Visits, Easter, birthdays, and other general silliness!

Hank, Leah and Sam arrived the 24th of March and it has been all systems go until they left the 14th of April missing the complete shut down of British air space for ever since and its Monday night and still not a single commercial flight in or out of England. We had such an absolute blast with our family. The kids loved it and hated it. Its funny how kids are slaves to routine and these kids really missed theirs. At times when we were on a train or in the car or he was strapped in his push chair Ollie would say, "I want to go to Inglenook". That's the name of his nursery. So they are glad to return to their schedule and some normalcy, but are still missing their Baby Sam. Here is Oliver in all his silly splendor sitting in the window flying like Superman. Oh the stories I can tell about his ultimate temper tantrums in public places because of Spiderman. He wants a Spiderman muscle costume so bad sometimes it is impossible to control himself. He was running as fast as he could in the mall again and again to return to the toy store and look at the costume. Hanks said it was funny because his face when he first saw it wasn't even happy just worried because he knew what I was going to say when he demanded it. I think I have convinced him that Santa Claus knows he wants it and if he is a very good boy maybe he will bring it to him. Its amazing how many little boys you see wandering around in Spiderman suits when you really don't want to. It makes for some fun times with Ollie!

Can you see home much chocolate Oliver has crammed into his little mouth. It was his favorite word for days after Easter. The Easter bunny doesn't bring baskets in England only GIGANTIC chocolate eggs and lots of cream eggs, oh and mini-eggs too. All Cadbury of course... Though I do prefer a nice Lindt Lindor egg myself!

This was a relatively miserable rainy day, but the misery stopped with the weather and the fun began with Nanny and Grandad meeting Hank, Leah, and Sam, touring some beautiful country homes, and eating a lovely country pub meal. So the best story from this day goes like this... Mommy tells Katya and Ollie to be careful and not fall in the mud because they don't have a change of clothes and they will be muddy all day then...then Mommy goes and fall in the mud and has to walk around all day with muddy trousers.

Katya and Ollie sent to slave in the coal mines of the Black Country(notice Oliver hasn't left Spiderman out of the fun).

Happy Birthday to Katya. I can't believe she is 4! She had 4 Ladybird (Ladybug for the Americans) cupcakes and lots of other silly cupcakes made by all of us. Can you see the Blonde Wario cupcake designed by Uncle Hanky!

Grandma Marty thanks for the awesome Monkey gears set! She thinks its so cool!

Oliver riding on top of the Black Country Fair London Bus.

Katya driving the Titanic before it sunk. She is such sweet and kind girl!

Here are the cousins in their warm jammies playing together. They love each other so much. Ollie still asks every morning where Hanky, Leah, and Baby Sam are.

This is a lovely little seaside town on the south coast of England called Christchurch.

Katya and Oliver looking very American in their super cute Easter outfits from Grandma Marty. Katya loves her dress and everyone says Ollie looks like a mini golfer. I am so thankful for the kindness of my mom!

It was a beautiful, but freezing cold windy day at Stonehenge, but we soldiered on!

Here we are on top of the Liverpool Cathedral Bell tower, 330 feet above Liverpool. Martin got sudden vertigo and I had to carry Ollie up the stairs because he was afraid he would drop him!

These are my favourite pictures at the Liverpool Tate Museum. Katya designed these photos herself. She saw this bench and was OBSESSED with it. She wanted to lay on her side and have her picture taken and then she wanted daddy to do it too and hide behind him. I love her little girl skinny jeans! Hand me downs from her hip cousin Teigan!