Two of My Favorite Things...

These bowls are now counted as some of my favorite things. Charles just brought them back from Istanbul. Aren't they gorgeous? The two above are bigger and the three below are very small - just big enough for a personal portion of soy sauce to dip your sushi in or something.

I actually already had two of these bowls (the yellow and orange ones) from our 2008 trip to Istanbul. I bought four of them at the time.  However, two were broken (one by Charles) over the years. I was so pleased that he remembered and got me more. I really thought after we moved to Chicago there would never be another chance to get more! He is going again next week to Istanbul, let's hope he picks up MORE!

My other favorite thing lately is my juicer. I just made carrot, apple (just picked fresh off the tree from my friend's orchard) and ginger juice. I feel so healthy drinking it. I did learn that only a little bit of ginger goes a long way though.

It makes me even happier to see this little one drinking it. Now if I can just get the other two to drink it as well....

Half Term and Halloween

Butterfly World, Celtic Harmony Camp, Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern, No Man's Land and the Lea Singers Swansong for an Empress - this sums up our week of half term.


The last week of October the girls had a week break from school. They are on a year-round system here where you have six weeks of school and then a week break. We didn't travel anywhere because I felt like we needed to explore the local area and explore we did!


Butterfly World
Our first stop was Butterfly World www.butterflyworldproject.com. This is a lovely park about a 15-20 minute drive from our house.

There is an array of different gardens from ‘The Theatre of Insects’ to ‘Through the Flowerpot Garden’, in which you are transformed into ‘insect size’ and can walk through a giant flowerpot. Butterfly World also has a designer gardens exhibition where garden designers from around the world created 12 thought-provoking and inspiring gardens in the shape of a caterpillar. It was so fun to explore each one and see the different designs. Oh and yes, they had lots of butterflies for us to see.

Celtic Harmony Camp

The next day we went to the Samhain Winter Festival at Celtic Harmony Camp celebrating the Celtic New Year.  I just happened to run across this while I was doing a search online of things to do. It turned into a fantastic day out. When we first arrived there was a warrior demonstration. The girls were so excited because they helped the "local celtic warrior" carry all his gear - swords and shields and spears etc. 

Here is Alexandra eating her apple while watching the warrior demonstration. I think she was giving me a proud warrior growl too.

Here is Sammy in front of the children's size Celtic home. There were several large ones at the camp that actually had camp fires in them.

I had a picture of Abby and Sammy with all the gear on but somehow it got deleted or lost.

After the warrior demonstration, there was storytelling. The story they told was about a dragon and this fire-breathing woman would breathe out fire (really she would spit out some kind of fuel to make a mini fire explosion) every time the dragon did in the story. 
Unfortunately, just after I took this picture of the fire-breathing woman my camera batteries died. So sad because I missed out on some great photo opportunities. Next we saw the Owl display where a handler brought out three large owls. The largest was almost the size of Alex. But she didn't mind she still thought that she could hold him so she kept wandering up to the man in front of the crowd putting out her hand. At one point, the owl leaped at her with wings spread but she didn't even flinch. She just wanted to "hold the bubby." (Note: Bubby is what she calls birds even though she can say the word "bird." None of the rest of us will let her say the right word.  We all make her continue to say "bubby" because it is so cute.) After the owls, the girls had their faces painted. It was pretty exciting for them because it was the first time they have had it done. Abby got an angel and Sammy had a butterfly. The most unfortunate part was that after they painted their faces, they went and did archery. Here is where I was dying to have my camera. Not only did Abby and Sammy do archery which would have been great to get pictures of (by the way, Sammy was a natural and got the target every time) but Alexandra - MY TWO YEAR OLD - insisted on doing archery as well! I asked if they ever had a two year old do it before and they said no but were willing to give it a try since she was pretty adamant about it. It was hilarious and she was pretty darn proud of herself. After archery, we went over fed the goats and had some "Celtic" hot chocolate! All in all, it was such a fun day. I was so pleased with myself for finding this activity for the girls. We all really enjoyed it.  

London - Millenium Bridge and Tate Modern

The next day, we got on the train that Charles rides everyday to work and went into London. The girls have been dying to do this. They complain that it is not fair that Daddy gets to ride the train to work everyday. We got on and experienced what a lovely commute Daddy really does have. It does not take long at all - about 20 minutes and you are in the middle of London. We got off at Charles stop and met him. He showed us his firm's building and then we all went for a picnic by Millenium Bridge. Charles works about a block or two from St. Paul's cathedral which is where all the sympathetic wall street protests are happening. There is quite a nice sized tent village set up outside with the protesters about their "down with government" duties. After lunch we walked across Millenium bridge and went into the Tate Modern museum. The girls enjoyed the day but loved riding the train most of all. No pictures since at this point, I had not even charged my camera batteries because I was unsure of what adaptor/transformer to plug it in to.

  

No Man's Land

No Man's Land is less than a five minute drive from our house. This is a large wooded area where people walk their dogs and fly model airplanes, ride horses and generally get out to enjoy the outdoors. Abby was dying to take us there because her school had a field trip to the area a few weeks before. They had walked the two or three miles all the way there and back. Abby showed us the huts they made out of large branches. I must say, we were all rather impressed by them. The girls all had fun running in and out of them all. We had a picnic up there that day as well. The funny thing is was that was October 30th and we were enjoying gorgeous weather while the east coast of America was being blanketed with snow! 

Lea Singers - Swansong for an Empress

That night Charles and I had an evening out (which has not happened in ages). We attended the Lea Singers performance of "Swansong for an Empress." Our landlord is in the choir and we have attended two of his performances now. The first one was geared to children during harvest and was all about food. This one was mostly in Latin and was performed in a lovely old church in Hemel Hampstead (a village not far from us). It was a perfect end to an active week. 

Halloween

Several people have asked if they do Halloween here. Yes, they do. It seems to get bigger every year but seems to be only a recent thing in the past ten years or so. I took the girls to a Halloween party at the church that sponsors their school. The party was right after school and so we rushed home and got ready and rushed back to the party. The party had storytelling, crafts, games, cupcake decorating,  and singing. The girls really enjoyed it. However, by the time we got home they were exhausted. I was trying to rush them around and get ready to go out trick-or-treating but we had some very grumpy girls. There was lots of drama and needless to say, there was not much trick-or-treating for us. The girls went to three houses on our street and Charles called it quits after all the complaining and moaning. They didn't seem too bothered. They got enough candy at the party with a little bit more from the few neighbors. They went to bed promptly at 8pm. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures because of all the chaos and grumpiness. Abby was Cinderella wearing a lovely dress made by our Naperville friend with long gloves and plenty of jewelry and high heel shoes. Sammy was a witch with hot pink fake eyelashes, black long haired wig and a broom. Alexandra refused to dress up which I found surprising since everything else Abby and Sammy does she seems to insist on doing. I think next year we just the party OR trick-or-treating but NOT both!

 

Out and About

I feel like since we moved to England (which was only two months ago) we have had so many opportunities to be outside and explore. I have really enjoyed this because it has not been typical for our family but of course there is so much to see and do outside here that even we can't resist. I really like getting us all outdoors. We seem to get along better and are generally happier when we are outdoors.  Of course we have been enjoying the most spectacular weather for the past two months as well so that has been helpful too.
At the beginning of October, we went up to Buckinghamshire to visit some friends of ours who just bought a house there. Above is the view from their house.

Their house is the Old Rectory behind this very old little church in a quaint, little hamlet. We love visiting them and seem to go now almost every Sunday.

On this particular visit, we all took to the fields for a walk, as is customary. We also picked apples and collected conkers.

This visit was also a farewell party for some friends of ours moving back to the States (Goodbye Weylands!). Here we all are posing again in the field during our walk.

This is in the cemetery on the grounds of the old church. Our friends said that their neighbors who were out that day have not talked to them since. I hope we didn't offend them with our disrespectful picture-taking. 

This one is a bit random but here is Alexandra in her adorable dress given to her by Auntie Susi! (Thanks Susi!) I put her hair in pigtails for the first time. Pretty adorable!

On this particular day, we ventured over to the neighboring village (Wheathampstead) where the girls go to school and explored the park there. It is gorgeous with a little stream and lots of wooded areas. You can even stop in at the local pub for a nice snack or meal afterward.The girls were amazingly good at posing for pictures that day.

We love this park. It is a favorite after school destination.

The view of the park from Abby and Sammy's perspective

Here is another random photo that has nothing to do with the outdoors, but I just have to throw it in here. I thought this homework of Sammy's was so cute. Sammy was asked to write a few sentences about herself and she did it "by herself." I love it when kids are first learning to spell.  I will translate in case you can't tell what she wrote.
"I'm Samantha Marie Farnsworth. I like pepperoni pizza. My favorite color is all the colors in the world except black, I don't mind. My favorite thing to do is going to Birthday parties. I have 2 sisters named Abby and Alex." (I am not sure what the last three words say.) 
That's all. More of our outdoor adventure over half term will be in my next post. 

Back Blogging

Well it is time to play catch-up. Here are a few pictures from August when we had just arrived in England. We were staying in a temporary flat in North London not far from where we lived previously. When we left in 2008, Abby was four and Sammy was only two years old. Neither of them remembered much. The first few days, they kept asking where London was. I kept telling them that we were IN London but they didn't believe me. We finally took them down to "see London."

 changing of the guard

 It was really fun to show Abby and Sammy the sights. They loved it all. It is so different now that they are older and realize and appreciate where they are.

This is Golders Hill park near where we used to live. They have a little zoo. It was nice walking through it and remembering all the times I used to take both Abby and Sammy there.

 One day we went down to the Natural History and Science Museum. I think they liked riding the tube (subway) the most though. They thought the Natural History Museum looked like a big castle.

This is the big T-Rex at the Natural History Museum. He actually moves and makes lots of noise. Pretty cool! 

More pictures and stories of our adventures to come...

Harvest Festival

This post is from last week October 6th:

(Please see the following post to hear the girls singing the Harvest Festival songs)

Since Abby and Sammy are going to a church school, there are some different events that you would not ordinarily have if you were in a state school. This morning I went to one of them called "Harvest Festival." Harvest is where you show gratitude for all that you have. It goes back to the day when most people farmed and would gather the mature crops from the field. Each child brought non-perishable items from home and presented them in a lovely program put on in the old church (dating back to 1290AD) located across from the school in this beautiful old cemetery dotted with large headstones and covered by colorful falling leaves.

The Reverend conducted and talked about how blessed we are to have plenty of food to eat and how wonderful it is that we can share our bounty with those who are less fortunate. He gave some history about how a long time ago people would give the best part of their harvest to show their gratitude to God. The children in Year 5 baked what looked like massive amounts of bread for the occasion. It was displayed in the nave of the church. At one point in the program, each child brought up and presented their item which was then arranged around the loaves. It was quite a harvest! The children sang songs accompanied by a LIVE brass band. The songs were about the Harvest Festival and autumn and of course the acoustics in the old church were so beautiful it enhanced their singing as I gazed up at the stain glass windows with sunlight pouring in. Of course as is the norm lately, I did not really know that Harvest was today or that I was supposed to attend. So having a very rushed morning I brought Alexandra to school in her pajamas with her hair in her face and ratted up in the back from sleeping on it. I had not even changed her diaper so it sagged down to her knees. While other children her age were nicely groomed and well dressed, my child ran around in her pajamas in the back of the church as they got ever more dirty from her climbing the old steps to the fountain and running amongst the pews. Also because of my rushed morning and lack of knowledge about the event, I did not bring my camera so instead of sharing pictures, I thought I would share a few of the songs because I really appreciated the words. I hope you enjoy them as well.

Harvest Samba

Cabbages and greens

Broccoli and beans

Cauliflower and roasted potatoes

Taste so good to me!

Apricots and plums

Ripened in the sun

Oranges and yellow bananas

Good for everyone!

CHORUS: It's another Harvest Festival

When we bring our fruit and vegetables

Cause we want to share the best of all

The good things that we've been given

It's another opportunity

To be grateful for the food we eat

With a samba celebration to

Say "Thank you" to God the Father.

Cauliflowers Fluffy

Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green,

Strawberries sweeter than any I've seen.

Beetroot purple and onions white,

All grow steadily day and night.

CHORUS: The apples are ripe the plums are red,

Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed.

Blackberries juicy and rhubarb sour,

Marrows fattening hour by hour.

Gooseberries hairy and lettuces fat.

Radishes round and runner beans flat. CHORUS

Orangey carrots and turnips cream,

Reddening tomatoes that used to be green,

Brown potatoes in little heaps

Down in the darkness where the celery sleeps.

CHORUS: The apples are ripe the plums are red,

Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

Shhhhhhhhh!

Autumn Days

Autumn days when the grass is jewelled

And the silk inside a chestnut shell,

Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled,

All these things I love so well.

CHORUS:

So I mustn't forget

No, I mustn't forget

To say thank you to God the Father

I mustn't forget.

Clouds that look like familiar faces,

And a winter's moon with frosted rings,

Smell of bacon as I fasten up my laces,

And the song the milkman sings. CHORUS

Whipped-up spray that is rainbow-scattered,

And a swallow curving in the sky,

Shoes so comfy though they're worn out and they're battered,

And the taste of apple pie.

Harvest Festival Songs at OneTrueMedia.com

Here is a video of Abby and Sammy singing the songs from the school's Harvest Festival Concert. Please excuse Abby for having no skirt on.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Our Lovely New Life

We are finally feeling settled in enough that I have found a bit of time to update my blog for anyone who cares. I still plan on making it private but have not figure it all out yet. Anyway, we are LOVING our new life here and are so glad to be back in England. The above picture is of a car we saw in the grocery store parking lot. The girls loved the headlight-eyelashes and wanted a pair for our car - somehow I don't think Charles would be real keen on driving such a girlie car.  P.S. the following pictures are a bit out of order because I am too lazy to figure out how to rearrange them. Sorry!

This is the greenhouse in our backyard. The girls play in it and pretend it is a store. They also keep their "collection of stuff" (i.e. various items found around the yard that they deem to be beautiful or somehow important enough to keep) in there.

Our house came with a trampoline. As you can see, we don't need a fence we have hedges to do the job. They surround our entire yard and are much nicer to look at than a fence.

Alex's favorite spot to take a rest is on the ledge of the conservatory.

Abby and Sammy in their school uniforms. I believe children everywhere should wear uniforms. No more wasted time in the mornings trying to figure out what to wear and no more spending gobbs of money on clothes. The children all look the same at school and no one is judged on their clothing. I love it! The girls got accepted to a Church of England school. It has very high ratings. There are only 200 students total in the school of 4-11 year olds. Abby is in Year 3 and Sammy is in Year 1. They both feel special because they feel like they skipped a grade (Abby would have been in 2nd grade in the US and Sammy would have been in kindergarten.)

This is the view from my bedroom window. We have nothing behind us but a pasture and beautiful English countryside. I liked living in the city of London previously but I LOVE living in the country far more. I can't get over the beauty of everything every time I go out for a drive or even just look out my window. These horses graze on the grass behind our hedge all day long. We throw the apples from our trees over to them to eat as well. Abby is now determined to take horseback riding lessons. I think that is a good possibility.  

This is another shot of the backyard. Gorgeous! This is the little patio as you come out of the conservatory. Our BBQ is on the right.

Beyond this gate where Charles is mowing the lawn is a little garden plot and compost area - it is all part of our yard. Don't get me started about composting. I am a believer and may even do a separate post all together on it.

The house has these lovely vines in the back growing all over it. I came out one day and realized the leaves on the vines had all turned red. It was so beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.

My lovely rosemary bush. Herbs make me so happy. I also discovered we have a large sage bush as well. I am also growing basil and parsley in the kitchen window.

This is the shed. We need to take down the old satellite dish in the middle. But isn't it gorgeous just covered with greenery?

This is looking back toward the greenhouse from the garden (where Charles was pictured mowing). The trees are apple trees. We also have a pear tree and cherry tree. The girls loved picking apples off the trees right in our own backyard and then taking them into the house and....

...juicing them to make apple juice! It was delicious too! Notice my lovely stove (or cooker as they call it here) in the background. Double oven - It rocks!

Posing for a picture with the sunflowers in the garden.

Sammy wanted another posed picture.

This is our bowl of apples freshly picked from OUR trees. Can I just say, that I was excited to move to England when we first found out but since moving here it has been better than I ever expect. I am so happy to be back in this country. It sounds odd but I feel like it is a magical place. I want to go looking for fairies and read Harry Potter for the first time in my life. I love driving fast down narrow country roads with high walls of greenery that hang over making tunnels, only to slam on my brakes upon spotting an oncoming car and then barely inching our way past each other as slow as possible so as not to scrape each other's car.  Other interesting facts about our new place: apparently the red-headed guy from Harry Potter (Ron Weasley - I just looked up his name) lives in the area and drives an orange hummer or range rover. Also, Victoria Beckham's sister lives here so David and Victoria have been spotted here on occasion. Perhaps I am still in the honeymoon phase of the move but I am loving it. I feel like I am back in my element. I especially look forward to winter because I know it doesn't get anywhere close to being as cold as Chicago and that makes me happy!