OCTOBER 2016

Autumn has most definitely arrived!!!  But I do miss the colors here, most of the trees stay green, at least around Wimbledon.  I am sure in the parks it is different.

First of all, the term I just thought of today is that items are not "on sale," they are "on offer."
Other funny British terms:
bits and bobs
done and dusted
tuck in (as in "I am going to tuck into this curry.")


The first week of October, Lauren decided she wanted to buy "school dinners," aka school lunch.  She reviewed the menu and decided she saw something each day she could have; at Garfield, you have to have the same lunch all week-either school dinners or packed lunch.  Let's just say that her buying school dinners only lasted one week.  I will say that she is always asking for curry, so I guess her tastes have changed a bit!

I took Drew to his football class, and was very surprised when I arrived at Wimbledon Park and there were huge signs for the Jacksonville Jaguars as well as 8 fields of flag football games being played.  They had a big bouncy obstacle course and a throw the football through to the receiver game.  Drew was pretty unimpressed, but he did enjoy the bouncy course.

Brad and I finally got a date night out.  The Michigan games here are on at either 5 PM or 8:30 PM, which makes date nights on Saturday nights difficult, but 8 October, the game didn't start until midnight London time!  We had dinner at a French restaurant in the village, which was surprisingly very tasty.  I wasn't quite sure what to make of the menu, but the starter was AMAZING: a blue cheese veloute with tortellini and grilled cep (mushrooms.)  Brad ordered a 7 hour suckling pig and I had a delicious pumpkin tartlette.  We decided to go somewhere else for dessert, and we discovered this cute little cafe called BREW.  Whenever I walked past, I thought it was a coffee shop, but it is also a pizza place and they had GREAT desserts and also great coffee to enable Brad to stay up to watch the 78-0 routing of Rutgers.  Then, Sunday, we went to the Science Museum.  We watched the bubble show, which was actually pretty great.  Alison was able to open the show my blowing bubbles, and they filled bubbles with helium and they rose to the ceiling and then they filled them with carbon dioxide, which made them sink to the floor.  Then we went to the little kids area and the girls made a sofa out of the big lego blocks and Drew had a good time playing in the water.

11 October...Alison finally lost her other front tooth, and I love her new smile.  And she got a new cast, a shorter blue one this time.  I have never before seen a kid have 3 casts for one injury!  But hopefully just 2 more weeks.

12 October...Garfield's 60th birthday celebration!  How fun it was to be able to go to the school and have lunch with all three kids together and to see so many parents come to the school to take part in the celebration.  They released red balloons up into the sky, which was so cool to see!

13 October....My day out in London was a trip to the Tate Modern with a few friends to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit.  It was amazing, I had no idea how prolific of any artist she was.  And she lived to be nearly 100 years old.  She had so many different styles of paintings, from New York skylines to abstract art to flowers to landscapes to skull and bones that she collected in New Mexico while living there.

14 October....the exchange of contracts is happening today for our new house.  Exciting but nervous at the same time!!!  About one month until we move in.

Alison has developed a love for Roald Dahl books after they had the 100th birthday celebration last month.  We just finished reading Matilda and now we will start Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  I have been able to find quite a few for a good price at the charity shops, which is great.  It will be good to have them for when Drew gets a bit bigger!

16 October....Lauren had the privilege of performing her Disney Dazzle number at the New Wimbledon Theatre.  It was an entire showcase of Stagecoach numbers, and it was pretty spectacular. There were about 7 different Stagecoach groups that participated, and each performance was very different: a couple of medleys of Broadway shows (Hairspray and Billy Elliott),  a few dances, and one David Bowie (pronounced liked the part of a ship not like the thing girls wear in their hair) dance number.  I am so happy that Lauren has found an activity that brings her so much joy!

19 October, we had the kids parent-teacher conferences at school.  They are all doing really well, and we are so very proud of how well they have all adapted to school here.  Alison's teacher said it has been a bit of a challenge with her broken arm with writing in literacy and maths, but she has enjoyed science and topic and making the mosaics in art.  She is always very engaged, but needs to show a bit more confidence in group discussions, but she said she is getting better.  Lauren's teacher said Lauren is doing really well, and her ideas for her stories are amazing, and she is great at sharing her ideas in class and working with others.  And Drew's teacher said he is a super star and has risen to every challenge she has presented to him and he will never give and will keep trying!  Well done, Scheiner kids!!!  Mommy and Daddy are so proud!!

20 October...the last day of school before half term and Drew had a birthday party at Wacky Warehouse (a local soft play place).  The party was super fun until the very end when  Lauren hit her head and she had a huge goose egg, so I dialed 111 the NHS directline and they sent an ambulance for precautionary purposes and then we went to St Georges (Man do I feel like I LIVE there!), and after waiting a LONG time, the doctor checked her out, and while impressed by the size of her bump from a SOFT play, he was happy with her responses, so we were sent home thankfully.

22 October-27 October: Trip to Rome!!  (See separate post)

31 October-Halloween.  This Halloween is definitely the most laid back I have ever been.  I didn't even purchase a real pumpkin for carving, only a foam one with a light inside.  And the only costume I bought was a Gruffalo costume for Drew that cost £8.  Our friends Anise, Rosalind and Florence came over as well as Sudha and Sol.  Rosalind and Florence are the same ages as Lauren and Alison but they switched schools last January and we hadn't seen them in quite a while, so it was nice to see them  And Rosalind's friend came along and she knows Sol from a drama class, so it worked out perfectly.  The kids had a great time running between the houses.  I will say they can go to many more houses in a shorter amount of time in London because the houses are so much closer together.  However, not every house is giving out candy.  If a house has a lit pumpkin outside, then it means they are celebrating.  And there were several houses with very creative decorations and well-carved pumpkins.