Holiday Party Time!

Finley had her holiday tea party (which was a sort of late birthday party, since we didn't have a party at her birthday) Sunday, and it was a huge hit! I think the kids had a great time. We had an ornament painting station, a cookie decorating station and, of course, plenty of free play time. Here are some pics...


Sassy Finley and her friend Chloe pose.


Fin poses with Julia (left) and Aniyah.


The kids gather around for a game of Pass the Parcel. They really liked it, although none of them had any clue what a "parcel" was... :)

Back to Great Wolf!

I got super-cheap tickets to the amazing indoor water park at Great Wolf Lodge. This was the same place we went for Alex's birthday last year, but this year we went with the kids! It was SO fun! Maddie got pretty adventurous and went on some of the the scarier slides, but I think she loved the wave pool best. And Fin loved the kids area, which had little slides and fiberglass Jet Skis she could sit on. At the end of the day, we put the girls in some chairs at the bottom of the biggest, scariest, craziest slide there and then Alex and I went for it! We told the girls to wait for us at the bottom, and they dutifully sat there watching the exit tunnel thing, hoping to catch a glimpse of us. Finally we went down and it was SO scary (we had already done this ride when we went for A's birthday, but it was worse than I remembered!). But tons of fun.


We have arrived!


Me, Alex and Fin in front of the wave pool. Maddie had already disappeared at this point.


The girls endure one more photo before getting into their swimsuits and diving in!


Finley hangs onto Alex!

Thanksgiving/Pre-Christmas

Thanksgiving was a blast, as usual! It was just the four of us, and we had tons of fun, cooking, eating and just hanging out. This year I opted to buy a pre-made meal from Target's deli. Best. Decision. Ever. I also made an apple pie, sweet potatoes and roasted carrots.

Reading stories after Thanksgiving dinner. This is probably the last photo of Abigail, too (Alex is kissing her).

The best little Christmas present!

About to eat - yum!

Mojo looking freaky.

Halloween 2009

Yay for Halloween! The girls looked adorable, and we had a little party...


Finley was a fancy, flamenco-loving senorita! She kept dancing and saying "Ole!"


Finley and Maddie together before trick or treating. Madeline was a scary vampire - she looked great!


I carved these pumpkins Saturday afternoon.


Alex was Pee Wee Herman. He was very convincing ...


I dressed up as Cleopatra. I made my costume out of a satin sheet and some gold ribbon. Then I got a gold sequin headband a glued gold beads to it. And I did the dramatic eye makeup. It turned out OK!

Merry Old England Continued

Alex's aunt Penny has a bit of wine before the dinner starts.


We sit down for dinner - yum!


Ettie, Roy and Oliver get ready to eat!


The beach was right around the corner.


We ended our trip with a lunch at the local pub, the Jolly Farmer. It was tasty. Then we got in the car and drove to the train station, boarded a train to London, then got on a bus to the tube station, then took a tube to Heathrow. Crazy! We stayed in the Heathrow Hilton, which was really nice, before boarding our plane home the next morning. What a trip!!!

Merry Old England Continued

The next day, we had fun doing a bit of sight seeing around the coast near Brancaster.


The beach at Brancaster. The tide was out, and we walked all along the sand. It was lovely.


Royston goes for a swim!


Then it was time for the fancy dinner. Alex's mom was in charge, and she did a beautiful job. Here's the beautiful table.


Here's the cake she made - and brought from the States!

Merry Old England Continued

We pulled up to the beautiful - and huge! - house we were staying in at Brancaster. Alex's grandparents, Ettie and Royston; his aunt Penny and uncle Dave and their kids, Oliver, Hannah and Eleanor; and his aunt Nancy and uncle Mike and their kids, Joe and Ben met up with us later. We were there to celebrate Ettie and Roy's 60th wedding anniversary!


The sitting room.


The weird Aga stove. It is always on. Always. And there are no temperature controls. It's just that the top right compartment is the hottest, and then the other compartments are progressively less hot. And the burners are always on but have covers over them, which you lift up if you want to put a pot on. Very strange.


The house had a pool, which is really weird for England.


The first night, Dave gave everyone an album of photos collected throughout Ettie and Roy's marriage. This is Roy, Ettie and Eleanor.

Merry Old England Continued

After walking around Bungay a bit, Jean took us to Great Yarmouth, a coastal town nearby. Apparently, it's not only American beach towns that are tack tourist traps. This rule carries over into Europe too! But the beach was very pretty. Cold, but pretty.


One of the mini casinos that line the coast.


A fish-and-chips shop in Great Yarmouth.


After spending the night at Jean's, we went to Norwich, about 20 minutes away. I dragged Alex straight to the cathedral, so I could marvel at more "old stuff."


Here's the front of the cathedral at Norwich. After looking around here, we went to a grocery store, where we were meeting up with Alex's mom, dad and brother, as well as Jean, who had dropped us off to explore on our own. We grocery shopped for the big family dinner in Brancaster before hitting the road...

Merry Old England Continued

After saying goodbye to London, it was back on the train to go to Norwich, where we were staying with a Taylor family friend, Jean, and her family. Here's Liverpool Street Station, where the train left.


The beautiful view at Jean's house. This is her backyard! Can you imagine waking up to that every morning. Aaaahhh...


Another view of Jean's lovely garden.


A church in Jean's village, Bungay. It's more than 1,000 years old.


The streets of Bungay.

Merry Old England Continued

The recreated Globe Theatre.


Me in front of Tower Bridge!


Tower Bridge goes up for a boat that's sailing by.


Next it was back to Trafalgar Square to visit the National Portrait Gallery. So many beautiful paintings, including famous works by Picasso and Monet.


Covent Garden. We at at a yummy Danish restaurant called Belgo's. Yum.

Merry Old England Continued

After Buckingham Palace, it was off to Westminster Abbey. It was beautiful inside, but they didn't allow photos. Boo.


The tube train zooms by.


We went to Harrod's after going to the hotel to change out of our rain-soaked clothes. Harrod's was crazy! We meandered around the food area and ogled all the amazing treats. This was a whole room devoted to candy. Heaven!!


On our last day in London, we went to the Thames. Here's the city of London's crest.


The Tower of London. We didn't go inside; maybe next time!