New words, same meaning

The boys have been in school for approximately 2.5 weeks and they are already using more and more of the British words. For instance, I asked the boys if Ned was in school today and Oliver replied, "No, he's on holiday this week."  Lately, if I seem frustrated Henry asks me if I am cross. And after Oliver used the bathroom tonight he said, "Mom, I came in here straightaway!" The word tomatoes has become tomatoes with the long a. It's very cute.  There have been a few other times when I've heard a hint of an accent especially saying the word potty or lovely. Before we left people told me they would have accents by the time we come home and I'm actually starting to believe it.  At the very minimum their vocabulary will be very different- which is pretty cool. 

Life is rolling along here and it is unreal to think we have been here for almost 2 months. There are certainly things I miss- our families or course, normal top 40 radio stations (a subject that needs a post of its own) free parking lots, regular amounts of sun- and there are things I don't miss- like Route 1, dare I say Dunkins, my commute, any day at Market Basket,  the "I have to be somewhere right this second so get out of my way" type of driving-I was guilty of this as well. 

In any case, we are enjoying our adventure and the boys seem to have taken to it pretty well- and that was all we had hoped for. This weekend we are headed to Madrid for 3 nights! The first of many trips to come! Stay tuned... 

Where have we been?

Good question.  I realized today and Mark reminded me that it has been over a week since my last post.  Yikes.  Too much time has gone by!  I will do my best to recap the past week and a half.

The boys successfully started school on September 9th.  I'm happy to say that they love it.  It is a small school in Marlow with only a few students in it so far. They are getting some decent individualized attention right now and that makes me happy considering the recent transition.

Here are my pumpkins on their first day of school. Believe me when I say that I did try to get them to pick different raincoats and wellies- but they both insisted on the train gear.  So, train gear it is.

 

This is the little road we walk down every morning to get to school. 

 

They are coming home with all sorts of projects - from painting, to making boats, to color of the week drawings - good fun. Today they took a walk to the park and fed the ducks and swans.  All very exciting to these little guys.  I picked them up today and as we were driving home I mentioned how great their leaf print pictures were and Oliver said, "Are they lovely Mom?"  Very British indeed.

This past weekend was decent despite the weather.  It has been raining, at some point during the day, every day for the past 8 days.  It has also dropped about 15-20 degrees compared to a few weeks back.  I think the clouds are here to stay for awhile.  We just need to learn to dress better for it!  Meaning, always wear or take your raincoat and umbrella- everywhere. 

Saturday was low key. We ran some errands in the morning and then...WAIT FOR IT...

We stayed home.  Can you believe it?  It was a perfect day to light our first fire in our house.  The kids snuggled up in the living room to watch Mary Poppins and Mark and I enjoyed our fireplace.

On Sunday, after Mark and the kids got home from Rugby we took a drive to the city to visit Regent's Park. It is a huge, huge park in central London- 395 acres to be exact.  I think we only experienced a corner of it but it was fun. Queen Mary's Gardens were beautiful and that was only a corner of the park.   http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park

 

 No Alyssa, its not the same exact bag as yours, but its pretty close. Mine isn't canvas.

 Couldn't help it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Henry must have gone down this slide 20 times- and every time he put his arms up. He loved it.

 

 

 

Oliver noticed all of the pigeons sitting, just relaxing and he made a mad dash to try and catch one.  He truly believes he can catch one and is highly disappointed when they all fly away.

 

Their little legs were tired- because yet again, Mom and Dad forgot the stroller!

 

 

They held up really well and we rewarded them with a visit to a pub close to our home- 2 pints and 2 ice cream sundaes.

 

  Lucky kids.

 

 

 

A very British weekend - Part 3

Once Mark came back from Rugby with the boys, we packed them into the car and headed to Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway for a Day out with Thomas the Tank Engine.  It was about an hour and a half drive south.  The boys slept for almost the entire ride (thanks Rugby Tots!).  The ride was beautiful with the rolling hills and the perfect amount of sun and clouds in the sky.

When we arrived, the boys were beyond excited and couldn't wait to get on the trains.  I think our first ride was on the Henry engine. 



 

As we were going by on one track, the other trains would go by us- just like in the stories and shows.  They LOVED it! Below is the Gordon engine.



 

This is Henry realizing that Thomas is coming down the track.  He was ecstatic.

 

The trains took us in this pretty long, dark tunnel. Somewhere in our lives with the kids we have taken to putting our hands up - as if you were on a coaster- when we go through tunnels. 

One of our conductors. 

 

Meeting Sir Topham Hat.  Need I say more?

 

 

 This railway really did a good job.  The boys even got to put water in Henry and Gordon.  There was a magic show and sing-a-longs.  Mark and I took them to this last year in N. Conway at 2.5. 

For the record, 3.5 is much better.  We had two very happy kids.

 

 

 

 

 

A very British weekend - Part 2

On Sunday Mark took the boys to their first Rugby Tots class.  For the record, they do not really play rugby.  It is about learning the fundamentals, teamwork, self confidence and honestly, just running them until they are shattered (extremely tired).

I will say that they look pretty darn smart in their uniforms.

 

Henry giving his best "Yeah, I'm going to rugby look." Although, from the looks of this picture he looks like we are sending him to a boxing match. 

 

Getting pumped!

 

 

 

Mark said they were first in line when they told everyone to line up.  They were so into it that someone asked Mark if they had done this before!

 

They had a blast! Good thing because they have 15 more classes to go.



A very British weekend- Part 1

Let me begin with our trip to the London Zoo on Saturday.  Mind you, this trip got off to a shaky start.  Mark left early in the morning to get his haircut and within minutes after he left, the lovely road pavers shut our road down.  That means there was no way (to our newbie knowledge) for him to get home in any kind of straightforward way.  So I pulled the gang together, packed our gear for the day and very carefully, with not really having any idea of where I was going tried to find him.  It took some finagling and a lot of time but we found him.  How do they just shut down a major road on a Saturday morning?!?  I'm assuming that everyone else knew how to navigate around this road block but us.

Back to the London Zoo.  We decided to be brave and drive into London.  It was really quite painless, maybe a 45 minute drive and no congestion fee on the weekend.  Needless to say, we were pretty proud of ourselves.

They had a great gorilla exhibit and the boys enjoyed seeing them interact with each other.  

Watching the gorilla try to pull a sweet potato through the cage.  Took a bit of time.

A quick bite to eat.  We are now pros at packing our lunches!

And yes, what zoo wouldn't be complete with out a bouncy house castle and a merry-go-round? Everywhere. We. Go.

The giraffes were beautiful. Henry said that they were his favorite.

We gave in to the merry-go-round. A million horses to pick from and they chose the dragon seat.

Officially done with the zoo.

We had such a great day and if you notice, it was sunny!