March Trip to England

Here are the kids in Calais just before we got on the ferry. We originally planned this trip because we thought we were moving to Texas this summer, but since we're not moving until May 2011, we'll probably get to go to England again. It was great to see my brother Jared and his family. My kids absolutely loved seeing their cousins. Of course Spencer fell asleep just when it was time to get off the boat. We made it to Dover!

Brayden wanted lots of pictures with this sign.


Dover Castle



The castle was staged with a king and these jewels and a princess too.

At the top of Dover castle

Kayla with the princess

Watch out Spence!

The Tube

The London Eye

Parliament and Big Ben. Do our boys love pictures or what?

St. Pauls Cathedral from the Millennium bridge

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge

The kids with uncle Jared and the Gherkin (Pickle building - I think it's German). Thanks for walking around London with us!

I love these crazy kids!

Cave at Cheddar Gorge that is randomly out of order

The British Museum

Dumb - Dumb want some gum - gum

Sphinx

Mummies!

Stonehenge

Jared, Julie and Family - our kids still talk about how fun it was to see their cousins!

Pulteney Bridge in Bath

Baths in Bath!

Cheddar Gorge

Cave Cheddar - Yum!

These are the tallest inland cliffs in England.

The white cliffs of Dover. Goodbye England!

Brayden's 5th Birthday

Here's Brayden on his birthday. He got 2 giant trucks (that were actually made in Germany but came from Amazon) from Grandpa Jim and Mary that were his favorite toys.

Dad made a picture scavenger hunt for Brayden to find his new bike. It was hidden in the play tent in the basement. Allen did a good job and the kids had fun with it.

I made "cub cakes" for Brayden's birthday - cupcakes with a paw print, and a small cake just for Brayden. We let him ride his bike inside since it was new, and he loved it!

For Brayden's birthday party, he wanted a train party. His invitations had a picture of James - the #5 train - and said, "Brayden Pratt is turning 5 and can't wait for his birthday to arrive. All aboard the birthday express, please chug over and be our guest." I made a track up our front walkway with sidewalk chalk and put and sign up that said "Pratt Station" and made a circle railroad crossing sign (which I forgot to take pictures of because it was drizzly outside.) All of the kids got a conductors hat and we took a picture of each of the kids as they arrived for a train magnet craft that they made later. I had large construction paper and foam train stamps for the kids to make a train, but a bunch of the boys just wanted to play in Brayden's room, so we brought all of Brayden's train stuff downstairs, so the kids could choose to do the planned activity or play with the trains.

We did a scavenger hunt with the kids that started when the kids heard a knock and ran to the front door to find a note that said, "Lady the engine is lost because she went too far. Help us find her, the first clue is in Spencer's backyard car." The next clue was "Percy is green. Go to a place where your face can be seen" The next clue was taped to the bathroom mirror upstairs. Then, "Thomas rode the turntable and got really dizzy. He says to get better he needs somehting fizzy." The next clue was in the German frige where we keep soda. Next, "Gordon the engine is blue. Look under the blanket that's blue." That clue was upstairs. The last clue, "You've done a good job. Let's finish the task. You'll find Lady soon when you look beneath a mask." Then under the end table under our Venetian mask was Lady and train whistles for all of the kids. We took this picture right after they found the whistles, and you can see that Brayden and one of his friends is already playing trains.

Presents!

Brayden hugging our neighbor Ben.

Brayden's birthday cake!

I hope you got your wish Brayden. Happy Birthday!