Happy Halloween

What a fun couple of days!  On Friday the girls celebrated Reformation Day at school. Lily dressed as an English Queen and Mia was excited to be a Knight in her costume from the Tower of London. 

Our excellent photographer friend, Elizabeth, sent a few great pictures that she captured. 

I love the sweet kids at our school!

Today we joined our neighbors for a chili potluck and trick or treating. It was a lovely evening. Lily couldn't wait to be a peacock. 

Mia was excited to be a knight again. She absolutely loves this costume!

Love these cuties!

Happy Halloween!

Lily Turns 9!

I cannot believe it.  Lily has turned 9 years old.  The last year of single digits.  Time slow down!!!

I always like to ask some of her favorites each birthday, so here is this year's list:

Color - Lavender

Movie - Tie between Hotel Transylvania 2 and Bears

TV Show - PJ Masks

Book - Grace Stirs Up Success (an American Girl book)

Drink - Dr Pepper

Memory from last year - Seeing the Henderson family in London

Wants To Be When She Grows Up - Own a school with her friends Avery and Nate

Best friend - Avery Hobson

Bible Verse - 1 Timothy 4:12

School Subject - Latin

Food - Macaroni and Cheese

Activity - Tie between reading and playing Legos

Place to Go - AMC Theater

Game to Play - Blah (apparently that's a game she and Avery made up)

Restaurant - Crafty Hog

Animal - Bat

Most Thankful for - Jesus saved us

Goal for the year - Meet as many new friends as possible

We were actually in London on her birthday, so that was a pretty fun celebration.  We asked what she wanted to do to celebrate, and she decided on riding the London Eye and seeing the Crown Jewels so that was what we did.  Not a bad way to celebrate, right?

We went to the doctor a few days after we returned from our trip for her annual check-up.  Other than realizing she had bronchitis, she is a very healthy girl.  She is growing right on track with where's she been in the past.  She's now 50 inches tall (15th percentile) and 61.5 pounds (41st percentile).  She is doing great!

I can't even find the words to say how much I love this girl.  She amazes me every single day.  She is so smart and loves academic endeavors.  She is finding 3rd grade pretty awesome.  Latin is her favorite subject and it seems to come so naturally to her.  She also enjoys math (she goes up to 4th grade for this), science, history, Bible and spelling.  

She loves arts and crafts too.  We gave her a scrapbook kit for her birthday because she wants to start that hobby.  She did an art camp over the summer and thoroughly enjoyed it.  She has ventured down a new artistic path recently by trying acting.  She has said for awhile that she wants to be a Broadway actress one day.  She saw our cousin, Francie, in a play this summer and wanted to give it a try herself.  She is having a blast being "Bonnie the Bat" in "Goldilocks and the Curse of the Porridge."  As Bonnie, she is part of the Creepy Critter Brigade which is made up of bats and spiders.  She's had so much fun!  Here's a picture from after a performance.

She's done so well!  What made this even more fun is getting to perform with Molly (my niece) and Francie (our cousin).  They play two of three pigs who run the village restaurant.  It's been fun to have lots of family on hand to support the three girls!

She loves to read.  I can't count the number of books in her room.  She usually is skipping between 3 or 4 different books on any given day.  In addition to the American Girl books, she loves the Whatever After series.  She anxiously awaits the release of each one!  Building and then playing with Legos is always a fun time for her.  She considers herself to be an expert at them.  She's great at following the directions to build them, and they turn out nice that way, but I really love when she uses her imagination to build something.  She often comes up with elaborate sets and stories with them; it may be a zoo, a city or a fairyland, but it's always interesting.  I love when she has whole days to just sit around and construct these.

She learned to ride a bike over the summer which was a major accomplishment that we were all very proud of.  She enjoys riding that or her scooter.  She also loves jumping on our trampoline and performing shows on it.  When she's outside though, she's just as happy to sit in the sun on the deck and read as she to go on a nature hunt and see what insects she can find.  She's fascinated by nature.  Her big school project this year was "the bug project."  Over the summer and into early fall, she had to collect at least 25 different insects, identify them by their scientific and common names, list where she found them and then creatively display them.  She did an awesome job with this (with just a little help from Ryan; I despise bugs so I had nothing to do with it)!

I love simply talking with Lily.  She has lots of interesting observations on the world around us, she asks great questions and she's pretty insightful.  She enjoys hanging around our home and just being together.  Family movie nights are always a hit with her.  She still loves to cuddle up in a chair or on the sofa with us.  She prefers to keep a few close friends around than have a big group together.  She is fiercely loyal to family and friends.  She always seeks to do the right thing in a situation, even if it's not the popular choice.  She's an amazing kid, and I'm so thankful she's mine.

London Trip, Part 6

The kids enjoyed eating breakfast together each morning.  Renting this flat ended up being a great idea; it was wonderful to have everyone together.

 We made it over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard.

 We knew we needed to arrive early to get a good spot, so we waited about 45 minutes before anything started happening.  Finally, the guards started moving around and eventually the band joined them.  Really though, we all found this to be a little boring.  It wasn't what Ryan and I remembered, and everything seemed to be a lot more slow than we hoped for.  Glad we saw it, but we were all ready to leave when it was over.

 When we left Buckingham Palace, we went over to the British Museum.  It was a gorgeous day which made sitting outside to enjoy a food truck lunch better.  Having waffles from the food truck (mine with Nutella and the girls with marshmallows) made it even more fun.

 The museum has a fantastic antiquities section which works great with Mia's studies at school.  We were glad to introduce the girls to the Rosetta Stone which was really neat to see.  There are tons of fascinating areas here; we weren't even able to see it all. 

 The girls were getting pretty tired after so much walking so we paused for a few minutes.  I had them making lots of different silly faces which perked them back up.

 One of my favorite parts of the trip came at the end of our time at the museum where we enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea.  I ordered the full service which came with this tray of goodies.  Ryan and the girls both ordered a smaller service which had scones, clotted cream and jam.  It was all delicious.

 Of course, we all got tea to enjoy as well.  The girls both had a berry variety while Ryan and I had Earl's Grey.  I think they really liked putting the sugar cube in their drinks.

 We finished out our time at the museum in the gift shop which was filled with all sorts of interesting and fun pieces.

 Our feet were so tired that we decided to take a bus back, and boy was that the right decision!  It was rush hour so everything was quite busy.  One of the tube stops was temporarily closed to allow traffic inside to die down some; this was the crowd outside!  We were very grateful for the bus that drove right on past.

We got the kids in bed when we got home, and Ryan and Brian went down to visit the pub for a bit.  Jill and I had some packing up to do but we enjoyed a little time together too.  None of us could believe this was our last evening!  We had such a great time this week with our friends; we didn't want it to end!  We said our goodbyes that evening and headed on to bed.  The next morning, the four of us got up between 6 and 6:30; a taxi picked us up at 7, and we headed back to the train station.  We took the Express back to Heathrow and waited for our plane.  We were all sitting next to each other which was nice.  It was a smooth and easy flight home; the girls handled the 9 hours remarkably well. They mainly watched movies on the plane or on their iPads.  Dad picked us up from the airport and brought us home.  As much as we love to travel, coming home is always nice.  This was definitely a trip to remember.  We have so many great memories with wonderful friends; we are so thankful we were able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Until next time London, cheers!

London Trip, Part 5

We decided to take an excursion on Wednesday, so we took a couple of trains over to Windsor Castle.  Macey and Mia got to practice their guard skills almost as soon as we stepped off the train!

 This turned out to be a pretty rainy day, but we didn't let that stop our fun!

 Flat Arthur joined us to learn about this amazing historical castle that is still used today as a royal residence.

 We snapped these pictures at various points inside before being told that pictures were not allowed.  Thankfully, they let us keep the pictures.

 Such a lovely place!

 We had lunch at a restaurant called The Duchess of Cambridge; that has to be good, right?  Absolutely!  I enjoyed some traditional fish and chips, and they really were delicious.

 On the way back, we were in the Paddington train station.  We took a few minutes to find the Paddington Bear statue.  We're reading that book at home right now (having finished Mary Poppins just before we came), so this was a fun little find.

 Brian and Parker were able to get tickets to the USA versus South Africa match in the Rugby World Cup, so they went there on Wednesday evening.  Jill, Macey and our family decided to stop by the Leicester Square Ticket Booth to see what was available.  Lucky for us, The Lion King had 6 tickets available!  We all loved seeing this; a West End show is always fun!

 When the show was over, we started walking to a tube station and crossed over a bridge.  What a lovely city view!  It wasn't much after this that we realized we were heading the wrong direction, so we quickly caught a taxi to get us headed in the right direction.  Train, tube, bus and now taxi; check on all the major transportation methods in the city!

Brian and Parker had already arrived back at the flat and were asleep when we got home.  They told us the next day that the US had lost badly, but it was still a very fun experience.  Glad we all had a great evening.

London Trip, Part 4

Tuesday was another drizzly day, so we changed our plans around a little bit.  We headed over to Kensington Palace.  I was really looking forward to this because I hadn't toured it before.  It was wonderful (even if we didn't get to see Will and Kate)!

 The first area we went in showcased the fashion choices of the modern era.  It was really fun to see the dresses that Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana had worn.  Some of them were absolutely stunning.

 After that we toured the Queen's State Apartments from the Stuart era in the 1690s.  The furniture was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine living there.

 The third area was the Georgian era (1700s) in the King's State Apartments.  We all got a kick out of seeing the dresses worn by the those ladies visiting the court during that time; the one pictured was worn by a Princess Amelia which we loved.  The kids took a little break to play the "Game of Court" for a few minutes.

 In addition to some fantastic artwork inside, there was a nice view outside from this area.

 The last area to explore was about Queen Victoria.  There were several of her outfits, toys that belonged to her and her children, and many artifacts from her reign.  It was fascinating to see.

 After many hours at Kensington, we finally decided to leave and have Spaghetti House for lunch; that was a fun walk down memory lane for Ryan and me.  On our way to lunch, we couldn't resist having a little phone booth fun.  After lunch, we decided to take a double decker bus so we could see some sites as we were on our way.  The kids LOVED being on the top level!

 By mid-afternoon, the sun had come out which made for some lovely time in Trafalger's Square.  The kids enjoyed climbing all over the lions and monument.

 We walked over to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields church after visiting the Square.  It was nice to have a few minutes of complete peace and quiet to refocus and thank God for all His wonderful blessings.

 We decided to head down to the crypts so the kids could try brass rubbings.  They have always liked the four we have in our house of the Gospel seals, so we thought they would enjoy this.  They both made Celtic designs which turned out nice.

 After our time here, we decided to end the day at Covent Garden.  Everyone enjoyed the street performs and their talents.

 Mia's favorite part was riding on Daddy's shoulders.

 We ate dinner and headed on back to the flat.  After getting the kids to bed, the adults watched The King's Speech.  It's one of our favorites, and Brian and Jill hadn't seen it before.  This seemed like an appropriate time and place to watch it!