Family Family Family!

No one can truly represent in words the maddness, volume, and wonderfulness of the month of August in Sam and Mary Florence's home on 580 North Loop Drive. Friendships were forged (Oliver and Olivia), rivalries created (Katya and Alicey, though a very loving friendly rivalry, but their was competition wasn't there!), and adoration oblated (especially to Hanky, Leah, and Baby Sam). We spent the first week of August having an activity packed lovefest with all the immediate family and their monkeys (children). One thing is for sure, NO ONE went hungry. There was yummy food, lots of beach time, swimming, and even an unbirthday party for the cousins, who don't usually get to spend their birthdays together. It was gratuitous, but heaven for little ones. We even went to Disneyland with all the siblings and their kids. I will do a seperate blog entry for our 2 Disneyland excursions, but it was tiring and wonderful. We had a fabulous reunion with the Bradshaws and once again ate very well. The next 2 days Mandy and Trevor and Lindsay and family left. Hank and Leah struck camp in the way backyard, they had been sleeping in a tent back there during the whole week, and returned to their bed in Thousand Oaks. That left Heather and Cesar and their girls who stayed for a whole extra week. We had park dates, library fun, and tons of swimming and beaching. The day they left Dado, Grandma, Ashley (my cousin Andrew's fiancee), and Aunt Debbie arrived for a weeks visit. It was great to see them and spend quality time. The same day Martin's brother Matthew along with Trudy, Callum, and Teigan arrived for their weeks stay in Carpenteria. So we spent that week playing with Martin's family in the day and evenings with everyone else at home until Dad's 61st birthday when we returned to Disneyland! Another exhausting, but fun filled day. After everyone left Thursday we finally got to chill a little bit, with just my parents and Summer at home, but with Hank and Leah and Sam joining us most days. It was joyous and long and relaxing and manic all at the same time! Despite nightime trauma with Katya and Oliver, they were great and had a magical time. Though on the taxi ride home from the bus station in Birmingham to our house Katya turned to me and said, "Mommy, I love England!"
Sam, Oliver, and Calvin in their matching dungarees!

Katya, Alicey, Oliver, and Olivia cooking up something good in the backyard.

Cuties!! Olivia and Oliver

Katya, Sam and Oliver in the pink bath. (Katya really liked that it was pink!)

Alicey and Katya loving Bampa... he is pretty loveable!

Olivia and Oliver playing with their presents from the cousin Unbirthday party.

Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and chips at the party!

Bampa and his Oliver playing on the rocks at the beach!

All the girl cousins of Marty and Carol! How can we be so grown up?!

I love this picture of Pa and many of his great-grandies especially their varying degrees of happiness and sadness!
Oliver really loved his Pa!

Four Bradshaw generations. Pa, Mom, Me, and Katya and Ollie
The Florence Family (its funny to me how we look too small without all the spouses and kids)

Ah this is more like it, the whole Florence Family - I'm sure someone has a better one than me!

It will take a really long time...

Love/Hate with Katya and Alicey

Beachtime fun

Matchy Matchy cousins courtesy of Heather

Too many presents...

Happy Unbirthday party to you!

Crying babies with Pa

Family reunions rock

Disneyland Madness

Wagon trips with Bampa

Fun with Hanky and Leah

We had the most wonderful trip to California. It seemed to go on forever and yet it was too short. We saw family and friends and loved hanging out and playing. During the next few weeks I will try to add lots of blog entries with different themes of our trip. The captions to the pictures above are some of the possibilities.

Rolly-Polly!!!!!!

Here are Katya and Oliver in their matching red PJ's! Are they not the sweetest?

As you can see Ralph definitely visits Katya in the night.

So this is Katya and Oliver's favourite bedtime game! ROLLY-POLLY! You have to say it long and sing songy for it to have its full effect. It amazes me how daddies all over the world create weird and wonderful games involving beds, pillows, blankets and smooshing their small children!

Summer Days of Love

For those uneducated Americans out there yes Katya is having lessons in Cricket from her Nanny and Grandad. She loves bowling the best. And when she isn't too tired she is really good at hitting the ball too!

Good action shot of Katya's bowling ability!

Oliver and Katya playing this evening at Cannon Hill Park. It was so warm and so fun. They were happy with their mommy, daddy, nanny and grandad!

Oliver the wet one.

Oliver running from his splashy sister.

Don't you love his swimming trunks? They don't make 'em like that in America!

This is why he runs from his splashy sister. If he isn't fast he gets very wet! Go Ollie!

I am always amazed at how brave and sure Katya is in everything she does. Watch her tear through the park on her beloved bicycle.

And Ollie, of course wants to be just like his big sister!

Dancing and Choo-Choo trains!

Oliver is the best dancer ever!They just crack me up! The things they decide to do together are hillarious!

Katya and Ollie, best buds...

Nanny and Grandad bought these swords and knight masks for Katya and Ollie while they were on holiday. Ollie is afraid of his mask still, so no photos with him, but he still enjoys jousting with his big sister. And if you can't tell from this photo, I had to convince Katya that she couldn't sleep in the mask last night. She loves it!

They love to take naps together. They always start on opposite sides of the bed, but always at some point mid-nap they end up cuddling up and both wake up with super warm with bright red cheeks. They love each other so much!

This picture frightens me for many reasons. First, they look almost the same size! Second, they are so white, with Oliver a little less white, but still I look black compared to them. Plus this is a shot of our new hand me down couches. Not to shabby eh?

Watching the ever favorite Dora. They love to sit on their chairs and partake in the Dora experience. I have to admit it is nice to know I can just put a 30 minute DVD on and they will sit quietly and watch. Oliver loves Dora even more than Katya now. Its so funny!

It's a sunny day!!!!

We belive this may be the smallest blow up pool ever created. We laughed so hard when we blew it up and realized there wouldn't be much swimming. Well what could we expect for a pound. The still had fun and I guess thats what matters. We have been finally having glorious weather. We are such Brits... I think it was 75 degrees and we were all sunning and swimming.

Yes, Martin convinced Katya to dump freezing cold water on her own head!

Here are 2 short clips of Katya and Ollie playing. I have to say that they amaze me. They really get along and play together. I am thankful and pray that they will stay that way.