family class. Cory worked up a sweat last time. Avery really enjoyed it. He was talking about it and practicing his moves afterwards. The boys really want to sign up and get their uniforms. Our neighbor and her three boys have been going for a while and really enjoy it. It's also fun for the boys to do it together because school schedules keep everyone so busy we really don't see them much except during school breaks. They are Canadian and have two more years here like us.
Friday work had their annual 4th picnic from 2-6. Cory got the kids out of school early and took them. I was out shopping and having lunch with my friends and met Cory and the kids at the picnic around 4. It was a big production. There were a lot of people there. I think a lot of the Brits from work came too. The kids had fun with the face painting, sumo wrestling, tug o war, moon bounce, ice cream truck, food and pop, friends etc. I enjoyed chatting with friends and meeting new people. I made cupcakes and took them and they were gone in seconds. I think there was not near enough food for all the people but it was fine by me because I wasn't going to eat any of it anyway. Cory played volleyball and dove for the ball and scratched his elbow up good. I asked if it was worth it, did he hit the ball, and he said no.
Friday night was our ward father son campout. Cory was really tired from cleaning up after the work picnic and didn't really want to go. Aiden and Lidia were at a friend's birthday/ moving back to America party until late so Cory and the boys went to the campout at 10 and came back at 9 the next morning. Since the weather is nice Cory just slept on the cot outside but the boys wanted to sleep in the car so they just reclined the seats and slept there. They did open the sun roof so they could see the stars.
Saturday there was a stake primary activity but we didn't go because the boys were pooped. They rested and did some chores and played video games.
Saturday afternoon I went to my first full English Tea. One of the nice ladies from church was having a birthday tea so ten of us went to Ellenborough Park for their afternoon tea. A full tea consists of little sandwiches, scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream, cakes and tea. It is a beautiful place and the food was good too. I decided to try herbal tea for the first time instead of just ordering hot chocolate instead. I had mint tea and it was good. It's just hot water with mint leaf so it reminded me of drinking warm water while chewing gum. It was nice though in the same way as cucumber or lemon water which I drink a lot. The scones were really good as were the sandwiches. The cakes were OK but not my favorite.
We have been picking a lot of strawberries from our garden. I am afraid we will miss a lot of the raspberries while we are in Spain. I hope not. We will pick right before we go and as soon as we get back. We have also picked a lot of broccoli, onions, peas, etc. We can't eat the lettuce. We might not grow it again. Once you pick out all the slugs and bugs and dirt you just don't want it anymore. We also don't like the taste of the variety we planted very much. If I did plant lettuce again it would be romain. We have not been getting much rain lately so we need to water the garden more often. The berries would be bigger if we watered more I bet.
The lavender is late this year like everything else but it's finally in bloom and I'm going with some friends tomorrow to the fields and tea room.
I have so much to do before we go on our trip. I'm stressing! I better get busy and do some work today.
