Bath for an Old Fat Pigeon??

After our weekend of Jubilee celebrations, we headed down to the gorgeous old city of Bath (or B-ah-th if you are my children correcting my pronunciation) set in Somerset, England. The city was first established as a spa by the Romans sometime in the AD 60s about 20 years after they had arrived in Britain (AD43).  They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs. Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973. Much later, it became popular as a spa town during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone. The city is about a three hour drive from our house. We have been here before but were happy to return for another look.

Here is Sammy and her cousin listening intently at the museum on their audio guide phones. We went with Charles' cousin's family who live here in London but are soon moving back to the states.

An interesting fact I just learned - In March 2012 a hoard of 30,000 silver Roman coins, one of the largest hoards discovered in Britain, was discovered in Bath during an archaeological dig. The coins, believed to date from the third century, were unearthed about 450 feet from the Roman Baths! Wow! Here is Alexandra sitting at one of the large roman baths.

Another view

After an exciting day in Bath, we drove to our Bed & Breakfast which Charles' cousin found online. We decided to book it because we simply loved the name - "The Fat Pigeon." It was an hour or so outside of Bath and we had a bit of a hard time finding it. We were also due to arrive well after their deadline of 8pm so it started to look like we would have no place to stay the night. However, after emails, phone calls and begging as well as getting lost driving through some narrow, dirt roads and last but not least, Sammy vomiting, we came upon this amazing castle-like house.  We thought it could not possibly be our Bed & Breakfast. Well surprise, surprise - it was! We just had to enter from the back. 

This is a photo of the front of the house, I found on the website. The actual name of the house was the Brympton d'Evercy or Brympton House. A little history:  Brympton House was not built in its entirety all at once; instead, it was slowly expanded between about 1220, when it was begun by the D'Evercy family, and the 18th century. It once served as a boys' school during WWII. Today it is occasionally hired out as a location for filming, or weddings, it remains essentially a private residence. During its long history Brympton d'Evercy has belonged to just five families, the most recent owner purchased the property in 2007. (Our camera battery was dying just as we arrived so I get a few pictures of my own but not many.)

This is the wedding hall with wooden benches and ivy crawling up the columns. There were also several old fire pits along the right wall. Gorgeous! (From the website)

The view out the back of the house (From the website)

A closer view of the front door

Night view from the website

This is the ballroom that was just down one flight of stairs from our rooms. The back cabinets you see in this picture were full of dozens and dozens of gorgeous hand-painted tea cups of all kinds.

This is the view from the back of the house in the spring (from the website)

Now for my pictures - this is a view of the back of the house entering into the actual Bed & Breakfast entrance.

The winding staircase with the bell at the top. We climbed this staircase to get to our rooms.

Leading to the front of the house - chicken coop on the left

Our room with the large old fireplace that Abby was afraid to sleep by.

This is the view of the gardens from our room!

This is the view out the back of the house from one of the ballroom windows. Breath-taking!

This is looking out the ballroom window down onto the back porch or veranda

Ok you are probably thinking - enough pictures already - but I can't help it! This place was GORGEOUS! The pictures don't do it justice. I could not get over this view from the ballroom window out the back. It looked like a painting to me. There is a little row boat on the edge of the pond (you can't see it too well from my picture) but it just made it look so idyllic. It was unbelievable!

This is the old chapel and graveyard surrounding it on the premises (this is the only picture I got of it). I must say, thinking that we were just booking a cute little Bed & Breakfast cottage and then ending up with this could not have been a better set up. We were all walking around in complete excitement and amazement! Now will someone I know pleeeease just come get married here so I can attend your weddding?? I think I have definitely managed to go on and on about this house so I will end here and begin another post about our next day's adventures.... 

Diamond Jubilee Four-Day Party

The Diamond Jubilee was four days of parties for us and for the country. However, we got an additional five days for the Jubilee since it was also half term for Abby and Sammy. The Diamond Jubilee was celebrating 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II being on the throne. We started off the weekend (Saturday) at the Hertfordshire Jubilee County show. The above picture shows the sheep competition. It was very fun to watch because it reminded me of the movie "Babe." 

There were lots of farm animals to see and lots of very good food to eat. 

We saw the all-human circus while at the county show too. 

Alex loved her light-up twirly toy the most

We also got to watch some amazing equestrian horse jumping. Very impressive and entertaining! I could have sat there and watched that all day.

We also saw the Devil's horsemen (show horses) and various horse relay races. Here is Sammy at the Jubilee Arena cheering for the Hertfordshire horse and pony team.

On Sunday, I contemplated taking the girls to the Flotilla event on the Thames where 1000 boats went up the Thames River in London and the Queen watched it all from a beautiful golden barge. However, we also had a neighborhood party planned on the same day. So I decided against going to the Flotilla event and going to our neighborhood party so we could meet some more of our neighbors. I am sure glad I did. If you watched it on television, you know that Sunday's flotilla had awful rainy weather. It was down pouring on all the royals. We went to our party just around the corner. They had a hog roast and roasted a whole pig on a spit. They had a bouncy castle, games, stalls selling various items and a whole lot of food. However, the rain came down on us too. Our food was soaking wet, the tents were leaking because of all the rain and we were all drenched. Alex was crying because she wanted to go on the bouncy castle but she didn't want to go on it because it was slippery, but she did want to go on it... Needless to say, we left the party early, met no new neighbors and went home. We built a blanket fort in the front room and watched the flotilla on t.v. 

On Monday, the village just next to ours had fireworks, bon fires, games, food and more. We watched the concert at Buckingham palace on t.v. Tuesday, we went to yet ANOTHER party. This one was with some friends of ours and for me, it was the highlight of all the jubilee celebrations. All the food was English from cucumber sandwiches, to tarts, cupcakes, sausage rolls, pickled onions, trifles, strawberries n' cream etc etc. The cupcakes were decorated with the Union Jack, Big Ben, the London Eye and as flower pots - all homemade!

The decorations would have made anyone feel patriotic!

We watched the Queen on t.v. in the royal procession to St. Paul's while we nibbled on our English delicacies!

The tables were so festive.

These cute little thrones holding cupcakes were the centerpiece for the tables. One has the Union Jack  and the other has Big Ben on it if you look closely. Adorable!

The kids played pin the tail on the corgi. A corgi is the kind of dog the Queen has. We also played "pass the parcel" a favorite English game. There was an adult version and children version. I had to sing a solo of the national anthem in the adult version of the game. I was able to do it since I have heard "God Save the Queen" about a hundred times this weekend. 

Each child got a mask of one of the royal family. The adults tried on the masks too and did their best impressions of the various personalities.

Abby put on the Queen's mask and did not take it off the rest of the night. She didn't speak to anyone just wandered in and out of the room listening to the clacking of her heels on the wood floor and perfecting her Queenly walk and wave. It became kind of eery to see the Queen wandering around. Charles feared that he would wake up in the middle of the night with the "Queen" standing over him. Even a week later, Abby is still wearing the mask whenever she gets a chance....It was certainly a weekend to remember. Who knows what will be next? How long with the Queen live? Will they celebrate her 64th Jubilee when she actually becomes the longest reigning monarch surpassing Victoria's 63 years or will they wait until her 70th year to do it all again? Will she make it that long or will we be here to witness the first coronation in 60+ years? It all remains to be seen...I am glad we have been able to witness both her 50th Golden Jubilee and now her 60th Diamond Jubilee. Long live the Queen! (More to come on our activities and travels the rest of the week.)

Birthday Bash and Baptism

For Abby's eighth birthday this year, we invited 12 girls to our house for a three-hour pajama (or pyjama if your English) party. The girls had their nails and hair done by our lovely hair and nail artists. The picture above is of Abby and Sammy getting their nails and hair done before all the guests arrived. 

Some of the decorations...

More pictures of the girls getting ready for the big night.

The guests arrived and waited their turn while our nail and hair artists did all 12 girls' hair, finger nails and even some toe nails! They worked non-stop for the entire three hours! They were amazing! I couldn't get them to stop for a break at all.

The girls all loved the pampering. Some were going to try and sleep as lightly as possible so their hair would last for the next day.

Here are the nail designs they had to choose from - strawberry nails, Hello Kitty nails, cupcake nails, panda bear nails, flowers, stripes, hearts and more!

 While some girls were getting their nails and hair done, the rest were playing games. One game, requested by Abby, was the ol' shaving cream-on-the-head game. Abby wears a shower cap (notice how cute it is) with an entire bottle of shaving cream on top of her head while the girls take turns throwing popcorn at her to see if they can get it to stick in the cream. Pretty funny!

Abby was such a good sport. 

The entire bowl was eventually thrown and this is how much stuck! We love this game and all the girls wanted to do it afterward. 

It was a little rainy that day so I put Abby just outside the conservatory door while the girls stood inside throwing popcorn at her. 

Blowing out the candles - check out all the hair-do's

We also painted bags, played some other games and watched "High School Musical." I think all in all, it was a success! When the mothers came to pick up the girls afterward they were all jealous. One funny thing I didn't mention was that only a few hours before the party started, I was in so much pain from my shoulder and neck, I could hardly move or breathe. I had been experiencing a lot of pain so I went to the Osteopath the day of the party (around 3pm - the party started at 6pm). The Osteo adjusted me and tried to relieve some of my pain but instead I could barely get off the table at her office. Fortunately with the help of a lot of Ibuprofen, I was feeling normal again around 5pm, just in time to get things rolling... ppphhhewwww!

Abby got baptized the following week. 

As you can see, Sammy is not in our little family picture after the baptism. Sammy got sick (I mean REALLY sick - vomiting everywhere) on Friday night. She was up vomiting every hour (it seemed) all night Friday and continuing into Saturday for most of the day. I was going on very little sleep, trying to clean my house for the little open house we had after the baptism, cleaning up after Sammy, washing sheets and blankets, caring for Sammy and generally being a stressed-out basket case! We eventually had to find someone to stay at the house with Sammy so we could go to the church. The open house was so stressful because Sammy decided she was better when she saw all her friends coming and immediately wanted me to give her a bath to wash off all the vomit. Meanwhile, some of the food still needed to be prepared, my house is filling up with people who are hungry and Charles is stuck at the church because I accidentally took the car keys when I got a ride home with someone else. It was sheer chaos but it worked out in the end. Everyone was fed, Sammy made a miraculous recovery, Abby had a lovely day and got spoiled rotten with gifts and I got the vomiting flu the following Monday!

Wheatsheaf Award

At the beginning of April, Samantha was chosen for the prestigious Wheatsheaf award. This is an award given once a term to only one student from each class. It is a very big deal at school. The students are usually awarded at an assembly with all the parents and the award is given to them by the head teacher (the principal). Sammy is in a split Year 1/Year 2 class. She is the youngest in her class because she is with the older Year 1 students and the younger Year 2 students. All the students are already six or even seven year old in her class. Sammy is still only five yet she is not behind at all. She is excelling beyond or equal to the other students. This was the only class where the school had room for her back in August but I thought she would be fine because she is used to trying to keep up with Abby anyway. Sure enough she has done a fantastic job! She got an award and a special pin to wear on her cardigan. She was very proud. We are very proud of her as well...Way to go Sammy!

A Good Cry

(WARNING: What you are about to read contains certain spoilers for Season 2, episode 2 of "Little House on the Prairie.") We are obsessed with "Little House on the Prairie." We have just finished Season 1 and have now started Season 2. We love it so much that Abby sees herself as Mary, Sammy is Laura and they say Alexandra is Carrie. They love that Charles has the same name as Charles Ingalls, so naturally that is our daddy and that leaves me as Caroline... HELLO, we ARE the modern-day Ingalls family, now if only we could move to Minnesota... I can get Abby and Sammy to finish their homework, math, piano, reading, dinner, and baths in record time if I promise them an episode of "Little House on the Prairie." We even have a code name for the show which is, "Prairie the on House Little." The other day, we watched the second episode of Season 2 called "Four Eyes." The episode is about Mary struggling with her school work leaving everyone puzzled as to what the problem is. It ends up that Charles Ingalls (that clever father) realizes she just needs glasses. However, she wears the glasses to school and then is made fun of by who other than Willie and Nellie Oleson (oh I'd just like to punch those two and their mother as well). They call her "four eyes" and it makes Mary so upset that she pretends to lose her glasses so she can't wear them anymore. (Just in case your wondering how it all ends, Mary admits the truth to her father about "losing her glasses" and eventually realizes that wearing glasses isn't so bad, besides it makes her just like Miss Beatle and she likes that. All ends happy.) Abby and Sammy got so into the episode that they were both crying. I was crying too but I cry through almost every episode, so nothing new there! Later as they were getting ready for bed, they started talking about people in their classes at school who have been made fun of or who have gotten "told off" by a teacher or peers who make fun of them occasionally. Both Abby and Sammy began crying all over again. I realized how sensitive my girls are. I remember how difficult it is being a kid and facing the pressures of all your peers at school and how difficult it is to get "told off" (an English phrase for getting in trouble). We all sat on Abby's bed for an hour talking about teachers or peers who have made us feel bad and how we felt etc. It felt really nice - all of us sitting around having a good cry together as girls. I sure love my girls and look forward to many more late night cries, even if it is just over another episode of "Little House on the Prairie."