Addie's Art

Over the past several weeks Addison has taken on a strong interest in drawing faces.  She has filled almost two mini notebooks up with face, usually a single face on each page so this is special for her to have drawn two.  Some of her faces are smiling and others are serious.  Some have hair while others may have arms and legs.  She says that they are either mommy, daddy, Harry or Addison. 

For Easter she got a Magna doodle and she uses this a lot in the car, planes, and trains to do her drawing.  She drew this face on the way to the airport and I had to take a picture of it before she erased it.  This was the first face she had done with big circles for eyes with the dots in the middle.  She very precisely closes her "circles" and is very intent when she does it.  

We're so proud of our little artist!!!

Swim in the Pool

Tonight we headed down to the Crowne Plaza near Heathrow Airport as we were to catch a 7AM flight to Frankfurt the next morning.  One of the things that this particular hotel advertized was that it had the biggest pool near Heathrow so I thought if we could get down early enough that we could take the kids swimming.  Earlier in the day the kids and I went to buy Addison some Fifi Flowertot arm bands and all she wanted to do was wear them all day.  The car ride down all she could talk about was "Swim in the pool, mommy, swim in the pool!"  We didn't make it to the hotel until 7:30PM and the pool closed to kids at 8PM so just Addison and I whipped on our suits and headed down to the pool to get some play time in.  We had to warn her several times that we couldn't swim long and she couldn't get upset when it was time to get out which she did really well.  She had so much fun though.  I let her go a few times in the deeper section so it was just the floaties holding her up and she did pretty good until a little water got in her mouth.  I immediately looked at Kevin and said we need to get her to a pool more often especially if we are going to get another boat when we go back to the States.  I think she will really like swimming and both of our kiddos need to learn to be fish!!!   

BBQ with Min's Dad

Min's dad, Francis, came to visit her in England shortly after they got back from their home leave in Singapore.  Tonight they had a traditional "Wong" BBQ for all of us to enjoy visiting with him.   He posed for a picture with me, Sarah, and Emily.

We always have way too much food, but it is so good that you can't stop eating.  Danny always starts out with chicken satay skewers and today he also made up Asian style chicken wings and Chinese beef skewers and Min made my taco dip recipe and had veggies and dip.  Okay...all of that filled us up, but he went ahead and made the sausages and  Min had noodles, fried rice, I made potato salad and Sarah made this amazing chocolate torte.

This also enjoyed some yummy ice cream cones and Addison just loved them.  She also loved getting to play with Emily's younger sister, Gemma who graciously lets Addison drag her around.

Ahh...Harrison, you look so much like your daddy.

Danny and Min have a nice, big back garden that accommodates us eating outside and let the kids get a football game in on the side.  It's okay if they kick the ball against the fence a bit because it's already leaning into Simon's back yard.

Min and her dad look so much alike.  He doesn't speak much English but he is so sweet.  He really enjoyed his time in England.

Look at these two.  Looks like trouble to me.

At one point Kevin had to make a run for it to catch Addison and lept over one of our green camping chairs.  Well, of course this turned into some backyard Olympic sporting event.  They left the chairs up for the adults and the kids got to jump over them folded up on the ground.  Addison did a great job!!!  Do I see a future Olympian?

Of course, no get together at the Wong's could go by without the microphones being broken out with the karaoke and songs by the infamous Michael "Bloton" (crazy Singaporian karaoke CDs).  This was the first time we had Mike and Debby Beales partake in the fun and Mike fully got his two girls and wife turning red with his fabulous efforts.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

A while back Addison and I had were watching a program on the Disney channel about a little boy and his dad who went to fly a kite.  It looked like so much fun, so this morning Kevin and Addison went to Toys R Us this morning and picked out a Thomas the Tank Engine kite.  While they were gone, Harry and I packed up a little picnic.  Off the the open fields of Burghley House we went to fly our kite and nibble on some sandwiches. 

Addison looooved flying her kite and she did a pretty good job holding onto it. Harrison mainly enjoyed the sandwiches from lunch.

Also that day the Burghley Horse and Pony Club were having riding competitions, so we had to go over to see the horsies.  Addie and Daddy had a pretty fun time watching the little girls jump the gates with their ponies and then with their doggies.  Kevin and I were pretty impressed on the little riding outfits and such some of the kids were wearing.  Horse riding is a pretty serious sport over here so they do start them young.  Wondering when Addie will start asking for her own horse...seems that all kids ask for one at some point in their childhood.

A Day at the London Zoo

Today we headed down to London to visit the London Zoo in Regent's Park.  Last year we took Addison to the zoo when she was about Harrison's age. Now that she is a bit older and knows the different animals we thought it would be fun to see the zoo again through her eyes and it was even more fun this time.  

Here we are checking out the lion...Addie gave us the best ROAR she had and tried teaching Harry how to do it too.

Here is Addison at the zoo when she was 7 months old sitting on her Daddy's shoulders.

Here is Addison at 26 months (2years old) on her Daddy's shoulders in the same place at the park.  Funny thing is that Dad is happened to be wearing the same shirt during both trips to the zoo.

In England the call zebras, ze-bras with a short e like when you say Ted.  We call them zee-bras, so we caught ourselves calling them both depending on if there were any English people around us...we didn't want to sound silly in front of them but wanted to teach Addison the "right" way to say it.

This giraffe was trying to eat and apple with its really, really long  tongue.

"Compare the Meer-kat...dot com"  There is a really goofy commercial here for Comparethemarket.com for an insurance comparison site and they have a spoof on with a Meerkat...so you can't help but sing their little jingle with it.

Addison loved riding on the merry-go-round.  She wave at us every time she went around.  

Just before we left the zoo we watch a bird show on the side of this little hill.  I about had a bird swipe the top of my head.  I screamed like a little girl of course.

After our trip to the zoo we walked around Regent's Park to get the kids to fall asleep and take a bit of nap before we grabbed a bit to eat.  I absolutely love the parks in London.  The gardens are amazing and they are so well taken care of.  It was a beautiful day and there were people everywhere.  On our way to eat dinner we discovered that you don't want to walk down Regent's street and Oxford street (the two busiest shopping streets) on a Saturday afternoon because there are people everywhere and it took us forever to get to Piccadilly Circus to find out that it would be an hour wait for dinner at TGIFriday's...so we walked off the beaten path and found a Pizza Express which has now become my TGIF's of England.

Wine Dinner at Lake Isle

Tonight we went with our friends' the Clayton /Gorman's and the Beales' to a lovely restaurant called Lake Isle which is all the way in Uppingham about a half hour away.  This little gem of a place features a special British Wine Dinner where you get a glass of wine with each course so we of course lined up a taxi to take us so that no one had to worry about driving.  It's a pretty pricey to pay a taxi for a round trip like that...90 GBP!!!  But it's a much heftier price to pay if someone got in an accident.  
I didn't have a very good camera with me so I didn't get a good picture of my aparagus soup starter with this foamy looking stuff on top. It tasted really good. Kevin got this toast with some kind of pate with it.  I was sure what pate was so I didn't get it but he said it tasted wonderful.

The other starter was this mushroom dish with quail eggs which when I saw it on the menu I envisioned whole quail eggs on my plate.  Well, it came out and it looked really, really good...should have gotten that.  I have been pretty adventurous with my menu selections since I've moved over here but tonight I don't know what got in my way.

For our main course there were three different options, but we all selected the Beef Wellington which is very, very English.  It was really good and now I have another dish to find a recipe for.  It's essentially a beef tenderloin with a liver pate and pastry around it.  Kevin and I usually don't get beef dishes over here since they aren't quite like at home but this was amazing!!!!

Dessert was the best because you got a tasting of four different things.  We got this amazing strawberry trifle in a wine glass, then a slice of chilled egg custard, a treacle tart, and a dollup of Eton Mess.

We had a wonderful time together.  We missed the Wong's but Min was hanging out in London with her dad watching a show in the West End.

Sunny Day Fun

Today was an amazingly beautiful day so the kids and I set out for adventures in our own backyard.  It was soooooo sunny today and warm that it certainly didn't feel like England so we had to soak it up.  Well I didn't want the kids to soak up too much sun so we got out the tent Addison had gotten for her birthday.  The two of them loved playing inside it and enjoying a few snacks. 

We also spread out a big blanket out on the grass .  I sat and looked at cookbooks oddly enough while my little ones played about.

The neighborhood kids where having a blast because this was their last day off before going back to school and they were having water fights and all sorts of fun.  Some of the boys caught on that they could make a little extra pocket money by offering to wash cars.  I was a bit skeptical at first but then were actually doing a pretty good job.  They asked me to come and inspect, but then made me leave because they had a surprise.  I was a bit confused but I went along with it.  Well the big surprise was that after they cleaned and dried off my car they chucked a huge load of flower blossoms that fell off the tree next to our drive onto the bonnet (hood) off the car.  Ahh...hold on boys...I asked if they were going to get rid of the flowers now that I gave them a couple of pounds already.  They did get most of them back off but I just laughed and shook my head.

A Quiet Weekend at Home

Since we've been so busy and traveled away last weekend we thought we'd stay home this weekend...well, home in the sense that we stayed in Peterborough.  Saturday morning we thought it would be fun to go into town for lunch (Pizza Express...surprise, surprise).  After lunch we thought we would take bit of a walk and headed towards the cathedral like we have several times before but Kevin took us all the way around, which I had never done before and it was beautiful.  

We found some beautiful daffodils in bloom and in the little park on the south side of the cathedral all the spring plantings were in bloom.  They had a dozen or so of this little beds chucked full of flowers and they seem to change them out each season, so something is always in full bloom.  Addison likes to play tag around them...especially with Daddy.

On Sunday morning we headed down to the Glinton playground which is currently being upgraded.  The village received 

over 75,000 GBP to add new play equipment.  Right now they have a lot of the things for the 8-13 year old group up as seen in the distance behind Addison swinging on one of the swings that is actually going to be replaced with a new climbing frame.  The area is supposed to have a new bike course, zip line, hexagon swings, springers, see saws and much more.  We can't wait to see what comes next.  One new thing in the little kids area is the donut, which it seems that more of the older kids come over to the under 5's area to play on.  Kevin demonstrates how it's done here.


This is a sign that I've read a couple times at the park, but thought it would be fun to take a picture of this time. I especially like the bit about adults needing to be accompanied by children (for safety purposes obviously, but kind of funny when you first read it.)

Addison love to ride on the big slide that is actually built into the side of a hill which I think is great for little kids so it is easier for them to climb and they can't fall too far. Addie usually likes to run up the side of the hill (which I think is the highest elevation in all of Glinton), but lots of times she takes the steps and likes to count them as she goes up. See how she is progressing with her numbers in this video.


Harrison is just big enough now that he likes to ride in the swing. I love his laugh!!!

To round out our wonderful weekend, the Wong's came back from their home leave in Singapore so we had them over for a BBQ...it was a bit chilly but the food and the company was great. It was sooooo good to see them and get caught up with everything. Min surprised us all with a new hair-do...she got highlights and fringe (bangs). She looks like a super model now in her early 20's!!!

Can You Feel the Love?

Harry and Addie are really starting to interact more with each other.  You can tell they know each other and love each other very much...this is the nice age when they can't fight yet, so I need to relish it.  When Addison is close enough by him, he likes to plop on top of her...already starting his wrestling career I guess.  What a fun pair of kiddos!  Daddy was so proud of them getting along here that he had to snap a picture.

Aspiring Cooks Try Their Best

I have known for some time now that Kathryn Clayton, my neighbor Simon's daughter, has been wanting to go into the culinary arts when she finishes school.  Her passion and mine for baking and cooking gave us the crazy idea to collaborate and make some things together.  So while she was on Easter holiday break I thought it would be fun for us to prepare a special lunch.  

I had a favorite squash soup recipe and she picked out a tasty looking sandwich recipe from my cookbook of "Sandwiches" of course...thanks Mom for this one!!!  I left Kathryn in charge of picking out the puddings (desserts) and she picked some good ones.  We had to do some improvising on a few things but all in all everything turned out lovely.  

Tesco didn't have any French bread so I had to get what they called a Bloomer loaf...which was a really tall loaf for slicing it the way we did but you could load up a lot of goodies inside the sandwich and that was perfect...you had to get a little creative on how to eat it but it was jolly fun.

Kathryn picked out a London cheesecake that we decorated with raspberries and chocolate sauce and then a chocolate meringue  tort.  It's kind of like three small chocolate pavlovas with chocolate pudding between the layers and topped off with pistachio nuts.    We obviously didn't perfect the meringue since they crumbled horribly but once you got the other bits on it, it started to get prettier.  It tasted heavenly though.  We served our lunch with freshly squeeze strawberry lemonade.

 In the end we had a great time cooking together.  She taught me a few techniques - like folding in by moving the spatula in a figure 8 motion and I showed her a few fun tools that I had to make things easier in the kitchen.

I can't wait to do it again!

Ready to Start Crawling????

Harrison has been moving around a lot but hasn't mastered the whole crawling thing yet.  Today he finally got up on all fours when I let him have a little grip under his knees.  He gets pretty vocal when he gets frustrated...poor thing.  It's only a matter of time and he'll be scooting all over the house...Yikes!