How can we get more flies in our house?

I had a wonderful (U.S.) Mother's Day last weekend. We originally thought about going to London to a market and the Tate, but opted for an afternoon at Wakehurst Place. We walked through their gardens and forests, by lakes, waterfalls and streams. The boys flew their homemade kites. It was gorgeous.

the tail end of the Bluebells 

Worker Bee

Owen bought a Venus Fly Trap seed to plant, which he quickly got up to when we returned. He is documenting its growth day by day. Thus far the photos are of just soil, but one day it will be a plant and when it is he is preparing to feed it...wondering how to attract more flies in.

FBF - May 2010

Shore fishing at Lake Nokomis. Owen is 6, Walter is almost 3.

FBF - May 2012

We were able to celebrate my dad's 60th with him a few years ago. A few days ago, he turned 62...officially retirement age! He spent his 62nd birthday flying to Kauai with my mom. When he returns he'll have a few weeks of work until he acts his age and retires! Exciting times for sure. So today's flashback is a belated Happy Birthday to my dad. Love you!

I'm COLD!

Summer is certainly in the air here in Brighton. We've been lingering at the sea on Fridays after collecting the boys from their swimming lessons (indoor, that is), Owen's cricket has moved from the gymnasium to outside at the cricket grounds, and perhaps most noticeably of all, we have been hitting up the skate park again!

We are in the midst of sprucing up the boys' scooters with new wheels and grips and a little WD40 to make their bearings faster and of course have been in need of trying them out. We went yesterday (a bank holiday - aka day off!) and found ourselves there again today. Today we were joined by a few school friends which eventually ended with a dip in the wading pool. Though it is feeling like summer, the temperature is not quite there and the wind by the sea had me feeling a bit chilled so I wasn't surprised to hear the boys telling me 'I'm COLD!' with chattering teeth when they came out of the water. We hopped in the warm car in a hurry and, once we were home, they promptly showered and were in their PJ's before I had time to get my shoes off. A taste of all the good to come of the season...oh I do love summer.

O catching some air. 

Ohhh Oh! Domino...

Earlier in the week, Great Grandma Donna sent Owen and Walter an email with a link to an online video of homemade chain reactions. After watching the video 100 times, Owen built his own version.  Enjoy!

FBF - May 2008

Tonight was Owen's first outdoor session of cricket! I'm calling it summer. In honor of it, today's flashback is from Owen's second session of t-ball.

O's 1st fan

Summit fever.

After our time in beautiful Edinburgh, we made our way north a bit to Crieff. We stayed on a wonderful resort in a house - perfect for avoiding getting tired of eating out all the time while still having access to the all important pool. We had a great time exploring the start of the Highlands, driving, walking and even nearly summiting our first mountain, Ben Chonzie...where Owen and Jer climbed so high they found snow. Walter and I nearly made it, but Owen was kind enough to bring his brother a snow ball. They were so excited to see snow! (The first of this year...not to rub it in MN family and friends!)

National Wallace Monument 

stopping for a picnic on our climb of Ben Chonzie

SNOW!

at the Famous Grouse Scotch tour

barrels of Scotch

the Falls of Dochart 

little lambs overlooking Loch Tay

the view from our house

Lad's Weekend

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Scotland. We left on Good Friday, which is a holiday here, so most of the UK was off work. We had been looking forward to a nice relaxing train ride up and had all sorts of games, activities and books packed. Our train from Brighton was uneventful and we stopped at Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross before heading to our own platform. When we got to the train, we found the train heaving with people...and a group of young men in our reserved seats. They kindly abandoned them for us but had to stand in the aisle as the train was quite overbooked. They turned out to be with a group of 10 dudes in total, all ready for a rowdy weekend away...a 'lad's weekend'. At first I found them to be quite amusing, laughing and being nice and loud. But after a stop in York when they were able to secure a few seats, they decided to blast their techno music and crack open a few more beers...let's just say I wasn't sad to see them get off in Newcastle. Oh dear, it was certainly a memorable way to kick off our holiday and we thought and laughed about the lad's weekend quite a bit during our time away.

We started our trip in Edinburgh where we spent our days exploring the city and swimming in the pool. It is an absolutely gorgeous city full of really welcoming people...and we somehow lucked out and had beautiful, sunny weather! We decided their accent is a bit Yooper so I felt completely at home!

The lines to get into the castle were enormous on the day we went, so we opted to simply view it from all angles of the city. Instead, we headed to Edinburgh's Camera Obscura and World of Illusions which ended up being a total hit...especially since the Easter Bunny had just brought the boys each a book on illusions. Good, good times indeed.

dinner is served

honey, I've shrunk the children...

 And the best photos yet...if the Hipps crew were primates...