Drew's first day of nursery

So, the day finally arrived!  Drew is starting school in London.  Free school here starts the year that the child turns 3, and there children start at the beginning of each term (September, January and April), depending on when they turn 3.  Children who turn 3 by Aug 31 start in September; children who turn 3 by Dec 31 start in January, and then children who turn 3 by March 31 start in April.  The earliest Drew could have started was January, but there was not a spot for him.  I believe the only reason we were offered a spot is that a family moved over the Easter holiday. (As an aside, I am bummed they moved because the mom was great fun, and I think Drew and her son would have been great buddies!)

Anyways, we went in to meet the teachers and see his classroom the week before we went to Florida, and they were somewhat amazed at how he just came in and started playing with no problems.  Some kids who start in nursery have never been to school before, but he's a pro!  And it helped that they had the trains out for him.  So, it was decided that he would start on Monday, 27 April!

I think the girls were more excited for him to go to school than anyone!  They were so excited that they would get to see him at break time.  There is a separate area for the nursery kids to play outside, but it's surrounded by the big playground for the older children so they knew they would see him.  Drew was not so happy about going before we left home, but we arrived and he hung up his bag and then sat on the carpet, and after that, it was playtime, so he was happily playing with animals in the water when I left.  His teacher said it was like he had been coming to school for years, and he played and sat on the carpet at the right times and participated!  Hooray!

And today, he barely even said good-bye to me when I left, which made me a little teary-eyed, but I am glad he is happy!

Here he is in day 3, happy!

Our first trip back to America

It's 4:53 AM in Florida but we are all awake since body clock time is 9:53 AM!  We survived our first flight going west from London as a family of 5 and in economy no less!!! ( no more funded business class  tickets for us, much to Lauren's dismay!).  I would definitely say it was a success, albeit a 14+ hour journey.  We left our house around 8:40 AM to catch the train to the airport which was better than anticipated.  The girls were great with handling their suitcases, and all the train stations had lifts to use, which is very helpful with luggage.  The tricky part is getting off the train; when you have 4 rolling suitcases and a stroller, that gap between the train and the platform most definitely must be "minded"! People are so helpful!!  Clapham junction's gaps are almost big enough for a kid to fall in.  The train from Clapham Junction to Gatwick was cool because it had tables, and it was only 25 minutes.

We were all checked into out flight about an hour and 20 minutes before departure time, and security was quick.  Alison was happy because she got the cozy spot on the plane in the seat beside the window, Lauren was happy to have her own TV, and Drew was happy to be with Daddy.  The kids did not sleep until Drew fell asleep as soon as we parked at the gate, so he got about a 10 minute nap on daddy's shoulder until we got to customs.  I think brad and I each slept about 3 minutes before we were awaken for some emergency from the kids.  The kids were great on the flight and ate every snack I brought!!! (2sandwiches, 4 cheese sticks, 6 apples, 4 boxes of raisins, craisins, 3 ziplocs bags of grapes, 3 bags of crisps, 3 Rice Krispie treats, 2 breadsticks and cheese, 2 bags of mini rice cakes, 2 Apple fruit snacks, 1 bag of pretzels and 3 mini packages of chocolate buttons!). Next flight I am going to investigate the kids meals, but I am not sure they will be allergy friendly.

Drew watched bubble guppies about 4 times, and the girls watched paddington.  And the girls had an adventure "brushing their teeth" in the toilet.  They were in there for quite a bit, so I went back to check on them to find several people in the queue and hearing all sorts of noise, and a couple people said " someone's having a great time in there!"

We had quite the adventure with renting a van.  We no longer have auto insurance since we don't have a car, so we had to pay for insurance, and we couldn't bring the booster seats since it was one more thing to manage on the train so thank goodness they didn't charge us for the three seats we got!  Brad upgraded to a sienna, but they realized after we had loaded all the suitcases and were buckling Drew's seat in that the plates were expired so we had to wait until they found another one.  It doesn't take nearly as much time to load and unload 8 bags, though!!  It's amazing the amount of stuff you travel with when you are driving vs flying.  Drew was so happy to be riding in a car!  Brad almost started driving on the other side of the road!

The place we are staying is less than 10 minutes drive from the airport, so,we checked in and found McDonald's (old McDonald's according to Drew!) because we told Alison we would get mcdonalds for dinner and she was really excited for that!!  Then we ordered pizza for everyone over 5.  By the time we got into our place, it was 6 PM here, 11 pm London time.  Drew was asleep by 7, Ali around 7:30 and Lauren by 9.   I went to the grocery to buy breakfast stuff and a few snacks, and groceries are expensive here!!!

We are looking forward to seeing mum mum this morning, and nana and papa on Tuesday.  They had to delay their trip a couple of days because nana hasn't been feeling well and is going to the doctor on Monday.  And I am sure we will be making our first of many trips to Target today, especially since Lauren has no shoes other than converse!  (I made her a packing list but didn't double check to make sure she packed everything on the list.)

Getting ready to pack up

I just realized as I am thinking of taking on the challenging task of packing up to go to FL for a week that I have never packed for the five of us to go on holiday on a plane.  We have always either driven to our destination, or gone to visit family.  And we are taking the train to the airport, which means I need to pack not much stuff.  Yet, I have to pack entertainment for the kids for the almost 9 hour flight, as well as allergy safe lunch for the kids, and enough snacks for the trip.  But I can't pack a big bag of snacks to have on hand while we are in FL.  At least the clothes are warm weather clothes, so they don't take up so much space!  The best part of packing for this trip is NO DIAPERS OR PULLUPS!!!!!  HOORAY!!!!!  That's so exciting!!!!!!!

And I just wanted to make a few more observations so I don't forget (I am always making lists of things I want to make sure to include in the blog so I remember....)

1. Double numbers and letters, for instance, my old phone number in KY was 228-4724, so they would say "Double 2,8,4,7,2,4."  It's hard to process sometimes, but I am getting used to it.

2. It's not a last name, it's a surname, and it's not a middle name, it's your second name.

3. I LOVE my kettle!!!!  It's the best thing ever.  It boils water in like 60 seconds or something.  And recipes even say "Turn on the kettle," for making things like chicken stock or mashed potatoes.

4. Alison has been learning about telling time at school, and she now knows the difference between "clockwise" and "anti-clockwise."

5. And if you are asking someone what their children's names are, you would say "What is she called?"

Right, so now I need to go sort out what I am going to pack for our holiday!!!

Cheers!

Easter Holiday, Week Two

What a beautiful week it has been here!!!!  The weather was perfect every day for adventures out of the house, it was great!

Monday was a bank holiday, and Brad was off, which was a treat!  We went to the park with one of Lauren's classmates, Sebastian and his family.  He also has a little brother, Dominic, who's in reception (the year between Alison and Drew.)  We had a lovely picnic and then the kids played in the park for almost 2 hours.  It was great!!  Drew was having the best time kicking the football around with Brad, Sebastian, Dominic and their dad.  The boys came back here with us for a playdate, which went pretty well.  Drew absolutely loves having other boys in the house!

Tuesday, we went to the library, which is always an adventure with all three kids.  Usually, I just go with Drew when the girls are at school, but I think it's good for them to pick out their own books.  After we picked out books, Lauren read to Drew from his Thomas the Brave book,

and I read to Alison while she made faces at this little baby boy she befriended while we were there.  In the afternoon we went to the park where the girls go into the mud puddle last week, but it was all dried up this time!  We stayed there for almost 2 hours; the girls met a friend from school and they had a great time.  Mister Softee is even in London and he drives around to all the parks, so he came and the kids got their first ice cream in London since it was finally warm enough for ice cream!  They were SO excited!

Wednesday, we went to Fulham Palace, which is an old bishop's home that was built in 745!  There wasn't really much to the palace, but we stumbled upon another awesome park right next door.  This park was called Bishop's Park, and it had tire swings

which were super cool, and a large sand pit that entertained the kids for an hour!  I now know that if we are going to a big park, I need to take the sand toys with me.  The girls found a bucket and a spade and they were happy.

 Drew was happy just picking up the sand and ROLLING around in it.  

We also saw a 500 year old oak tree.

Thursday, we went to Build-A-Bear.

Alison made a Frozen bear named Elsa who sings "Let it G0," Lauren made a rainbow bear named Annabelle who says "I Love London" in Lauren's voice, and Drew made a dog name Thomas who barks.  Drew and Lauren picked out glasses as their accessory, and Lauren has worn her glasses more than her bear, and the fact that there are only two pairs of glasses has caused quite some controversy as well.  But they had a good time.

Friday, we got out all the summer clothes, and it was nice to have the girl's help since I typically do that chore all on my own!  I discovered that Lauren has more clothes than I thought, so I won't have to do as much shopping in Florida as I was anticipating!  That's always good news.  Then, in the afternoon, we met a couple neighbors at the park down the street.  It was pretty crowded because it was a PERFECT day to be at the park.   My friend has a son, Carl, who just turned 4, and Drew and Carl had the best time playing football, picking up sticks, chasing pigeons and hunting!  It was really cute to see Drew interacting, and they got along great even though Carl mostly speaks Danish.  The girls made a new friend, Mary, while they were climbing a tree and then they played for a bit with a friend from school.  Drew has finally figured out how to use his scooter!!  Hooray!!!  He was all over the park on his scooter, it was great.  It's amazing how proficient kids are on scooters over here.

Saturday, we went to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.  I would like to go back to Covent Garden sometime!  It was a very busy place, but looked so very cool.  There were street performers everywhere; we saw a guy who was suspended in the air resting on a shovel.

 Pretty incredible.

The Transport Museum was a great place, as well.

 They had all sorts of old buses and trains that you get climb on, as well as a couple of play areas where you could drive a bus and repair a bus.  There was lots of information about the history of transportation in London, but we didn't read much of that.  I almost want to go back without the kids so I can learn all about it!  They had a stamp map for the kids, where they found the stamp areas, and stamped their card with different shapes.  The girls were all over that of course!  They also had a volunteer who was talking about how bus tickets were sold on older buses, and the conductor would walk around and sell tickets, so each kid got their own ticket.  Seems pretty inefficient to me, thank goodness for the Oyster card!

After we got back, Lauren and I went to the optician and it looks like she is definitely going to need glasses.  We have to go back on Tuesday so they can put drops in her eyes.  That should be fun with all three of them!

Today, we went to church, grabbed some lunch at Chipotle and then went to the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum  (Keeping it local!). It was cool to see the trophies and some of the costumes the women had to wear a long time ago.  I didn't realize that it was required to wear white to play at Wimbledon.  We also got a cool view of centre court, and the kids enjoyed the 3D movie about Wimbledon.

20 things I haven't done in the past 3 months

This morning, I was just thinking about how different things are, and all the things that I used to do very regularly in America, I haven't done one time since I have been here!

1. Push a grocery cart...since I do most of my groceries delivery, I only go to the supermarket when I need a few things, and I only use a basket so I don't get more than I can carry home.  Or I use the stroller if I have it!  (What started this whole idea was that I was thinking do the carts even have a spot to put a kid??)

2. Drive a car, which I don't miss and I don't think I would be very proficient at here, with driving on the other side of the road and the narrow roads.  I have riden in a car no more than 5 times!

3. Used a keurig....they don't use them here.  It's either the kettle or the french press.  At first, I was using the french press, but too much mess.  I am starting to LOVE the kettle, and most of the coffee here is Nescafe or similar.

4. Gone to Target (or any place where I can get everything I need on my list in one stop!)....this place I do miss.   When we go to Florida in a couple weeks, I might have to go to Target every day just because I can.

5. Bought clothes on-line for myself (or bought clothes at all really.)  I didn't realize how much on-line shopping I did.  It has been good for me not to buy clothes, it helps our budget, but also I don't have a place to put anything new!!!

6. Dropped Drew off at school...he's my side-kick for a couple more weeks.  He goes everywhere I go!

7. Eaten at Chick-Fil-A, which they don't have here.  There are several other fast food places here that are the same as the USA (KFC of course, McDonald's, Burger King, Chipotle), but I miss Chick-Fil-A.   Honestly, we don't really eat out that much anyways, and only Drew and I have been to McDonald's one time.

8. Gone to lunch at school.  They don't allow parents to come to school and eat lunch with the children.  I don't know if it's for safety reasons or space reasons, but I used to love to go to school and eat lunch with Lauren so I could get to know her friends!

9. Taken the kids to extra-curricular activities because the school has numerous after school clubs for the kids, so I don't have to take them anywhere!  Lauren did drama and art last term, and Alison did art.  Starting after the holiday, both girls are doing street dance, and Lauren is continuing with drama. There are several options for activities outside of school as well, but we will look into that next school year.

10. Watched TV in my bedroom.  We have one TV, and it's in the reception room and that is fine with me!  Brad would still like to get one for our room, but I feel like we haven't really missed it, so why bother?

11. Eaten GM produce!!!  How exciting is that?  No genetically-modified food here, which means the produce does not last as long, but no matter since I get at least 2 grocery deliveries every week.

12. Used sour cream, rather I have discovered cream fraiche, which is AMAZING!

13. Had a Miller lite; the selection of beers here is much better.  We love Carlsberg, Estrella and Peroni.

14. Used my fridge to get water; I assume it would have been too hard to run a water line to the fridge.  Thank goodness the tap water is pretty cold since there is no electric ice maker either.

15. Bought Cheerios since they are made by Nestle and the box says "May contain nuts!"  No General Mills here, but Kelloggs is very prevalant and the kids love Rice Krispies.

16. Put outgoing mail in my mailbox since our mail is delivered via mail slot.  All mail is put in the red royal mail post boxes, which are everywhere.  We pass one each morning on our way to school.

17. Clipped a coupon, which I don't even know if they use manufacturer coupons here.  And we don't get the paper, so I never really know what is going on in the world.

18. Borrowed a movie from the library since it cost £2!

19. Watched a March Madness basketball game.  I think they did televise a few of the games, but we never watched them.  The final game came on at 1 AM here on a Monday night so that wasn't happening.  I did miss filling out a bracket.

20. Consigned or sold anything on Facebook.  I was manic about selling things on Facebook before we moved!  I have found a similar group here, and I am planning to do my first postings next week.

Halfway through Easter holidays......

.....and we have been to three parks, colored loads of pictures, played at least 17 games of Monopoly Junior, removed one splinter (Alison from the bunkbed), lost a blankie for almost a week (Lauren), and had some great family time.  One week and a day left!

Monday, we went to South Park Gardens, which is the park closest to our house.  There is no playground equipment there, but there is lots of space to run around, trees to climb, sticks to pick up, etc.  I bought some chalk a while back and I was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it and they played with it for over an hour!  Drew and I also kicked the football (soccer ball) around for a bit as well.

Tuesday, we had planned to go to Build-A-Bear, but the kids all decided it was a good idea to write on the bench so we had to scrap that plan, and perhaps they can earn it back for next week.  Lauren and Alison wrote letters of apology.  Lauren's is pretty funny!

Since we couldn't go on our planned outing, we decided to go to a park not too far from our house with playground equipment.  It was SUPER windy, but the kids still had a great time.  And the girls managed to find the ONE muddy puddle in the whole park and Lauren's white pants were SOOOO muddy, but I got some Vanish gold and they are practically like new.  (Vanish gold is this amazing stain remover they have over here, and the advertisements are so good even the girls talk about it's amazing stain removing abilities!)

Wednesday afternoon, we took the train to Kensington Gardens (on the west side of Hyde Park) to go to the Princess Diana of Wales Memorial Playground, and all I have to say is WOW!!!!!  What an amazing park.  In the center is a huge pirate ship that has a steering wheel, and underneath, and a lookout tower that the kids can climb up and see out over the park.

Then there are about 6-7 different little areas with different types of structures.  The girls made a new friend Georgia when they were in the top of the lookout, and the three of them went and played in a little house for quite awhile.

 Drew and I explored and found the tepees, the slides, the tractor,

the swings, the chimes and even a wooden crocodile.  The last thing the girls did was swing on this giant swing.

It was great, we could have stayed there for hours!  And the best part is it is fenced in, and they don't let kids come in or go out without an adult, so I felt fine letting the girls do their thing while I followed Drew around.  This trip was the first time I had taken all three kids on the train solo, and they did amazing.  It was kind of a test to see how they would act.

The funniest thing on the train was Lauren took one of my old cell phones and pretended like she was talking and texting her friends with it the entire journey on the train.  And then when we got back, she asked if she could get off at a different exit than me.  Ahhh, 8 going on 18 that one!

Today, we went to Brad's office in Woking where they were hosting a family fun event.  We all had a great time!  They had a huge ball pit that entertained Drew for almost the entire time we were there!

The girls got balloon wands and their faces painted.  And the best part was seeing Daddy's desk, which is right next to a red telephone booth.  How cool is that???  For me, I was happy to see where Brad works, as well as take the train journey that he takes every day.  And I also got to meet some of his co-workers.

Friday, Brad was off work because it's Good Friday, so we headed to Battersea Park to go to the children's zoo.  We took the train to Clapham Junction, which Brad says is the busiest train station in London.  I had not been there yet, and it's pretty crazy there.  Then, we took the bus to Battersea Park, which is awesome and would be a great place to run.  It was a typical London day...gray and looking like it was going to rain, but if we let that stop us, we wouldn't do much!   The zoo is pretty small, but they have a couple of pretty awesome playgrounds.

The kids spent more time playing in the playgrounds than seeing the animals, but we got to see mice, monkeys, donkeys, rabbits, mara, emu, meerkats, and lemurs.

Once again, Lauren made a friend the first five minutes of being at the zoo and we kept running into her, and they played for about 20 minutes in the playground.  Two funny things about being at the zoo: the monkey we saw rolling mud (at least we hope it was mud) in a ball and then throwing it on the log and rolling it again.

 Then, we were eating some lunch, and there were roosters right by where we were eating and each time a rooster said "Cock-A-Doodle-do!" the kids would respond with "Good Morning!"

We were also able to get a family photo by the Thames! 

Alison and I went to the optician for Alison to get her eyes checked.  Eyecare for kids under 16 is free here, including glasses!!!  And if she had started kindergarten at Goshen, she would have needed an eye exam. She did a great job!  The doctor said her left eye is weaker than her right eye so she recommended further examination.

Saturday, we went to Legoland in Windsor,

on another gray windy not so warm day, but we still had a great time!  It was pretty crowded for a not so nice day so I can't imagine what it's like on a nice sunny day!!!  It's a big place, and there were parts we didn't even get to see, but we will go back.  It took almost 2 hours to get there by train, and this trip was probably the first time I missed having a car.  But it wasn't horrible, but it was about 50 minute train ride from Clapham Junction to Windsor.  And then we got a taxi from the train station to Legoland.  I definitely want to go back to Windsor to see the castle, which is HUGE!!!

The girls favorite ride was the Jolly Roller,

which was this huge pirate ship that went back and forth and went it pretty high up on the air.  Drew was not quite tall enough, so Brad and I each went once with the girls.  That was the only ride they did twice.  They also had teacup like ride called the Super Spider, which Drew and I did, and he said that was his favorite ride.

The coolest thing I thought was the buildings they had built out of legos...Big Ben, the London Eye, Mt Rushmore,

the Eiffel Tower, and lots of other European cities.

The train ride home was pretty exciting because we were sitting right beside the toilet, which was locked from the inside and some guy came up and banged on the door at least three times before we ever left the train station, and then once while we were on the train, and he was VERY upset that the toilet was locked.  The girls were completely appalled that someone actually said "the F word!"

Easter Sunday today!  The easter bunny left a few treats for the kids, as well as an easter egg hunt around the house.

Huge Surprise Egg with Polly Pocket inside

Travel Monopoly game

Yum, candy for breakfast!

And we went to church, and people don't really get all dressed up for easter here, at least not at our church, but the girls got new matching dresses.  Drew of course wore a cars shirt.  I didn't buy him anything new because I knew it wouldn't get worn!

Family photo, thank you self timer

We are having pork tenderloin for dinner tonight.  I wanted to have ham, but couldn't find ham amongst all the pork joints and gammons at the market (I am not even sure what that is!).  I guess maybe they do lamb....not sure!

Our Weekend

Hello, folks. Well, I am going to talk about our weekend. On Friday we went to the zoo. I made a new friend called Erin. She looks like Hannah. We saw some monkeys. They were really funny. One was playing with something like playing with play doh. When it was time for lunch, we got some lunch from a café. On Saturday, we went to Legoland. The picture below is a picture of the jolly rocker. Can you see me? Comment if you can. We also went on some fire trucks. There was Mount Rushmore built out of Legos! We also had a good Easter. We got Easter eggs'! Wow, I was the first one up. that never happens! Well, that's about it. I enjoyed my weekend. Bye! Also, I LOVE to decorate my signature. Comment please! ❤️❤️❤️***$$$LAUREN$$$***❤️❤️❤️ 

 

Lots and lots of things!!

Well, I haven't written in a looooonnnnngggg time. Well, First lets get to Hyde park. We did fun stuff with sand and went in a really high swing and other really really fun things. Okay, I'm going to put a list of things that I do usually

Our usual schedule 

7:30- Mom wakes me up

8:00- I get breakfast and then I get dressed and if I have spare time, I can play with my brother and sister.

8:25- Get the rest of uniforms on.

8:35- Out the door to school

8:45- get settled at school, do my handwriting (If it is Wednesday I do free writing.)

8:50- register (to make sure everyone is at school and if they are buying or packing their lunch.)

8:55- guided reading or Pe if it's Tuesday.

9:20- recess (I get 2 recesses!) 

9:40-English

10:00- maths

10:40- Harry Potter book

11:05- Lunch

11:45- scarecrow (if it's Monday) 

12:00- physical challenge 

12:30-recess

1:00- come in and register for the afternoon and more Harry Potter book

1:10- music 

1:45- get ready for swimming if it's Friday and freetime if it's not Friday

2:OO- out the door for swimming.

2:20- swim gear on

2:25- in the pool

2:40- out of the pool

3:00- back at school

Well my play went well Nailed it! My part was a stepmother and understudy robber. My scene was scene 1 and 3. I Made a new friend today at the park. Here's a picture..... 

We had lots of fun! I really miss everyone, and I LOVE reading your comments, but apparently I'm

Running out of space, and time!! I'll blog about more things tomorrow!! And on April 25, My first sleepover birthday in England! But my American friend has beat me to it!! comment PLEASE! I'm trying to get to at least 20 comments!!

 BYE!!

❤️**LAUREN**❤️