Our good friends from O'Fallon Illinois (we meet them in 2006), who happened to be Suzanna's Nursery teacher, as well as her Sunbeam teacher, my Visiting Teacher and our Home Teacher, I was also their family photographer and taught their middle daughter Primary....good, good friends actually moved here to England 2 years ago.  Since we've been living here (for the past 5 months), we've been waiting to meet up (they are 3 hours North of us, near York).  That weekend finally arrived and they came over for dinner.  Their younger two and our kids got along really, really well, even after all these years!  It was nice to see the Lewis's again!
We talked about coming up to visiting them, York here we come!

One of my favorite holiday's was celebrated today.  If we were in Washington we would visit two veterans dear to our hearts, pay tribute and have a small family memorial for Grandpa and Gran Nolt in the Tacoma Cemetery (Captain Roy Nolt, Tanker Commander, Gran was an Army Nurse).  This Memorial Day, we were no where near family so we decided to spend some time with some heroes who never made it home.
We were happy to see the bagpiper parked near us as we got there about an hour early.  He said to the girls in his thick Scottish accent "Lovely costumes" and we said he was the one that looked amazing in  his kilt, aye (missing Papa at this moment).
I love this cemetery, it has become one of my favorite places to visit in Cambridge.  I especially loved coming today seeing all the American and English flags side by side.
The Shockley Clan.
Some of the words spoken today at the memorial:
"They paid the ultimate sacrifice so the world would be free of the tyranny of evil."
"They gave up their hopes and dreams so we can live out ours."
Our dear friend (Ella's old teacher), Pat Freese has an uncle is laid to rest here, along side with his fellow heroes.
"When their country was in trouble they answered the call to serve and that makes their sacrifice worth it."

"It's a high price free nations pay for freedom".
"Grateful are we who sleep under a blanket of Freedom from those who sacrificed."



Airmen came out with writhes for 121 of the heroes.

May I add, the grey clouds were teasing us and we knew it was inevitably going to rain.  It rained on the ride to the cemetery and on the way home (as I am typing this it is pouring down rain).  God granted us bright blue skies the hour before and hour after the ceremony.  That was a wonderful gift.

 

Finally after many, many weeks of waiting, the dryer was fixed today.  I thought the handy man that came by had the cutest fixet car I've ever seen!  I love the giant flat head screw driver on top! 

The girls were very excited to be able to participate in Ballet once again.  The half hour classes were taught by a British lady at the Base Youth Center.  They favorite teacher (from Flordia) lives only 45 minutes from here, maybe we can talk her into coming up to teach, she was so good with the girls!
 They danced to a Disney song, and I thought they did very well!





 And the boys were watching from the sidelines.

It seems to be exciting for everyone when I volunteer in Suzanna's classroom.  Wednesday was a Pirate Camp, which happens to be the same day Ella has preschool.  I gave her the option of coming to school with Suz or going to hers and she choose to come to school with Suz. 
I like going to Mrs. Beltran's room because she is amazingly organized, kind hearted and has a special way with not only her own students but to the siblings that come to help out too. 

 The biggest city close to our village is Huntingdon.  It's a beautiful city, they've got a soldier's monument right across the street from the church, there's also a Cromwell Museum and lots of shops.
 Here's the side of the church, it is pretty small compared to other (bigger) cities.
 I liked the second angel in, the violinist.
 It was just William and myself today, as the girls were in school.  It felt fun spoiling him as if he was my only child.  He's a good buddy, he walked along side the stroller and also sat in it as we walked around this morning.

 We've got a variation of what would be called a 99 cent store or dollar store in the states. 
Something you'll see often are eggs sold outside of the fridge.  I've found these to be fresh and much easier to peel (when we boil them) than the ones we buy on Base.  This really is the first time we've had the chance to eat such fresh food and it proves to be a different taste (we are getting spoiled).

 At first glance it looks as though William has blue eyes, but if you look closer you can see a rim of yellow.  Those eyes can melt anyone's heart, espeically his mama.