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!