Let the games begin!! London 2012

In the Olympic spirit, the girls' project at their first art class was to make Olympic posters.

The truth about roosters

I've always thought, thanks to the nice little storybooks, that roosters crowed at the break of day and then were done for the day.

I have come to the sad realization that that is not the case.  They crow all.day.long. and some, like the neighbor's, don't even wait for daybreak.

Frog living his dream

Training to become a Prince Airman.

 Sweetness wanted to know why he has to roll in the mud.  "Why can't he just walk through it?" She wants to know...and then added her feeling on the matter with a resounding "Yuck!"

The Three Musketeers.. Frog and his roommates

Happy Father's Day to Pop-pop!

Poor MWC missed out on our little celebration....and his very own crown.  

Another day at Longwood Gardens

Where once again the water lilies were my favorite..

Sweetness liked them too!

 But even more beautiful than the water lilies........

A day at Dutch Wonderland

First ride we did was the merry go round...

We could all right that one together.

Enjoying our picnic lunch

Favorite ride of all..I think they rode it 5 or 6 times. I did it twice.

Sunshine braved the bumper cars on her own...MWCis going to have to work with her if she's ever gonna try it again!

Sunshine and Sweetness learned to Crochet

Can't be at Mom-mom's and that huge stash of yarn she's got and not get a creative urge to do something with it.  We've got enough chains to connect to reach from her house to ours now I think!

A Day in DC

Senator Ben Cardin invited his appointees to the service academies for a tour of the Capitol and a photo op. We made a day of it and went down on the Metro and met Frog who gave us an informative tour of the Air and Space Museum before we headed over to the Capitol.

Spent LOTS of time in the pool

Had to get our fill of hot summer weather activities. We arrived in England to flannel sheets and nighties, in spite of its being July!

And the girls got light up flip flops for a little night time swimming!

Sunshine's Special Day

MWC was already in England on Sunshine's Special Day so he sent roses and a bear.

We spent time with dear friends

Frog graduated from high school!

Finally!!

58 days after packing it all up and shipping it all off, today is the day our household goods arrive!!

As I plan to be very busy putting my house in order...with the goal of having it done by my birthday next week so MWC can take the day off and we can do something fun, I'll be scheduling and posting highlights of our extended vacation with my parents as we awaited our Visas to join MWC here.

Anyone care to take me on in a little game of Where's Waldo?

Actually I think I'd fail miserably at Where's Waldo, however when the game in Find Frog in a sea of buzzcuts and ABU's, I definitely have the advantage of the mother's eye. Can you find him in this photo?

Webguy is an awesome blog where thousands of photos of summer training at USAFA are posted daily. For a membership fee, I can feed my addiction of Frog stalking for an hour or more daily.

It'll be hard when our household goods arrive and I have to choose between my addiction and putting the house in order.  Maybe I should thank customs for their delay!

Coolest carnival ride ever

So in spite of telling our kids for years, "do not put a plastic bag over your head!", we put the girls completely inside of plastic balls and watched them go.  They had so much fun they begged to do it again, over any other carnival ride on site. I hear that some amusement place in Ecuador has a similar ride with bigger balls for adults...I may just have to plan a trip.

Proud Mama Moment

While perusing thousands, yes literally thousands, of photos of USAFA cadet training daily, Sunshine approached me one morning as I found a photo of Frog.

Mommy, why is here wearing Daddy's uniform?

He's not sweetie, he's wearing his OWN!!

And so this chapter begins

I knew it had been a while since I blogged but 6 weeks??  Had no idea.  I guess time flies when you are having fun...or living in limbo...or just when you are in denial about how out of control you are of your life and have nothing creative to say about it.

In any case, we are all now settled in our various new "homes".  After a month at my parents, the girls and I finally received our visas and were able to fly to England to join MWC.  Just two days after we arrived, a very jet lagged me got to meet MWCs coworkers and take a little bus trip to London for a reception for the US and UK Armed Forces association.

On the 4th of July, the 4 of us watched the Red Arrows. the RAF's version of The Thunderbirds, during a special 4th of July celebration on base.

photo taken by Webguy at USAFA

And Frog made it to the USAFA, got off the bus, and began his summer training for his appointment to the Academy.  I returned from our reception in London to find this photo posted on my FB wall. A friend had seen it on the Academy's page and shared it on my wall.

Unfortunately, I do not have photos of Clone and Swan in their new homes but I do know they are both happy and doing well.  In less than 3 short weeks, I will have photos of Swan as she is coming to visit!