Easter Holiday (aka Spring Break) has arrived

We survived the first day of spring break....Drew woke up at 7:30 and cried for only 5 minutes because Daddy wasn't here...(he left at 5:30 AM to go to Belfast!).  Lauren slept until 9:30.  We went to the park and they played with chalk for over an hour: there's a lot of sidewalks at the park!  And then they came home and played in the shower with a water gun.  Super fun!

I have decided that I rather like the British school schedule.  There are three terms, and each term has a week long break in the middle; then there is a 2 week Christmas holiday at the end of the first term, a 2 week Easter holiday at the end of the second term, and then a 6 week Summer vacation.  So, basically every 6 weeks there is a break, and only 6 weeks in the summer.  And you are to plan your holidays about 6 months in advance to get the best prices.  (So, right now we are thinking about where to go in October.)

It has been a crazy couple of weeks!  And I am so thankful for the people who helped me!  First of all, two Fridays ago, Drew and I went to rhyme time at the neighbor's house down the street; when we got home, I unlocked the door and Drew wanted to play on his scooter, so I closed the door and quickly realized that I had just LOCKED MYSELF OUT.  I had my mobile phone in my pocket, and that's it.  My neighbor Lisa was walking by, so she thankfully took me in, found the number for me to call (since I don't have a phone that has internet!), and drove me to the rental agency so I could get the keys.  So thankful for her and that she had a car because I didn't have my oyster card for the bus!! Drew was loving riding in the car with his new best friend, Arthur, who is almost 5.  It was funny listening to them talking.  At one point, Arthur asked if I could get Drew and pet and then Drew invited him over for a sleepover!  Hysterical!!  Drew and I had a quick lunch and then we had to take the bus back to the rental agency and get back just in time to pick the girls up from school.

I am actually surprised I haven't locked myself out before now, since the door locks when you close it!  We need to get an extra set of keys made and leave with a neighbor.

The year 3 and 4 classes at Garfield presented "Hansel and Gretel" last Thursday, and it was fantastic!  There were about 6 songs, each at least 3 minutes long, and each child had at least one line to learn.

Lauren played the part of the stepmother and she was brilliant!  (she was one of three actors playing the part of the stepmother, but she was the very first one.)  There were two showings: one at 1:45 and the other at 6:30.  They sent a note home requesting that no one under 12 attend the later show, which would have been no problem if Brad was home, but he was at a management team offsite.  So, my friend Jo offered to come over and stay with Drew and Alison.  Once again, so thankful for her because halfway through the 1:45 show, Drew started saying "I hungry, I want to go home!"  And I was so happy to be able to watch the show with no distractions.

Alison is becoming quite the speller....she got 9 out of 10 2 weeks ago and this past week, she got 10 out of 10!!!  Way to go, Alison!!

Easter is a pretty big holiday over here; there are Easter decorations, etc all over the place.  However, they do not use plastic easter eggs for easter egg hunts; instead, they use just foil-wrapped egg, bunny or sheep shaped chocolates.  I guess they don't have to worry so much about the chocolate melting in the super hot sun, and then they don't have to find a storage place for the plastic eggs.  But, most of the chocolate I have found has "may contain nuts" on the package, so not really safe for us.  Jo told me that she saw some plastic eggs at the local Sainsbury's, so I will have to stop there and see if I can get some.  The kids will be expecting an easter egg hunt from the easter bunny on Sunday.

In case anyone was wondering, here's the difference between child-minder and nanny: a child-minder is someone who watches children in their own room; a nanny is someone who comes to your house to watch your children.

The girls were so excited to have their "PE kits" at home for the holiday (so they can be washed), that they decided to wear them on Saturday.  They have PE twice a week, and they have to change into their PE clothes and then they bring them home on all the breaks to be washed.  The shoes are called Plimsolls.

Lauren has had a bit of homesickness the past week or so.  She gets over it pretty quickly, but it's hard to see her so upset over something I can't really resolve.  I am sure it's totally normal, 3 months in, to be homesick.  One night a couple weeks ago, she put on all this jewelry, and she had a reason why each one was special to her, mostly because of the person who gave it to her.

Updates on us and random thoughts on British way of life!

Hiya,

I have so many thoughts about so many random topics that have been happening that I figured it need to write them all down so I don't forget.

The library is great.  It's a 5 minute bus ride away, which I have discovered is the best way to get there.  Then I can walk back, otherwise it's at least 30 minutes travel time.  (However, sometimes I do have to wait a bit for the bus....)  Any who, I do like the library.  The childrens section is quite large; however, my beef with it is that the younger kids books are not organized at all besides board books on one shelf, and then all the other books are just haphazard on the shelves marked 0-5.  So it's like a treasure hunt to find a Thomas book or a Charlie or Lola book, and it's like you have struck gold if you actually find one!!  Today we were lucky and found a Charlie and Lola book and THREE Thomas books.

You would think those were easier to come by since Thomas is a British train and all, but not so much.  We do so love the Charlie and Lola books, and we have also discovered that they are on the telly as well.  The remainder of the kids section is organized alphabetically by author; however, the authors here are different than the ones in the US.  I have found a few authors that are the same, but no Junie B Jones (makes Lauren sad, but I don't miss her that much!)  And the DVDs are £2 each. (Which honestly I paid at times in KY since there was a $1 per day fine after 3 days...)

The most interesting part of the library is the checkout and return system.  It's all done by the library patron, no librarian is involved at all.  To checkout books, you scan your card and then place your books on this blue circle, which detects the book via some sort of magnetic thing in the back of the book.  Once you are finished with all books, you print a receipt and off you go.  Then, to return books, you just click "return" and then place one book at time on the blue circle and place them on the cart and there you go.  Pretty easy and quick.

Drew has learned a new word....scaffolding since everywhere we walk, there is scaffolding up because lofts are being redone all over the place here.  Construction is a booming business in this area with all the older homes being renovated.   There's a house about 20 doors down where they have gutted the entire place.  I will be so curious to see it once it's finished.  The guys even work on Saturdays!  Drew loves to see all the big trucks delivering the sand, etc and hauling away all the pieces that have been removed.  And in other big news...DREW IS STARTING SCHOOL AFTER THE EASTER HOLIDAY!!!!  While I am somewhat sad to lose my little sidekick (who is also an honorary PTA member at this point), I am happy for him to make friends and for me to have a couple hours to myself each day so I can volunteer at school, go for a run, have a cup of coffee with a friend, or run errands.   It will be in the mornings, 3 hours each day.  It will be amazing to have all three kids at the same school!!!  That wouldn't have happened at Goshen until Lauren's last year.  And Drew has discovered how to climb up to the top bunk, which is his favorite spot of course!

Alison has her class assembly this morning at school.

 I guess each class has an assembly once per year where the parents come and they sing songs and do a little presentation of what they have been learning.  Alison's class (butterflies) did a presentation about the seasons.  They did a fabulous job!!  Alison had three lines, and she delivered them all perfectly.  And she also got to play the part of the seed when they were discussing spring of course.   We also had a little bit of an issue with telling a little fib.....she had been bringing home these marbles every couple of days, and she said that her friend Florence was giving them to her.  This morning, Lauren told me that yesterday, she saw Alison taking them from a jar in her classroom where they were earning marbles towards a goal.  When I confronted Alison about it, she told me where they were coming from and told me she needed to give them back to Ms. Penney.  She wrote a note of apology and gave them back to her.   I am more concerned about the lying bit of it!  The other big news about Alison is that two nights this week, she has asked to read me a book and she is able to read almost the entire book with no help!!!  The first night she read The Pigeon Needs a Bath, and the second night she read Big Snowman, Little Snowman (a Frozen level 1 book.)

Lauren continues to thrive at school.  She had her first sleepover last weekend, and last Thursday night, she wrote letters to 12 of her friends at school.  They all said "You are my best friend, I hope we can have a playdate soon."  Very sweet, and several of the parents came up to see and mentioned how excited their children were to receive the letters.  She has received two responses, both from boys!  And she is having a playdate with her friend Thomas next week.  She is doing drama as an after school club on Tuesdays, and she has really impressed her teacher with her ability to memorize her lines so quickly.  The year 3 and year 4 students are doing a performance of "Hansel and Gretel" next week, and Lauren has memorized the ENTIRE scenes that her class is performing.  She is playing the part of the stepmother and she is going to be great!!!  I can't wait to see it. (I think I need to enroll her in some serious drama!)

The girls have finally decided that dresses are fun to wear!
And ties are so much better worn askew!  :)

Brad is busy as ever at work, but still completely loving what he is doing.    Tonight is the KFC suppliers awards dinner, and he was asked to Emcee the awards with the supply chain director.  (Good thing he purchased that tux back in December....I think tonight will be the fourth or fifth time he has worn it!)  He was practicing his lines last night, and I wish I could be there, too.  He's going to be great!!  There was a documentary on BBC last night called "Billion Dollar Chicken Business" all about the KFC business here.  It was very enlightening, and I had no idea the processes that KFC uses to ensure the quality of their product.  Brad was following the Twitter feed last night after the show aired and someone tweeted "I thought your chicken was baked."  Umm, Kentucky FRIED chicken.....

It's very weird that we have not completed our brackets for March Madness.  I completely forgot that it was even going on until I saw all the pictures and comments from my UK friends.  What an exciting time it will be in Louisville this weekend.

It was Mother's Day here on Sunday, so of course we had to celebrate!  The kids gave me a Fitbit, and I have realized that I walk A LOT.  The first day I wore it, I had walked 10,000 steps by 4 PM.  Tuesday, I ran in the morning and then had reached 10,000 steps by 11 AM!!!  (I think I might need to increase my goal at bit. ) Once I start walking to school three times a day, I will be walking even more I think.  I went to my first Zumba class last night (which counted for about 6000 steps!!!); one of the schools just down the road offers classes once at week at 8 PM.  I had been wanting to try it forever, and I am so glad I did.  It was really fun, but I felt SO completely uncoordinated!!!  But my neighbors tell me it gets easier the more you do it. I hope that Brad is home mostly on Wednesday nights because I would love to go on a regular basis.  And the best thing that happened yesterday it that I received a package from my friends at MOPS with 10 boxes of Girl Scout cookies and a whole pile of letters as well as a few treats for the kids (that I am saving for their two week break starting next Friday!).  That was such a wonderful surprise.

I went to the optician this week since the pair of contacts in my eyes is the last pair that I have, and they are only good until the end of the month.  I am not entirely confident that they got my prescription correct, so we shall see when the contacts they ordered come in next week.

The charity shops here are AWESOME.  There are 5 different ones on one small stretch of the Broadway.  All the women's clothes are sorted by color and type, and the prices are great.  Now if only I had space for even one more article of clothing.....However, I will be shopping for the kids there since I am missing the Little Treasures sale this week.  The girls really don't need that many clothes since they wear uniforms most of the time.

I have discovered a major flaw in the NHS.....I called yesterday to get an appointment to the allergist for Alison and the first available appointment is for JULY 9!!!!!!!  That is nearly 4 months from now.  What in the world????????  We do have private insurance (for Brad and the kids), so I may see if that helps, but wow, that's crazy.

Ok, last thing....I have decided that we need to start making use of the food waste bins provided to us.  There are three different "bin men" that come to collect the bins on Thursdays: food waste, trash and recycles.  It's so easy!  And we go through so much fruit around here that I am sure it will be full so maybe our trash won't be so full!

So that's all for now....hope you don't mind my rambling about British culture from my American eyes.....

International Fair at Garfield Primary School

The girls had international day at their school on Friday, and it was absolutely AMAZING!!!  Lauren wore her red, white and blue.  Alison was all set with her patriotic dress, but she changed her mind and decided to wear her uniform instead.

As PTA secretary, I had some of the inside scoop on the preparations, etc, but I had no idea what to expect, and it was way better than I expected!!!  The day started with an international assembly.  The children were meant to come to school in dress that reflected their country or heritage, so there were so many amazing and interesting outfits that I saw when I would dropping the girls at school.  Each class selected 2-3 members of their class to stand up at the assembly and talk about their country, and/or say something in the language of their country.  Drew and I stayed for most of the assembly, but he was getting a little wiggly, so we missed the older children.  Several of them said hello or counted to 10, but there were several languages I didn't recognize.  Their school is one the most diverse in the area with over 30 countries represented and over 40 different languages spoken.

After the assembly, there were many activities for the students to participate in, led by parents primarily.  Lauren's class year had the opportunity to play the african drums, paint Easter eggs with a Polish parent and learn a game from Ghana.  A few of the other activities were painting paper mache globes, listening to Pinocchio in Italian and learning a hungarian dance.  After lunch, each class learned 3 different languages, also taught by parent volunteers.   There were 12 different parent volunteers, each teaching a different language, including Mandarin, French, Urdu and Africanse.  How cool is that!!

After school, the food stalls were open, and parents prepared food to represent their countries and it was all fabulous!!  There was some really delicious food that I tasted, and lots of other food that looked amazing (If only I could have sampled everything!).  There were probably at least 20 different countries represented.

For the USA table, we made popcorn and chocolate chip cookies, which were a big hit.  The Britain table had quite a spread of course, as well as the Poland table.  After eating, there were several different games set up to help kids practice languages, geography and recognizing flags of different countries.  And the last activity was a disco, where the kids could dance!  Lauren was off with her friends for the majority of the time.

And after we counted to money and cleaned up, we headed to the pub!!  With the kids at 6:30 on a Friday night!  It was quite a great way to end a successful International Fair.  And that would never happen in America.

Our first visit to the allergist (with Drew)

The NHS is definitely different from the american health system.  Everything funnels through the GP, and a pediatrician is considered a specialist.  So it's a good thing if your child doesn't see the pediatrician because that means they are perfectly healthy!  However, since Drew and Alison both have severe food allergies, we will being seeing the pediatric immunologist.  And getting referrals to the hospital (I love the way that sounds with a British accent) can take some time.  I got a letter about Drew's referral first (most likely because he was already in the system after the collar bone incident.), so we had our appointment yesterday.

First of all, I was late because I thought the appointment was at 10:30, but it was at 10:15, and we just missed the bus.  We did arrive at 10:32, after I finally found where we needed to go.  (St. George's is massive!!  And the children's clinic was at the farthest building from the bus stop.) It was quite a place, with all pediatric needs in one place.  (Very different from Dr. Damin's office in KY.)  The nurse came and took his measurements.  (15 kilos and 90 cm.)  Then the doctor finally called us back at 11.  (Thank goodness we were late because Drew had about reached his point by then.)  I really like the doctor, she was very forthcoming with things, and she recommended that Drew have a skin test, as well as a full blood workup.

So, here they do the skin test on their arms rather than their backs. The nurse was very good and patient with Drew, and it was pretty quick all in all I would say.  Drew was VERY brave!  he just got a bit itchy after the skin test, but he did a great job with the bloodwork as well.

The results of the skin test were peanuts, cashews and egg still pretty high, but sesame seed was negative.  The doctor said once they get the results of the blood test, it may be possible to food challenge with baked egg, so we see.

Next we will take Alison and do the same thing over again....hopefully we get the letter soon,  it makes me a bit nervous that she hasn't been seen yet.  However, I am thankful I have met an allergy doctor.

On another note, I got a call from the health services worker following up on Drew.  She was happy to hear he is doing ok and his bed now has a rail on it.

Adjusting to life in London.....

I would say, that 10 weeks into living here, and all our of our household goods received, we are pretty much settled.  Brad is busily hanging pictures today, and the rest of the things we had for the wall will be shoved into the storage space that is now almost full from all of the stuff we brought that we don't have space for.  (Thank goodness for that storage under the eaves in our bedroom!!!!)

The last remaining bit is to get the temporary wardrobe moved out of our bedroom, find a place for the rest of the clothes that are in not in the wardrobe once my slim hangers arrive tomorrow (thank you Amazon!) and donate all the plastic hangers.  We must have at least 150 of them.  They must have multiplied in the boxes on the scent.

Anyhoo, here are some photos of our house with our furnishings!

Our entryway:

A few things I have learned whilst finding a spot for all of our stuff:

1. I have way too many clothes.  I have clothes two piles deep and all tall as my hanging clothes in the bottom of my wardrobe; I still have a box of clothes with no place to put them, a 31 tote full of summer pants and shorts under our bed and my underwear in a plastic drawer next to the bedside table.  And I gave away bags and bags of clothes before moving!!!

2. Where do British people store their shoes with no closets???  I guess they just have a few pairs of shoes that go in the shoe cabinet and are removed as soon as they entire their home.  (I have shoes out, but all my summer shoes are in a second 31 tote under our bed.)

3. Girls have way too many small "treasures".  Alison has about 3 boxes and 5 purses full of random things....beads, coins, small figurines.  I hung a shoe organizer on their closet to hang all their treasures.  Brilliant!

The shoe hanger is on the right side of the closet.

The bunk beds are great!!!!

4. Drew has  A LOT of cars and trains.  And he knows the names of almost every single one of them. Good thing he doesn't care so much about clothes and has two closets.  One for clothes and one for toys!

dresser (aka linen closet)

Notice the bed rail...no more broken collar bones!

5. I am so glad the brought a dresser for Drew's room because that's our new linen closet.

6. I have used almost every basket and bin I brought.  And I have not had to buy one single storage bin.

7. I should have left 70% of my vases at home.

8. Our plates are just slightly too big for the cabinets.  I guess that means that Americans' portion sizes are too big.  They are smaller than the temporary plates we had, which is a good thing because the cabinet gapping open about drove Brad crazy.

9. I may have brought just a few too many craft items, but I am thankful they were nice and organized before we moved.  And I found the perfect spot for them in the playroom.  And they will probably come in handy for Lauren's art studio in the 2/3 of the shed that is not occupied by the christmas tree, Brad's bike, Brad's golf clubs and a few other random things.

10.  The two sheds in the back are perfect.  The one with the lock on it is good for storing the above mentioned items, and the other one is great for all the stuff the kids can play with (or get out and leave littered all over the back garden at anytime.)

11.  Our grill is HUGE in our back garden here, and we need to retrofit it somehow so that it will actually work.

12. The reception room as the guest room is interesting.  There is no space in there for any more furniture.  And the door can only be closed if the carpet is pulled back.  And we only have one TV for now.  (Although Brad has plans to get another one in our room but I think we have been this long without it, we don't really need another one.)

After the past two weeks of organizing, putting away and tossing, I think I could (almost) be a professional organizer.

playroom

playroom

I know I have said this before, but I think the fact that we really use pretty much every square inch of our house everyday is great.

I would say right now the only thing I really miss in the house is a walk-in closet.  There is a good amount of storage here, and we have almost maximized, but not quite.  We are going to have to institute the one in, one out rule for just about everything from clothes to toys to shoes.

Thank goodness for the charities that come pick up donations from the curb!  I already donated 6 bags the week our goods arrived, and I have 6 more bags for collection this week.

One last bit I want to remember is phrases I love that the British say:

"straightaway" rather than "right now"
"collect" rather than "pick-up"
"toilet" rather than "bathroom"
"shopping trolley" rather than "shopping cart"
And I love how their call their kids "darling"  It's just so amazingly precious.

I do think calling the trash men "dustbin collectors" rather strange.

And after yesterday's beautiful weather, I simply cannot wait for summer!!!!!

We spent lots of time outside, and had our trip-fold doors open, which I think it going to be quite common this summer, as it gets super hot in here when the sun is shining.  And there are not nearly as many bugs as in the US. Oh and we don't have air conditioning.

First Mufti Day at Garfield

The girls had their first Mufti Day at school, which means no uniform (at my high school, it was Duds Day.)  They had to pay £1, and the money went to one of the house's charities.  They were very excited to be out of uniform!  And Lauren just got a new pair of Converse sneakers!  She's becoming quite British.

Our first visitor...Mum Mum!

Mum Mum was our first visitor, and we had a great time while she was here!  We got to get out and explore a little bit, but she caught the cold that was going around our house, and I needed to spend some time trying to organize around here!!!  It rained at least once every day that she was here, but it has not done that since we have been here.

She and Drew had a big time playing lots of games: Toy Story Yahtzee, Cars Memory Match, Sequence, Monopoly and cards.  They also wrote lots and lots of letters and had a great time delivering them to the post box.  She taught Lauren how to play Spite and Malice, how to shuffle cards, and how to braid.  She helped Alison with her reading and drew some pictures.  We surprisingly only had one tea party.  She also helped me a lot by doing my laundry and doing the dishes after dinner every night!

Drew, Mum Mum and I went into London on Wednesday and went to The Victoria & Albert Museum as well as the National History Museum.

We saw lots of beautiful dresses at the V&A Museum, but Drew wasn't really feeling it, so we didn't stay much as the wedding dresses.  Drew loved the National History Museum!  They have a huge dinosaur exhibit, that includes a large T-Rex model that roars when you walk into the room.

He thought that was pretty cool.  But the thing he loved the most was the insect portion of the museum.  There is a big exhibit about spiders, with videos of different ways they attack their prey and he thought that was pretty awesome.  We will definitely go back there with the girls, it was great fun!

Saturday, my mom and I took the bus up to the village and walked around in a few really cute shops, and then headed over to the Cannazaro House for high tea.

 It was a really beautiful place (it would have been even more beautiful if the sun was out and the sky wasn't gray, but this is London!).  They serve tea on the back patio, that is surrounded by glass doors.  We were seated in these super cushy chairs and we were served 4 tea sandwiches (smoked salmon, cucumber, tomato and ham and egg), 2 scones and 3 different desserts (strawberry macaroon, cheesecake and sponge cake), as well as a pot of really delicious tea.  It was yummy and we felt very British having our tea!

Sunday, the girls were invited to a birthday party at the Tooting Leisure Center (they loved saying Tooting and laughed almost every time they said it.), and it was great fun!  Very similar to US birthday parties I would say.  The mom of the birthday girls was so nice and made a cake with no eggs just for Alison!  And it was very delicious!!  After the party, we met Brad, Mum Mum and Drew at a local restaurant for Mum Mum's last dinner...she requested fish and chips.

Thanks for being our first visitor, Mum Mum!  We enjoyed having you here and hope you enjoyed our London experience!!!