British summers...

To be perfectly honest, British summers are rather unpleasant. Perhaps I shouldn't generalize. This is, after all, my first summer here. So allow me to amend myself to say that the British summer of 2007 has been rather unpleasant. Although, thanks to the ever-changing nature of a climate ravaged by global warming, I don't expect subsequent summers to be much better. June and July were wet and cold. It makes a certain little boy very unhappy...


And we have to dress a certain little girl in big sweaters...

And there's another little girl who sometimes finds the cold and wet a good excuse for a story...

But more often, she's hyper and whiny because she can't go outside and play.

But when we've spent too many days inside, we borrow the duds for dreary weather from our next-door neighbours, and we venture out...


Though the kids would rather be outside, rain or shine, we've managed to eek out a few boughts of inside fun. Sometimes we pretend that it's sunny.

Sometimes we pretend that it's warm. We bought some beautiful traditional Ethiopian clothes for the kids while we were in Ethiopia, and I really want to take some good pictures of the kids in the clothes before they outgrow them. I proposed the idea to Eric on a warm, sunny morning, thinking we'd get the best pictures outside. Ben had awoken especially early that morning and was is a foul mood, so we decided postpone the photo shoot until after naptime. By the time the afternoon rolled around, it was pouring down rain. Rhys was crushed because she wasn't going to get to put the pretty dress on, so we decided to try and get some nice pictures inside. It was a complete failure. Loads of fun and giggles, but a complete failure in terms of getting something that might constitute "nice pictures."

We tried to get a picture of the three of them together.

Cute, but you can't really see their clothes. So we tried having them stand...


...And that was an open invitation to jump on the furniture, which makes for some rather silly hair...
...And of course, it's nearly impossible to get the three of them to look at the camera and smile at the same time.

So we got a bunch of really cute pictures of the kids, but we'll just have to save the capture of "nice pictures" for another day.

Despite the cold and rain of June and July, the first few days of August have been lovely and warm, and we've spent a lot of time outside. Picnics are a favourite.

Secrect plotting and sneaky conspiracies with the girls from next-door against are other favourites...

When there's the slightest glimmer of sunshine, the kids thoroughly enjoy running around in the yard with Hagrid. We were finally able to bring Hagrid home last week. He's been in a cold, prison-like quarantine facility for the past six months, and you can tell that he's happy to finally be home. Rhys is ecstatic that she's got "My Hagrid" back, and Ben is equally thrilled. The way he says "Hagrid" is quite amusing; the sounds and syllables are all there, but he says it with a little growl. Someday I'll learn how to upload sound...

Desi wasn't so fond of Hagrid when we first brought him home. About two months ago, when we were still visiting Hagrid in his temporary cell, Desi randomly decided that she no longer liked Hagrid. She fussed whenever he got too close, and wanted to be held for the duration of our visits. She was the same when we first brought him home, but she's slowly warming up to him. His big burly bark still frightens her a bit, but I've caught her gleefully scratching his ears and offering him treats from her dinner plate.

Desi's also decided that climbing is great fun. This past weekend, I found her in the middle of the dining room table no fewer than six times. And it's not like I left the room for hours at a time. A thirty second trip to the next room to fetch a toy or book provides her with more than enough time to scale the furniture. She just sits there in the middle of the table, toy in hand, and despite stern admonishing from Eric and me, she giggles whenever she's discovered.

In other news, we've sent in Rhys's registration for pre-school. It's currently the summer holiday here in England, and we haven't heard back from the school yet. We sent in her registration rather late (oops), but we're keeping our fingers crossed that she'll be able to go two afternoons a week. She's very excited about the possibility of going to school! These days, it's very obvious that Baby Rhys is long gone...

...replaced with the equally wonderful Pre-School Rhys.


And she is, of course, joined by the fantastic Toddler Desi...


And the amazing Toddler Ben...

Be it cold grey days or warm bright ones , it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something fun with this bunch, now should it?