Making Easter Cookies

Today we made Easter sugar cookies. The kids love to bake and the often get in fights over who gets to put the next ingredient in. Hopefully with all the torture I put myself through in making things like this that in the end they learn measuring, sharing, some sort of hand-eye coordination, but mostly right now I think they like sneaking cookie dough and frosting.

Harrison with the green frosting.

Addison with the white, but soon she wanted the green since Harry had it. And then she wanted the pink because that is what I had. We finally got them all frosted but I had to fight them off from eating all of them...little cookie monsters!!!

Belton House, Grantham

Today we headed north to Belton House near Grantham. Wow...what an amazing place! Next to Burghley House we think these are our next favorite "stately home" grounds that we could see ourselves visiting over and over again. At this time in the spring the daffodils were in full bloom, they claim to have the largest outdoor adventure playground in Lincolnshire County, and the grounds are perfect for a picnic.

Addison was obsessed with leading us around while looking at the map of the grounds. Looks like she has inherited my map reading and navigation skills because she actually did really well finding the little stream and the lake we walked by.

Inside the conservatory they had a little fish pond that they kids loved and loved so much that we had to physically restrain them so they wouldn't dive it.

Our happy little family in front of the fountain in the gardens.

Addison Marie with the sweetest smile ever in a field of daffodils.

My little boy soaking in the sun.

I love English gardens and every new place we go, Kevin and I try to figure out how we can re-create what we see in miniature. Our dreams are big but they are so fun.

One really small feature that I thought was really cool about this house was actually the door knob plates for all the main doors. They were very ornate and had this little greyhound looking dog on them. This dog also seemed to be featured all over the house along with signs in the village of Belton. With as many houses we've gone to see we always find something new and interesting.

Libraries are also very interesting in most houses. They showed how intellectual the people were who lived in the house and how rich because you had to be both in order to read and since there wasn't much else to do to entertain yourself, lots of books were handy.

One of my favorite rooms in the house was also the darkest so pictures didn't turn out as well, was the sitting room or lounge. It had a magnificent fireplace and an old, old radio that they had some very old broadcast playing. You could almost put yourself back in the time of the World Wars sitting by the radio desperately waiting to hear news from afar and that the radio was your quickest means of communication...so different from today.

After restraining them throughout the house we let the kids run around once we got out. They of course started climbing up on the stone railings of the grand stair case at the front doors.

But we quickly made our way to the adventure playground where we played on this huge 2 story tall slide and climbed our way up in the not so miniature wooden fort. Their were loads of people there and the kids had a blast. Especially Harry who seemed to find every single puddle to jump in and as I watched in what felt like slow motion, he walked right through at 2 inch deep puddle and soaked his shoes.

Scrub, Scrub, Scrub

My kitchen floor needs a good scrubbing down about every hour because my children can really get things mucky in a hurry. In reality I don't have the opportunity to mop it that much and find it hard to find the right time to do it because I don't want the kids running through a wet floor. Today I broke down because I was finding no time and the floor was awful, but my little ones wanted to help me out so each of them got a go and helping me mop the floor. This one of the few instances that I love the size of my very small kitchen because it doesn't take that long to sweep and mop down.

Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire County

Today we ventured out to visit Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire County. It was a free weekend for National Trust sites so we found one close to see. Most castles were made of stone but this a rare red-brick medieval castle built by Ralph Cromwell, Lord Treasurer of England and once one of the most powerful men in England.

It's pretty impressive walking up to the grounds with the moats surrounding the guards house and the 6 story castle.

My cutie kids sitting on one of the old castle walls.

The massive thickness of the walls was evident in the basement. We got the kids to stand up in the window opening.

On one of the floors they had some toys that kids would have played with in the 13th century. Addie really liked the ribbon sticks and Kevin showed her how to play with the ball catching cups.

Every floor had a massive fireplace. Since we are into different fireplaces we had to pose for a picture. There were loads of stone carvings on each but a prevalent one was that of a money back which was the symbol for the Lord Treasurer. Also each floor had loads of stain glassed windows showing the coat of arms for many of the contractors and worksmen who built the castle.

We climbed up 150 stairs to the top of this amazing 6 story castle. One feature I love about this castle that I remember seeing at Kirby Hall as well is the built in hand rail into the stone work.

Here is Addison on top of a grate covering machicolation holes which are common in French castles apparently but not so much in English ones. I guess they used to drop things down through them onto attackers on the ground.

The walk around the battlements on top was really cool. The views were amazing and you could see for miles. We could actually see Lincoln Cathedral in the NW skyline which was some 18-20 miles away!

We let the kids do some running around the castle grounds.

Addison played peek-a-boo with us behind a tree...so cute.

We had eaten lunch at home but we brought along some fruity snacks and cookies to enjoy on the grounds. This is Kevin's new snack he made up for the kids which is a blueberry nestled in a strawberry that I hulled out the stem. They had so much fun with them. The weather was cool, but it has been one of the nicer days we've had so far this year and it's nice to see signs of spring showing up finally.

Hot Sauce???

Again my silly little boy just makes me laugh at how his little mind works. Today for supper we had "naked" chicken strips (essentialy non-breaded home made strips) and Kevin and I used some wild wings sauces to dip them in. Well somehow Harrison "realized" that I had forgotten the Hot Sauce and in the middle of dinner he got up and walked to the fridge and got it out. Then came back to his seat, plopped it up on the table and when he got back in his seat he whined a bit until someone opened it up and put some on his plate. What a funny kid!

Bringing Him Up English

Dinner time is quite interesting these days. Harrison wants to do and eat everything like mommy and daddy. Usually we set him and Addie down with a "high tea" meaning a really early light supper and then we all sit down together for our main meal. Once Kevin and I sit down, Harrison is immediately drawn to one of us and what we are eating. Often he ends up one of our laps eating all of our food. I got a total kick out of seeing him grab both the knife and fork together the other day. Kevin and I have picked up this English habit of eating "backwards" and guess Harry has picked it up too. Eventhough he's American...he'll be my little British baby.

Guess He was Hungry...

As I was working on a sewing project, he came in the dining room chewing on something that had an interesting smell. I asked him what he was eating and he somewhat laughed and ran into the living room. What I found was a plate and an empty container of chicken salad on the couch. I was speechless and instincts sent me for my camera. My son never ceases to amaze me. Guess he was hungry enough and was tired of waiting for me to get something for him that he helped himself to whatever he could find in the fridge...of all the things he could get though...chicken salad????

Simple St. Paddy's Day

We didn't do a whole lot for St. Paddy's day this year which is a real shame because we usually do. Several things lead to our demise though....

#1 we are still in diet mode so eating boiled potatoes doesn't bode well and all other Irish food we like were all banned from our diet

2ndly you can't find a proper corned beef in the UK unless it is Christmas or Easter time as per the meat counter guy at Sainsbury's

C) - no one around here celebrates it at all so we essentially forgot that it was even here.

At the last minute, I decided we had to do something. So when our neighbor girl Gemma came over to have supper with the kids, I got out the chocolate cupcakes I had frozen from Addison's birthday and made up some green tinted frosting. And bless Gemma as she brought over her iPod Touch and played a cupcake making game with Addison and they made special virtual St. Paddy's Day cupcakes.

Visiting the Tower of London

Today we made our first adventure as a family down to London. The forecast called for sun so we thought we would chance it. This time we decided to take the train down and took advantage of the 2-for-1 ticket offer into the Tower of London for our main attraction for the day.

We happened to take the really LONG train down so we had 1 1/2 hours to enjoy each others company. The kids really like riding on the trains and it is really one of the easiest means of transportation....wish we had more trains in the US. Harrison enjoyed a little snack (as he hoards the whole bag of pretzels) as he watches outside.

Our morning consisted on looking for post offices that would allow us to do our biometrics testing to carry on our work permit process. We hit two dead ends and found out that we didn't have the proper paperwork to allow us to even do it at the post office. Looks like we'll have to make another trip to London soon. Needless to say we did get to see the "Old Town" station and got back to Camden Town so it wasn't a completely wasted morning. The really fun part of the morning though was that 3 of the main tube lines that we wanted to travel were all down so we spent about an hour trying to the Tower Hill where the Tower of London was at...I can tell you that is very difficult when both the District and Circle lines aren't running (since those are the two lines that stop right at Tower Hill). Anyways we had to do a bit of walking to get to the castle but we did get to see this really cool old style double decker bus along the way.

Again we have to thank William the Conqueror for building a massive stone tower at the center of his London fortress in the 1070's so that we had something to go see today. Of course Ol' Bill has constructed many fortresses that we have enjoyed seeing during our time in England. The Tower is quite impressive in it's size and the function that it served for so many years as a medieval palace, prison, and home of the Crown Jewels.

Of course before we entered the castle the kids wanted to partake in a very English tradition of eating ice cream in the freezing cold. Our 60 degree F weather turned into 40's weather and cloudy but they still wanted ice cream which they have everywhere!

Addison even let Harry have a little bit.

Here are the kids in front of a very old canon displayed next to the "White Tower" which I guess happens to be one of the most well preserved 11th century buildings in Europe. Back behind the tower are the Waterloo Barracks where the Crown Jewels are stored. The same guards that stand near Buckingham and St. James Palace are also stationed at the door of the barracks and you can get right up close with them.

Some other interesting fellows that we met were some of the Yeoman Warders. There are 34 men and one woman who cover various duties at the Tower such as watchman, looking after visitor safety and conduct guided tours. Each Yeoman has at least 22 years of military service, have reach the rank of warrant officer, have been awarded the long service and good conduct medal and be between 40 and 55 years old. They all live in what they call the Casemates which are small flats on the castle grounds. I had always wondered why I saw a swingset and climbing frame on the east side of the grounds from the outside...some of them have school aged children who live at the castle as well. All of the guards were quite nice and Addison really too a liking to one named George...she looked all over for him after we left the tour group.

We got to see a lot of cool interactive displays that showed how the castle was used as a defense mechanism. This helmet probably weighed about 5-8 pounds.

Our kiddos on the castle wall with Tower Bridge behind them...what a pair!!! They are finally getting the pose thing down.

Kevin showed Addison how to use a medieval cross bow...wow, the guys who used these things had to be pertty darn strong to pull the bow back.

This metal knight showed Addison how to stand guard on the east wall.

This block and axe were actually used for 4 of the executions held at Tower Hill. Not sure though if it was the exact one used for Anne Boelyn or not but could have been.

This was one of the executioner's masks....creepy!!!

Here we are in the Bloody Tower which was thought to be the place where the Richard III allegedly had his twin nephew's stored and murdered as they would have been heir to the thrown after the death of Edward IV but they were declared illegitimate (but he had to make sure they wouldn't come after the crown you know.)

A replica of Henry VIII's armor....as you can tell he wanted to make sure the "crown jewels" were well protected.

After we went through the Tower of London we did a little walking around just to see what we could see. One thing we did smell was hot roasted candied nuts and they looked and smelled amazing. I made the mistake of asking one of the guys around the Tower if I could take a picture of his nuts...yeah, you can guess where that went. I did replay by saying "Thanks, but tempting."

We took a little walk through St. Catherine's Dock which is a very "posh" part of London. Home to many exuberantly large yachts and boats. I thought this sign was interesting..."Boat Owner's Only" and then behind it are these really old sailing ships looking to be several centuries old...I asked Kevin who he thought the boat owner's were for those.

This was classic...an entrance to underground pay toilets in the middle of an intersection in a pretty busy road just up from the Tower of London.

With two sleeping kids in the stroller we headed back to King's Cross to catch our train. We are quite a site heading down the escalators in the Underground and especially when we have to carry the thing up and down stairs, but you do what you gotta do.

We caught a bit of supper before heading home. The kids and Kevin got some McD's but I had to endulge in a chicken and veg pasty from the West Cornwall Pasty Co. One of my favorite English foods is the pasty and the WCP Co. had moved out of King's Cross for a while due to renovations and I was so happy to see them back!!!