Enjoying some sunshine....

My handsome guys under our favorite tree.
It has really struck me lately that Caleb is now the exact age that Luke was when we first moved here. I don't know how many countless pictures I have of Luke in this same coat (as what Caleb has on) on this same play-set only it was the fall and not the winter. Caleb, however, is so independent. Two and a half years ago, I had to climb all over this thing to get Luke up and on it. Once on it, he would have been fine but he struggled with all the various methods of scaling up to the inside.Caleb does it all on his own. And, while I used to walk around the sides to "make sure Luke didn't fall off," Caleb manages fine with no protective hand behind him. Funny that I'm falling right in with the stereotypes of how parents treat first and second borns.

Our Amazing Luke

Luke amazes us in many ways, but this is a new phenomena as of the past 2 weeks. Without anyone making any suggestions to him to do so, he has decided he likes to put out his next-day clothes each night ("in the shape of a person, of course" he says). We asked him why he wants to do this and he said it was so he could get dressed really fast in the morning. Does he need to get dressed really fast in the morning? No. Have we ever hurried him to get dressed in the morning? No, he gets up PLENTY EARLY to get it all done. He is a funny and interesting kid full of his own ideas. And, by the way, he alternates his 2 pairs of shoes every other day. But he wears the same shirt every day until I tell him it has got to be washed (then I accidentally forget to wash it for a week just to give us all a break!).
Getting ready for bed is equally fun with GREAT books like this new discovery Dr. Xargles Book about Earthlets. It's the story of an alien giving a class to fellow aliens about what humans are like. Luke's class at school is learning about outer space (they've converted a corner of the classroom into Mars) so he's really fascinated by aliens. (This is not to give the impression for a second, however, that he's not still TOTALLY obsessed with Spiderman.)

We thought it was raining before....

So, once we made it down and up and down a bunch of mud, you get to this nice path which leads into "the deep dark forest." It was a nice change from the previous kind of walking!
Caleb was totally water-proof and, in the end, he was the cleanest of us all!
When we came back out of the "forest," it was really raining.
Luke busted just before this picture but made a nice effort at a smile. :)

I had some serious laundry to do when we got home. We got lots of laughs from our neighbors as the 4 of us hobbled barefoot to our apartment caked in mud and Luke, in fact, had no pants on. (Pants in the American sense of the word----when a Brit says 'pants' it means underwear. He DID have on underwear!)

It was a WONDERFUL time. We loved the walk, the view, being outside and together, the rain, and of course, the mud.

We thought we'd seen mud.....

So, we went out again this Saturday for another muddy walk. But this time, it was serious mud and we were much better prepared. Here we are on top of a hill at a golf course / hiking trail looking down on the city. Where you see water is normally grazing land for animals.
About 10 seconds after arriving for our hike, it started raining. Caleb had a hard time focusing on the walk with all the puddles around.
Caleb did walk a lot of the way but he had to be carried through the super squelchy mud. We knew Luke was a good walker, but he really showed his stuff today. He walked up and down hills through mud that pulled at you. He definitely gets my vote for best walker of the day.
This is just to give you an idea of what we were dealing with. And amidst the mucky mud were incredible amounts of sheep poop. At one point, Luke said, "I've never seen so much poop in all my life."
The guys waiting for me to catch up. I was least prepared with shoes that kept coming off and getting stuck in the mud.

Saturday walk

We set out for Lechlade, a small town on the Thames and enjoyed a nice walk. But it was a little muddy and we weren't so prepared for that so we headed out in search of something less muddy---tea and scones.
Lechlade had plenty of pubs but no where for 'proper' tea and scones, so we went to Burford which was sort of on the way back to Oxford anyway. We went to a very nice, formal hotel and we sat nervously with the boys hoping against all odds that they'd be quiet and still. They were perfect!! In the end, Luke drank down some ginger ale and Caleb nibbled on rice cakes from my stash of snacks. It was heavenly!

This is a picture of our car in the Burford parking lot that is beginning to flood. Funny that it hasn't flooded in this area (Oxford included) in something like 100 years and it did this summer and now is about to again.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was a nice day.....playing with the boys, hanging out with the ole hubs, and of course, eating chocolate cake.
Caleb also loved the chocolate cake.

Here's to 32 being a great year!

Our safari

So, it's rained everyday for MANY, MANY days and I get desperate for new activities! :)

Bubbles in the cold

Thanks to Sweetie and Abbey for this great fun with the bubbles. It's becoming an almost-daily tradition. We just re-locate on the "deck" when it's raining.

Ringing in the New Year......

Caleb had a blast at the Summertown House New Year's party.
The boys hanging out and playing with new toys.
Their favorite past time.....bath time together. Luke is laughing at Caleb's wild hair.