Some more random shots.....

August has (so far) been a totally chaotic month and so, here are some more totally random shots.

The boys' room with their Red Sox pictures up (thanks, Mary!).

Riding in the tractor with Uncle Ray.....what a treat!!
Happy after a night of playing at the farm...
Monday, August 11: Ready and waiting for the bike ride (thanks Mollie & Brian for the awesome trailer!) to their FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! (Well, first day here. Luke went 2 hours each day in Oxford. It hadn't occurred to us that he'd expect to see his old school buddies at this school, but he was quite disappointed when I picked him up about the fact that Bradley and Emily weren't in his class. Poor kid! Caleb, however, was Mr. Happy. He loved being with the other kids and new toys.)

Some random pics.....

So this isn't the greatest picture in the world, but it really reminds me of one I know I've seen of my 2 brothers and me from probably 25 years ago. Here our little guys are at 7 AM waiting for us to load up the car so we can head for the lake to play with Cousin Reese, Aunt JoAnna, and Uncle Bert. They're eating car-shaped muffins for breakfast, by the way, which are so much fun!!
Playing soccer in the heat. This is a super zoomed up shot---I was really far away in the only shade I could find and still, I was sweating about as much as these handsome fellas.
Caleb enjoyed the soccer almost as much as the Capri Suns. His favorite thing about the Capri Suns, however, was finishing them and throwing them in the trash can.

Luke at Vacation Bible School

So, it's very funny that 2 of my closest friends ended up being Luke's teachers at VBS this past week. Good that I got to hear all the silly stories of how he kept them entertained.....like his comment that "Scripture is found on the roof or in a mouse hole." This is a VERY short clip.....3 seconds, however, is enough to get a sense of the chaos endured by the 150 or so volunteers it took to put this thing on.

Our latest super-hero.....

For those friends in Oxford who saw Luke the last month of his life there, you will recognize this Spiderman costume which he wore virtually every day. (Our postman even commented one day on how many days in a row Luke wore it!) There is no way in the world Luke would have EVER let ANYONE touch this costume. And now, we have a new friend.....who is older and wiser. There is a little bit of worshipping going on here.....which is fine with us. It is so nice to watch our boys modelling and following around an older boy like this.

Much to celebrate.....

July 22 is a celebrated day around here. We went out to eat (to Cafe Dupont) on Friday night for our 8th anniversary.....in fact, we had the whole weekend to celebrate. We saw THE DARK KNIGHT on Saturday night, which was really good but a few too many explosion scenes away from being great. JoAnna & Bert took their favorite nephews for both Friday and Saturday nights. We had a glorious time waking up to a QUIET house and reading until 9 AM......it was AMAZING!! And, to top it all off, we were excited to get our children back on Sunday morning.
July 22 is also Nanny's birthday. We were happy to get to celebrate #92 with her today!

Weekend at the lake

We went up to Lake Pickwick with some friends this past weekend and had a great time. Here are 6 of the 9 kids in our motley crew. I realized it was really quiet the first morning we were there and headed off to my boys' room to find them all on the top bunk.
Sun screen on, life jackets on, and ready to go....
Like father, like son.....
Caleb was the deck hand all weekend. He wasn't too fond of the water, but he had a great time sweeping the deck and trying on everyone's sun glasses.
Luke LOVED the water. He and Chris even rode on the inner tube behind the boat (and Chris fell off, but Luke held on!). :)

Visit with Christina and Mat

We met some new friends today through our favorite Bostonian, Mary. For those who don't remember, we met Mary and her family on an airplane from Ireland to the US almost 7 years ago. To Mary's credit, we have kept in touch over the years. She introduced us to Christina and Mat who recently moved to London.
We had a great time walking around Oxford with Christina, Mat, and their adorable twins. Here they are in front of Tom Tower at Christ Church College.