The National Cathedral

We all got ready for church early on Sunday, and thought we'd take a trip down to the DC Temple Visitors Center before our 1:00pm church time.

Well....it was closed!

This was the first time I had seen it close before! Even when the Temple is closed, the Visitors Center is always open! But not this day!

So, we shifted gears, and decided to stop by the National Cathedral instead. We've wanted to come see it for some time now, and here was the perfect opportunity.

It was a beautiful building, and we enjoyed seeing it so much.

Such a nice Sunday morning.

Time Out For Women - Denver!

I got to go out to Denver to attend a Time Out For Women event!

I got to stay with my sister Heather, as well as my good friend, Shelly!

It was a great time, full of laughter and fun!

We got to see Mercy River perform at the conference, and enjoyed talking with them.

I also ran into my friend Becky while there!

We knew each other when we lived in England, and have seen each other here and there over the years. It's always as though no time as passed!

Thanks ladies for such a wonderful and much needed weekend of fun!

Back to School!

School year 2015-2016 started back up!

 Hayden began his Senior year, and started classes at Howard Community College.

He's loving it there. 

After debating/praying about it  all spring and summer...

 Ashlyn and Madelyn went back to public school this year.

They were both very excited about it (especially Madelyn-as this was her first time!).

Ashlyn started 3rd grade, and Madelyn 1st.

This left Ronan (10th grade), Morgan (9th grade), & Duncan (7th grade) homeschooling with me!

Homeschooling three is a much more manageable number for me.

The 4 older ones also started up classes at our co-op SHARP in the fall.

 Ronan is in LOVE with his WWI/WWII history class! He's also taking an Early Modern History class, & Brain Games.

Morgan is enjoying a drawing class most of all. Taking Brian Games & Tole Painting as well.
Hayden shared the exact same schedule as Ronan- WWI/WWII, Early Mod. Hist., & Brain Games.
Duncan is taking Candy Chemistry, Engineering for Fun, & Aviation!

A great start back to school this fall!

Queen Elizabeth II - Longest Reigning Monarch

On September 9, 2015 Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning British Monarch.

Having passed Queen Victoria's previous reign of 63 years 216 days.

This day could not be passed without some kind of observance in our house.

(Ronan has had it marked on the calendar for months.) 

The boys shared there flags.

Hayden's heavy on the Scottish influence.

While Ronan goes for Union Jack through and through.

We also celebrated by eating our favorite 'British' meal.

Yorkshire Puddings, roasted potatoes, and trifle to name a few items.

Long Live the Queen!

Ashlyn turns 8!

This beautiful girl had a birthday!

And we spent the day celebrating.

Starting off with a 'happy' breakfast...

Tradition is that I take the kids out to lunch on their birthday. 

But this year, Ashlyn is back in public school, and enjoying it so much, that she didn't want me to pick her up and take her out to lunch. What?? You DON'T want to miss school???

Who is this?

That night we celebrated with cake and ice cream.

And since she was born on MY birthday, we shared a cake.

It's fun to have a birthday buddy.

Her bedroom door was off, as the hinge needed repairing, so she woke up to her birthday number on the wall just in front of her door. :)

We hosted a birthday party....a Cupcake War's party!

The kids each got a personalized apron, and lots of cupcakes to decorate!

They went straight to work creatively decorating their cupcakes! 

It was hard to pick a 'winner' of the 'war'!

I let them each eat 1 cupcake, then we boxed up the rest for them to take home.

Your welcome parents, for the sugar highs!

It was a good time!

I love celebrating this wonderful girl!

She is creative, talented, kind, helpful, and a joy to have in our family!

Off to Broadway--NYC!

I got to spend the day in New York City with these two handsome boys...

We had a great time on the drive up there, having lunch together,

and seeing the sights.

After lunch our first stop was Times Square, and riding the ferris wheel inside the Toys R Us store!

It's always a good time with these crazies...

The main reason we went to NYC was to see the show Les Miserables.

A few months earlier Hayden saw the new Les Mis movie for the first time, and fell in love with it! The whole house did really. They were singing the songs constantly. 

Hayden read the book, watched every movie version made, and had Pandora on the Les Miserables station constantly! We decided it was time he saw the show on Broadway.

Now, tickets don't come cheap for this show, and Morgan decided she wanted to go to. I told them if they saved up the money for their own tickets, then I would take them to Broadway to see it. They saved up, and I ordered the tickets.

Then, the night before -we went to see a fireside with Hank Smith & Al (Fox) Carraway. We had such a great time, and they were both such AMAZING speakers! AND, the next day (Saturday), they were speaking again at the DC Temple visitor center. Morgan decided that she didn't want to miss them. That was the same day we had tickets to Les Miserables!

"Are you sure you want to go?", I said

"You will miss Les Mis, and loose the money you spent on the ticket."

"I don't care.", she said "I want to see them speak at the temple.

"We won't be going to see the show again any time soon..."

"That's fine, Duncan can have my ticket."

And so, Duncan was the lucky recipient of a ticket to see Les Miserables on Broadway, and Morgan spent the whole day at the Temple Visitor's Center listening to Hank Smith & Al (Fox) Carraway speaking. And they were both happy.

We enjoyed the show, and ended up having really great seats.

Hayden said the hardest part was NOT singing along with the cast!

After the show we had to stop by and get some of Junior's famous cheesecake!

I told the boys we had time to sight see a bit more, but they were both ready to head home.

They weren't much company for the 3 hours drive back...

It was the radio and Coca cola for me!

I had a great time with those boys.