Valentines for School

This year with all the boys in school, we had three Valentine’s Day parties that required Valentine cards (totaling 56 cards).  We decided to go for it and make our own.  Done

We started with party horns that I purchased at our local dollar store for $1 a dozen.  Squawkers Squawkers2

On the computer, I made some heart shapes with the slogan, “Valentine, you blow me away.”  We printed them out on card stock.  Sheet of Valentines

Then the boys cut out the hearts.  Joey Cuts

Tommy Cuts

Sam Cuts

Then they addressed and signed their hearts. Addressing

It's important to clip your pen to your shirt when you are not using it.

It’s important to clip your pen to your shirt when you are not using it.

Sam Signs

Ready for Glue

Next we glued the party horns onto the back of the hearts.  We first tried school glue, but I wasn’t satisfied with how well the horns stayed on with that type of glue.  I ended up re-gluing all of them with a hot glue gun.

I don't recommend using white school glue for this.

I don’t recommend using white school glue for this.

Use a hot glue gun to affix the party horn to the back of the heart.  It holds MUCH better than white glue.

Use a hot glue gun to affix the party horn to the back of the heart. It holds MUCH better than white glue.

Placing Positioning

That’s it!  It was a pretty simple project that well all enjoyed doing. All Done

Joey's Valentines

We all thought they came out well.  I imagine that the teachers weren’t thrilled with how noisy they were, but I’m sure the children enjoyed them!  Finished Finished2 Done2

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Pumpkin Four Ways

As with many families, Halloween is a much anticipated time for our boys.  This year we really celebrated the pumpkin.  My mother (a.k.a. Memere) always grows pumpkins to share, and she outdid herself this year by producing gigantic ones.  Paul typically is in charge of pumpkin carving at our house (yay!), so he and the guys got down to business right before Halloween.  

We were all impressed with the results of the carving efforts.  Check out the extra decorations on Sam’s jack 0 lantern!  We all thought that his was the scariest.

From left to right, pumpkins carved by Joey, Tommy, Sammy, and Paul.

We always save the seeds from our jack o lanterns to make toasted pumpkins seeds.  After separating the seeds from the “guts” and washing them well, they were ready for the toasting process.  The big pumpkins yielded equally large seeds which was fun.  The first step was to parboil them in salted water. After boiling for about 10 minutes, the seeds were drained, dried, placed on a baking sheet, and baked in the oven.  I stirred them every few minutes during toasting to ensure even browning.  After 35 mintutes or so (I think these big seeds took a longer time than smaller ones to cook), they were golden brown and ready to take out of the oven.  

The seeds were perfectly crispy, salty, and toasty.  The recipe/method for the seeds can be found here if you are interested.

Just to liven things up a little, I decided to try my hand a candying some of the pumpkins seeds.  It seems like this should be harder than it really is, and I can’t believe I haven’t been doing this every year.  It only requires two ingredients:  toasted pumpkin seeds and sugar!  

I started by heating the pumpkin seeds in a pan.  

When they were super hot and starting to get a bit more toasted, I poured in the sugar.  Working quickly, I mixed the sugar with the seeds as it started to melt and caramelize.  When the sugar was golden brown and completely coating the seeds, I dumped them onto a cookie sheet.  

After cooling down, I was able to break up any big clumps of seeds.  I love the combination of salty and sweet and these really hit the mark.  The rest of the family agreed, too!   You can find the recipe here if you are interested.  

Our fourth and final iteration of the pumpkin theme was provided by Tommy.  His choice for a Halloween costume this year was a pumpkin!  I’m thinking that this may be the last year of “cute” costumes for Tommy, so I didn’t hold back on the cuteness factor when putting together this costume.  The best sewing pattern I could find only came in toddler sizes, but I was easily able to adapt it to fit Tom.  

Sam’s costume changed many times before he finally settled on what he was going to be.  For a long time he was going to be “Sam I Am” from Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, but while shopping one day we found a firefighter costume that we both fell in love with.  So, for a while he was going to be a firefighter.  Then, I made the mistake of taking out the box of dress-up clothes that also contains old Halloween costumes.  Once he saw last year’s costume he was determined that he would once again be a furry, red, scary, monster.  And so he was.  

Joey dressed up as  “Mad Scientist” who had just experienced an explosion in his lab.  It seemed like an appropriate costume for Joe, and he loved the idea.  

This year’s Halloween was a beautiful evening for trick or treating.  The boys all looked great and had a good time.  Sam was adorable.  I think he ran the whole night!  He was determined to keep up with his brothers and very dedicated to the task of gathering candy.  

All in all it was a successful Halloween and celebration of the pumpkin!

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Roasted Applesauce

Every year we all look forward to going apple picking at a local orchard.  This fall we tried Terison’s Orchard in Cumberland, Maine.  Apparently they use pesticide sprays minimally, and that sounded good to us!  

We picked a whole bushel of Macintosh and Cortland apples.  That’s a LOT of apples, but we had plans in store for them.  

Aside simply eating them, applesauce was top on the list of uses for our harvest.  This year I decided to spice things up a little bit and try making a roasted applesauce.  As always, I was ably assisted by my sous chefs.  

First we washed then quartered and cored a bunch of apples.  We ended up with with 7 pounds of prepared fruit.  

Next we made mixture of maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  This yummy concoction was tossed with the apples.

The apples were then placed on baking pans and roasted in the oven (at 400 degrees) for about 40 minutes.  The smell was heavenly.  

At this point, I could have processed the apples in a food mill to separate the skin from the apples.  Because I’m a lazy cook and I liked the idea of keeping the skins, our apples went directly from the roasting pan to the cooking pot (being careful to save all the juices and syrup created in the oven).  I just took the immersion blender and whirred up the apples skin and all.  The resulting sauce was amazingly think and a gorgeous color.  I added apple cider to thin it to our desired consistency (4 cups or so).  The final addition was 1/2 cup of lemon juice. I decided to can mine in mason jars, but you certainly could freeze it as well.

Look at that color!

Paul thinks the applesauce is too thick.  I suspect the inclusion of the skins has a lot to do with this.  Maybe next time I’ll try removing the skin, but I kind of like the extra thickness and texture the skins provide, so I’m not sure.

This applesauce is lovely mixed with yogurt.

Click here for the recipe for Roasted Applesauce.

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Olympic Fever

This is (probably) my last post about our England adventure.  It was a fantastic year to be there with first the Queen’s Jubilee celebration and then the Olympics.  We were absolutely delighted to be a part of the Olympic excitement.  For a long time it seemed that there really wasn’t much happening regarding the Olympics (no hype, no preparations), but as the date of the Olympics grew closer there were signs of Olympic fever everywhere.  It was a huge thrill to see the Olympic rings go up on nearby Box Hill (host to multiple laps of the cycling road race) and watch our little town get decked out for the race.

We went up to Box Hill for a picnic at the foot of the Olympic rings. How cool is that?

The Olympic Rings on Box Hill are visible in the distance from this park (the Cotmandene) in Dorking.

We could also (just barely) see the rings on Box Hill from our favorite lookout spot in the Nower (a lovely wooded park near our house).

A new bicycle sculpture went up in a roundabout on the road from Dorking to Box Hill, and our own “Dorking Cockeral” sported a huge Olympic Gold medal.  On July 20, the Olympic Torch Relay passed through Dorking.  This was also Joe and Tom’s last day of school in England, so spirits were high as we walked into town to see the torch.

Sam waits for the Torch, ready to wave his flag and cheer.

Here it comes!

We watched the Opening Ceremony from the comfort of our couch and then got up the next day to head into Dorking to watch the men’s cycling road race as they passed through town on their way to Box Hill and beyond.

Heading out to watch the cycle race. Go Team USA! Go Team GB!

We found a straight stretch of the road a bit outside of Dorking center to watch the race.  Lots of fans were lining the road and it was a fun, friendly, and festive atmosphere.

From our viewing spot, we could just make out the Olympic rings on Box Hill in the distance.

The lead group zips by. The second biker in this picture is from Team USA.

Here comes the peloton.

That’s Bradley Wiggins of Team GB leading the peloton as they raced by us.

Blink and you’ll miss it.  Those cyclists are fast!  After everyone whizzed past us, we walked into the town center where there were big screen TVs set up in a park with a live feed of the race.  

It was quite an experience to watch the race live on the huge TV screens while simultaneously being able to look behind us at Box Hill and know the athletes were right there racing!

Big screens at Meadowbank park. Sam doesn’t look thrilled.

View across the park to Box Hill in the distance.

The boys were more interested in the playground than in watching the race.

The women’s cycle race was the next day, and sadly the weather was not on their side.  This time we decided to watch the race from right in downtown Dorking, drizzle and all.

It was interesting to see the Dorking High Street decked out for the race with barriers and road decals.

The women were all in one pack – unlike the men’s race which had a lead group and then the peloton – so the race zipped by even more quickly than the day before.    

You can see some Team USA racers in this shot.

After the racers came the many support vehicles.

We initially had thought that the only Olympic event we would see in person would be  the cycling races in Dorking, but when we learned that there were still lots of soccer tickets left we decided to look into seeing a match.  Paul found us tickets to a game up north in Newcastle Upon Tyne that we could attend as part of our Yorkshire vacation week.   When we bought the tickets, we didn’t know which teams would be playing.  We knew there was a chance it could be Team USA or Team GB (or maybe both!), but it would all depend on how the games leading up to our match turned out.  We were very fortunate that the teams for our match ended up being USA vs New Zealand.  

None of us know a whole lot about football/soccer, but the game was exciting and fast moving nonetheless.  It probably helped that the US team dominated the game!  There were a lot of other Americans in the stadium cheering along with us which was kind of fun.

The teams line up as the game is about to start.

Team USA celebrates after scoring a goal.

Final score: USA 2, New Zealand 0.

We watched the rest of the Olympics on TV every night, and seeing the coverage from a British rather than US perspective was definitely an interesting change.  It was an incredible highlight of our time in England to have been able to experience the Olympics in person!

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Yorkshire Part 2

Our next day in Yorkshire was spent in the town of York.  We drove to a park and ride lot and took a shuttle bus into the city, much to the delight of Tommy.  He was absolutely thrilled with the big articulated bus!  

Our first stop was the National Railway Museum (reportedly the largest railroad museum in the world).  The railroad buffs of our group loved this place.  It’s huge and full of railroad engines, cars, and railway memorabilia.  I was impressed with how many trains looked like ones from Thomas the Tank Engine – that’s about the extent of my railroad knowledge!

There were even some Harry Potter items:  The Hogwarts Express and a Platform 9 3/4 sign.  

We attended a show at the museum on the science of how trains move.  This was fun and interactive, and Joey was even chosen as a volunteer.  We all had a laugh as the presenters joked that Joey and the other children “broke science” as they participated in the demonstration.

“You broke science!”

From the Railway Museum, we headed into the city of York to check out the sights.  We saw the spectacular York Minster and wandered through the streets (doing a little shopping along the way).  

Sam’s feet were absolutely soaked by the end of the day. He simply couldn’t stop himself from walking in the gutters in the streets!

Narrow alleyway in York.

From the moment he heard about The Forbidden Corner – billed as “The Strangest Place in the World” – Joey was determined that we would go there.  This place defies description.  It’s an elaborate garden fantasy world that is part maze and part treasure hunt.  I didn’t take many pictures here.  We were too busy exploring!  

Our next stop was a walk at Aysgarth Falls.  Because of all the rain we had received the falls were raging and the water was a dark tea color.  

Top on Paul’s must-see list for Yorkshire was to visit some of the local breweries (and sample the local beer).  We took a tour and had lunch at The Black Sheep Brewery in Masham.  Then we popped across town to see Theakston Brewery where we bought some beer at the shop.  

Beer at Black Sheep is crafted using a traditional open fermentation method with vessels called Yorkshire Squares. The round fermenters in this picture are the modern version of a Yorkshire Square.

Theakston Brewery

After visiting the breweries we were ready to get back out and explore the Yorkshire countryside.  Our next stop was a visit to Brimham Rocks.  We were all amazed by the fantastic rock formations.  

“Take our picture, Mama!”

The boys discovered many bilberries amongst the rocks. These are similar to blueberries in appearance and taste but are much messier. Here’s what Sam looked like after eating a few!

We spent our last day in Yorkshire relaxing at Newby Hall.  This was another one of the ubiquitous English stately manor homes that have been preserved for the public to enjoy.  This one happens to be privately owned, but many are operated by the National Trust.  We enjoyed exploring the gardens and the children loved the playgrounds and kids’ activities.

The fact that it was NOT that warm did not stop the boys from playing in the water!

These boats were a little hard for Tom to manage on his own, so Mama ended up jumping in to help out!

The boys got to try their hand at sculpting rock.

Yorkshire was a relaxing and beautiful way to end our time in England.  When we returned to Dorking we had a few days to finish packing, wrap up loose ends at work, and enjoy our favorite local haunts one last time.  It was an amazing year.  England will hold a special place in our hearts forever.

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Yorkshire Part 1

We’ve been back in the States for over a month now, but I still have a few more things to share about our England adventure.  For our “last hurrah” trip, we spent a week in the Yorkshire Dales.  We did a good bit of sight-seeing, but we also slowed down our pace and made sure we relaxed as well.

We spent our first night in Leeds where we visited the Royal Armouries:  Britain’s museum of arms and armor.  Some of us found this place very interesting (i.e. all those family members with a Y chromosome).  

From Leeds we drove up to Newcastle upon Tyne because we had tickets to see an Olympic football match – more on that in another post!  After the game, we headed to the little village of Sowerby in North Yorkshire.  We rented a lovely cottage for the week (Wheelhouse Cottage) that was perfect for our family.  There were farm fresh eggs, flowers, and wine waiting for us upon arrival!  

The boys liked playing in the enclosed courtyard. In particular they loved the riding toys left for them to enjoy.

We got an early start the next morning and went into the nearby town of Thirsk whose claim to fame is that it is the home of the veterinarian who wrote the James Herriot stories.  Joey and Paul had been reading the books, and we were all keen to take in The World of James Herriot.  It was very interesting to visit the actual home of the author (which was preserved exactly as it was when the family lived there), see some sets from the TV series, and learn a bit more about the history of the author, books, and TV show.  

Veterinary Dispensary

Future vet?

From the World of James Herriot, we drove to see Fountains Abbey – the amazingly beautiful and dramatic ruins of an ancient abbey (founded in 1132!).  

Yorkshire is beautiful.  We were in awe of some of the gorgeous countryside we witnessed as we explored the county.  Of course, it didn’t hurt that we were incredibly fortunate to have fantastic weather for our trip!  

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July 2012

July was our last full month in England.  We spent the month continuing to explore as much as possible and also marking some momentous milestones, all while battling the unpredictable UK weather.

The big event of July was celebrating Tommy’s 6th birthday!  

Thank you Netley and Uncle Mark! This was by far Tommy’s favorite present: a skid steer loader.

Instead of a birthday party, we planned a day of adventure in London where we visited sights that Tommy wanted to see.  Our first stop was to see the Monument that was erected to commemorate the 1666 fire of London.  Tommy had read about this in one of his books and was keen to climb to the top.  

Looking down the winding staircase in The Monument – Joey is at the bottom looking up.

We were excited to see the Olympic rings hanging from Tower Bridge.

The headliner stop on this London trip was touring the HMS Belfast which is anchored in the Thames near Tower Bridge.  Tommy had spotted this on our first London adventure and had been wanting to go on it ever since.

Here’s the birthday boy with the HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge in the background. This is a better view of the Olympic rings on the bridge.

After spending a long time on the Belfast, we were all pretty wiped out.  We walked across London Bridge to Borough Market for a snack and then headed back to Dorking.  Tommy reported that his birthday trip was, “Fun, fun, fun!”  

At the beginning of the month, we took a day trip to nearby Guildford where we visited Dapdune Warf.  We learned about the history of the canal and river navigations in the area and took a scenic boat ride.  

The boys had a day off from school on a Friday for teacher training, so we took advantage of the opportunity to do a long weekend trip.  We decided to leave the country and journey to…Wales!

Sam planned for a week that he was going to wear his whales shirt for our trip to Wales.

We stopped first at the Big Pit Mining Museum.  It was moving to learn of the difficult lives of the coal miners and their families (especially the child laborers) who worked so hard to fuel the UK’s industrial revolution.  

In the background is part of the winding machinery for the mine shaft elevator.

From the Big Pit we headed to the Brecon Mountain Railway where we took a ride on a narrow gauge steam train.  The scenery was beautiful and we were lucky to have a whole train coach to ourselves.  While talking with one of the men working in the railway’s repair shop, we learned that their caboose is a replica of the one found on Maine’s Sandy River Railroad!  

We spent our next day in Wales at St. Fagan’s National History Museum.  This is a huge open air museum of restored buildings that showcases the history of Welsh culture and architecture.  

This is an old tannery.

We ended our Welsh trip with the perennial family favorite: a castle.  On our final day, we visited the spectacular Caerphilly Castle.  

The guys were all interested in the medieval war machines.

This is what happens when I give the camera to Paul.

The other big milestone that we achieved this month was the completion of the boys’ school year.  Joe and Tom received stellar report cards showing that they are both excellent scholars as well as positive citizens at school.  We are so proud of how well they adjusted to the big change and embraced the adventure of going to school in another country.

Last day of school in England!

Final walk to school.

I know I’ve complained before about the weather here, but it’s been a rough spring and summer even by England standards.  Wet and cold and unpredictable.  Sun one minute, hail the next.  I will NOT miss the English weather when we get back to Maine!

This was a huge storm. The temperature dropped by 20 degrees and we had torrential rain with hail.

Our garden was flooded! Of course, that didn’t stop the boys from going out and playing in it.

By the end of July, the weather seemed to have turned the corner (although I wasn’t holding my breath).  One gorgeous Sunday afternoon we went to the Gomshall Mill where we sat outside in their garden, ate lunch (and some of us also had a beer), and the children enjoyed the play area.  On the way home, we stopped at the village of Abinger Hammer and watched a bit of a cricket game.  The cricket pitch is right next to the River Tillingbourne and families bring their children there to play in the water and catch fish and crabs with nets.  The boys loved this.

The cricketers.

The boys quickly made friends with some children who had nets and buckets.

Little fish!

The “only” other big thing to happen in July was the start of the 2012 Olympics!  I’ll will write all about our Olympic adventures in another post, so stay tuned.

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Everybody Loves the Queen

June 2012 turned out to be a month of ups and downs.  While we had a good bit of fun, we also experienced some sadness due to the death of my grandfather, a.k.a. Pips.  It was a peaceful passing as he was surrounded by his family and lots of love, but it was still sad to say goodbye.  We were able to return to Maine (briefly) to attend the funeral, and we were happy to be with family.  He was an incredible person.  I am glad my children were able to know their great-grandfather.  

February 21, 2009. I love this photo of Tommy and Pips drawing together in the sunshine. Tommy is putting his pencil behind his ear – he must have seen Pips doing this. Such a sweet moment.

In England, the month of June started with a party.  The country was in a festive mood as the Queen celebrated 60 years on the throne, and there were patriotic decorations and Diamond Jubilee parties everywhere.  One traditional event in which we were thrilled to be able to participate was our neighborhood’s Street Party.

The neighborhood sets up the street for the party.

Although our decorating supplies were limited, but we did our best to make our family’s table look festive.  I couldn’t help but add some American Flags – we love the queen too!  I made an eggless version of a traditional dish called Coronation Chicken that was served at the Queen’s coronation.  We got to try the famous Pimm’s cocktail which was strangely both savory and sweet, yet deliciously refreshing.

Nice face, Tom!

For our dessert, I had fun making Diamond Jubilee cupcakes.  They were a hit!  

After everyone had feasted, there were games for the children and adults as people kicked back and enjoyed the afternoon (and dodged a few pesky raindrops).  

Paul joined the cutthroat adult game of musical chairs.
Check out our neighbor who dressed up as the queen! He was hilarious.

Our first day trip of the month was to visit the stately home and castle ruins at Scotney Castle.  

We enjoyed exploring the beautiful house and gardens at Scotney Castle as we discovered a new and exciting hobby for our family: geocaching.  Several of the National Trust properties have geocaches and GPS units that guests can use to try out geocaching.

Our first geocache find!

The cows were not impressed with the crazy geocachers.

The boys were quite impressed by the “treasure” produced by the cows, however.

Are we really that slow?

Now we are hooked on geocaching!  We hunted for caches whenever possible on our adventures during the rest of the month.

Geocaching at Polesden Lacey

Geocaching at Nymans (National Trust house and gardens).
This redwood tree was huge (reportedly the tallest tree in Sussex county).

Fountain in the gardens at Nymans.

When we visited Leeds Castle during the winter, we learned that in the warmer months they host jousting tournaments.  Well, of course there was no way we were going to miss that!  June was the month for the big event.  

Leeds Castle is stunning.

As our time in England grows short, we have realized that we have spent far too little time in pubs!  I suppose the fact that we always have three little boys in tow is largely the reason for that, but this month we did our best to try to rectify our deficit in pub-going.  Our first stop was the little village of Shere.  Because it is terribly quaint and quintessentially “English” it has been featured in a number of movies.  We had lunch at the White Horse (seen in the movie The Holiday) and took a stroll in and around the town.  

We also found what is currently our favorite pub:  The Gomshall Mill.  The place is full of history and ambiance with cozy corners and bits of its old mill history preserved for guests to see.  

Now, don’t be thinking that we have been spending all our free time drinking and eating!  The whole family also has been doing a good bit of running.  Paul and I get out solo whenever we can, and the boys have also been running with us as well.  In fact, I ran a 10k in the trails at nearby Polesden Lacey.  It was fun but also ridiculously muddy and slippery.

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May Flowers

In May the weather finally turned around.  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t perfect but it was WAY better than April.  There were signs of full-on spring everywhere.  

We were thrilled to start the month with a visit from my brother and sister-in-law.  It was so much fun to have them staying with us and they seemed to enjoy exploring the sights of Surrey.  Although the trip was marred a bit by illnesses, I hope they still had a good time overall.  We certainly loved having them here.

Auntie and Uncle Mike with the boys on Box Hill.

When we visited Hampton Court in the winter, we all felt like we wanted to go back when the weather was better in order to enjoy the gardens.  We found a lovely May weekend day to return and explore the grounds.  

The boys donned velvet cloaks to be suitably dressed to present themselves at Court.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, we visited the dramatic chalk cliffs on the southeast coast of England at Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters.  It was an absolutely perfect weather day to visit such a stunning place.  

How the cliffs really were eroded.

Our walk took us along the cliffs and then through pasture land to bring us back to our car at the Visitor’s Center.  True to form for our adventures, Paul composed a rockin’ tune for the boys as we journeyed along:

Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters
Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters
Fighting for justice for all the sheep.

Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters
Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters
Searching for lunch at the Tiger Inn

It was funny at the time.  Not so funny when we had to listen to it at top volume in the car for weeks after the trip!

This way.

Sheep as far as the eye can see.

After leaving the cliffs, we drove into the little village of East Dean where we had a pleasant lunch at the Tiger Inn.  The pub was packed when we arrived, but as we waited for our meals a table opened up on the outside patio area.  It was a fantastic Mother’s Day!

Apparently this part of England has a badger situation. ??

As I mentioned in the April recap post, we decided to celebrate Joey’s birthday with a trip to The Making of Harry Potter at the Warner Brothers studio outside of London.  We were all so impressed with this place.  It was very well done and definitely worth the visit.  We all enjoyed seeing some of the actual sets used in the films and learning more about how the movies were made.  

In front of the gates of Hogwarts.

Sipping Butterbeer!

#4 Privet Drive

The huge model of Hogwarts was amazing.

One Sunday we visited Chartwell, the home of Sir Winston Churchill.  We were impressed with how understated the house was.  For a man of such importance, the house wasn’t nearly as grand as it could possibly have been.  

We spent the last weekend of May in the town of Bath.  Actually, stayed just outside of Bath at a lovely B&B in Bradford-On-Avon (The Widbrook Grange Hotel).  We splurged a bit and booked their two-room family suite.  The boys enjoyed having their own space and loved the indoor swimming pool.  Mom and dad also appreciated the fact that the boys had their own room because it meant we could order room service for dinner after they were asleep!

We took the train from Bradford into Bath since traffic in the town can be tricky.  On Saturday we enjoyed a scenic walk along the canal to the train station from our hotel.  

In our two days in Bath, we visited the historic Roman Baths, saw Bath Abbey, enjoyed the beautiful architecture (especially the Royal Crescent and the Circus), toured briefly through the Fashion Museum, and checked out the excellent local playground (of course!).

The Roman Baths

Bath Abbey

Tom relaxes at the base of a huge plane tree.

The Royal Crescent

Goofing off in the Fashion Museum.

The Circus

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