another week has gone by

I can't believe another week has gone by, Always glad when Fridays arrive, it means the school routine is over for two days!! Only three weeks left of school, as we break up on 5th June, and Jack arrives home that day, which makes it a very special day in deed. We will not have seen him for over 18 months. So it will be a day to celebrate, Ben is finished with elementary school, and Jack comes back home for a holiday from Okinawa.

Ben is doing well at Karate, he is now a blue belt and is hoping to be able to test while Jack is here for his next belt, advanced Blue, but that might be difficult, a lot to learn in two months, the saving grace will be that he is in summer camp at Karate, so will get extra tuition time in June, fingers crossed.

Ben being congratulated by the board after testing for his belt on April 29th 2014

Alex has the firing range on his 13th birthday

Opening the presents

cookie cake time, friends and family

Alex had a great birthday, we threw a surprise party for him, and it was a surprise- so funny. He had no idea. I do not think  he will ever say to me again I want a surprise party mum, because i managed to pull it off for him!! Of course he had totally forgotten he had asked for one, that is the secret. But his 13th was an amazing day, which was turned in to a fantastic weekend, his friend Joary flew in from Las Vegas to spend it with him, and it was a VERY full and fun time.
Cara kindly let us use her house for the party, which made it even easy to surprise him .

Jack's birthday

Its is May 6th 2014 and Jack is spending his twentieth birthday away from us, and his second birthday overseas. He is still stationed in Okinawa, Japan, although at the moment he is in the Philippines, so his 19th birthday was in Japan and his 20th in the Philippines, he is traveling for sure.
Ben went to bailey middle school today, as he is now in his last year of Elementary school, and will be moving up to 6th grade, and will have one year with Alex ( who is now known to most as Xander) .
Alex will be heading into 8th grade, they are all growing up so fast.

Cara has her own house not far away, has a great job working for ARM in facilities and seems to be living life to the full.

Mum has been out to visit for the month of April, which was fantastic, we went to Napa for 4 days and enjoyed ourselves.
Cara and I went to New York for her birthday present, and met Alison and Ellie there, a great time was had by all.
I celebrated my birthday in San Diego, with friends that flew in from all over the US, which was a lot of fun, so travel has been a happening in this house.