Catch Up Time- Hairbows, Warm Weather, Easter, London, and Crawling

Boy, oh boy, it has been awhile since I have updated the blog! In an effort to make our last month of happenings more organized, I will break them down into sections. Here goes...

HAIRBOWS:
I have to admit, I have gotten a little carried away with making hairbows for Riley. Thanks to Pinterest, I have made bows out of Cannon's old t-shirts (yes, it is true), buttons, and lace. It has been a lot of fun, easy, and super addicting! I also made a bow board to hold all of Riley's bows and headbands. I think I am done making bows for now, mostly because I have filled up the bow board in Riley's room. :)






WARM WEATHER:
Ahhh spring time! Side walk chalk, bubbles, looking for bugs, and eating lunch outside is what we have been up to since the weather has gotten warmer. Oh how we love the spring!






EASTER:
We had a nice Easter this year. The only difference this year was the Easter bunny's last minute gift purchasing. I like to get the kids one bigger item for their Easter basket, in addition to candy and smaller items. However, this year, I forgot to ask Cannon in advance what he would like that bigger item to be. Cannon told us he wanted Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, and the crocodile, from the Disney movie, "Peter Pan". Since I couldn't find these toys locally, I found them online in a set, thank goodness! As a result, I spent more on shipping than on the actual gift, in order for it to come on time for Easter. I will hopefully be better at this next year!

Aside from Easter baskets, egg hunts, and the bunny himself, we attempted to teach Cannon about why we celebrate the holiday. And, surprisingly, Cannon was able to retell most of the details of the resurrection, with a little help from us. Cannon can tell you that "Jesus is nice, He loves everyone, He is happy when we are nice, He died and came back to life in three days, and that we can be with Him again someday if we are nice too".













LONDON:
Blaine and I took a little trip to London last week, thanks to Blaine meeting his work goals last year and his company taking us on an all paid vacation! Blaine's mom flew down to watch the kids for us so we could go enjoy all that London had to offer. Even though I had been there before with my family, nine years ago to be exact, London seemed new. There is so much to see and do there. Pictures do not do the agriculture of the city justice. It amazed us at how old the buildings were and made us realize that we live in a very new country, compared to that of England and other European countries. During the four or five days we were in London, we enjoyed taking a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London, seeing a broadway show ("Jersey Boys"), watching a professional soccer game (Chelsea FC vs. Tottenham), getting dressed up for a black tie dinner and award night, and exploring the city by foot, bus, and subway. We had a fun trip, but, like always, were happy to come back home and were very anxious to see our kiddos!
Entrance into the city of London-

Tower of London-





Apparently, at the Tower of London, there ALWAYS has to be at least SIX ravens on the premises. If not, the people believe that the monarchy will fall apart. So, in order to prevent this from happening, eight ravens were placed at the Tower and their wings were clipped, just in case some get away and the monarchy dies as a result. This was their home-

Also, at the Tower of London, there was a small statue, or monument, if you will, of where many people were beheaded. I thought it was interesting that there was a pillow on top of the marble stone, suggesting that this was a comforting event to behold.-

This building, once finished, will be the tallest building in London. It is made mostly of glass.-

St. Paul's Cathedral (took 35 yrs to build...not very long for its time)-


Buckingham Palace (where the Queen lives). Blaine imagined the palace to be more glamorous than what it actually was. I have to agree with him on that. Compared to the other castles in the neighborhood, this one was not as stunning.-


Westminster Abbey-




Big Ben/Parliament building-




The London Eye (this ferris wheel takes 30 minutes to ride...sadly, we ran out of time to ride it)-

Had to get a picture of the famous London phone booth-

One of the many free museums and a random street-


Fancy black tie dinner night. There is just something about a man in a tux!-



Chelsea FC vs. Tottenham soccer match. Go Chelsea!-





We had great "business" seats. We ate dinner before the game inside these glass doors and came outside to watch the game.-


CRAWLING:
Yes, we have a crawler on our hands. Little miss Riley bugs started crawling yesterday and we are so happy she waited until we got back from our London trip to start moving!