Twist the Light Bulb
Neal’s Uncle brought this outfit back from India for Liam ages ago. He put it on and of course we tried to make him dance. We’re going to have to work on his rhythm. (Sorry, dude.)
Greg and Jeanne/Portsmouth
Aaron got his new camera when his parents arrived and has been taking advantage of it.
On Friday we took the fam and headed up to Portsmouth for the day. We were originally going to go to Paris, but the Chunnel fire put a stop to that. Instead we took Southwest Trains and Liam was thrilled.
Grandma and Grandpa had a pretty good time too.
I would have preferred to have been left at home. But that’s me all the time unless I’m by myself.
We grabbed some lunch at the mall type area
and headed over to look at the ships.
We had to wait for the harbor tour to start and thought we’d get a good picture of Grandma, Grandpa and the kids. Elena wasn’t having anything to do with it.
Liam LOVED the harbor tour. The boys sat out on the front of the boat and the girls stayed inside the covered area. I was just exhausted. Elena made her way back and forth between the two areas. Social butterfly, that one.
Evidently this thing has no other purpose than to give tourists a view of the harbor. Our cabbie wasn’t impressed with it one bit. According to the Portsmouth website, “The development of the tower has had many technical difficulties to deal with and has been subject to various criticisms on the political front, in terms of cost and timing, but these have now been overcome, except for the external lift which is still not operational.”
So, very British!
After the harbor tour, we went to the WWII Museum.
Then we went back to the harbor to see the HMS Warrior or the HMS Victory. (My memory is a little foggy since this was two months ago.)
Liam LOVED the cannons. He came home talking about “pounders” and with a newfound love for big guns.
The train ride home wasn’t as peaceful, but we made it. Elena finally fell asleep on the tube ride home. Of course she woke up when we got off and cried the whole way home. It was awesome.
But, the dawn of a new day and all she wanted to do was lick the peanut butter jar.
She was very proud that she got the lid off.
Aaron and his dad went to Churchill’s Bunker this morning for the Open House London tour. Aaron did it last year and knew his dad would enjoy it, so they planned this trip around that, and then we planned our Munich trip knowing that they’d be here. Aren’t they nice for keeping the kids?
Catching Up
Monday, Sept 15
- Today I don’t want to do anything. THis is how the kids spent most of the day.
I am a terrible mother.
Tuesday, Sept 16
- Daniela took Elena to Penny’s to play with Alfie.
- Cleaning woman came and didn’t do everything I wanted done. This seems to be a constant issue for me. Maybe I need to do something different.
- Liam went to Daria’s this afternoon.
- Kids watched a lot of TV - more than I ever thought they would in a week.
- Kept Cheryl’s kids so she and Dave could do dinner. It was perfectly quiet and I LOVED it.
Wednesday, Sept. 17
- Aaron worked from home today.
- Jenn kept Elena while I went to the Dr. (who mentioned in passing that “some people seem to be really affected by the lack of sunlight”. REALLY? He’s such a dumbass.) so that we could leave directly from her house since we
- Went to the Hampstead Women’s Club meeting. I’ve been meaning to go, but wasn’t motivated enough to do it by myself. It was good. I’m definitely joining. Unfortunately, it’s 75% American so I won’t be meeting a lot of British people. I’ve not heard that many familiar accents since I left America. It was nuts! Oh well…there’s always school to meet the Brits!
- A and I were supposed to go out this evening, but I was exhausted and didn’t feel well. With the fam coming tomorrow, I figured sleep was the better option.
Hackers are bad.
Well, we figured out the problem with Flickr. Evidently my site had a few messed up things going on with it. My computer/server/web guru said it looked like it had been hacked.
Lovely.
Anyway, he fixed what needed to be fixed, but in the process I lost my theme. We may get it back, we may not. I’ve had it long enough I think it was time for a change anyway. Until then, the wordpress default theme it is.
Rat’s Nest and a Few Other Things
Monday
- Mom and Co went on a personal tour of the city today, so we had Daria over to play. It was nice for him to have something to do because I’m exhausted. Thank goodness school starts tomorrow.
Tuesday
- Another rainy day. We were lazy and spent the day messing around here. Mom and Colleen brought bakery treats after walking around the neighborhood this morning and I could feel my brain trying to talk me into it. I’m off of my schedule and it’s taunting me.
- The kids and I walked with Avery to school this morning. Liam did great at the drop off. He just walked right in with Ave like he owns the place.
- We had a relaxing evening as well. A was gone at a lodge meeting, so it was just the three of us until we all decided it was time for bed.
Wednesday
- Mom and Colleen left this morning. It was a quick visit, but I’m glad they came. Colleen is my aunt on my dad’s side and was like another mom to me growing up. It was fun to watch her with my kids and to think about what it was like when I was a kid.
- The girls came over for our usual Wednesday after Liam to L to school. Today it was Jenn, Kat, and Cheryl.
- Took a walk with Elena before I picked up Liam from school and dropped him off at Penny’s to play for the afternoon. Elena took a nap, and I wished I could, but I didn’t want to waste the quiet.
- Chatted with Aaron on Google. It was like old times when I was at “work” and we’d talk for an hour or two on AOL. Made me smile.
And now your reward for reading all of that boring stuff…
She looks ok from the front, right?
It’s a complete mess in back.
That’s how she woke up from nap…only she was sweaty. It was nasty.
