2 Weeks To Go!!!

We've made it to the two week mark!  In two short weeks we'll be heading home!

Leah has really enjoyed our countdown calendar!

This adventure has been such a blessing in so many ways for our family.  We are still so glad we decided to do this and that we have been able to make so many amazing memories together here in the UK.  

All that being said...we miss our families, friends, and home so much and are VERY ready to return to it all.

Thursday was the official 2 week marker and I spent the day going through all of the toys and art/school work we've accumulated while here.  I have already filled up one trash bag full of stuff.  I am sure there are many more to go.  We did buy another large suitcase to accommodate all of the things we've acquired while here.  Over the next two weeks I will be in full packing and planning mode for the adventure home.  Just like our trip over I am not looking forward to the traveling part, but I think having the long flight first will make it a better trip.  Not sure that Grant's new found mobility skills will make it any easier though.  I spend most of my "planning" time thinking about ways I can keep him entertained and happy and stationary for 8 hours.  I'll keep you all posted on how our travel plans are coming along.

In other news...we can finally join in the Christmas celebrations now that Thanksgiving is over.  My kiddos have been enjoying a horde of new (to them) Christmas movies.

Here they are watching "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

It's my favorite Christmas movie, so naturally I am thrilled to oblige when they ask to watch "the green guy" movie.  Other's they have been enjoying include "Home Alone" and "The Elf."  Leah can do a pretty good "Kevin applying aftershave" impression.  I'll have to see if I can get her to let me record her doing it sometime.

This never happens.  Grant usually takes a bath in his ducky tub before the big kids take theirs.  On this particular night the big kids got in before Grant so I stuck him in next to them and they all LOVED it.  :)  

 Fun Fact:  Bath time is Grant's favorite time of the day and is followed by bed time his LEAST favorite part of the day.

My little sous chef and his high water pants (they are size 12 month).  He definitely inherited his Daddy's long legs.

More monkeying around.

Leah and I had another girls night out last night.  I needed to find a dress for the Airbus Christmas party that we will be attending less than 24 hours after returning to Wichita.  Crazy, right?  Anyway, Leah and I had a wonderful time together.

We got some pretty gold sparkly nail polish.

I've been reading "5 Love Languages of Children" by Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell.  The more I read the further convinced I am that Leah, while very much in need of all 5 types of love, is definitely a "quality time" child.  She needs the one on one time with Mommy or whom ever can give it to her.  She is just a different kid when we are out together and even the day after she is so much better behaved.  Now if I can just become disciplined enough to make sure it happens every/every other day all of our lives might just be a little more enjoyable.

Our shopping trip was successful all the way around.  I got a dress and some jewelry, all of which my little fashion forward 5 year old picked out.  Though she was very disappointed in me when I did not buy the 4 inch leopard print heels she was sure I needed. Seriously, all this time I've been wondering why God gave me, tomboy to the max, a little fashion diva to raise.  Now I know, it's so she can style me.  Ha!

Lastly, since I know you've been wondering what our little Fairy Max the Elf has been up to here are some pics from the last week or so of his nice/naughty behavior.

Just hanging out...

Cookies for breakfast was a huge hit!

That ornery little Elf got into the kids underwear drawers one night.  It seems Santa shares Mommy's disapproval of 3 1/2 year olds who still aren't potty trained.

Dylan was not impressed with the Elf on this day.  But he has been doing AMAZING with potty training for the last 4 days.  I am so proud of him!

Fairy Max the Elf made nice by baking the kids some elf sized apple pies for breakfast the next morning.

This morning Fairy Max the Elf was playing dress up with Leah's coat and scarf.  

We are enjoying Fair Max the Elf this year.  

I don't know yet what adventures we have planned for this weekend.  I'm sure we'll find something fun to do, so stay tuned for more posts!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

P.S.  If one of you is the Powerball winner from MO, just remember us little people who love you.  LOL!!! 

To be, or not to be

Hello there!  We are fresh off of our adventures today in the Cotswolds.

I know what you're thinking, "What is a 'Cotswolds'?"  That was exactly what I asked Nathan this morning as we were readying our selves for today's adventure.  The Cotswolds are a range of hills in southwestern and west-central England, an area 25 miles across and 90 miles long.  Luckily, we didn't have far to travel to reach this area.

Our trip began pleasantly enough, or so we thought.

This is what a "range of hills" do to children who don't ride in the car very much these days...

Poor Grant was flanked on both sides by queasy tummies.

Thankfully no one actually got sick.  Once we got out of the car everyone was fine.

Also, this happened...

It's been a wee bit rainy here.  Pretty much off and on all last week, which has caused some serious flooding in the UK.  Here is an article about it...

Floods in UK: More than 800 homes flooded as storms hit

Our first stop, once we forded the river, err...I mean road, was in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Leah venturing out into the swollen River Windrush that runs through the village.   

Sadly, I'm guessing with the rain we are going to be getting tonight and tomorrow there will be some flooding here.  That water was really moving.

They have a really cool miniature model of their town that you can walk through.

The houses and trees and miniature cars were all so cute!

We had some delicious fish and chips for lunch.  The kids got to see Santa!

 

They saw this one outside of the restaurant, but the "real" Santa walked into the restaurant while we were eating.  Let me tell you, if I could pay someone to pop their head in dressed as Santa every time we eat out I would TOTALLY do it.  After his appearance we had the most well behaved children I've ever seen.  Ha!

Including this little stud muffin.

Too much?  I know I couldn't stand it either.  Possibly my favorite pic from today.

After lunch we hopped back into the van and headed up to Stratford-upon-Avon.  You may have heard of this place before.  It's where a famed writer named William Shakespeare was born and raised.

The black and white architecture is so neat! 

This is the side of the house that Shakespeare last lived in.  They are doing an archaeological dig next to it to see what artifacts they can find.

This is the house where Shakespeare was born in 1564.

Doesn't look too shabby for a house that's over 400 years old, huh?

We had a fun time walking around Stratford-upon-Avon.

We were glad to find that it wasn't Stratford-underneath-Avon (Avon is the river that runs through it, in case you haven't picked up on the English's not so subtle system for naming towns and villages.)

Everyone lets their children play in rushing flood waters, right?  It seemed to be the thing to do today.

Along our walk we saw many things.  Including this fine, I'm assuming homeless man, who was not so subtle about fishing out all of the coins in the fountain.  Makes you thankful for what you have, doesn't it?

The kids enjoying some ice cream across the street from Shakespeare's birth place. 

Please pray for those effected by the flooding here in the UK.  It was so disheartening to see the devastation and to know that there is probably still more to come before it's all said and done.

We made it home safely and looking back on it we had a pretty good day exploring the Cotswolds.

Random Stuff From Today

Well, we survived Thanksgiving.  

Our next big event...HOME!!!

Only 20 days to go, not that we're counting...

 Okay so we're totally counting and the kids get so excited to cross off days.

Grant's current "favorite thing" is Cheerios.

Do I have something on my face?

I made two lemon tarts for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning.  It was our one and only nod to the UK on Thanksgiving.  

 They were pretty good, but the kids didn't appreciate their "tartness" if that's even a word.

The morning after Thanksgiving brings the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf.  Our Elf, Santa the Elf as Leah named him, apparently only flies to homes in the USA.  So, Santa sent another elf helper to us in the UK.  Leah and Dylan got to pick a name for our new friend and decided on "Fairy Max the Elf."  Leah said, "he must be a fairy if he flies back to the North Pole every night."  I couldn't dispute this so "fairy" it was.  Of course Dylan chose "Max" after his best buddy that moved away last summer.  So "Fairy Max" it is!  He seems to have started off on a "nice" foot by bringing the kids new jammies.  I have a feeling he will be getting into trouble soon though.  Those ornery Elves always get a little ornery around the holidays.

Trying so hard not to touch Fairy Max the Elf so he doesn't lose his magic.  I think Grant might be on to me already.

Group picture with Fairy Max the Elf 

Leah always wants to "hold" Grant.  While he is really too big for it I try and always let her get some snuggle time with him.

While Grant napped and I nursed a pretty nasty headache, Nathan took the big kids to the park this afternoon.

THIS...

...is what Leah looked like when she walked out the door to go to the park.  I told her she looked like a child right out of the 80's.  Poor girl.

Nathan was invited to attend a rugby game in Bath tonight.  So it was just me and the kiddos.  After eating leftovers for lunch I decided I didn't want to eat them again for dinner and I sure wasn't going to be cooking after doing it all day yesterday.  So we all went down to the crepe stand across from our flat and got crepes for dinner.  

This is what Dylan looked like after he ate the Nutella crepe for dessert.

All I have to say is thank goodness bath time is right after dinner.

Then there were some super sweet sleepy time cuddles happening just before everyone went to sleep.  No worries, Grant doesn't sleep with Leah.  We were just in her room reading books before I put Grant to bed. 

We had a nice little day.  I did miss the sisterly bonding time I usually have on Black Friday with my sisters.  We go more for the hilarious people watching experience, than the "claw someones eyes out to get a great deal on a blender" kind of experience.  

I plan on enjoying the weekend with my 4 favorite people.  

Bringing Pumpkin Pie To the UK

Happy Thanksgiving Day...a day late.  I hope you all had a blessed day with your loved ones and lots of yummy food.

I sure did!

Nathan actually went to work all day, since Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated here in the UK.  To everyone here it was just your typical Thursday.  The kids and I didn't go anywhere since I was working on our feast all day, and I think that was probably a good thing.  It would have been weird to me to be out and about without so much as a hint of it being a holiday.  Nathan spent the better part of the day trying to describe/explain pumpkin pie to everyone at work.  They have never had it before...whaaaaat???  (No worries, I baked an extra one so Nathan could take it to work Friday.  No one should EVER have to live without pumpkin pie.)  Which I found so hard to believe, but it may explain the trouble we had finding canned pumpkin.

We looked at about 4 or 5 different grocery stores, including ASDA (aka the UK's version of Wal-Mart) and no canned pumpkin could be found.  Even the one store who's website said they carried it didn't have any.  Now, I had resigned to the fact that we would probably be having roasted chicken instead of turkey (more on that debacle in a minute).  However, I was NOT going to be able to have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.  It's just, well, it's just UN-AMERICAN!!!

Soooooo...

...Amazon.com to the rescue!!!

I kid you not, we ordered canned pumpkin on Amazon.  It was SO worth it though.

After some searching we finally had canned pumpkin.  Next challenge was to find a turkey.  We knew that in the UK it is a custom to have turkey for Christmas dinner.  So, we just assumed the grocery stores would start putting them out for Christmas by the time we needed one for Thanksgiving Day.  WRONG!!!  Then last week Nathan heard that you have to get them from "country stores", aka farms.  You order them and they kill it and get it to you in time for Christmas.  On Monday Nathan was researching this option to see if it was even possible to get one in such short notice.  I happened to be taking the kids to a little grocery store near our flat that day.  Dylan, as he ALWAYS does at this one particular grocery store, managed to throw a HUGE tantrum.  As I pulled him to one of the back corners of the store to try and talk him down, I noticed in the bottom shelf back in the corner of the freezer section there were...TURKEYS!!!!  I could not believe it.  I have never been so thankful for one of Dylan's tantrums in my life!

I have never roasted a turkey before, true story.  I've watched my dad, the master turkey chef, do it a hundred times.  However, each time I was so thankful that the turkey wasn't MY job.  It turns out it wasn't so terrible.  I didn't enjoy the before so much, but in the end it was edible and that my friends is all that matters! 

               Before                                                          After

Leah wanted to help make some of the food.  I decided that deviled eggs were probably the safest one she could assist with.

 

She was so proud of herself!  She even "cut" the green onions.  We saw this scissor and cup cutting technique on one of the children's cooking shows here. 

She did a great job!  They were absolutely delicious!!!  I just love that she wants to help me so much with things in the kitchen.  I hope that desire continues when she is older.

Also joining our feast was this turkey...

I got the idea from Pinterest.  The kids LOVED it, and it was so simple to do.

This is what my plate (well, my first plate any way) looked like...

It was a lot of work, but it was so worth it.  Everything turned out great and most importantly I was able to carry on the tradition of Thanksgiving even while living in a place that doesn't celebrate it.  Holidays are so important to me.  I have always loved them.  Good food, great family, tons of amazing memories, what's not to love?  We did miss our families VERY much.  Thanks to the awesome technology of today we were able to talk to most of them on video chat the day before and day of Thanksgiving.  This was a tremendous help for both the kids and myself.  I have been telling the kids that it's okay to miss everyone and even be a little sad, but that we need to really enjoy this holiday.  We will probably never spend Thanksgiving in the UK again so it is important to make the best of it and have fun.  I think we accomplished that.

We managed to put together some lovely decorations, since we couldn't just go to the store and buy some.  The kids made hand turkeys to set on the table.  You might notice in the picture of the table that there is only one on the table.  Dylan decided his looked more like a rocket ship and proceeded to use it as such, which resulted in a demolished turkey.  I didn't much mind, it totally kept him busy and out of my way while I was cooking all day, and he had a ton more fun with it than he would have if it had been sitting on the table looking pretty.

Here are the hand turkeys before the demolition began...

I did purchase a table covering and napkins in red and gold that I thought would work for Thanksgiving colors.  While the kids were napping I put those on the table.  We also made a "thankful chain", which you can see hanging by the window.  Everyday Leah and Dylan each told me one thing they were thankful for and I would write them each on a piece of paper which we then strung together to make a chain.  It's so fun to hear what their sweet little hearts are thankful for.  Of course there was the "Jesus and God" chain link, but there was also a "Mona Lisa" link, as well as a "dinosaurs" link in our chain.  It was great fun and definitely a tradition that will continue in our house for years to come.

Here's what the kiddos did all day while I was cooking and Nathan was at work...

I built a fort for them to hang out in.

I was also a "bad mom" and let them use the iPad WAY too much.

As most of you already know this was Grant's first Thanksgiving.

He was pretty excited about it.

He's so precious.  I just love him to pieces!!!

He gnawed on some turkey, mashed potatoes, a roll, and some green beans.  It was a lot of fun watching him enjoy his first Turkey Day!

Leah and Dylan broke the wish bone.

I'm pretty sure I know what they were both wishing for and in 20 "short" days we can grant that wish!!!

That my friends is how you do Thanksgiving in the UK.  Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all!  I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend!  Thanks for reading about ours!