When in Rome...

Today we met my mom and dad in Rome, Italy for a 10 day adventure in Rome and on a Mediterranean cruise. We met up at the airport and found our way on the Leonardo Express train into Rome's Termini train station. After getting a little lost walking out of the train station and witnessing a homeless woman taking a pee on the curb of a busy street and wipe herself off with a newspaper, we found our B&B in central Rome.

We stayed at Gulliver's Lodge which was an easy 10 minute walk from the main train station and only a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum. It was a bit hard to find at first because it was actually in a residential building and the only sign was 1 cm x 3 cm on the panel that we had to use to ring ourselves in.

We got ourselves settled in with our host who didn't speak a whole lot of English but did fairly well. His wife runs the B&B but she was in the hospital 8 months pregnant and having complications. After getting settled in and cooled down we headed out for a really late lunch just down the street and was was called a Snack Bar - Panni's and pasta and real Coca-Cola!!!

Since we were all pretty tired from our trips, we decided to tackle something close by and we walked down to the Colossem. It was such an amazing structure and it seemed so weird just walking around a corner of a busy street and seeing it for the first time.

We didn't take a guided tour since I was offering the free "read from my tour book" tour. These people who try to sell us extra tours obviously don't have small children and know that it is about impossible for us to keep up with a tour group with them.

Here is Addison with Grandpa Jeff hanging out inside the Roman Colosseum.

The Colosseum had the capacity to seat 50,000 and standing room for another 10K people. It was started in 75 AD and built by 40,000 Hebrew slaves over a 5 year period. The ruins are in still in pretty good shape for being almost 2000 years old. The arena floor where the gladiators fought is no longer there but you can see the tunnels and places that warriors, animals and slaves were kept to participate in the Roman "entertainment".

We actually caught a cast of the musical "CATS" doing a photo shoot along with a few performances of songs from the show as well. What a double treat.

Of course after some time in the colosseum we had to get refreshed and try some of our first Italian gelato ice cream. Addison was finally in heaven.

My mom and dad in front of the colosseum.

We took a walk around the rest of grounds and up around the Palentine Hill. There were lots of olive trees and you could see were lots of people including my mother grab the low hanging ones for a little snack.

Ancient Rome at sunset. We did a lot of walking around and I can tell you that the earlier Romans had to have really bad back problems because their "ancient" roads are so bumpy with the huge rocks they have laid down. Maybe I just noticed it more because I had to push the stroller extra slow as to not knock my children's head all over in the stroller.

Ladies Night - Pampered Chef Style

Tonight I hosted my second ever Pampered Chef Party and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I actually had 33 people RSVP that they were coming, but ended up with 26 total in the end. I was so excited to have so many people but was scampering around trying to figure out how to fit them in the house comfortably. With the new style of cooking show that Pampered Chef is now doing, it made is so much fun.

We actually broke the big group into two and kind of competed against each other as we made Chicken Broccoli Rings, Apple Crumble Tartlets, and Mini Banoffe Pie Tarts. I had also made way too much other food for everyone, but I had a lot of fun making it all.

Between Charlotte (my consultant) and I we had loads of duplicate products so that everyone was able to have a go at trying things out. It was so great to have a mix of ISE ladies and my local neighbors and friends from the village.

My neighbor, Debbie, jumps in to use the cheese grater.

Tina showed us all how to lay out the croissant triangles for the chicken broccoli rings. I know that no body likes getting their picture taken at things like this but they were all doing such a great job.

After we got done cooking, Charlotte moved all of us into my tiny little living room and went through the ordering and what the special deals were this month. I did have an unusually large turnout for my show but it was so cool to have all those lovely ladies in my home hanging out together. I did end up getting some really nice products...I'm starting to think that I should sell this stuff as much as I love using the stuff, but I'm already too busy. I'm looking forward to hosting another party next year!!!!

Happy Belated 1st Birthday Harry!

Since we didn't get to celebrate Harrison's birthday properly on the day we thought we'd have a little celebration two weeks late. Grandma Sally made Harrison a beautiful birthday banner just like Addison's so we got that hung up.

I made a really poor excuse of a birthday cake for the little guy. I have not been very successful making home made cake while living here, so it didn't raise too well and I tried making black frosting for the "football/soccer" cake and that was probably not the best idea for a 1 year old who loves to smear anything...everywhere.

Harrison also finally got to open up his birthday presents. Auntie Crystal and Uncle Heath had sent along Harry's gift from the States in our suitcase this summer. A fun "Little Tykes" truck with a doggie and horse in the back. Kevin had a tough time getting it out of the box because they triple secured everything in the box with those big twist ties.

Also Addison had no problem helping Harry open his present from all of us...."Little People Train Set." We already had a ton of Little People stuff from Christmas and the Duffy's but I thought this would fit into the little town we have been trying to build during our play time. They had so much fun but were very sad when we had to head off to bed. I still can't believe my little boy is already a year old. He's like a little man now days!!!

Stickers

The kids were playing quietly in the conservatory and I went in to check on them and discovered Addison maybe having TOO much fun with her little brother. Again this was one of those moments that I as a parent should have my "we don't put stickers on anything other than paper" talks but I instinctually told them to stand still and I ran for the camera.

Addison was quite proud of her life model creation and Harrison didn't seem to mind too much either. They were pretty cheap stickers so they weren't too sticky, but I had to hold in the giggles when I finally had the talk about not using her brother as a work of art anymore.

Baking Play Date

Today a few of my and Addison's friends came over to play. Luz brought over ingredients for all the little girls to work together to make a carrot cake. We laid out the play mat on the table and they all took turns putting the ingredients in the measuring cups and then putting them in the big bowl.

It was so much fun watching the kids learn some new skills, plus learning how to take turns with each other. We so should so do this more often. Maybe I really liked it because I love to cook and it's something I would love Addison and Harrison to pick up from me. I also found that I have a kid friendly grater so I can have Addie help me make more stuff in the future. The cake was great and wonderful addition to our lunch.

Harrison also had a little playmate. Luz and I have both been pregnant together the past two times and so little Ruben is about 6 weeks older than Harry and one of the few little boys in the ISE group. Poor little Ruben was just getting over a really bad case of the chicken pox, but the boys had lots of fun chasing each other around.

My New Project Blog Site (yes, a new one, a better one!)

Hello everyone!

Okay, I know I started another blog site way back, but after venturing into it I realized that it wasn't fitting and allowing me to share all the stuff I wanted. After lots of thinking, I decided to scrap the old site and make a new one. I actually even had to create another Google account so that I could not use up shared space with my personal blog.

"So Corrina, what crazy idea have you come up with now?"

Well........

I really enjoy making homemade things whether it be meals, baking from scratch, making gifts, growing veggies and herbs, or just DIY things around the house. This new site is appropriately called "Things I Like to Make" because I am filling it with all sorts of things that I like to make and have made. It will include recipes, crafts, sewing projects, scrapbooking ideas, weekly meal menus, fun things to use when entertaining, and more. It's a public blog site so anyone can search for it. Hope you all enjoy!

http://thingsiliketomake.blogspot.com/

First Day of Schoool

Today little Miss Addison started her first day of pre-school. Yes, she is only 2 1/2 but you can start them in a proper "play school" at that age. We are only sending her 2 days a week and each session is only 3 hours long. She has been talking about going to school for the past 2 months and she finally got to go today. We packed up her back pack with her blankie, some juice and snack, and an extra diaper with wipes since we are still working on the potty training thing.

She had a great time on her first day and immediately went to play with play dough when she got there. She was so excited to see all the stuff to play with. It was fun for me as well because I was so excited for her. We got to walk up to school and then Harry and I walked back home. I put Harry down for a nap and I got a whole 2 1/2 hours to myself....nice!

When I picked her up she ran out of the little back room and hugged me so hard. She wasn't sad or anything but she was just really happy to see me. She did some finger painting and chalk drawings outside. She also got to bring home a little plastic book bag that held a small book she picked out for us to read to her at home "Spot and His Shapes."

Hanging Out

My kiddos...both really starting to become their own two people but really discovering each other as siblings. They are wrestling and hugging and fighting like brothers and sisters should.

Love you two!!!

Hedge Trimming

When we moved into our house we had to get used to small back yards and that the British seemed to be pretty serious about privacy because of the hedges that bordered our fence line. We had been working at trying to keep the hedges maintained as best as we could and I've posted some pictures of some "unsafe" tactics we've used to do so, but we felt enough was enough and wanted to get the hedges cut back to a reasonable height. Our neighbors have also become very close friends and they expressed that they would like to have the hedges cut back more so that more sun can get back into their garden.

Since our landlords aren't too keen on spending much money or really any money to update things we knew it was going to be on us to take care of it. We got several quotes and they were in the 300+ GBP to have them cut and the rubbish taken away. For a property that we don't own and have no real vested interested in improving for resale that was too much to swallow so we tackled cutting them down ourselves. It was a lot of work, but Kevin borrowed our friends chain saw and used our own hedge trimmers and he cut a good 3 feet off the top of our hedges. Because of the way the bushes were growing we did end up with some big dips and it's pretty uneven right now but come spring it will be much easier and safer to trim these "weeds" back. This was another moment that we wished we had our big pick up to load up the trimmings but we had to get creative. For the past couple of weeks we've been filling up our lawn waste bins along with Danny and Min's old bins since the new owner's haven't moved in yet. Also Mike brought over some big sacks that we cut up some of the waste and filled them up so we can bring them to the recycling center...just need to find a car "boot" big enough to carry them in.

York

On our third day we headed into the city of York. Since we didn't have a functioning SatNav we had to navigate our own way into the city centre using tourist maps we found at our B&B. We found a car park just outside the inner city wall which was really convenient for parking and walking into town, but was uber expensive - 9 GBP for 5 hours of parking which we had just enough change for.

Our first stop was just outside the York Minster. This amazing cathedral was built between the 1220's and 1470's and you can see that it is quite big and took a great deal of time to complete. We didn't go inside but we took a nice long walk around the outside.

We headed down towards the shops and really enjoyed all the little speciality shops along with some of the normal high street stores. York is a beautiful medieval city full of interesting surprises. We also hit the streets early enough yet that it wasn't too busy so we could do lots of window shopping.

Addison loved this window display with all the rubber duckies so she asked if I would take her picture with them.

I thought this was the cutest thing and I told Kevin I had to have one before I leave this country. How adorable is this with it's little baskets full of goodies. I cold have so much fun with this at little get togethers. I'll cross my fingers for Christmas.

Addison was mesmerized by this bee and she insisted that she needed to hug it. She kept calling it a "pollen jock" since I used that term from "Bee Movie" so she wouldn't be so afraid of real bees.

It's kind of funny but we've seem more Native American performers in the UK than we've ever seen in the US. Lots of musicians selling CDs of wind pipe music. It's actually really relaxing. Addison likes to dance to it.

Need any British memorabilia????

We walked down a street called the Shambles which is really takes you back to medieval days with its leaning buildings and roof tops almost touching. This ancient street used to be home to butchers and takes it's name from "Shamel" meaning stalls or benches in which the butchers would hang their products. The raise pavements on either side of the road would create a channel that the butchers could wash away their waste and blood each week...gross but interesting. There are lots of cute little shops still on this street.

We also visit York Castle and the Clifford's Tower. We grabbed some Subway sandwiches and walked to the base of the tower for a little picnic on this beautiful sunny day. The tower is an English Heritage site but has a hellacious set of stairs to walk up so Harry and I hung out at the bottom of the hill while Kevin and Addison went up.

They had some dress up clothes for the little kids and Kevin got Addison all proper in form for a lady of the times. She looks so cute. They also got to see an amazing view of the city from way up there as well.

We made our way back down to more of the high street shops area and ran into a lot more people but Kevin thought this guy was pretty interesting. He was selling this enormous balloons 2 for 1 pound. Now we weren't sure if he would actually blow them up for you, but what kind of kid actually plays with a huge balloon like this and what parent is actually going to blow this thing up??? Really we just enjoyed listening to the guy say, "Two giant balloons for a pound" in is super low scratchy voice.

Our final adventure was a little walk along part of the York wall. It wasn't the easiest thing to bring the stroller on but we tackled what we could. We had a great view back at the York Minster and found where the Railway museum and Pizza Express were so we've got a plan to make our way back up this way when we have some guests to see everything we didn't get to see.

One last thing as we were walking on the wall that I had to have Kevin take a picture of is all the fans that you see in this office building. Kevin's office building just within the past three years have put air conditioning. I can't imagine being stuck in an office without AC in any heat of the summer but I bet there are a lot of paper weights on these peoples' desks to make sure the fans don't blow away all their work....

Fountains Abbey

Day 2 of our adventure brought us to Fountains Abbey which is Britian's largest monastic ruin. It's 800 acres with over 800 years of history. The abbey was founded by 13 monks who wanted to get back to the simpler ways of life.

They hiked back into the woods and decided that this place was perfect for starting a new life.

In the mill house there was a exhibition about how the monks used to live. They would get about 2 pints of beer and one meal of a vegetable stew. They wouldn't eat any meat that came from animals that walk on four legs so fish and chicken is about all they got.

Me and Addison standing on standing on the bridge just out side of the mill looking back at the abbey.

This was an amazing place and Addison just had so much fun climbing all over the ruins and checking out all there was to see.

The cellarium roof was very well in tact. This is where the brothers of the monastary ate, slept and socialized. It's amazing how it survived the dissolution of monastaries in 1539.

After exploring the abbey, headed back up the steep hill for lunch at the cafe but back down again to walk around to the water gardens. The symmetrical design is French and they are pretty impressive. One thing we noticed though was that there seemed to be a lack of aeration in the water and lots of algae growing. Well Kevin thought it was pretty poor management of the grounds keeper but I tried explaining that these gardens were designed back in the 1700's and I was sure they wanted to keep them the same as they were back then. Then we discussed how they must use a big algae eating machine a couple times a year to get it all out....It's amazing what kind of conversations you end up having while your children are asleep in their stroller.

We tried capturing the famous pictures shown on all the brochures of the abbey with it's reflection in the water and with the waterfall. Kevin was trying to hold out when you wouldn't have any people in the picture but I told him to just give up and snap the picture because there were people everywhere. It was beautiful though and we had a great long day at the abbey. Kevin says this is the coolest place he's seen in England so far and I would have to agree that it is in my top sites.

I wanted to show a picture of what I ate for lunch that day. I swear I've never been to any attraction or site in the US that can serve a meal like they can at some of the cafes here in the UK. A full Sunday roast of chicken, roast potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, Yorkshire pudding and gravy all over and it all tasted like it was home made. It was sooooooo good!!!!

On our way back to our B&B we stopped in Ilkly, a very nice down in the foothills of the Yorkshire Dales. Danny and Min had just been to the Cow and Calf Inn up in the hills of the town just the prior week with friends they met on their cruise. We thought since we were in the vicinity that we would check it out for ourselves. On the way we stopped to watch some horse trials because Addie loves the horses and we also saw this public footpath that went over the river. The pub we ate at ended up being part of the same chain as The Cuckoo (a fav place of mine to eat in Peterborough) so we got to enjoy some good familiar eats. The view from the place would have been beautiful but it started to rain and we were stuck in a cloud. Tragedy struck once we were ready to leave. Our SatNav blew up again...what crazy luck!!! Needless to say I actually had maps this time and Kevin remembered how to get to our B&B once we got to Harrogate, but it took us 2x as long to get back because we made a few wrong turns.

Today was actually Harrison's 1st birthday!!! Poor guy didn't get much pomp and circumstance, but we did sing to him right away in the morning and he got to play with his balloon from Pizza Express the night before. He and Addison had so much fun chasing each other around in the room.

After a long two days we were pretty tired and our shoes seemed to paint the picture of how we all felt...pretty darn tired, but still having fun hanging out together. Lots of miles we've put on and one more day to go...York or bust tomorrow.