Star for a Day

A couple of weeks ago Ady drew and colored a picture that won over the hearts of her teachers.  They were so impressed by her picture that she was awarded the "Star of the School" that day and given a special sticker to wear.  She was paraded around to several other classes and to the principal to show and explain her masterpiece.  When I arrived at school to pick her up at the end of the day, one of the teachers told me I need to come in and talk with her.   I was quite sure Ady had done something naughty at that point.   She told me to sit down and to "listen to this" -then she had Ady come over.   The teacher grabbed Ady's picture and had her explain it to me.  Ady was so proud.  She told me that the picture was a game.  She said, "You start by counting the pink lines and then you go to the hawn trees(?)- (the gray circles with stems) and then you count all the other things in the game.  The instructions are from Amazon."  Her teachers were so very impressed with her that not only did she draw and color an amazing picture, but she also had a reason and a story for what she drew.  She was beaming for the rest of the day because she was so happy.  I was so proud of her.  What can I say, the girl LOVES to color.

I think the picture looks very organic- like a cell.  Grandpa said he thought it looked like a flying Earth.

Here is another one of her creations.  

Ady is loving school and looks forward to it every day.  She has made lots of cute little friends- and I have become friends with many of the parents.  Ady is the only American in her class, and, I have come to realize, she is one of only about 4-5 kids that even speaks English out of 20 or so!  Her class is very diverse.  There are kids from Turkey, Japan, Korea, Russia, France, Holland and Iran- to name only a few.  Ever since she started school, her appetite has gone through the roof.  I would dare say she eats double the amount of food she did before.  Between the long walk to and from school and all the playing she does there, she uses quite a bit of energy.  Her clothes are actually becoming smaller, which is a phenomenon I have been waiting to see for a long time.  I was beginning to think she would wear size 2T into adulthood.

We love our Ady!

We caught Ady doing a little light reading tonight and thought we had better capture the moment...  Enjoy!  Can you tell what she is reading?  You may have to go to youtube to get the full effect...  Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQNXb8WJl0

Christmas & New Years 2011

I realize it is mid January, and I am way late in getting these posted- but for memories sake, here is a glimpse at our very merry 2011 Christmas in the UK.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to say NO! to all the time required for preparing a huge meal and NO! to all the dishes- and instead, we booked a table at a nearby restaurant called the Salt House.  It felt very Christmas-y to have our meal next to the fire and with all the warm glowing lights.

This photo accurately sums up Ady's mood that night at dinner.  Constipated.  No, just kidding.  She was pretty excited about Santa coming.

When we got back from dinner, we made cookies and had some hot chocolate.

Christmas Morning

These were to die for!  Oh mama!

Our New Years was a bit uneventful.  It is difficult to have any sort of night life when you have young kids- especially when their bedtime is at 6:30pm!  Believe me, though, that an early bedtime makes a world of difference to the quality of day we have.  So I think it is completely worth it!

We decided to go check out the London Aquarium earlier in the day on New Years Eve.  Being a fish-lover, I thought it would be cool.  Although we saw some interesting things, unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed and didn't find it to be worth the cost of admission.  The aquarium is situated right under the London Eye and near Westminster where they hold the big London New Years Celebration.  People were everywhere setting things up for the big firework show and party for later.  We decided to get the heck out of there before the crowds got too big.  (Man, I realize we sound like some major party poopers!)

      

Back at home Tyler and I stayed up and played Monopoly and watched some show about the top 50 most annoying things/people from 2011.  WAHOO!  Party, party.  We watched the big London firework show on TV at midnight.  London may not know how to have an amazing aquarium, but they DO know how to do a firework show!  It was the most craziest firework show I have ever seen.  To start the show off, they had fireworks spewing from inside Big Ben, then they had fireworks shooting from the London Eye and from boats in the Thames and other locations.  The sky and river were lit up for a straight 20 minutes or so non-stop.  It was hands-down the most amazing firework show ever!  I can only imagine what it will be like when the Olympics come this summer.  I am sure London will not disappoint.  The Mayor of London (Boris, is his name.  Hee hee.), says that 2012 will no doubt be the greatest year many Londoners will see in a lifetime- with all the big things happening here.  I think we picked a good time to come, eh?  Lets hope Boris is right.

Here is a glimpse at the fireworks show.  Prepare to have your socks knocked off!

That pretty much sums it up.

Oh, but first...
Here is a photo of our annual Christmas season puzzle.  It was a good one.

Horse Parade

Yes, those are horses being herded down Abbey Road!  This was taken from our living room window.  A couple of times a month we get treated with a thrilling show as 60 horses are led right down our street.  The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery Barracks has been stationed in St. John's Wood since 1804; however, the barracks have been sold recently and will be moving next month to a new site across London.  We will definitely miss the sound of clomping hooves and the site of our horse parade.

All Grown Up Now

Well, today was a big day for us.  Our three year old is all grown up now.  Ady started nursery school- which meant from here until she graduates from high school she will be away from home 5 days a week for several hours a day.  It was a little overwhelming to have that realization... BUT much to my surprise, I am completely okay with it!  I am just so very excited for her and all the new things she is going to discover on this great adventure.

Her school is better than I could even dream up and I am so very impressed with the staff and their mission as a nursery school.  For example, we have been told not to dress Ady in her best clothes because she is there to dig in and get dirty with paints, mud, puddles, foods, etc.  Thank you and DONE!  She is required to leave a pair of Wellington (rain) boots at the school at all times and to dress prepared to play outside in any weather conditions.  I LOVE that!  What a great thing to not be discouraged to go outside in crummy weather, but to actually take advantage of whatever the day has to offer and to find fun things to do in it.  I was not always a good example to Ady in this department- so I am happy as a lark that her nursery school is!  Ady has been assigned to a member of nursery staff that will monitor her progress and well-being and will interact with her throughout each day so that a trusting and comfortable relationship can be built between them.  This makes me feel good as a mom knowing that someone has their eye on my baby and cares about her well being.  The facility is stocked to no end with educational, creative, amazing and fun things to do.  Words just do not do justice to how excited I am for Ady.

It will be a good opportunity for her and me to make some new friends also- which we desperately need.  I will admit that we both were going a bit, no, that's not right....... completely stir crazy being together all day every day with no social outlets!  Here is a little quote from a British parenting book that I found to be quite relative:
     "If you are the parent of teenagers, do not smile wistfully at the mother of an out-of-control toddler and inform her that if she thinks it's bad now, just wait until he hits his teens.  She will possibly explode with her need to inform you of your incredible good luck in being able to sleep for more than two hours at a time and to have a poo unaccompanied.  You may only communicate with your teenager once a week, and that may be via text, but you have clearly forgotten that when your children are two (or three!) this would seem to be the ideal parenting scenario!"  Hee hee!  I love how the Brits really tell it how it is.

Anyway... this preschool thing should be a great thing for all of us here.

Tyler worked from home this morning so he could be there to drop her off with me.  When we got to the school, Ady went right in and was perfectly confident and happy when we said goodbye.  She did great.  We were so proud of her.  Then Tyler and I went and had a lunch date together at the park to let things set in for a minute.  HOLY CRAP!  What a different life this is going to be!  It should be good.  We are really excited about this new adventure we have begun.

I came home after doing a bit of shopping alone (WOW!) and had me a quiet cup of tea.  It was beautiful- and I was able to get so much done- and also relax for a minute.  All moms deserve a little break now and then.

Then... the time came to go get Ady and I was so excited to hear how her day went and to see how she fared.  We raced to each others arms when we saw each other.  We both were so happy to see each other again.  Her teachers said she did "brilliant!"  It was a big day, but a good day, and Ady is excited to go back again tomorrow- so  I would call it a huge success!

 


     

December

Life sure is keeping us busy here!  My goodness.  Things are going good for the most part and we have all sorts of exciting things to report.  In no particular order, here we go...

First off, the best news of all:  We received a call last week that an afternoon slot has opened up at a nearby Nursery School (AKA preschool) and Ady was given top priority in being offered the position.  We are so very excited about this!  The school is AMAZING & will be such a good opportunity for Ady.  She will go to Nursery School from 12:15 pm to 3:15 pm Monday thru Friday, which is perfect because our second bit of good news is that I was accepted into the graduate program at USU and will be starting class (just one, for now) January 10th.  It works out so well for both of us.

Here is a link to Ady's school.  It is called Robinsfield.  I took a tour of it last month and was so impressed by the facilities, the faculty, their mission & their program.  It is an infant school and only kids ages 3-7 attend, which allows the school to focus on the needs and abilities of kids at this age.  

http://www.robinsfield.westminster.sch.uk/

A note on my school:  I have decided I am a big geek because when I see all the classes I can take, I get REALLY excited, and I want to take them ALL!  You never know... I may have a doctorate degree some day because of this.  Ironically, though, I have realized that getting a Masters of Natural Resource via online classes is pretty lame since on campus classes are always getting outside and doing awesome things!  What the #$&% was I thinking?!  No, it will still be good.  I am very excited.

So now for a bit of crappy news:  Our phone line has still yet to be installed!  Unbelievable!  I don't want to get into the details of it all because it will flare up large and ugly amounts of anger inside me that I have tucked away for now in order to be able to function in other facets of life.  Suffice it to say, two months have gone by without a phone line and good quality internet.  Absolutely ridiculous.  The company we are working with actually admitted that they lied to us and have been giving us false information, which has caused us all sorts of unnecessary running around and scheduling of unnecessary appointments.  So, if your first impulse, like mine, thinks, "cut service with the company and just go with someone else," you might relate with my extreme frustration when you learn that if we do this, it could take up to 6 more weeks for us to get an appointment booked!!!  I am far beyond irate with this company- and it is an understatement to say that I am stretching my patience muscles to the brink to give them one last chance to make this right.  They are scheduled to come and install the line on Thursday (for real this time, we think).  We'll see what happens.  I might just punch them in the mouth even if they do get it right.  

Speaking of waiting... this past weekend we finally got some much needed wardrobes installed in the master bedroom.  Aside from the kitchen, our flat has had little to no storage, which has made it feel like it never gets clean of all the clutter.  If you know me, you probably know what a nazi I was about simplifying our belongings and de-cluttering our house in Stansbury over the past year.  To my surprise, I am having to start from square one again- and REALLY question the necessity of each item we have here so that our stuff doesn't overtake our lives.  This book is my bible when it comes to simplifying and I highly recommend it to anyone.  It has completely transformed the way we live for the better.  At least for me, it got at the real inner-workings of our lives and improved so many things.  Tyler and I actually felt younger after implementing this book because it just lightens burdens you didn't even realize you had.   So go get it and read it if you haven't yet!!!  :)

Okay.  Sorry.  I am off my soap box.  Back to our wardrobes...  So in our rental agreement it stated that the wardrobes must be done before 6 weeks, otherwise, we would receive 20 pounds per day payment until they were completed.  We counted that it has been 12 days without wardrobes beyond the 6 weeks, which comes to 240 pounds for our pockets.  Chick-ching!  Our waiting paid off this time.

Christmas shopping has been fun this year.  I have discovered some great stores on the infamous Oxford Street.  We have a bus stop just outside our door that can take us straight there, which is extremely convenient.  Oxford Street is all decorated up for the holidays.  On the weekends, much of the street is closed to traffic and many of the stores have live bands, choirs, or performers.  It is a really fun treat.  I feel like the stores here have so many thoughtful and unique things, which makes gift-giving much more fun.  There are also several Christmas markets around London and beyond that are magical.  We went to one in Hyde Park over the weekend that was like a Christmas theme park as big as Lagoon with all sorts of good food and interesting little shops.  Ady actually willingly went to Santa this year and informed him that she wants some princess costumes for Christmas.  I think she might get her wish, if she can work on curbing those silly tantrums.  Hmmmmm.... I may, or may not have had to use Santa threats a time or two to get good behavior.

Can you find Tyler in this picture?  Look really hard.

We went ice skating a couple weeks ago with some friends at the museum of natural history. 

We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and we send our love!

Your Comments Will Work Now!

I am so sorry.  I finally realized what I needed to do so people could leave comments.  I have changed the settings and I would love to read what you have to say.  Sorry it took me so long to figure it out!  :)