I have decided to try to do things a little differently now because I obviously do not have the time to do this blog that I thought I would!!!
Starting this month, I am going to just write one entry over the month so that I can just capture everything.
The first week of June has been good so far. The kids were out of school for the first few days, so we went to see Horrible Histories, the Terrible Tudors at Hampton Court, which was quite entertaining and well done! And we got to check out the new Magic Garden playground, which was quite amazing. The favourite bit was sliding down the astro-turf hill. And we bumped into our friends Jenny and Georgie! And the next day, we went over to Thomas, Magnus and William's house for a playdate, then the boys showed us the tiny frogs they discovered in the pond by the park. And then we went to the Polka Theatre for lunch at the cafe and then the kids played on the playground for a long time. I cannot believe I have never been there before, what a great place.
Brad came home from his 10 day birthday guys trip/work trip to Vegas and we were all SO excited to see him!!!! Although, he was totally wiped from all his travels of course.
8 June - I decided that it was a sunny day and I was doing laundry, so I hung my laundry on the line to dry. Here are a few observations:
-First I had to figure out how to work the clothes line as I strung it out and hung one pair of shorts on the line and it drooped almost to the ground. More tension, please!!
-It takes MUCH longer to hang each article of clothing on the line rather than shoving them in the dryer.
-When it is sunny, the clothes dry pretty quickly
-The only thing that was a little bit stiff was the towels.
-You must watch the weather closely, as the rain was coming down in buckets literally 5 seconds after I removed the last article from the line.
So, I would say I can see myself doing that again, because there is nothing like an article of clothing dried in the sun and wind!
12 June - Mum Mum arrived, WOO HOO!!!! Drew was so excited to see her at his Gruffalo assembly. It was REALLY cute, and Drew was the student who got to welcome everyone to the assembly. I went to the neighbor's for a BBQ, which was great fun. Saturday was the Holy Trinity summer fair, where I had an Arbonne stall. Mum Mum and the kids stopped by for a bit. It was fun, and the weather was mostly good.
Sunday, Mum Mum was off to the seaside to see her friend Donna and her granddaughter Caroline. We went to the Garden Shed to support Poland in the Euros (Apparently this tournament is the next big sporting event, there seem to be multiple ones, but this is football amongst all the European Countries). Poland won!!!
Tuesday, Drew, Mum Mum and I went to Hampton Court for the afternoon. It was really fun! The rose gardens were AMAZING, and Drew had the best time playing in the new magic garden, especially since there weren't many people around. Thank goodness for the extra trousers in his school backpack. We enjoyed looking around the palace and we nearly got lost in the maze as Drew was our tour guide.
Wednesday, Mum Mum took Drew on an adventure to the London Eye. They ate lunch at McDonald's first and then took the train to Waterloo. Drew enjoyed seeing the sites, but I think he had the most fun playing on the playgound.
Thursday, Brad and I got all dressed up and went to Ascot for the annual KFC day at the races. I LOVE getting dressed up and I LOVE seeing all the men in their top hats and morning coats. It is so quintessential British to me. We had some great food, some Pimm's and I won £78 on the Gold cup!!! I bet on the horse that came in third and it had 66-1 odds. I quit while I was ahead!!
Friday was Drew's class trip to Godstone Farm, which was very fun!! Drew really enjoyed the ride on the coach, and they had lots of really cool animals there, as well as several amazing play areas. They got to go on a tractor ride, feed the pigs, play in the barns, play on the playground and explore different areas of the farm. He also enjoyed the dinosaur area.
Sunday was Father's Day, and we met some friends at Jimmy's World Cafe for lunch/dinner. It was quite an experience!!! It was SLAMMED, both because it was Sunday and father's day, but the kids had a great time. It's a buffet with all different types of food, from curries to Yorkshire pudding to hamburgers. They even had a chocolate fondue fountain. The kids all enjoyed getting all their own food and going back again and again and again.
The girls and Mum Mum had a great time doing American Girl crafts. They discovered a great website with all sorts of printables that allow them to make food and other items for their dolls out of common items found around the house. Although, Mum Mum did take each of them shopping to purchase a few items like craft foam and clay.
RAIN, RAIN, RAIN was the weather almost the entire time Mum Mum was here, but we didn't let it stop us! The one day it rained pretty much all day was the day we had planned to go to Kew Gardens, but we opted for a nice breakfast in the village instead. We enjoyed walking around and looking at all the different windows decorated for the tennis.
Alison has been learning all about Van Gogh (pronounced Van Gof) in school. She has done sunflowers, starry starry night and Irises (although she always calls them radishes.) She knows all about his life and she is fascinated by his art.
Drew has been learning about the author Julia Donaldson, who is a prolific children's author. All of her books rhyme, and have great stories. We discovered that she started our writing childrens songs and she is exactly the same age as Mum Mum!! Drew can recite the entire book of A Squash and a Squeeze and the Gruffalo and The Smartest Giant in Town. It baffles me that I had never heard of this author until we moved here. And the same with one of Lauren's favourite authors, Jacqueline Wilson.
My dad's cousin Peggy and her husband Barry were in London for a few days as an exchange student of theirs is getting married outside of London. The kids and I met up with them in Hyde Park on the day of the Brexit vote, as their school is a polling location. It was so nice to catch up with them, and the kids had a great time playing at the park.....until it started raining and I was completely un-prepared for that. We stood under the cover of the ice cream stand for a bit until the rain let up mostly. We took the tube to Earl's Court and then the trains to Wimbledon stopped running due to flooding at Wimbledon park. Thank goodness for City Mapper! We took four different buses to get home, and it took almost 2 hours from Earl's Court (which is usually about 25 minutes.) The kids didn't complain at all, and we even had to wait for one bus for about 20 minutes. What an adventure. It just goes to show there are MANY different ways to get just about anywhere in London.
Brexit: needless to say, we are as shocked at the rest of London that people actually voted us out. No one really knows what it means exactly yet, but I will say that a lot of my friends from other European countries are very upset and feeling uneasy about the future. Brad was asking Drew if he was shocked about Brexit and Drew said "What does he look like?" On the other side of the kids, Lauren's class had their how vote about in/out and her class voted 18 in and 7 out. Not quite what the popular vote came to....
In July, Lauren is going to Disney with her Stagecoach group, and they had the unique experience to go to a recording studio and record their song they will be singing in their performance, which is a medley of classic Disney songs. The one comment that was consistent for both her and her friend Kayla was how small the studio was and that all 27 of them were all smashed in their at once. That is one experience I can say I will most likely never have!
27 June: Today begins the Wimbledon Championships. It is definitely an exciting time around here! All the shops have tennis balls and decorations to signify the event, and of course the train station has a large winding line. One of the local grocery stores has grass set up upside the shop, along with a huge TV screen showing all the matches. And of course Pimms and strawberries and cream set up for sale right inside the shop.
30 June: The last day of June was quite exciting!! Delta (my second cousin who is the daughter of Peggy) and her boyfriend Justin were in London for one night only, so Brad and I met them in the city for dinner at this REALLY great pub called the Laughing Gravy. I don't even know the last time I saw Delta, but it was so great to catch up with her! Brad was invited by a work collegue to attend a 4th of July party that is held each year at the Winfield House, the home of the US Ambassador to the UK, so we headed over to Regent's Park for that. WOW, what a beautiful area of London!! It was right past the London School of Business. and we could hear the music from down the street. The house is AMAZING and we walked outside to this massive garden with about 1000 people (maybe more) and a full-on stage and numerous VW beetle buses and all sorts of flags and tents set up with food and drinks. And they also had people walking around with Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Krispy Kreme donuts. It was quite a production!!! We met a few people that Brad works with in the London office and there were several people who are in government relations positions there as well. The final band was Bastille, followed by a proper 4th of July fireworks show. The event was definitely on a much larger scale than either of us expected.
