Bubbles Rediscovered!

Well the last few weeks were ok here and then it has been back down in the 50's here and windy.  Sometimes it gets back up in the 60's.  Hopefully we will get some summer feeling weather outside soon. 

For Easter in their Easter baskets the kids got the no spill bubble containers.  It's almost like they have rediscovered bubbles.  They blow bubbles for each other everyday.  I even had a bubble maker stashed away for sometime special and we went ahead and got it out.  They love it!  I don't know how long it will last though because they play with it until the batteries motor runs down.  I did have a video of the girls playing with the bubble machine but it wouldn't download so you will have to check out the picture below instead.  

Here is Gwyneth playing with the bubble machine.

 We went shopping this week at the big shopping center that is right by us.  We were going to go out and go to a site but it was too cold and windy.  Anyway here are some pictures I took at the Mothercare  (Like Babies R Us) store.  Here are the girls riding on the Thomas the Train ride that was there.  

One day Corina came down the stairs and she had used her makeup and made herself look like a cat.  Then Aurora wanted to be a cat too of course.  After that they put on scarves for tails and pretended to be cats.  Meow.

Tonight the girls wanted to make dessert.  They made fruit salad.  Here is Aurora cutting us a banana.

Corina snuck a piece of fruit.  

 Here is the finished result.  Yum!  Good job girls!

As for me I feel like it's crunch time.  I'm 32 weeks so I have 8 weeks or less before the baby is born. (Yes I'm counting I don't go over 40 weeks!)  My due date is the 25th of July.  Not long after that is will be time to start school again and Gwyneth's birthday is on the 16th of August.  So I better plan as much as I can now before the ball starts rolling.  

I hope everyone has a great week.  

This week was a very long week.  Mark had to work 12 days straight so we were home a lot this week.  I did have the van a few times this week and got some really good practice driving in England though.  One day we went to the park on the base and I took this video.

I thought it was so funny.  Corina is whipping her hair, Aurora is doing the same thing Corina is doing and Gwyneth is wishing she had long hair to do the same.  ha ha.

We also finished up our first week of out Dave Ramsey thing with Corina.  She did her work and realized that she is going to get paid real money to do her work.

One big thing that happened this week was I realized how fast Aurora is learning.  She was jumping on the trampoline the other day and just started counting and she counted all the way to 30.  We found a little dry erase board with letters and numbers on it and you can practice writing on it and then erase it.  Aurora was pointing to most of the letters and saying the letter sounds.  I have to say that I really have to that Leap Frogs Letter Factory for that.  She loves those movies.  Plus she has been wanting to do school when I do it with Corina.  As for Corina we are finishing up school.  We will be doing it for a few more weeks after the kids in the US get out.  I told her this year we could start after her birthday.  I don't feel to bad though because the kids in England don't get out until about the middle of July.

Anyway enjoy our silly park video and have a good week.

Our Big Trip

We had a pretty good week this week.  Mark was off for most of the week so we were able to hang out a lot which was nice.  One night he let me go to the movies while he watched the kids.  He took them to the McDonald's play place while I was at the theater.  Here are some pics of them there that he took. 

This is a random picture.  Me and my girls love black olives.  We eat them all the time.  They are also good for putting on your fingers.

These are pictures from our trip to London this week.  I had a student that came over to London and we met up with her.  It's so nice when someone is here that you know from back home.  We drove to Greenwich and picked her up and then found our parking spot.  Then we walked out to where the river cruise docks.  We rode the boat down to the Tower of London and then we walked the (very long) path that runs up and down the Thames River.  It's a really nice walk.

This is Gwyneth on the boat.

 Aurora on the boat in her cute little hat.  

Corina on the boat.  Tower bridge is in the background.

Corina on the boat with the Tower of London in the background.

Corina is walking around outside the Tower of London.

Aurora

Gwyneth.

Mark and I outside the Tower of London.

Corina with the Tower of London to the left and Tower Bridge to the right.

This is a picture of what London Bridge looks like today.  (It's a little disappointing.)  They said on the cruise that the one before this one is in a museum in AZ. 

 Approaching Tower Bridge on the boat.

Our family pic on the boat.  Someone said that this looked like John Lennon behind us.  What do you think.

Hope everyone had a great week.  

Just a regular week.

It's been a pretty regular week for us here.  The kids in England had the first part of the week off and then were off for the Royal Wedding.  I looked out the window that morning and not a sole was out.  Maybe one lone walker but other than that I'm pretty sure everyone was glued to their TVs here.  It was sort of an accident but we had heart pancakes that morning.  (we didn't have enough batter to make 4 big waffles but enough for 4 little pancakes so I told Corina it was in celebration of the wedding. ha ha.)

A few months ago we started paying Corina for little jobs she's been doing around the house.  I have never seen a girl so eager to empty the dish washer.  I say, "Corina do you want to empty the dishwasher or do you want me to?" She says, " I will mom!  You better not empty the dishwasher!  I'm going to!"  It's so funny.  Actually we got the Dave Ramsey kit for kids.  It's pretty cute and I know that Corina is going to learn a ton from it.  Me too.  She is really excited about doing it.

Mark is off this week so I know we are going to be doing some stuff.  Plus we are focusing on the end of school for us.  Then we just wait for the baby and try to have as much fun as possible.

Well that is all for this week.

Have a great week everyone.

Easter

We had a great Easter.  It was beautiful outside.  Yeah!  Usually it seems like it is always freezing on Easter and rainy.  On Good Friday we dyed eggs. We have dyed eggs on Good Friday ever since I was a kid so I carried on the tradition with my kids.   Aurora and Corina had a good time dyeing eggs.  I had some boxes of dye and so Corina got her own box and Aurora had her own.  It worked out wonderfully.

Easter morning the girls were so excited.  Especially Aurora.  Her voice was almost a squeal every time she found and egg.  She is 3 this year so she is really able to enjoy it.  Gwyneth was really just excited about the toys she got in her Easter basket and she just wanted to check them out.  Mark tried to get her to look for eggs but she kept going back to her toys in her Easter basket.

On a bitter sweet note Corina asked this morning if the Easter Bunny was real and if I got the gifts and eggs. I asked her what she thought.  She said that she thought that I had gotten them and then she asked me if I did.  I had to say yes. She had asked me the night before and I told her I would tell her later.  At least she didn't ask about Santa.  I'm sure she will figure it out soon enough.  Anyway then she was asking why they had the Easter Bunny so I told her we would look up the history of the Easter Bunny.  Also that she had better not tell Aurora that the Easter Bunny isn't real.

So I'm posting one picture this week and then I made a slide show of the rest with smile box.  This week it was so nice outside.  It was almost 80.  The girls wanted to have a water fight outside and wanted to know if they could put on their bathing suits.  I thought might as well.  Actually we all got a little tan from being outside this week.

The girls getting a tan in the hot English weather.

Here are all of our Easter Pics.  I put them in a super cute slide show by smilebox.

Another free digital slideshow by Smilebox

I hope everyone else has a great Easter too and has a great rest of the week.

A Good Week.

This week was a pretty good week.  It seems like we did a ton of stuff.  

Sunday was my birthday.  I told Mark that I really didn't want much for my birthday and I really didn't want to do much.  He couldn't believe that I didn't really want to do anything.  The day of my birthday he secretly invited the neighbors over for cake and then he had a baby sitter lined up and we went to the movies.  I was surprised.  It was a really good day.  

We are having a little spring break this week from our homeschooling.  I got all of our 3rd grade homeschool stuff the other day.  Corina is already excited about 3rd grade and me too.  She is going to be learning a lot of cool stuff next year.    Plus Aurora is going to be starting some things and she is excited about having her own school books.  

Tonight we went for a walk.  It was super nice outside and all the flowers are out.  It was so pretty.  We walked around the pond in the back of our house and fed the ducks and swans.  The girls and Mark and I had a good time.

So now to start the picture lineup.  

Here is Gwyneth at the beginning of the week.  Corina left her watercolors out and Gwyneth took advantage.  She had a good time watercoloring.  

Here is Mark and Aurora coming off the slide at the park.  The parks on the bases are great. 

 Gwyneth getting a shoulder ride.  The cherry trees are all in bloom here.  It makes me think of the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC.  

So it seems inevitable that every time we have spaghetti that there will not be a spaghetti explosion.  Every time we have it Gwyneth eats it like it's the best thing ever.  I guess it must be to her. 

Here are a picture of the swans (and the little duck) that we fed.  

Here is Gwyneth feeding the swans.  

She was pretty excited about it.  

 Here are Mark and the girls by the lake.  It was such a nice night.  

So hopefully next week I will have some awesome pictures.  Not only is it Easter but here is St. George's Day.  They have things going on all weekend at different places all over England.  Festivals and jousting events so that should be really interesting.  

Have a great week.  

Finally Spring!!!

It had been so nice here lately.  It really had been such a treat.  The kids have been able to play outside and we have finally been able to get out and got to some more sites.  Over the winter we had tried to go to a castle called Bolsover.  We almost couldn't get out of the parking lot because it was so snowy up there.  So we decided to go yesterday.  They had a special day where period actors were there riding horses and acting.  Also the weekend before we went to a birthday party.  They had hired a face painter.  She did a really good job.  But first of all in the picture line up is some of Mark's promotion pictures.  He worked so hard on getting promoted.  I'm so proud of him.   They let the wives take off the old rank and put on the new rank.

 Me putting on Mark's new rank.  

 Corina and Aurora with their faces painted at the birthday party.

Here is our trip to Bolsover Castle. 

 This was part of the play that we saw there.  Corina got to pet this horse.  It even had it's hair braided.  The girls thought that was cool.  

 Head kiss.

Corina and Aurora in one of the exhibits. This is a portrait of the king and queen at Bolsover.   

 Family pic. If you look through the doors you can see the valley behind.  

View from the castle.   

 Little Gwyneth in front of a big castle.

You could get on a wooden horse and try on riding clothes.  

 Gwyneth at the end of the day.  I'm pretty sure we were just in the car for about 5 minutes and then she was asleep.  

That's all for this week.  I hope everyone had a great week.