Framlingham and Orford Castles

Jake had a day off work a week or so ago so we went to check out a couple of castles. First up:
Framlingham Castle.    

It's about an hour east of where we live.  This place was built in the 12th century and was a refuge of Mary Tudor before she became queen in 1553.   Check out Luke... he was messing around with his sword the whole time we were there.  Castles are the best place to practice sword fighting!  haha.  There was a jousting tournament going on the day we visited since it was a bank holiday.

Such a boy.  This picture makes me smile.  He figured out that his belt loops make perfect sword sheaths.

Cool ruins around the castle.. These columns used to support a bridge that went from the upper levels of the castle to the gardens.

On our way in...

 Lots of people were dressed up in their medieval get-up and selling everything from medieval games to foods popular in the different time periods.  The jousting was pretty entertaining.

These people go all out!

The kids got to meet the knights afterward.  Kind of fun!

You can walk around the top of the castle.  Since most castles are up on a hill, the views are pretty great.

Here's the view of the courtyard from the top of the castle...

And another view from the top...

Cool place.  Next up was Orford castle.  It is 15 or 20 min farther east or Framlingham and practically on the coast.  This one reminds me of Lord Farquaad's castle on Shrek... tall and skinny!  This one was built in the 1100s by Henry II.  It's full of steep stairwells and crazy little rooms.  

A view of the back of the castle...

 

It was super windy on top!  Very cool view of the ocean and the cute surrounding town from up there though. 

You can see the ocean from this next view.  Check out the brown water beyond the green fields :)

And more view from the top of the castle.  Cute little village.

Ok, so in this next pic, see that triangle cutout in the wall?  That there is a medieval urinal folks.  haha.  According to the little audio guide we listened to, it was the luxurious thing to have back in the day.  It goes from one of the top chambers which would have been an office for the earl or duke to outside the castle.   

We went over to see the coast after.  This is definitely not the best place in England to see the beach.  Just lots of cold wind, rocks, and brown ocean.  We stayed long enough to throw some rocks in the water and then took off for home.  El was too cold to leave my side.  I carried her around most of the time and we watched Luke and Jake play.  Fun day though!  We love exploring around here.   

Fields of Gold

A lot of the countryside is covered in yellow right now!  I've been told the stuff is called rapeseed, and it's used to make oils for cooking and cosmetics... and it makes my allergies crazy!  I think it's pretty anyway.  We stopped to play in one field on the way home from Lavenham.  There's a footpath that went through this one, so don't worry, we didn't trample the crops :)

 

 

tHeRe WaS a CrOokEd mAN, AnD he WaLkEd a CroOkeD miLE

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

We took a day trip to Lavenham on Saturday.  It's a quirky medieval village about 40 minutes away that was the inspiration for the "Crooked Man" nursery rhyme and home to Jane Taylor who wrote the words to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."   It's well known for its' crooked houses and the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.  We had a fun afternoon walking around and checking it out!

Um... not sure what Jake was doing in this picture (haha), but here's what it looks like walking down into the village from the church.

Lots of crooked houses to check out!  We just strolled around for a while.

Loved the bright orange/yellow on this one!  Looks like one of your playhouses, dad! :)

Jake wanted a demo pic of how tiny English garages are.  This is pretty typical.

Jake gets a kick out of pub names.  This one was no exception.  Why do Americans have to perv-ize so many normal British words!?  Maybe one day I'll share how our 75 year-old fellow nursery leader asks the children if they want to see her cat.

Here's the village church.  It's not wonky-looking like their houses!  Guess it's a good thing they built it with stone instead of wood :)  People have been worshipping here for 600 years.  

  Thought it was funny how big Jake and Luke look compared to the little doors around the back of the church!  Guess people really are bigger these days!

On the day William and Kate got married,

we had a tea party at our house with friends.  Stacy and Sheri came over with their kidos to eat lunch and watch the wedding.  Much easier to party at home than brave the crazy crowds in London with kids in tow!  Quite a few friends went down to get a glimpse of the new royal couple live and were squished like sardines for hours while waiting for the procession down the streets.  Crazy!  Exciting times for this country though.  People have been decorating their homes with flags and pictures of the new royal couple.  The whole country was out of school/work Friday for the wedding, as well as tomorrow (Monday) to celebrate. 

The Thursday before school got out for the wedding, the kids in Luke's school were supposed to "come to school dressed smartly, as if going to a real wedding.  Dress as smart as you can!" They had a big wedding celebration while they were all dressed up.  It was very cutie.  Luke said they ate wedding cake, learned about wedding traditions, and made crowns, among other activities.  Kind of fun!

I took a few pictures of our tea party food but forgot to get the camera out again.  Here were our wedding munchies...     

Stacy made some tasty sandwiches and I made scones and clotted cream.  Stacy's cute friend wanted us to use her tea plates and cups that were like 100 years old.
Random wedding images found from random websites to remember the day by...

That flag in the bottom right corner has been everywhere lately. 

I guess talk of next summer's Olympics will fill the radio here now that the wedding is over.  Jake is relieved that he won't have to hear all the media aroud here wondering about what Kate's dress will look like anymore.  Oh, and just for the record, I was a fan of her dress. Ü

 

Easter Sunday '11

 I love dressing Luke and Ella in coordinating outfits, so when Easter comes around I get a little camera happy.  Here are some pictures I took before church on Sunday.  I wish we would have set the camera timer to get a picture of all of us together!  Don't know why we didn't do that.  Oh well, next time!  

Here are a few we did manage to get :)

My 3 Cuties... 

I love El's happy cheesy smile! 

Luke thought he was being funny pulling a 'Pascal' move and sticking his finger in El's ear.

A few of Mr. Luke man...

Ella refused to look at the camera most of the time.  Little stinker.  She kept running away.

I really was there too.  Jake took this one of Luke and I. 

Easter morning Ella woke up bright and early.  She was excited to look down the stairs and see that the Easter bunny had come. She ran to wake up Luke before going to dig in.  Luke insisted the night before that we needed to leave the Easter baskets by the front door so that the bunny would find them easily.  :) 

Later that evening we had a ham dinner with the Smiths, and the kids had an egg hunt in their backyard.

  

That pretty much wraps up Easter 2011 at our house!

Egg Decorating and Cookie Fun

We colored eggs a couple of weeks ago and had lots of fun!  El and Luke both started out with a dozen eggs, but in the end had about 10 each... and some of those still standing in the end were cracked.  I don't know how many times I had to tell Ella to be careful with them or they will crack!  That girl was so funny to watch.  She'd plop them in a cup for about ten seconds and then fish the egg out with her hands and throw it in another color.  She only wanted "girl colors" at first, but towards the end made a few blue and green.  She kept wanting to smell the dye.. so sick!  That stuff stinks.  I guess she likes the smell of vinegar because before we started coloring the eggs she picked one cup up and drank a little! 

Luke thought it was hilarious that some of the eggs had broken. 

Guess it doesn't get more fun than squishing cracked eggs some more :)

 

We tried out a glitter egg kit and a marble egg kit.  I must say, the marbled eggs looked much more marbly in the pictures then in real life!  Luke was really patient and would let his egg sit for a long time to get the perfect color.  He got some fun bright blue and green ones! 

 

Another day we made some Easter sugar cookies with Sheri, Amelia, and baby Olivia.  Thanks Jenni for the recipe!  The cookies that came out not covered in 3 inches of sprinkles were super tasty.. :) 

No more diapers!

That's right. No nappies in the Smith house! (as the English call them)  Woo hoo!!!  It seems that a little bribing and a few accidents in pretty new underwear was all she needed to take the plunge.


Here's Ella last Monday with her new undies she picked out.
(A set of Disney Princess and a Charlie & Lola package)

                                 She wanted Sainsbury's little fairy cakes for her potty treat.

 Stay dry all day and poop in the potty and you get to pick out a book.  Sounds like a good deal right?  She chose this Strawberry Shortcake paint book.



We read this book throughout the week.  El was a big fan.  It was a good little reminder that all little princesses use the potty! 

The first two days of operation potty train had me a little worried.  I didn't know if I should go back to diapers or not after she had multiple #1 and #2 accidents!  I think she just needed a couple of days to get it because now she's a pro!  Accident free for the last few days and nights!  Good job Ella bella!  Mama's proud of you!