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."  

Devon

The girls had two weeks off of school for Easter. The first week they took some specialized swimming courses to improve certain strokes and some trampolining classes. The second week, we went to Devon. We stayed at a resort with indoor and outdoor pools, restaurants, nightly entertainment, a bowling alley, a soft-padded climbing gym, a large arcade and beautiful scenery.  It was sooo relaxing.

Abby and Sammy loved their tiny little room that was only big enough for their two beds. They thought it was very cozy!

We were only a 10-15 minute walk from the beach. It was certainly not beach weather but we at least had sun and fairly good temperatures.

It had rained the night before so the muddy puddles were especially fun to jump in on our way to the beach.

The beach! Alex still talks about the beach and asks if we can go tomorrow.

Climbing on the rocks at the beach

Abby, Sammy and Alexandra shadows

The cliffs were especially beautiful with red rock and I loved the colorful beach huts.

After two days of hanging out at the resort and swimming, we ventured out to a town called Totnes. I loved all the boutiques and narrow streets. I could have used several hours to myself and done some serious shopping but unfortunately that did not happen.

There was a castle at the top of the hill in the town. It was the first castle we have seen since we moved back to England. I was so excited for the girls to see it now that they can actually appreciate castles more than when we were here before. They loved it.

They were amazed by all the steps leading up to the castle.

Abby and Sammy fantasized about shooting arrows from the wall-walk.

We took some nice long drives through the countryside which was absolutely gorgeous. A patch work of green and yellow rape seed fields. The colors were brilliant. We found this place where we all got out and climbed up some large boulders. It was a lot of fun. We found that our Sammy is quite the brave, little climber going wherever Daddy did without fear.

Standing at the top with the surrounding countryside

Charles and Sammy climbed up to an especially high point and took a picture of Alex and I way down at the bottom.

The girls climbing down

We also discovered the remains of a medieval village. Abby and Sammy ran around imagining what it must have been like. Overall, this vacation was absolutely fabulous. I could not have been more relaxed and happy. The most memorable part for me was the ride home though. We decided to take the back roads home for a more scenic ride. However, there were no restaurants in the tiny villages (plenty of pubs which would have been fine but Charles was suffering from a stomach ache and didn't feel like pub food). Village after village we found nothing. It was finally around 2pm and we hadn't eaten since 9am. So we stopped at an ASDA (Walmart) grocery store. We told the girls to get whatever they wanted. Everyone went their way, Charles came back with a box of a dozen donuts for his lunch, Abby brought back a bag of six, large chocolate chip cookies and Sammy got frosting covered lemon muffins. Being the sensible one, I got a bunch of crusty rolls and some ham as well as some pepperoni sticks and Doritoes. We bought all the food and got in the car to drive while we ate. I started fretting about the crumbs that my rolls were making when I was tearing them in half for the girls. Charles pointed out that it was silly to fret about a few crumbs when our car was full of all kinds of rubbish from our 5 days of vacation. He grabbed one of the rolls and proceeded to shake it all over the dashboard. It was shocking yet hilarious! I started laughing and could not stop. He told the girls to just throw all their trash on the floor. (I am laughing right  now while I write this.) We only ate six of the donuts (because they were kind of nasty) so Charles just threw the rest on the floor. Unwanted cookies, throw them on the floor. Empty Doritoes bag chuck it on the floor. Then Charles and the girls began several hours of telling stupid knock knock jokes and singing (or should I say screaming) a ridiculous dog food commercial over and over again to see if they could annoy me. I was driving mind you and laughing with tears running down my face almost the whole way back. Needless to say, we got back and I took the car straight in to be cleaned - inside and out!

A Bubbly Vietnamese Easter

For Easter, the girls got a bubble machine. So we filled the backyard with thousands of bubbles!

More bubbles...

...and more bubbles.

There were also some bath bubbles with a funky hair-do for Alexandra.

Before we got the bubble machine they were blowing their own bubbles with tiny wands from tiny bottles. Not as effective for filling the yard.

Then instead of a roasted leg of lamb and some hot cross buns (which would be a typical English Easter meal) we had Vietnamese food, starting with a huge pile of Sushi!Yes, we made it ALL ourselves (with a little help).

Sammy piling up the sushi as it gets cut. She was so proud of herself. She made the top layer of sushi into a heart. (See sushi pile above)

There was a contest between the sushi-makers and spring roll assembly

Our mini Sushi chef, Alex in her little apron up to no good...

This is Sammy being taught how to make sashimi.

Abby wetting the rice paper for the spring rolls

Our sushi rolls before they were cut

Our first sashimi roll and some kid-friendly sushi with hot dogs in the middle

chicken wings

Have a sushi-making lesson

Baby squid frying

Abby loved that she got her hands all messy preparing the baby squid. The girls had lots of fun.

Our Easter egg hunt had to be inside due to rainy weather but it was fun because it was the very first egg hunt our guests had ever been to. They got into it as much or more than the girls did. Afterward we had a lovely dinner of Charles' homemade mac & cheese along with pig's feet and Lotus soup - interesting combination! You should have seen Charles' face when he tried the pig's feet, hilarious! We left the next day for Devon (Southwest, England) for a week. Pictures are still to come of our adventures.