Date Day at Castle Howard

From the time we had our first kid, we have scheduled occasional date days. We take a vacation day from work, but drop the kids off at daycare as planned. It had been a while since we had done one, and it was close to Dave's birthday, so made 20 September, Date Day. And we decided to visit Castle Howard. Dave and I had both recently finished reading Bill Bryson's newest book, At Home, and it has a couple of passages on Castle Howard. The book itself is excellent, Bryson has a way of making history fun. It was so nice to visit a great house like this (it is not a castle, the builder tore down an old castle and built this to replace it...) without being at the whim of three kids. Dave could take as many pictures as he wanted, read every sign he wanted, and only be rushed by me. And it turns out that Castle Howard was used to film a famous miniseries, Brideshead Revisited - so we'll be watching that soon. The skies were gray, but the rain held off until after we left. It was a really great date day.

Below is a picture of the gardener's house. It was really nice. The gardens were amazing, so the gardener earned every inch of it!

Below is a picture of the Atlas fountain.

I just love the shot with the fountain in the foreground, castle and dark clouds in the background. So cool.



Dave and I both drooled over the library, here is one row of bookshelves.


Now its your turn. Head out on a date day with someone you love, or just yourself. Enjoy the moment! To see more fantastic photos, you can visit Dave's flikr page.

The Boogie Trap Part 2

This took longer than I intended, but I promise it won't disappoint. Here are E & H, who LOVE to Boogie. The best bit comes at the 1 minute mark. Enjoy!

The Boogie

The Boogie Trap

Scene: Phinn's bedroom, which is also the playroom, everyone is playing and giggling.

Action: Phinn runs to the door, opens it and starts to run out of the room, with Enoch quickly following.
E: "Mom, don't worry, it's boogie trapped."
Me: "Really?" (I already knew Phinn couldn't get out because I had closed the baby gate)
E: "Yeah, he was caught in the boogie trap - the gate's closed!"

And coming soon, a boogie video - starring Hilde and Enoch. We can't stop watching it around here long enough to get it posted. It is short, but very sweet.

Happy Kids = Happy Parents

Summer is quickly on its way out around here. Lots of gray skies, clouds, rain, and the wind is really kicking up. But, the kids are full of giggles around here. And although sometimes exhausting, happy kids make it a WHOLE lot easier to be happy parents. I love these smiles!

Birthday Festivities

Hilde picked a trip to Sandcastle Water Park in Blackpool for her birthday activity. It was an indoor waterpark with a small wavepool, slides, water spouts, etc. The kids loved it.
On the actual big day, we had a ward party to go to, but it didn't start until a little later, so we killed time at the bowling alley ------------STRIKE. Enoch loves the bowling alley, he had been begging to go for a long time, so we it was a big hit.
Do you see Phinn's bowling shoes? So cool.
Enoch used the ramp (you can see it in the background), Hilde didn't. She used a light ball, but she tossed it down the lane herself.
E: - "Mom, this is the sign for rock and roll!"
Future PBA champion in the making!

7 and Loving it

This is our girl, isn't she beautiful? She is beautiful on the inside too. Happy 7th birthday sweetheart! Hilde is old enough now to crack jokes, catch us in verbal or logical errors, read anything put in front of her, and in general - impress with just about everything she tries. She is also old enough to get embarassed when her parents rock out to their favorite songs, or sing "embarassing" songs (anything sung in an operatic style). She is old enough to truly want to do the right things, and help others do the right things. I often look at her and wish I could keep her this way forever, my girl, funny, sensitive and loving. On Hilde's birthday we had a Dutch Baby Pancake for breakfast - her favorite. We spent most of the day at a summer picnic for my work, so we did her birthday activity the week before. That was a trip to sandcastle water park - the kids loved it.
Hilde was very specific about her cake, it had to be vanilla with vanilla frosting with these particular decorations. In fact, she put the decorations on herself and only reluctantly let Enoch do some sprinkles - I bet you can't guess where he put them?



Happy birthday sunshine!

Pinocchio

The Missoula Children's Theatre came to our town and help the kids put on a show. They provide the costumes, set, and everything. Hilde was a baby doll in the production of Pinnochio. The show was a huge highlight of Hilde's summer. It was basically a week of theater camp, and she loved every minute of it. A huge improvement from the first year we were here and she backed out of the play the moment before it started because she was too shy. She only had a few lines, but she was in some musical numbers, and she was great. We were extremely proud of our inspiring actress. Here are a few pictures:


By far the scene stealer of the show though, was Enoch, who was in the audience watching with us. There was a part where Pinocchio hides from the evil guy (I can't remember his name right now) and the evil guy asks the audience where Pinocchio is. Enoch jumped right up, shouted and pointed "he's hiding under the table!!!". The whole audience busted up laughing. Enoch is such a sweetie - always trying to help - even the bad guys!