September 2016

September has always been one of my favorite times of year.  School starts, the weather starts to turn a tad cooler, college football.....in London, the weather has started to get a tad cooler and school did start, and college football is known not to many and the games are much later in the day!

The first football Saturday, we went as a family to Drew's soccer class and then played and had a picnic at Wimbledon Park and then we took the train into the city to go to Borough Market, which is quite a place!!!   We had some really delicious ice cream, and then headed back.  The kids were not too excited to be there; it was very crowded, but I look forward to going back on my own in a couple of weeks to explore!!

School started for the girls on 7 September.  They were both so excited to get to school that we were there earlier than we have ever been at the school gates!  Amazing.  Alison is in Year 3 (2nd grade) with Mrs. Clarke, who is a new teacher to Garfield and Lauren is in Year 5 (4th grade) with Ms. Garraway, who is also new to Garfield.  Both girls came out of the school building with big smiles and happy about the first day, which is great!  It is hard to believe that Lauren will be the oldest in the school next year.

Drew and I headed to church to help with some cleaning up of toys for Twiglets and then we tried to go to McDonald's for lunch but the fryers were not working, so after calming down a very distraught little boy, we went to Burger King instead, which turned out to be a decent substitute.  And we FINALLY got to see "Finding Dory," which I promised Drew we would see once the girls started school.  It was a cute movie, and the funniest part was that Drew took Alison's doll Abby to the movies because she asked him to.  He carried her all the way into town and all the way home and held her in his lap for the entire movie.  He didn't once ask me to carry her!  He will make a good Daddy someday!

Thursday, we took the bus and tram to Ikea after taking the girls to school.  On the, bus, we saw Drew's friend Gracie who he tells everyone that he is going to marry one day! (And she tells her mom the same thing about him.....)  We had a good time at Ikea, looking for ideas for the new house.  And then Yvona and the girl she nannies for , Gracie, met us for lunch at Ikea.  What a nice treat, a lunchdate!!!!  And then we got a ride home, which was great since I bought more than I thought I would at Ikea.  That would have been a pain on the tram.  Lauren went to the optician in the evening, and she will have to wear glasses all the time now.  She is short-sited liked Alison and me.

Sunday, Alison and Lauren were riding bikes in South Park Gardens while Drew and I were at his friend Oscar's birthday party.  I got a call from Brad "You need to come home right now, Alison broke her arm."  Not the call you ever want to hear....so I rushed home and we were off the A&E (we were due a trip there...)  She was riding, and she and boy who was going a little too fast veered out of each other's way the same way and crashed, so there you have it.  She got a splint and an appointment for Tuesday to see Ortho.  At the follow up, we discovered it was indeed a greenstick fracture, meaning it didn't break all the way through, but a cast is required for 4 weeks....

Wednesday, Drew and I headed into the city and went to the Musuem of London, which was very interesting all about the history of London from pre-historic times all the way up to current times.  Drew's favourite thing was the cars and trains.  there was an exhibit that showed London above ground with buses, cars and horse drawn carriages, below ground with the trains and then below the trains with the sewers, etc.  Then we also walked past the wall that the Romans built around London, and then to St Paul's Cathedral.  it was an amazingly fun day!!

18 September, we met our friends Debbie and George and their two boys Sebastian and Dominic at Camden Town and took a boat ride on the canal from Camden Town to Little Venice.  Wow, it was two extremes!  Camden Town was totally hopping with all sorts of food stalls and markets and people everywhere, and then when we got off the train at Little Venice, near Paddington, it was SUPER quiet.  We were able to sit and have a drink and the kids played in this little basin.  It was quite a relaxing afternoon.

19 September: Drew started reception today.  He was very hesitant to get dressed, but he finally did and he looked SO handsome!!!!  He was great going into his classroom, but when I gave him a hug to say good-bye, he wasn't so sure about me leaving quite yet.  So, I stayed until they rang the tambourine and as I walked out, i broke down.  I can't believe my baby boy is in school!  I am ready for this stage to be over, but at the same time, I am sad about all of the growing up.  While he was at school, I took Alison back to the ortho and she got a new cast above her elbow this time in yellow.  That was somewhat unexpected!!  I just thought they were going to check and make sure it was healing ok.  When I went back to pick Drew up, he was all smiles and was so proud of himself that he ate all of lunch, which he promptly showed me.  And he said he made a new friend called Billy, and he was really happy!!!  And he said when he does work, he is going to try his best so he can be proud. What a sweet boy!!!

20 September I attended my first secondary school open night.  And all I can say is WOW, this secondary school decision is going to be quite a lot of work.  I went to see Ricards Lodge, which is the closest school to our house, but is still a 20 minute walk away.  I was pleasantly surprised actually.  They are very arts focused, so they have a dance studio, a drama studio, and a photography studio.  There were also quite a few visual arts displayed on the walls.

22 September: Lauren got a tooth extracted!  We went to the dentist because she had been complaining of a toothache, and when we had been at the dentist previously, she noticed that the permanent tooth was coming in, and the baby tooth was somewhat loose so she decided to pull it.  sh first numbed Lauren's gum so the shot wouldn't hurt.  The funniest thing was the look on Alison's face when she saw the needle!!  Lauren was very brave, although the numbness went all the way up her face which is quite a weird feeling.  And I think it was all worth it as the tooth fairy brought her £5.

23 September: Lauren went back to Stagecoach, which is her most favourite 3 hours of the entire week I think.

24 September: Family day out to Drew's football class, then a lovely time at Wimbledon Park.

25 September: I ran a half marathon in Windsor.  It was a very beautiful course, and running towards Windsor Castle at the end was quite spectacular.  The hardest part of the run was the 3 hills in the last 3 miles, but it was very picturesque through the countryside on a perfect autumn day!  Brad and the kids came to watch, and there were right at the finish line, and it was great to see them as I was running those last few steps.  Then we had a lovely lunch in Windsor and back home.  I had over 35,000 steps that day!!

26 September: Drew's first full day of school, and I was SO happy when he walked out of his classroom and said "That was the best day EVER!"  What a great thing to hear.  He is completely thriving at school, as are the girls.

27 September: I took advantage of my 6 hours and went into London and took a tour of Buckingham Palace.  The state rooms are only open for August and September, so I wanted to ensure that I was able to tour that as this is the last weekend.  There is also a special exhibit on the fashion of Queen Elizabeth II where they showed clothes from each decade of her life, including her christening gown, wedding gown, and coronation gown.  They even had the lime green dress that she wore for her 90th birthday celebration in June!  I was amazed at the number of hats, as well as the variation in style.  How amazing to be the milliner to the queen.  Many of the outfits that she wore paid tribute to the country she was visiting when she wore them, which is quite honorable.  And all of her clothing is made by British designers.  The state rooms were also quite interesting.  I was amazed at the number of mirrors throughout the house, as well as the numerous pianos in each of the drawing rooms that were open to the public.  I had lunch in St. James park and then walked to Waterloo, and I don't think that seeing Big Ben will ever get old!  When I collected Drew from school, he had 2 stickers: 1 for eating all of his lunch and 1 for good playground behaviour!  I am so glad to see him doing so well at school!!!

28 September: I attended my second secondary school open night at Burntwood School for Girls, and Lauren came with me this time, which was great to get her perspective!  We were a little late, so we were able to join the last tour, and were only able to see the computing, visual arts, literacy, and PE buildings but I was very impressed by the school!  It is HUGE and very modern.  Lauren was very impressed that the school has it's very own pool and also that the performing arts is such a huge part of the school.  I could definitely see Lauren going to school there, and it's about a 25 minute walk for her.

30 September: Brad worked from home in the morning and we were able to have lunch together in Wimbledon!  I Loved it, it was so nice to do something a little different!

Here are a few new terms/words I learned this month:

bills=notes (it's not a £5 bill, it's a £5 note)
horseback riding=horse riding
shots=necking it