For my love has returned, He is home, he is here, In the whole world no other Is dear as my dear!

B had told us that he was arriving at He.athrow Airport at 7:30AM on Friday the 25th. I had told the boys and prepared them to wake up extra early on Friday morning to drive down. I had filled out all the paperwork to pull McColley out of school for the day. I had e-mailed B several times to double check that he was still on track to arrive on time.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the door on Thursday at 10:30AM to see him standing there!

He had totally faked us out - he sent e-mails for the last couple of days with a 24-hour delay. He didn't use any of our credit or debit cards (even though he was flying through several places where he could have). He e-mailed out but warned people to not e-mail him back. See - very sneaky.

His plan was to arrive on Thursday, surprise me at home and then surprise all the boys at their school pick-up. Unfortunately Pearson was sick and Brayton was possibly sick, so I'd kept them home from school.

Brayton was so surprised that he didn't really know what to do at first. He hid for a few minutes and then wouldn't let Daddy go. Poor Pearson didn't really react to Daddy until much later in the day when his fever broke.

However, McColley was at school. So, we went to his school about ten minutes before the end of the day. Luckily his class was all outside doing an activity when we arrived (but his teacher saw us and was in on the surprise): 

As of 1:25PM on Thursday the 24th we are all together again!

Unfortunately as soon as we were all reunited B had to go to work. The dirty little secret after all reunions is that the military member then has to do four days of reintegration in-processing before they can start their two weeks of rest and relaxation. At least the four days of work are pretty relaxed!

Readings, Parties and Swans

We have been quite busy over the last week and it's time to finally catch the blog up!

Last Wednesday McColley's class hosted a short story reading for all the families. When we arrived in the classroom Pearson was invited to sit with his brother... however his brother was too far in on the carpet, so Pearson just grabbed the first open spot he could find:

McColley read his story aloud to the room very well:

He wrote it himself and drew the illustration (the story was about a wolf):

McColley got a chocolate from his teacher after his reading but was kind enough to let Pearson eat it:

Then on Saturday we were all invited to a birthday party for one of McColley's friends. The party was at a giant indoor play space which was closed to everyone but the party goers. Given complete run of the place the big boys basically ran themselves ragged. They definitely needed a rest by the time food was served:

Pearson wanted to play too but he wanted to keep his shoes on more. Since he had to take his shoes off to go on any of the bouncy areas, it was quite the conundrum:

Eventually he figured out that he could go on the kart track with his shoes still on:

Finally on Sunday we grabbed the small patch of non-rainy weather and went to Hou.ghton Mill. Pearson was very excited when we arrived and led us straight to the pond:

Unfortunately there was some hungry swans hanging around the pond and although they weren't aggressive, they were quite happy to walk very close to humans in hopes of bread:

To avoid the walking swans, we went around to the other side of the mill where a lovely older woman gave the boys a package of bread pieces to feed to the ducks:

Which they were happy to do it since this time the ducks were safely separated from them by a brick wall:

After the bread was gone we met up with some friends and searched for leaves:

The leaves were for a project McColley had to work on involving 'Math Monster' (who wanted a funny picture with McColley's brothers):

Digging Around

Last night McColley's Cub Scout Pack hosted an archeology event. Luckily they invited siblings to attend. All the boys were very excited to play in the dirt... unfortunately I forgot to bring our spades.

The pack provided one spade for our family to use:

One spade plus a strainer was not good enough for Pearson:

He decided to 'borrow' a shovel from the square next to us:

Is that a problem?

Luckily it wasn't and the three boys were happy to share shoveling, straining and spotting responsibilities:

When we couldn't find anything else in our square the big boys went over to the results table and tried to piece things together:

It took a little experimentation but they did figure out that one of the things was a tea pot:

After all that hard work, it was time to roast some hot dogs:

The Army At St. James

Yesterday we rode the train down to London and then took the Circle Line all the way to Chelsea.

Our final destination was the N.ational A.rmy Museum:

Inside the displays lead us through the history of the British Army - starting with the Civil War:

Interestingly, the museum completely skipped the American Revolution but did include the War of 1812.

When we got to the Victorian Era, the boys got to play a pinball game to see if they would have made it to retirement. It took McColley four tries to get through training!

It was such a beautiful day that instead of heading straight home from the museum, we went to St. James' Park:

There was a TON of birds in the park and the boys even spotted some pelicans!

Of course there was about a thousand pigeons and Pearson had to chase them:

Grandpa eventually had to sack-of-potatoes Pearson so we could keep walking:

We were aiming for the playground in St. James' and Pearson was happy to forget about the pigeons when we found the slide:

The boys also got to challenge each other in a 'snail race':

We wandered past Buckingham Palace on our way to the tube stop:

And then once on the train home I let Brayton play a game on my phone. Pearson was his enrapt audience:

Bouncing Around Belton

Today we took Grandpa up to B.elton House. We arrived without knowing anything about the house or why it was important but it had several kid-friendly activities and was close. 

We entered through the stable block:

We had to walk around the side of the house to get to the front door. The house was so pretty that I wanted to take a picture of everyone in front of it... Pearson refused to listen:

But eventually he came back and I got my picture of all the boys in front of what is considered The Perfect British Country House:

It is also the finest example of Carolean-style architecture in the world.

With such a beautiful building before us, we had to make sure our shoes were extra clean:

The house was very interesting and we got to see almost twenty rooms. Because of it's reflective design, it actually has two main staircases. One is white and the other is dark:

After we finished touring the house we happened upon the Discovery Center. The boys all designed a leaf to add to the House's Autumn Tree. McColley deeply considered where to place his leaf (which he covered in ants):

Brayton was much more certain of where his leaf should go:

After the Discovery Center we headed out into the gardens. The boys searched in vain for fish in the fountain's pool:

Luckily when we walked into the Orangery there was a pond full of koi!

Our final and most anticipated stop was at the Adventure Playground. As soon as we walked through the gate the boys saw something awesome:

Even Pearson was excited to go down - the height didn't faze him in the least:

He also wanted to show off his impressive climbing skills:

After all that hard work Pearson took a break while Grandpa teeter-tottered with the big boys:

We then spotted the zip line. It took a lot of convincing but eventually we got McColley to give it a try. He discovered it was super fun:

Brayton was even more scared to try the zip line. It took lots of encouragement and lots of promises to get him to give it a try. Eventually he did trust that Grandpa would walk him slowly and hold on:

We had such a good time that we closed the place down!

Cathedrals And Chivitos

Grandpa Hopkins arrived in England on Monday. On Tuesday he recovered from jet lag and helped fix a few things around the house.

Today he was ready to sightsee!

So, despite the rain, we drove up to Peterboro.ugh to tour the cathedral:

Once inside the cathedral Pearson was entranced by a model that involved oxen (it showed how they got the giant stones to Pe.terborough for the cathedral's construction):

We also had to check out the cathedral's 'star attraction' - it is the final resting place of Katharine of Arago.n (Henry VIII's first wife):

After a good look around the interior, we headed back out into the rain to check out the remains of the cloister. Before The Dissolution Peterboroug.h had the sixth wealthiest monastery in England:

Thankfully Grandpa is here more to help than to do tourist-y stuff because there are a lot of things to do this week! One of the things we all have to work on together is McColley's spanish class project.

Tonight we had to make a sandwich from U.ruguay. Grandpa helped McColley find all the ingredients:

He then showed McColley how to complete the prep work:

In the end we all got to eat a delicious (and meat-filled) sandwich!

Tomorrow night we have to put all of the things McColley has learned together so that he can present it on Friday!