He is risen!

A few pictures from our Easter weekend.

Resurrection Morning

Calvary and tomb all in one with our pipe cleaner people. We made this all last year from Noel Piper's book, Teaching God in Our Traditions. You can keep your people and all you have to do is make your mountain every year. I dropped the ball this year and we didn't break it out on Palm Sunday, but we made it for Good Friday and had a good time re-inacting the story. Hudson was bummed when Monday rolled around and we didn't keep acting it out. I'm glad they enjoy it, although they get a little too excited about the soldiers with their spears and swords. That's boys for you!

This is our egg hunt. No plastic eggs in England so we used little foil wrapped chocolates. The boys LOVE chocolate, and they had a good time. Nate was more concerned about the spiders and bugs, but had fun none the less.

Recovering patient

According to Mark, Nathanael's thumb is healing up nicely. I still have a hard time looking at it even though it's not half as bad as it was. We have an appointment on the 9th of May for hopefully the last check-up. Mark has to clean it every couple of days, but so far so good!

The Zoo Farm Again

Since Mark wasn't able to come with us the last time we went, the boys convinced him that Noah's Ark Zoo Farm is a must see. We went back as a family last Saturday and really enjoyed the day. It was one of the warmest we've had, mid 70's, almost hot for here!

I've decided though that unless the camera is around my neck, I miss some of the best shots and don't even realize it until it's way too late. I didn't take the big camera this time and therefore didn't take a many pics as I should have. I guess that's the good thing about pictures. In the end, you only remember the things you have pictures of, not the things you don't! So give me a few months and I won't even remember that I missed anything, right?! :)

We found an inside playground that we didn't see the last time we came. It had some really great stuff... lots of super fun slides, a maze, trampoline, a track for the kids to drive pedal powered tractors around, and obsticle course type play. Mark even had a good time playing. One of the slides was a 16 ft. tall quarter-pipe. He was the only one brave enough to try it. But alas, you'll just have to believe me when I say it was fun!

Hudson sliding.

A Scottish Highlander.

Elliot the zebra.

Mark liked the lions. They were pretty ferocious. I think they for sure would have eaten the handler had the fence not been there. He was feeding them bits of pork so they'd come up to the fence, but it wasn't fast enough for them and they kept snarling and growling at him.

The boys did this last time, but wanted to show Mark that they could "milk the cow." Nate was more concerned about how big it's tail was. Obviously not a real cow.

Sunday Stroll

We got together with two families last Sunday for a BBQ and a walk. The weather was lovely, and we enjoyed a relaxing but refreshing afternoon stroll. These are some pictures of our journey.

Liberty

Elliot, Matilda and Claire

Mark playing games with the kids.

All the kids loved the dandelions or blowing them to bits that is.

Elliot and Joshua

Prior Park Landscape Garden

This is Prior Park, a National Trust just outside of Bath. This is one of only four Palladian bridges of this design in the world. Built in the 18th century. We really enjoyed the hike down to the bridge and back up again. Amazing views of Bath and tons of beautiful trees.

Really old graffiti... 1782 and 1809.

Anyone know what these are?

Tyntesfield

We visited Tyntesfield (a National Trust) last week. It was a perfect day, absolutely beautiful weather. We unexpectedly ran into some friends we've met through the homeschool group we're apart of so the boys especially had fun playing with the other kids. The house was amazing and the grounds were really pretty... wide open spaces, great views, gorgeous gardens. It's a vast property, and we didn't make through all of it so we'll have to go back for sure.

The rapeseed fields are everywhere.

Ginormous rose bushes.

The NT is in the process of building a play area for children on the grounds. It's got a long way to go from being finished, but the kids had a blast pretending.

They had boxes for children in some of the rooms to put on things people might be wearing in the particular rooms.

This was a huge house, all these bells in different rooms for servants to be rung.

This was the biggest hat/cane/umbrella/coat rack I've ever seen.

The library, our favorite of course.

The house has it's own on grounds chapel, which is quite common for these big estates.

Every time we see a grassy hill, Nathanael wants to roll down. He's got a long way to go before he figures it out on his own, but he sure has a good time trying!