Foggy Morning

A few pictures from our walk to school this morning.

It was cold, but still, so it didn't seem that cold. A nice, peaceful morning (even the kids were pretty calm).

Day in the Life

I'm participating again in Julia's Day in the Life roundup. This one will be long, but there are pictures. :)

Tuesday, 17 January

Matt and Leann are 38
Miles is 6
Lily is 4
Clara is 15 months
We have been in England for about 5 months.

1:06-2:10 Clara wakes up. She's really inconsistent with sleep lately. Maybe because she's cut 7 teeth in the past 3 months. She's restless, but finally gets back to sleep.

4:15-4:45 Clara is awake again. Nurse her back to sleep, and thankfully it's quick this time.

6am My alarm goes off. Slowly get out of bed. It's foggy and damp out.

6:02 Day in the life reminder alarm goes off.
I get in the shower, brush teeth, and do my makeup.

6:35 Lily comes into the bathroom. Matt comes in to say goodbye and leaves for work.
I get dressed, excited to wear the new leggings I got in the mail yesterday.

6:50 Lily and I wake Miles up. The kids do potty breaks, brush their teeth and take vitamins.

While urging Miles to get dressed, I go wake Clara up. She's pretty sleepy, but manages to be in a decent mood. I get her dressed and head back into the big kids' room where Miles is slowly finishing dressing himself.

7:24 All kids are finally dressed. We go downstairs for breakfast. Since we're running behind, I grab cereal for Lily and myself, and peanut butter toast for Miles. Clara shares my cereal. Matt calls to discuss potential holiday plans.
Mike's was feeling a little unwell yesterday. He says his belly is still squishy, and he wants to stay home from school. He has no temp, and besides being a little (lot) slow, he's okay. No deal, kid.

7:50 My "leave the house" alarm goes off. Snooze for 10 minutes. I do the kids' hair, get jackets and shoes, and we get out the door after the alarm goes off again.

8:04 We start walking, and the straps on the buggy board fall off. I try to get them back, but they're wonky. Lily won't get back on anyway, so we try to walk quickly. Miles is tired, but does pretty well keeping up so we're not late. I may or may not have used my "mom voice" several times.

8:28 We get to the school. The kids have a few minutes to play before the bell rings.

8:40 I take Lily to the nursery class, and she's not wanting me to leave today. She whines a bit, but goes with the teacher pretty easily. Clara and I head home.

9:01 We arrive at home, and I throw a load of laundry in the washer, grab a cup of coffee, and work on this post.

9:1

9:40 I take 5 minutes to straighten up the living room and get Clara a snack. She gets crumbs everywhere.

Good enough

9:52 Clara and I put our jackets back on to head to a play group about 2 minutes away. I just carry her since it's so close.

11:30 Play group is over. We stop by the post office and grab lunch to go from our favorite sandwich shop.

11:49 We get home. I unload the washer and set up lunch in living room.
I have a cheeseburger, Clara has mushy peas. She demands a piece of cheese as well.

12:27 I take away Clara's food since it's squished all over the table and floor. Change her diaper. I open the Duolingo app and do 2 lessons of French. I do not do very well with it today, and don't retain any of it.

12:46 I set up an episode of Orange is the New Black (season 3, I'm behind) and nurse Clara. Fortunately for me, she falls asleep, and I let her nap on me while I watch TV.

2:12 Clara wakes up, a little crabby. I give her the rest of her mushy peas.

2:40 Clara plays with her toy phone and laughs at me dancing around. I text my sister, and send a list of things for Matt to pick up on his way home from work.

2:50 My reminder to pick up the big kids from school goes off.  Clara and I get our jackets on, and we leave the house by 3.

3:24 We arrive at the school, and I talk to other moms.

3:30 I get Lily from nursery, and Miles is released from his class. I talk some more while the kids run around. I don't feel particularly motivated to get home quickly today.

3:45 We finally leave the school, and slowly make our way home. I let the kids play Pokemon in the park for a bit.

4:35 We get home, and I get the kids settled.
Lily yells to Clara, "If you don't stop hitting me, I'll call the social worker!" Where does she come up with these things?

4:48 I don't feel like cooking, so I sit down with Miles for homework time. He does reading and writing.

5:20 Matt gets home from work. I ask if we can get food delivered.
Lily puts on her new Elsa dress.

6:00 We finally get our take out order figured out, and the website says it'll take 45-60 minutes to be delivered. Matt goes to get fish and chips. Meanwhile Clara decides that she wants to cry, and nothing will help.
I let her climb the stairs, and she's content. I go ahead and put her jammies on.

6:15 Elsa wants to put on makeup. I let her loose with her makeup kit. Miles has finished his homework, and joins us in the bathroom. Clara is crying again because I won't let her go down the stairs, but she calms down after a few minutes.

6:30 I tell Lily that it's time to put makeup away. Throws fit.

6:32 Matt gets home with food while Lily is yelling. He goes up to talk to her while I get the food on the table. I open a cider for myself.

6:37 Clara goes crazy wanting food. She's crying, "Hot hot hot!" while I open everything.

6:39 Matt has helped Lily calm down, we sit down to eat. Miles tells us what he's been learning at school about dinosaurs.

7:13 We're about done eating. I take kids upstairs while Matt makes coffee for tomorrow. I forget to take any more pictures from here on.

7:43 Everyone has jammies on, and our teeth are brushed. Matt reads bedtime stories to the big kids while I nurse Clara.

8:07 I put Clara in her bed, then play on my phone and talk to Matt.

8:34 I can't keep eyes open anymore. I swear I normally don't go to bed this early, but I'm exhausted. I plug in my phone and go to bed.

How to Stay Warm...

in your flat in England.

Long sleeved pajamas, knee socks, slippers, calf-length plush robe, and a fluffy throw.

Happy New Year!

Full disclosure: I wrote this post about a week ago. Oops.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year celebration.

We stayed home, had a bunch of appetizers for dinner, and put the kids to bed at their regular bedtime. And I was asleep by 10. Lame, I know.

2016 was a year of huge change for our family. We lost a beloved aunt and had to rehome our dog. We moved across the pond, Lily started school, and Miles started at a new school. Clara had her first birthday, and, of course, the political climate in the UK and the US has been highly stressed to say the least (that's as diplomatic as I can be).

There are a lot of things I'm nervous about going into 2017. I'm trying to find joy in small things and look on the bright side whenever I can. Since we're settling in nicely here, we're hoping to start traveling this year - around the UK and Europe. We haven't made any concrete plans as of yet, but are thinking of Barcelona, Greece, and Paris. It's a bit overwhelming, but I do like to research places to visit. (If anyone has experience or advice with European travel, especially with kids, I'd love to hear from you!)

I don't like leaving a post without pictures, so here's a box of chocolates I got for Christmas. It was fabulous.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

These past couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. The kids have been out of school, which is enough to keep me exhausted on its own. Plus my phone completely died, and I've had to adjust to the less than stellar camera on my new phone. And of course, all of the last minute Christmas things we've had to do.

I love Christmas, and this year is no exception. It's been a little bit harder though. I miss my family and friends back in the States, and the loved ones we've lost over the past year.

Still, I'm looking forward to seeing the kids' faces when they see that Santa has come to visit. And hopefully we will get to talk to family a little bit, or at least exchange pictures. We are just having a quiet day at home, which is my ideal way to spend a holiday. Snuggled up in blankets being lazy and eating good food.

Happy Holidays everyone!

School Plays and Activities

The kids are officially on winter break until 4 January. Leading up to the end of term, they did lots of fun activities at school.

One of the big things the school did was the Christmas play. There was a separate one for the nursery class and the infant classes (Reception and Year 1 and 2).

Lily was one of three shiny stars in the nursery play. I think their play was just a bunch of cute songs with some dancing, but I'm not sure because Lily got strep throat the day before the performance and missed it. She was sad, and I was sad because this would've been her first play. She may have loved it, or she may have gotten self conscious and refused to participate. Guess we'll find out next year.

The infant play was all about "the magic of Christmas." The premise was that two kids were ill at Christmas, and the Christmas fairy granted their wishes to do all of the fun stuff kids love during the holiday. The play was written by one of the teachers, and the music teacher wrote an original song for it. The Reception class did the nativity bit.

This school is not religiously affiliated, but it is standard in England for schools to have a small amount of religious education. The nativity play is a big tradition here. Now, we're not religious, but we will encourage the kids to learn a lot about many religions. And, at least at this school, they encourage diversity and do like to expose the kids to different religions and cultures.

So Miles landed the part of a wise man. He even had a line - "I bring frankincense!" (He said it loudly and enthusiastically, it was cute.) He told us leading up to the play that he couldn't wave at us because he had to just smile and walk kingly, and he did just that. I love watching performances at this age.

Delivering his line

The Saturday after the plays was the school's Christmas Fair. I didn't get any pictures of this because I was helping out. There were stalls with vendors selling stationery, teddy bear clothes, and makeup, to name a few. There were raffles, crafts, and games, and Santa was there for photos. We didn't get pictures with Santa here, because we had to rush off to a Christmas party put on by Matt's workplace. It was fun though. We won a 1000 piece puzzle through the raffle, and the kids got sugar cookies and sausages to eat.

Then basically the last week of school before end of term was just fun and games. The classes had Christmas parties, visits from Father Christmas, and lots of craft opportunities. Miles' class even had a elf on the shelf. Luckily he didn't ask why we don't have one - they creep me out!

And now, nearly a whole month of three kids at home 24/7. Wish me luck...

Australian/American Thanksgiving in England

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday since the kids were in school Thursday. We are awaiting delivery of the dining room furniture we ordered, so our Australian expat friends offered the use of their house in exchange for delicious American food.

We went simple and traditional with the food, but the preparation was anything but simple. Our menu consisted of turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, smashed potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie. Our hosts would supply another dessert and the adult beverages.

Some of the ingredients were difficult to find, but we managed. The real challenge was cooking all of the food in an English kitchen. The ovens here are much smaller, so we could only cook one thing at a time. Add in adjusting to a different oven, temperature conversions, some substitutions in ingredients, and trying to clean up with a sink that is smaller than some of our pans, and you can see why Matt was cussing and stressed. But we (he) got through it, and we carted our feast to our friends' house.

Once we got there, we were able to enjoy ourselves. We had drinks while warming up a few things, and the kids all ran off to play.

Pretty soon we were able to sit down to eat, and the food turned out great. The pumpkin pie and homemade "cool whip" were delicious, and the sticky date pudding (aka sticky toffee pudding) made by our hosts was amazing.

Overall it was a really good day. Next year though, it has to be at our apartment, with more practice. :)