Getting Into Trouble

My once quiet little baby is now becoming a little boy and is very mischievous. Today he pulled out all the blankets that were in the wooden box so he could plopped down inside it to eat his Cheerios treat. Silly little boy!!!

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's the day after Thanksgiving and in true family tradition we put up our Christmas decorations....yeah, Christmas is coming!!! Every year I get out my decorations here I always wonder why I didn't bring more than two totes, but I found a place for everything and tried spreading them around the house as much as I could. One special gift we got from Danny and Min before they left was a Christmas tree that was given to them by an English colleague. It's quite a bit smaller than the one we have in a box sitting in storage back in Peoria, but if fit just right by our patio window.

I worked on putting all the decorations up while the kids were taking nap and they were so excited to come downstairs to see all the "pretties." But of course they went crazy and had to touch everything and pull things down to examine them. I wondered if it was really a good idea or not to go through a month of this constant putting back and babysitting my decorations. When Kevin got home we put the decorations on our tree as a family which was really nice and I think it will be a great tradition to carry on. We didn't bring any tree decorations with us from home but over the past two years we have been collecting an ornament from each country we visit and the kids have received a few from family over the years so we filled it up nicely. Problem was trying to keep all the decorations on since again my curious little cats thought they were new toys to play with. I did manage to keep all my really breakable ones up towards the top.

Addison really liked the Santa hat and found some of the little stockings I used in the past for mine and Kevin's Christmas stockings, but Addie found a new use for them - keeping her own feet warm!!!

This is the face of a crazy little boy who just got scolded for tearing down Christmas ornaments off the tree and throwing sheep off the nativity scene. Does he know that if he doesn't act like a good little boy that Santa won't bring him any goodies for Christmas? I don't think he cares much...he just has fun antagonizing mommy.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Our first Thanksgiving was the hardest one in England because it was our first major holiday away from home and family, but now it is one that I most look forward to here because we have started lots of new traditions. Again this year we had our lovely neighbors over for a big Thanksgiving feast and for the first time, I made a real turkey instead of cooking up loads of large chickens. It was a beautiful turkey but I forgot to get a picture of it before I cut it all up.

I tasked Emily again this year to scoop up the stuffing which she has become quite the pro at. She had been excited all week for this day and at school today she kept showing off to all of her friends that she got Thanksgiving dinner tonight.

New to our table this year was Sarah's son, Joe and his girlfriend, Rhiann, who have never had a Thanksgiving dinner and they were both super excited for a night of American cuisine.

The food was great. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry jello salad, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole and homemade croissant rolls.

Simon also had great news that he surprised us all with along with a bottle of champagne which we had to drink out of plastic glasses since I don't yet have proper champagne flutes. But it was wonderful news and just wonderful company to have on a special day.

After dinner we broke out the Apples to Apples game because that seems to be quite a hit with our group now days. Joe and Rhianne were a hoot because it is quite an American focussed game and they had lots of questions about who people were and Rhianne just has a funny sense of humor that makes you guess the total opposite of what you think you should.

Thank you to Sarah and my kiddos for helping me put together this year's dinner!!!!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving Dinner

It feels like I've been in my kitchen forever getting ready for the ISE Thanksgiving and now for our own. So inevitably my little ones want to be where mom is so I am trying to get them involved as much as possible.

I have given Harrison floor cleaning duty. He loves to sweep and since he loves to dump most of the crumbs on my floor he would be perfect for the job. He also thought it would be funny to dump a little pitcher full of water that his sister got for him on the floor, so I taught him how to scrub the floor as well. Seriously, I don't put my kids through manual labor, Harrison just really does like to help clean up. I hope he continues to because he makes lots of messes.

Addison on the other hand likes to make and bake and taste. She does a really good job cracking eggs and mixing and rolling out dough.

She really had fun helping me make homemade croissant rolls for dinner, but I think she discovered that if she helps roll the dough that she can sneak little bites of the dough when mommy is not looking.

Call me Handy Corrina!

Okay, one of the worst things that can happen to you (well me) just before the holiday season is having your freezer break down. For some reason over the past week the alarm on our freezer kept going off and it got harder and harder to keep things as cold as they should be. Since we owned this freezer (it didn't come with the house), we had a couple of options. I tried calling around to a few repair places and all I got was an earful of we don't work with frost free freezers. We tried looking up ideas on the internet to what we could do since we couldn't find any service manual in the house. That was a dead end as well. Well my husband who must be superman actually got hold of a guy who told us to call another guy who told us that the type of freezer we had sometimes can build up ice. He said that you can't get into where it will be but if you unplug it for 3 days and put lots of towels down to sop up the water, we should be able to plug it back in and it will work again. Are you serious???? Well, I used up what I could in the freezer and then brought the rest over to Simon and Sarah's house to store for a bit.

That night I opened the door and lined the floor with towels. The next morning we noticed a little bit of water on the outside but then I looked inside. Under a little vent there was quite a bit and then I noticed some screws on a panel inside the freezer. I ran out to the garage, grab a screwdriver and went to work on this panel.

To my pleasant surprise (I guess), I found a huge block of ice built up that was blocking where the cold air circulated through the freezer. I ran upstairs and grabbed my blow dryer and let her rip. It took me about 5 minutes but I got the ice free, but then Kevin helped me get boiling water from the kettle to pour down the drain to unfreeze the coil. This was a horrible mess but after about an hour total of fidgeting, I had my freezer plugged back in and cooling back down...just in time for Thanksgiving!!!!

ISE Thanksgiving

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving with our ISE family. Honestly it really feels like a giant family reunion where we bring loads of food and goodies and the ladies congregate to visit, the men go outside and play football, while the kids run around crazy. Our group is quite a bit smaller than last year, but almost all of us made it to Thanksgiving this year. I volunteered to help make one of the several turkeys purchased to feed our hungry brood which was lots of fun but I had to get up at 5:30AM in order to make sure it and the stuffing I was making cooked in time. I'm also a glutten for my own punishment because I made up about 3 pumpkin pies as well because last year someone said we didn't have enough and I had loads of pumpkin to use up. Needless to say that only 1 1/2 got eaten since so many other sweet treats were made.

Chris and Molly

Jen and little Finley (this little guy was born about 5 weeks after Harry here in England as well)

Amber and Grace (another American British-born baby)

Laurie, Natascha, and Holli

Me and Jeanne

Addison Marie having fun running around outside with all the kids...trying to stay clean in the muddy fields.

Operation Christmas Child Boxes

A couple of weeks ago The Evening Telegraph had a front page story about they they were working with the Rotary International Group to sponsor the "Operation Christmas Child" shoebox drive. I thought this was a great opportunity to get our family involved in helping out some kids have a special Christmas. Well, I wondered also if any of my fellow ISE's would be interested in doing it as well so I hosted the November brunch/tea and asked everyone to donate a few things for the shoe boxes and had an overwhelming response. I originally picked up 8 boxes to fill but had to go back and get 10 more. We as a group were able to put together 6 little girls boxes, 2 little boys, 3 teen boys, 3 teen girls and 4 household boxes and we jam packed the boxes pretty tight. Addison helped me color on the outsides of the boxes to make them look "pretty."

In the household boxes, we hand scarves, gloves, and hats, body wash, toothbrushes, shampoo/conditioner, bars of soap, liquid washing soup, laundry soap, notepads, pens, and stationary.

In the teen boys we had deodorant, hair gel, combs, pens, notepads, men's body wash, stocking caps/baseball caps, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The little girl boxes were filled with crayons, toys, jewelry, coloring books, lip gloss, and just lots of fun little things for girls.

The teen girls had loads of shampoos, conditioners, lotions, lipgloss, brushes, gloves, scarves, jewelry, toothpaste and brush and more.

The little boys boxes were filled with coloring books, balls, small toys and cars, balls, sunglasses, stuffed animals, and more.

It was a bit hectic trying to keep the items in the boxes when my kids were curious little cats and wanted to play with everything. I did have a heck of time trying to explain as best as I could to an almost 3 year old that these were presents for other children who may not have mommies and daddies and that this was a special gift for them. It was a real joy getting to fill these boxes up and I hope that we can continue doing it every year even back in the States.

A Cup of Tea Mommy, Please

Addison has been obsessed with putting "a little bit" of water in her little tea set and pouring out cups of tea for me and Harrison. After a while the water somehow ends up all over the coffee table and I have to soak it all up.

Harrison must have gotten tired of trying to drink out of the tiny tea cups and wanted a big boy drink out of a big boy cup. I caught him drinking properly from the big kid cup without a mess. After he was done he looked at me, held out the cup and said "numma, numma, numma" which are his words for "I'm hungry, get me more."

Wii Fitting

Today I tried out our new Wii fit finally and had a hoot. Kevin and I were laughing at each other so hard and I literally fell on to the floor and couldn't open my eyes because they were so full of tears. You look so goofy trying to do the moves especially with the hula hoop games.

Both of us are categorized as "overweight" according to our BMI so we've got some work to do. It actually told me I could lose 25 lbs and Kevin said he couldn't see where I could lose that much weight (what a sweet husband). My goal is to lose another "stone" which is 14 lbs. The problem is that the only time I can do my workouts is when the kids are taking a nap at the same time so I only get about 30-40 minutes max. every other day if I'm lucky, so I guess I'll have to extend out my goal time.

I am really enjoying the yoga bit, hula hoops, and kung fu, but that step aerobics is sooooo tricky!

Little Pizza Maker

Addison loves to be my little helper in the kitchen and now that I'm obsessively taking pictures of the meals I'm preparing for my other blog site she wants in some of the pictures herself. She loves to roll out the dough, but I think she likes to eat it more. Since it's a mix that you add water to I let her have a few tastes. Her and Harrison also like to steal little handfuls of shredded cheese as they help make their side of the pizza.

Little Addison is growing up so much. She is sporting a "I'm-still-growing-my-hair-out-shag-cut" which is really cute but I seriously need to think about getting an appointment for her first trim. There is just something that keeps holding me back because it's taken her over 2 1/2 years to get it this long already.

Small Wonders

Today we get back in the normal groove of things after a big Halloween weekend and I have to sit back and enjoy the little wonders that my kids bring to me. These are the remains of an apple my son had for breakfast. I found them on the floor in the toy room...my question is what happened to the rest of the apple???

I also introduced Addison to some stencils that my mom got for my brother, sister and I when we were very young. She caught on very quickly how to use them and loved being able to draw a horsey, a duck, squares, and more....what a wonderful thing to see your children grow artistically and how excited they get when they learn a new skill.

Another small wonder that struck me today was of how my kids' relationship as brother and sister has grown so much as they both have grown individually. As I was trying to get Harrison to put on his little fire hat without much success, Addison stepped in and helped hold it on her brother's head.

Happy Halloween

I can't believe that this has been our 3rd Halloween in the UK!!! Today we decked the kids out in their Fa - BOO - lous t-shirts that their Grandma Sally sent to them. We went out for lunch at the Cuckoo and got to enjoy the fireplace they had roaring inside. Next we decided to use our saved up Tesco vouchers to go buy a Wii Fit board...this was totally random and super crazy of us to do because it was an absolute zoo in Serpentine Green shopping centre. Then we were off back to our house for the kiddos to get naps and ready for the big night.

This year was our 3rd Annual Halloween party in which we invite any of our fellow ISEs and their kids over for trick or treating in our neighborhood and then some goodies afterwards at our house. This year we had 31 of us gather together which was much less than the 56 we had last year. It's amazing how things change in a year, but it was a great group to have together. The kids were so cute and probably the only ones that went around in our neighborhood that wasn't dressed as a ghost, witch, skeleton, or vampire. I think our neighbors actually look forward to seeing our little American group because we do stick out a little more but our costumes are quite unique.

Harry and Kevin pose just before we head out for trick or treating. Kevin stayed behind this year to put the food in the oven and hand out candy. (But I did offer that he could take the kids around - for the record). Harry's all ready with his blinking pumpkin necklace and black puppy nose, but his little puppy hood only lasted about 2.3 seconds and that was it for him.

My little pair of firry creatures. They both had so much fun and I could actually hold Harrison's hand and walk him to each of the houses. Addison liked to walk on her own but made me carry her bucket.

Harrison was so cute, because he would actually go up to the door and reach in the bowls for piece of candy and put it in his own bucket. Then he would turn around and head straight to the next house.

It only took us about 30 minutes to hit about 13 houses in our neighborhood and the weather was absolutely wonderful - 58 F but a little humid. Before the kids got restless and would scurry to get out of their costumes we caught a quick family picture.

Our pumpkins barely made it through the night. Because of the warm weather and dampness throughout the week, some severe mold took over and they were all almost mush but Halloween night but we managed to get some candles in each of them. Kevin's was so bad that the top ended up caving in on top and another one had the top fall in and melt with the candle giving off a horrendous odor.

We had some great food this year as always. I cooked up some BBQ chicken sandwiches and twice baked mashed potatoes that I put jack-o-lantern faces on. We also had homemade mac and cheese, tuna noodle casserole, homemade pizza, Halloween cupcakes, ghost carrot cake, spider chocolate cake, sugary popcorn, fall snack mix, sugar cookies, chips/dip, deviled eggs that looked like eyes.

I also made up some punch and tried something new with a frozen hand floating in it. It was so much fun making Halloween themed food.

I think all the kids had a pretty good time and they actually got some good food in their tummies before getting too many sweeties.

Addison really enjoyed the cupcakes that Holli brought so we'll have to thank Jenny S for sending them from the States to her (thanks Jenny!!!). Funny thing is that she liked eating the frosting tops and not the rest of the cake.

It was a great evening and we are so looking forward to hosting again next year.

The next morning Addison actually got to survey the candy she collected from the night before. We let her have two whole pieces the next day...such mean parents but she's actually at the age that we can say that and she won't fight back about it too much. Poor Harry probably won't get to eat any of his candy but he's still young enough that he won't know that mommy and daddy will swipe all of his goodies - sorry buddy!!!