Dress up day at school

On Monday of this week, Luke came home very excited saying that Thursday was "dress up day." It's National Book Week in England so all children everywhere (apparently) dress up at some point this week as their favorite character from a book. Now, Luke is a book worm---loved by librarians from Crozet, VA all the way to Oxford, England and has "read" at least a million books (or so it seems to me) and who did he have to dress up as? Batman, of course!

So, here we are Monday afternoon trying on the suit to see if it's up to the standard of wearing out and to school. As you can see, it needed some work----that's tape keeping the chest part connected to the cape part.
Caleb, of course, had to join in the fun.
After some of this domestic goddess's finesse, the costume was ready (see how proud I am of having gotten out a needle and thread?! Imagine if I actually ironed something!!). Here's Luke (very tired) at the end of the nursery day with his teacher, Elaine, aka Peter Pan.
Luke and Luka (a neighbor and classmate from Japan) who are very happy their names are so similar.
Luke and Emily, aka Cinderella. Her dad and I got a good laugh about just how tired and out of it these 2 were.....it was like the let down at the end of prom. I don't know about Emily, but Luke had been up since 5 AM talking about getting his costume on and getting to school for the big "dress up day." He took a nice hour and a half nap once we got home! What a big day!!

I would've liked to get some pictures of Luke with the other boys but I couldn't corral them. There were at least 3 Batmen that I saw, 1 Spiderman, a pirate, a vampire, and a power ranger.

Cheering for the Homewood Basketball team

We might have made history today.......I imagine we are the first residents in England who have ever cheered on Homewood High School's basketball team (our alma mater, for those who may not know) as they played in the final four tournament. Wow. What a game it was too! They were down by 11 points or so with 6 minutes to go when their top player fouled out. We thought all was lost, but they all stepped it up and won the game. What an exciting game! And what great coaching too---way to go, Rick!

Dance party USA

The Barnett boys dancing cheek to cheek.
My husband prides himself on having not been in a fraternity, but somehow he still managed to learn how to dance with a babe in one arm and a beer in the other.
Luke really breaking it down. This is just after the splits.

Picnic on a beautiful day

Here's Philip, Luke, and Sam (left to right) and Sam's mom, Emma. The truly amazing thing about living in a place where the weather is absolutely horrible is that you appreciate the nice days. I remember this being true in Chicago. The first day that warm weather hit after the long, cold winter----everyone was outside and soaking up the sun. Today was that day for us here. It was gorgeous (not warm by any means, but very sunny!)! Dana (Philip's mom), Emma, and I picked up the boys and headed to the park with food for us and the ducks. It was a great day out!

Big Boy Saturday hikes

As is our new tradition around here, the "big guys" (Chris and Luke) went for a hike this morning. I dropped them off at C.S. Lewis' old house (named Narnia, by the way. It's very common for houses to have name plates and his house is named Narnia.) and they walked along the public footpath behind it.
Apparently, this is an old war bunker (now covered in modern day graffiti) that Lewis had in mind when he wrote the bit about the bunker in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Luke and Chris had a wonderful time; and Luke even said that his big boy hikes are the best time of the whole week. He loves his daddy!

Batman Jr.

We've been battling tummy bugs around here and so we've been stuck inside for a few days. We all have felt so sorry for Caleb especially that Luke was even happy to share the coveted Batman costume with him.......but only for a minute. Caleb didn't much like the chest and cape anyway. But he loves to say, "Bat-boo."

A fun day with Kaye and family

Luke, Caleb, and I drove up to see Kaye, Tim, Ella, and Zac in Bletchley today. We had such a wonderful time. Here are Caleb and Zac waiting for me to turn around so they can try to manuever the gate and sneak upstairs with the "big kids."
Kaye is so fit and trim----she and Luke were a good, even match on the seasaw!
Ella hanging out after getting dizzy.
Caleb, the swinger.

It was great fun catching up, eating lunch, and thinking about how we've become such "good, old friends" in just 2 very quick years. Kaye is the one and only person in the world who has ever seen me attempt aerobics as an adult-----she will be a friend for life after such an event that left us both crying from laughter.