Spring Fever - A Bit Early

Today started out very sunny, so we got a touch of spring fever and thought it would be great to go out for a picnic. There is a great lake near by called Rutland Waters that is pretty popular for bicycle riders and it had been a place we had been wanting to check it out. So we packed up the kids and headed for Stamford to pick up Subway (we have been eating way too many Saturday lunches at McDonald's). Now it's great that we have Subways in the UK, but so of them are darn tricky to get to. We found one in Stamford which is only about 5 miles from Rutland Waters, but we had to wind all the way into the city centre and Kevin hopped out while I waited for the kids in a restricted car park hoping not to get caught.

When we finally got to Rutland, in true English form, the weather changed on us, and as we got down by the water it was darn right freezing. We laid out our blanket and started eating. Poor Harrison is a real trooper because his baby food got really cold but he's not a fussy eater so he mowed it down anyway. Addison, who was fearless with the big geese at Ferry Meadows, was now terrified of the little Mallard ducks that waddled up to say hello.Kevin was "super dad" and help ward off the ducks away from our picnic by taking Addie down to throw them bread down by the water. 

Determining that this wasn't the best idea, we quickly finished eating our lunch, packed the crying children up and headed to the car....just to drop off the blanket and diaper bag!!! Yes, we are cruel parents and were going to make our children suffer some more by taking them on a walk on the trails. Actually it got much warmer once we got away from the water.  As we got walking I had another epiphany moment that I was really happy that we were able to be doing what we were doing...living in England, being in this place, really it was just being able to be together as a family (and finally out of the house).  I kind of get all emotionally when we get to go do even the littlest things anymore, wondering what I'll be like when we get to start traveling again. Well after trudging through a lot of mud and attempting to cross a cattle grid (when the sign specifically tells cyclists to dismount and not cross it) we found a really nice play area for Addison to finally have some fun.

We met a really nice British couple from near Nottingham who were "caravaning" (camping in a camper) for the weekend.  They had a little boy who was "two and three quarters" - I thought it was cute they added the "three quarters," and the two kids had a blast playing with each other.  We found that Addison has absolutely no fear.  Kevin helped her up the ramp and across the wood bridge and down the slide just once and then she was doing it on her own.  She would be up and down twice before this other little boy would get around just once....I felt sorry for the little guy.  

Addison had a lot of fun playing and we even got her to "hang out" a bit.

A New Blog Site

Ever since we've moved to the UK I have really missed some our favorite American ingredients.  There are a few options to get some products: load up your suitcases with food or bribe a family member/friend to load up their suitcases for you when you come over from the States (I'd rather load up on other things that security doesn't have to drug test in my bags), you can have people ship you things but that is atrociously expensive, you could order things on Skyco.co.uk or Americansoda.com, but those are pretty expensive as well and they are usually non-perishable items.  If you are really lucky you can find someone who lives on the Airforce base who can buy you American products at American prices, but that is pretty tough.  I finally came up with the philosophy that "If you can't buy it, make it yourself."

I have created a lot of "homemade" things since I moved here 18 months ago and I like them almost better than the purchased things.  I've also learned how to make a lot of new recipes from scratch so that I can re-create them anywhere we live.  So what I have done is created a totally different blog site that I can dedicate to recipes and other do-it-yourself projects to share with the masses.  My goal is to try a new recipe or project each week so check it out and let me know what you think.

Can't Buy It? Make it!

Bath Time

It's great that Harrison is now sitting up on his own because I can sit him up in the tub instead of laying him down. The past couple of weeks his feet have been hanging over the edge. We've been giving the kids their baths at the same time so since it's a bit difficult and risky to have Harry in the tub with Addie we fill his little tub up on the floor next to the big tub. We have to line the carpeted floor with lots of towels because he LOVES to splash the water.


Addison loves playing with her little duckies in the tub these days. She lines them up on the edge of the tub and covers their heads with a wash cloth and calls it their hat. Also now that her hair is longer we love to make funny hair-do's especially mohawks. She is now finally understanding and following through with laying down in the tub to let mommy and daddy rinse out her hair. For the longest time we have tried getting her to put her head back to rinse out the soap but she always looked down and we ended up having to douse her head with water and she usually gets really mad.

Another trick we recently learned was to start using the "bedtime" bath soap with lavender in it for our night time baths. After the bath we lather them up with the lavender scented lotion as well in hopes that it will calm them and zonk them out for bed.

Gerbil-Sitting

This past week we got to gerbil-sit and, no, that's not some weird British past time or sport. Our neighbors got to enjoy a week-long cruise in the Caribbean during half-term break and since we were going to be around all week they asked us to watch their gerbils.

Addison loved watching them run around on their wheel and I was totally amazed on how fast they can gnaw away at a paper towel cardboard roll. We had the perfect spot for them is a spot that Addison couldn't torment them too much but where low enough that she could enjoy seeing them.

A Day in London - Covent Garden and a Few Surprises

Today we ventured down to London because we needed to head out on some type of adventure. Eventhough the weather is warmer here than the Midwest during the winter, the sun doesn't shine a whole lot and when it does you need to take advantage of it.

We like heading down to London for the day and picking one thing we'd like to do and then let the rest of the day take care of itself. Today we decided to checkout Convent Garden which is home to loads of shops, the Jubilee Market, and lots of street entertainment. We decided that we've been in the UK for a while now and that we better start collecting a few special items to have when we go back home instead of waiting until the last minute. So we picked out some great photographs of famous places in London that we will get framed someday. I also picked out a new scarf because the are just need little things to have and since I'm not much of a fashion guru, it's really the only thing I have to give me the "English" look. We enjoyed a great lunch at one of the millions of Bella Italia's and got there just in time because the tiny little place was packed full about 10 minutes after we arrived. I got out the camera to take some pictures and to capture some moments and the battery died after 8 pictures and of course in true luck of mine, I didn't have the spare battery!!!

As we were walking by one of the more cheesy looking street entertainers we saw someone waving at us...it was Lana Dobberfuhl and her girls (they are the other American family who live in Glinton with us). They were down visiting with her parents who were in town to visit them. We sat with them for a while to watch the crazy guy who claimed to be able to juggle while riding an 8 foot giraffe unicycle. Ultimately I wasn't too impressed with this fellow because first of all he started walking towards my daughter and Lana's daughters as to draw attention to them and ended up frightening away Amy and Emily and then brought Addison to tears in front of the whole crowd. The crowd did boo him as Addison rushed to my arms. Secondly, he was a bit vulger because he stripped down to what looked like a wrestling singlet and ended up grinding is crotch on some guys head as he was being boosted up on his unicycle. He asked families to donate 5 GBP to his hat at the end since it was the cheapest entertainment they would get during half term break. Kevin did give Addie a few coins that he had to put in the hat but he was horrible.

After all that we just started walking and ended up crossing the Waterloo bridge and found the Southbank Book Market which had thousands of used books for sale out in the open on tables and then some skateboarding park that smelt like freshly spray-painted graffiti. By that time both kids were zonked out and Kevin and I made our way down past the Eye, Big Ben, and finally got out of the millions of people as we headed to St. James Park (one of our favorite places)!!!

How ordinary, but extraordinary London seems to be for us. There is always something new to see and do. I have a whole list of different things that we are going to check out on future day trips and we'll see how many of them we will get to see and what new things we'll find along the way.

The Quiet Book Project

Back before Thanksgiving I started this sewing project to create a "Quiet Book" for my children and one for my nephew. I've talked about it in previous blogs on how they all liked it but haven't gotten to show you what it looks like so here it is:













The star, hearts, and circles velcro off and on this page.













Here you snap the tail off and on the pony. Addison loves the next page with the mirror and comb. I added the rope on the mirror because I didn't want to lose it.













I modified the zipper page from two plain zippers and made a tent with a sleeping bag on the inside...it's even lined with plaid flannel. The next page has shapes that velcro on and off.












Here you snap the wheels on the train. Next you can put your hand in the red flannel mitt.












I tried to be cute with the purse and make it "English" by writing "mummy", but in true English form I should have put "Mummy's Handbag" because in England a purse is what we would call a wallet. Next you button the flowers on the stems.












Here you velcro the fruit into the basket and next you put the fuzzy bear in his bed. Addison likes to take all the fruit and shapes and stick them in bed with the bear.












Addie can't tell time yet but she knows this is a clock. Then you velcro the lights on the stop light.












The puppy is hidden behind a door and can velcro on and off the inside door. Then you can tie the shoe.












Finally the last page has a spot for a notepad and pencil.

Addison loves the book and we used it on the plain rides home to keep her busy. The one thing I would have done differently would to have been to attach heavy string or thin rope to each of the shapes and small pieces so they could have stayed connected to the book. It was a bit difficult bending down on the plane looking for pieces she felt like throwing.

Two Peas in a Pod

Addison and Harrison are both growing so fast and starting to develop that brother and sister relationship already. Addison loves to "play" with Harrison by holding him, trying to dance with him, she has him lay on top of her tummy (guess she gets that from me doing that), but she is pretty possessive "her" (hers and Harry's) toys and yanks them away when Harry tries reaching for them.
Harrison loves to watch his big sister like a hawk. He obviously finds that she does lots of funny things because he is always smiling at her she can really get him giggling. Last night I was reading them both a book and neither of them paid attention to the book...they both kept giggling at each other. He doesn't seem to mind her man-handling of him too much but gets a little upset when she drops things close to his head.

We Got the Love - Happy Valentine's Day

We've kind of gotten used to the UK not getting as indulgent into holidays (except Christmas) as the States so we don't get as hyped up, but Valentine's Day was very special this year. First of all we received two awesome packages from Grandma Sally and Grandma Sue full of Valentine's goodies and treats. It's really not Valentine's Day unless you get to eat some candy hearts with little love sayings on them. Since V-Day fell on a Saturday we got to spend the entire day together as a family. I made everyone heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, which are Addison and Kevin's favorite Saturday morning treats.

Then we went up to the park in Glinton and had the whole space to ourselves to swing and run around. The weather was beautiful but we loaded Addison up in the snow gear since it was still a bit muddy. Addison loves getting "under doggies" and squeals out "g-in, g-in" (again) so Kevin and I both got good workouts.







For lunch we went to one of my favorite pubs called the Cuckoo. It has some of the best atmosphere for a real "English" feel and the food is amazing as well. I told Kevin that I wanted the same picture of this cow that they have hanging up because I just thought it was so cool. I took this adorable picture of Addison and Kevin and happened to catch the cow in the back so I could remember it. The picture also has some other significance in that marks the same table where Kevin and I had our first meal at the Cuckoo on our house hunting trip.

Next we went to Ferry Meadows to walk around and feed the ducks. We always seem to forget to bring bread with us to feed the ducks and geese but this time I was going to be prepared. When we got to the park all we saw was snow and iced over ponds. The only ducks we saw were "waterlocked" in the middle so I thought for a while that I was jinxed to have cut up all this bread and we can't even get to the ducks. But then we kept on walking and found a spot that loads of geese were out of the banks of the River Nene so Kevin pushed the stroller through 2 inches of snow to get us close enough.
Addison and Kevin had a great time throwing out bread crumbs and found that some of the geese were pretty aggressive and mean to some of the other geese. Kevin was trying to get Addie to only through crumbs to the "nice" geese. I was pretty surprised that she did really well by being surrounded by 50+ big geese. The really freaked me out, but maybe because as I was trying to take close up pictures of Addie they would sneak up on me without me knowing. Harrison really seemed to like the birds as well. He hung out in the stroller and just watched these crazy things pecking at each other.

That evening Kevin and I went out for the first time by ourselves for more than 3 hours since before Harry was born. Addison was a wreck when we left because she didn't take a nap so we were frazzled by that and felt awful for Katie our babysitter. Also I happened to drop the SatNav on the way out of the house so I had guess where this place was that we were going for dinner. We went to a pub call The Rose in Frognall for a special Valentine's Dinner. I think the best thing about the evening was the bottle of wine we shared...it was great and helped loosen the worry wort mother in me. After dinner we stopped at the Blue Bell pub in Glinton for another glass of wine before we headed home so I was feeling pretty good by the time we got home. And to top off the evening we fell asleep on separate couches watching TV....ahhh...a wonderful Valentine's day...who needs flowers, jewelery and such things when you can have this.

Super Snow Day

Today we woke up to a "beautiful" site....6 inches of snow! This amount of snow is unheard of in England and it literally shut down the country when a storm hit London on Monday and it was crazy around here today. One hundred and eighty two schools in the Peterborough area where shut down and people just didn't go into work because transportation was horribly dangerous. Imagine six inches of snow and no way to remove it. The cities here don't own snow removal equipment like plows because it's a waste of money when it never snows like this. Well my wonderful husband didn't think anything of the snow as his driven through worse so he braved off to work this morning. Our friend Danny Wong did as well and took an amazing picture of the roads on the drive in. Kevin called about an hour later and said he finally made it to work and was walking through 6 inches of snow through the car park and sidewalks because no one had been out to clear them yet...he wasn't sure if they were going to either.
At 8 AM I called my neighbor boy, Yi Hong and told him to call us back when he was ready to go out and play in the snow and I would get us all dressed up. He said that maybe around 9 or 10 or maybe 11 he would be ready to go. Five minutes later I get a call from Min saying he was ready to go now. So I bundled up the kids and myself in all the garb I could. Addie is really getting good use out of the snow suit my mom and dad got her from Cabela's. I bundled Harrison up in the cutest sweater and thick pants my Aunt Tammy and Uncle Kevin sent him and got him to sit in his car seat for awhile as I got to play with all the kids. I dug out my big yellow ski jacket that I've had since a sophmore in college and found some slicky pants to go over some fleece pants since I didn't have my own proper snow pants.
By the time we finally got outside, Robert and Matthew had already rolled a huge snow ball into our front yard to start our snowman quartet. Kevin gave us homework to build our family out of snow and all the kids were a big help in getting it done.

Mei Mei and Molly were so helpful in playing with Harrison a bit when he got really fussy. He wanted to join in the fun, but I told him he had to wait until next year.

The girls also helped Addison learn how to make snow angels. I tried it myself and didn't realize how hard it is to do with really packy snow. But I totally felt like I was 10 years old again.

Me and Harrison all bundled up!

Addison loved throwing snowballs.  It was a little tough for her but Mei Mei and Yi Hong showed her how to do it.

In England, for some reason, they call this "sledging."  I call it cute!!!  We don't have any hills around to go "sledding" but a short ride around the cul de sac works just fine for this duo.

Danny got sent home early from work so he joined in the fun.  Poor Kevin was stuck at work catching up on things and since he still had to coordinate with the States he had meetings until 6 PM tonight.

There were so many people outside.  I have never seen more people out on the green the whole year and a half we've been here.

Loads of people stopped by to see our snow men.  Our two babysitters, Emily B and Katie G and Katie's mum, Sue, all stopped by.

Our house looked so pretty with all the snow and our jolly snow men out front.

And the biggest thing that brought me back to my childhood was when I hung up our wet clothes on the radiators to dry.  I remember unloading all out clothes in the basement after several house of snow playing bliss.  Things have come full circle now that I am now doing it with my kiddos!!!

Birthday "Baking" Party

For Addison's second birthday, I thought a "baking" party would be so much for her and her little friends.  Addie has really been having fun helping me and Kevin out in the kitchen plus we got her a children's baking set for her birthday.

We invited 11 of Addison's friends from our ISE group who are all pretty close to her age (2-4 years old that all happen to be little girls).  I found a cake store that sold cake boxes that I used for the "goodie" box.   When they got to the party, they had a sheet of fairy, princess, and unicorn stickers to decorate it.  Then inside the box they found their very own aprons to where during the party.  I got the idea from the apron that Sally made for Addison for Christmas.  They were super easy and fast to make.  Then they all had a little rolling pin that Kevin helped me make by cutting up a long dowel I bought at B&Q and sanded smooth.

We started out by rolling out sugar cookies.

Me and Addison

Amy with Kameron and Kendall

Lana with Emily

Laurie and Kylie

Emily with Madeline

Look how Addison is putting her cookies on the baking stone...I didn't even have to show her how.

While the cookies baked, we rolled out mini pizzas to eat for lunch.   The girls made their own pizzas and then Lana and Emily made our "mommy" pizzas. Everyone seemed to really enjoyed their creations!!!

Elise

Alana

After lunch we sang Happy Birthday to Addison and enjoyed some ice cream cone cupcakes.  I have always seen this done in magazines and wanted to try it...they looked sooooo cute.  But not as cute as the birthday girl blowing out her candle.

Addie and I enjoying our cupcake ice cream cones.

Next we got out all different colors of frosting and sprinkles to decorate our cookies.  I think the girls more more interested in eating the cookies right away than letting them dry. 

Kylie is so meticulous with her sprinkles.

Holli with Gwen decorating cookies

 

Lastly, Addison got to open her presents.  After opening each gift she was ready to play with it and it was hard to get her to open all the rest of her gifts.  She loved them all so much...her friends are way too kind.

Thank you all who came to celebrate with us.  Addison had so much fun with you all and so did I.  I know my friends here think I am absolutely crazy and they call me Martha Stewart all the time, but honestly I love to do this kind of stuff.  I was telling my mom that it is hard not to have fun with something you are passionate about.  I really think I missed my calling to go into party planning or catering...it is so much fun to think up activities people can enjoy doing together and having great food to go along with it.

Thank you Lana for helping me out by mixing up the pizza dough and thanks Emily for entertaining Addison while I got everything ready to go.