ZEB-ra or ZEE-bra?

As we have traveled around England the last few months, we have made note of special places that we wanted to take people when they came to visit. At the top of the list was Chester. So with Papa and Ganny in town visiting, we have spent the last two days in Chester. Yesterday we walked around downtown Chester, riding the train in the park and exploring down by the river. Today we spent time at the Chester Zoo and the kids really enjoyed walking around, seeing the animals and of course, having an ice cream break. It is an odd feeling, when you first move to a new place, you are learning your way and feel very much like a tourist. When you have been living in a new country for a little while and then have people visit, you suddenly realize how much you have learned about your new country. It makes you realize you are not as "lost" as you once were. All of the things I was hoping we would figure out, I suddenly realized that for the most part we have figured them out. Don't get me wrong - we still don't feel like we "fit in", so to speak, but it is getting better. Even my hubby pointed out today that while we were talking at the zoo, people were looking at us with funny expressions because of our accent. And it was not lost on us that when we said to the girls -- "look there is a zebra", that everyone around us was calling it something different - it sounds like they are saying the name Deborah, but with a Z instead of d. Tomorrow we will load the van up with two grandparents, two parents, two kids and all the gear needed for four days away and make the almost 5 hour drive to South East England. We return on Friday and I will post pictures and information about our travels!

Cheers!

The girls were so excited yesterday and were deep in thought making a new creation. The sign said.....Welcome to England Papa and Ganny! We are excited to have my hubby's parents come to visit us and the next two weeks we will be traveling around England and showing them some really cool places. We started the day off right yesterday with a tour around our little town and an early dinner out. Papa looks like he is having fun already. Cheers!

Major life events

We knew when we were deciding to move to England, that there would be homesickness. That was a given. What I didn't really think about was that we would be missing major life events of our family members. My brother and his wife announced shortly after we got here that they were expecting a baby --a new niece or nephew that will be born this year. And today, my niece is graduating from high school. I wish I could be there to watch her walk across the stage and get her diploma. She is 18 years old, growing into a lovely young woman and I am proud of her. Even more, my family is having a party for her today that I will obviously not be attending. While they are going to try to skype me, it will not be the same as being there. It may possibly even make me more homesick, seeing them all in one place together having fun. These are the days that make this distance between us all seem even larger.

In light of the last few posts....

Apparently, a couple of minbeasts that live in my house have read my blogs over the last few days and have decided they want to be the feature character in my fairy tale. I really, really cannot stress how much I hate spiders. Truly, truly hate them. I scream like a girl (since I am a girl, I feel this is ok to admit), and jump around and pray that there is someone else at home to kill them. But if I am alone, I will be brave and try - with something that will keep my hand and body as far away from the spider as possible. So imagine my terror today when I see something walking across my floor that is truly, the largest spider I have ever seen in my life. Hubby and I joke that everything in England is on steroids because of their size - the birds, the bumblebees, and apparently this holds true for spiders. I, in my terror, did actually stop to take a picture of this spider, just to prove how large it really was. However, he started moving faster, I snapped it and then had to promptly squish him as he was trying to make his escape, so only part of his enormously large body made it into the picture (see above, click on it to enlarge the view). I was not stupid enough to keep trying to take a picture, the thought of missing it and it sneaking up on me in my sleep for a counter attack was too scary to contemplate. But apparently, someone in his family was mad enough to seek revenge for his death, because when the girls and I got home from school, he came running out in front of us. All three of us screamed like girls and it took cover in a hole by the front radiator. So at this moment, Bean is taking first watch, reading a book to entertain herself and is patiently waiting for it to come out of his little hiding place so that we can smash it. (note the weapons laying nearby: paper towel and shoe). Minibeast - we will defeat you!

The minibeast and the haircut

Last night we had a lot of activity in our house, full of minibeasts, haircuts and avocado's. Another fairy tale? Nope, a dinner with friends, a new recipe I was trying out, Gerbie's first haircut and the below mentioned minibeast model. Bean and daddy went to work on the model of the minibeast straightaway when he got home from work. We let Bean pick what she wanted to make and in true Bean fashion - she picked the prettiest minibeast she could find: a butterfly. I think it turned out really nice. (see picture above). One of our friends also cut Gerbie's hair - her first haircut! (see picture below). Yes, she is 2 and a half years old, but when you are bald for most of your first two years, you don't exactly need a lot of haircuts. She did a great job. And my recipe - not bad if I say so myself, creamed chicken and avocado. The girls went to bed late because of all the activity and I thought they would sleep in a little longer this morning...but they were still up bright and early. The reason why??? I am glad you asked. In England, by this time of year, it gets light out very early and stays light out until very late. That would be approximately 4:30 am until around 10:00 p.m. By the way, the opposite is true in the winter - sunrise at 8 a.m. and sunset at 4:00 p.m. What does this mean for us now? By 5:00 a.m. the sun is high in the sky, the birds are singing, the rooms are really light and the little eyes pop open and think it is time to get up. I think we may need to go invest in some nice blackout shades.

Minibeasts

Once upon a time there was a princess named Bean who lived in a castle that was attacked by a minibeast. Why am I writing a fairy tale? Well, Bean came home from school yesterday with a homework assignment to make a model of a minibeast. Hmmm, ok? I have never heard of a minibeast. But it sounds like a little hairy monster that should be in a fairy tale. I was busy making dinner and never got a chance to google it and assumed dear hubby would know what a minibeast is. He got home from work and I asked him -- nope, no idea. Okay, I was not just ignorant about this - this is apparently an England thing. So we googled it. It is always a little crazy to think you have to google something to figure out what it means, but such is our life in England. I have used google more in the past three months than I have my entire life. So what is a minibeast? Quite literally, a ‘minibeast’ is simply an insect, like spiders, snails, slugs, beetles, centipedes, worms, earwigs, caterpillars……these are just a few well-known examples of the thousands and thousands of types of ‘creepy-crawlies’ that are classified as minibeasts. Officially, minibeasts are invertebrates, which are animals without a backbone. So how do we make a "model" of one of them? Well, that is daddy's area - he is the creative one in the family. I can help come up with the supplies and he can help Bean with her homework on this one. They will be making a minibeast tonight. As for the word minibeast? I think that is a great way to describe the way I feel about spiders - they are truly what I would envision as a minibeast. If I do ever write a fairy tale, you better believe the minibeast will be a feature character!

Here we go again

And the warm weather we were enjoying is over. O.V.E.R. It is a high of 17 degrees today (63 degrees F) and rainy....with no warm weather in sight in the extended forecast. In fact, it is going to keep getting colder and colder until it is back in the low 50's by the end of this week. Sigh...it was nice while it lasted.

Half term fun

Bean has a half term break next week, so we have an opportunity to go have some fun a little further away from home. We will be spending four days in South East England in the county of Kent. Some of the places we will be going are Canterbury and Dover. There are many historic places, impressive castles and amazing coastlines in South East England. We will also be checking out Chartwell in Westerham. Chartwell was the home that Winston Churchill lived in from 1924 until the end of his life. The home has remained protected and unchanged thanks to the National Trust. My husband is very excited about seeing it. I have attached a picture of Canterbury and of the White Cliffs of Dover. We are very excited to get a few days away and the girls are excited that there is a swimming pool in our hotel. It is the little things in life, right? We will also be going to London again for a few days. We definitely don't let any grass grow under our feet at every school break and weekend! There is so much to see in England and we have not even started exploring the surrounding countries yet.

Birthday party time

Bean had a birthday party yesterday for a little girl in her class. I was curious about what kind of differences there would be between American and British birthday parties. There really were not that many. We went to an oversized indoor play area with slides and plenty of room to run. The moms and dads all waited in a big open area and about an hour into the party the kids went to the party room for snacks, drinks and to sing happy birthday while the little girl blew out the candles on her cake. So far, nothing was different than what we have experienced with American parties. But here is where the difference is - this pretty cake with candles on it - they didn't eat it. Bean came out and was upset that she didn't get cake and one of the moms said - "oh, we don't eat cake at the party - you may get a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin in the party bag at the end". Or not - cause we didn't get one in the party bag on the way out. I am not sure what the purpose of having a birthday cake is if it is not going to be eaten? In any case, I am glad Bean was able to go and have fun with some friends. Today her school is having a fundraiser - by way of a duck race in the river. And the weather is great again today - high of 26 degrees Celsius today! That would be approximately 78 degrees F. However, by tomorrow the temperature is supposed to start dropping again and by mid-week it is supposed to be back in the low 50's, so this warm spell is apparently short lived. We had to run out and buy fans for our house yesterday as their is no air conditioner, but they may go to waste after today because one of the moms told me yesterday that this could be it - the first and only summer weather. All in one weekend in May and then back down to cold again. I am really hoping that is not true, but as she was saying it, several other moms were nodding and saying she was right. Yikes.

Randomness

This is just kind of a random update on what is going on in our lives. Our weekends are full of adventures, but our weeks, ehh, not so much. Work, school, sleep. Our little Bean is fitting right in at school, she sounds like a British girl and has a birthday party invitation for this Saturday. She is very excited to go. She has met several friends and talks about them all the time (Hollie, Evie, Isabella and James). They are wearing their summer uniforms at school now and she still does not quite realize yet that she has to go to school until mid-July. Gerbie is doing very well at nursery school. She comes home every day talking about the new songs she is learning, which by the way are odd songs to teach toddlers. Songs about crushing up bumble bee's and licking them off her hands and about little bunny FooFoo bopping field mice on the head. I know both of these songs, but I am pretty sure I learned them in elementary school on the playground, not in nursery school at age 2. She also loves Crumpet, the bunny at their school and she LOVES playing outside. They go outside even it if it is raining, wearing their wellies (rain boots) and raincoats. Well, I guess if they didn’t go outside when it was raining they would hardly ever go outside at all. And she also enjoys tea time, which by the way, does not involve drinking tea. Tea time is also what they call a light meal or snack time in the afternoon in England. Some other random things...today is turning out to be the warmest day that we have had since we moved here. The temperature is 20 degrees! Woohoo. That would be 68 degrees F. I am finally starting to think of temperature in Celsius now, which makes it easier when checking weather online. I do have google conversions up on my computer almost all the time, especially while I am cooking, since my oven is Celsius. Some other random things….I actually used the word knackered (exhausted) in conversation the other day without thinking about it and hubby used the term quid (slang for pound or dollar), we found a Poundland which cracks me up for some reason (dollar store) and I still hate driving here – but oh yes, I still love online grocery shopping. I warned you this post was going to be random.

Time of our life

When I think about our time so far in England, I have so many different thoughts and emotions. But one thing that keeps coming up in my mind that seems very fitting, are the lyrics to a song. I have always liked this Green Day song, but now it means a lot more to me. This experience in England so far has definitely had its trials and tribulations. But it has also been a once in a lifetime experience....an adventure that has given us so many amazing memories already. We are having the time of our lives.

Time of your life
Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road.

Time grabs you by the wrist;
directs you where to go.

So make the best of this test
and don't ask why.

It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Tatton Park

Yesterday morning the kids were worn out from our London trip, actually, we were all pretty tired. The girls were arguing with each other, daddy and I were losing our patience with them....it was time to go out and do something before chaos ensued. So we decided on a visit to Tatton Park. I had briefly mentioned this park in a previous post, it is an estate house, garden and farm in Knutsford. We walked through the estate house, being rushed along by an impatient 5 and 2 year old who spotted a merry-go-round before we walked in. I am always surprised by how large these estates are. This one even had a wine cellar, two beer cellars and three kitchens. They also had people dressed up pretending to have lived there - someone baking scones, a few people playing cards. We walked through the flower gardens, the fern house and the Japanese garden. We all loved the beautiful Japanese garden...we felt more at peace just walking through it. Tatton Park also had a lot of family activities. They had a very large play ground, carnival rides, ice cream and the above mentioned merry-go-round. Tatton Park is a really scenic and relaxing place and it was exactly what we needed after the fast pace of London...just a low key day and some fun activities for the kids. It did make us sad to see two Scottie dogs at Tatton yesterday though. We miss our stubborn little Scottie dog.

Natural History Museum

Yesterday we got up and rode the train into London to celebrate hubby's birthday. We lucked out on the weather - it was sunny, did not rain at all and the temperature was probably in the 60's. This is a rare day in England, so I think it was in honor of hubby's b-day. Gerbie enjoyed riding the "choo-choo train" again and talked about it all day long. We had decided to find the new Chipotle that has been open in London for a mere 5 days, so that was our first goal. We had the taxi take us to Trafalger Square first, we walked around and enjoyed the sunshine and then went to Chipotle. After that we made our way to the Natural History Museum. Bean loved the museum - what's not to like for a 5 year old? All kinds of knobs to turn, buttons to push, peep holes to look into. She loved the butterfly exhibit, where you can walk through and see hundreds of butterflies flying around you. The girls were trying to get them to land on their arms. At the museum, they have explorer backpacks - these are free for the big kids and have an adventure hat, clues to find certain things in the museum, magnifying glass and binoculars. Our little explorer looked so cute and loved using her binoculars. Gerbie just kept asking for the dinosaurs and was not real thrilled with much else, but seemed to enjoy just strolling through the museum in her pushchair, thumb in mouth. We finally found the dinosaurs, including the very real looking t-rex complete with movement and noises. That was the highlight of Gerbie's day and even this morning, she is walking around pretending to be a dinosaur. When I said - "I think there is a dinosaur in here", she said - "no mommy, it's just Gerbie!" We all had a fun day celebrating daddy's birthday. The only thing we would have done differently is come home a little sooner. We had booked the 6:40 p.m. train and by evening on a Saturday in London, the nightlife is starting, which means there are things on the streets that are not so family friendly. The kids were tired but they still did good on the train ride home and hubby and I enjoyed talking to a nice English couple, who were giving us a list of new places we should go visit. All in all, we had a great day.

Birthday in London

10 years ago this month, my life changed forever. In May of 2000, I started working at a new company. To prepare for my arrival, they had already set up an email account for me, however, they had spelled my name incorrectly. My boss pointed me in the direction of a cute IT guy who could help me fix the issue. So I walked into his office, introduced myself and asked him to change my name. Well, the rest is history and he legally changed my name two years later. These last 10 years have been wonderful and filled with adventure – getting married, traveling, building a house, taking care of a dog, having two beautiful children together and our latest adventure – moving to a new country. There is no one else that I would want to be with on this wild roller coaster ride of life. My dear hubby is having a birthday this weekend, the last one of his 30’s, and we are going to be celebrating it in London as a family. We are going to take the train in on Saturday morning and spend the day at the Natural History Museum. This museum looks amazing! With the dinosaur exhibits and the new Butterfly Explorers – I have a feeling it will be a great day for everyone. We may even be able to locate the new Chipotle that just opened in London – which is my hubby’s favorite lunchtime place. The girls and I will spend the day trying to make it a great birthday for him. How many times do you get to spend your birthday in London?! Sweetie, we love you very much - you are the best husband and father we could ever ask for. Happy Birthday!

British school food

I don't ever remember school cafeteria food being very good. Greasy rectangles of pizza, fish sticks and johnny marzetti? However, after taking a look at Bean's school menu, I would take the old rectangle of pizza any day. Below I have listed some of the items from her latest school menu:
Toad in the Hole Omelette
Oven Baked Jacket Wedges
Flapjack fingers
Chicken Korma
Quorn Stir Fry (quorn is made of fungus and is a meat substitute)
Ham Ploughman's Lunch
Beefburger and Bap
Salmon Nibbles
Vegetarian Cottage Pie
Minced Beef Pie
Lamb Meatballs
Whitefish bake and chips
Now, some of these may be just fine for adults- but there is only one thing on the entire list that I personally would eat-- the jacket wedges are just a fancy British way of saying baked potatoes. But a 5 year old American girl? NOT.A.CHANCE. I don't see any mac and cheese, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets or peanut butter and jelly in the entire school year menu. When hubby and I first toured the school the headmaster showed us the menu and after reading through it our first question was -- can we pack lunches? Luckily for Bean -the answer was yes.

Mother's Day in York

There is nothing sweeter than having your husband wake you up by saying - Happy Mother's Day, and then having your two sweet daughters say the same thing the minute they see you. I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful and thoughtful family and they have made this a great day. However, since it is NOT Mother's Day in England - they had to buy me birthday cards and cross out the word birthday and write in mother's day. I give my husband a lot of credit for his creativity and I will always remember that these were the Mother's Day cards from when we were living in England. So today we were off on another weekend family adventure - we decided to make our way to York to finally explore this quaint little town. I posted some information about York a few weeks ago, if you want some history on the town you can read it there. It is described as having exquisite architecture, a tangle of quaint cobbled streets and the iconic York Minster. It definitely met the description. We walked around on the cobbled streets, which are lined with shops, restaurants and coffee houses. We went down by the river and walked through a park that takes you to the York Museum, which was unfortunately closed for renovations. And we saw the York Minster. We had to laugh when Gerbie called the Roman ruins "rocks" and my husband had the line of the day - "look honey, it is something big and old". Seriously though, we are still enjoying all the sightseeing, but it definitely does not hold the same excitement as it did when we first got here and saw our first 'big and old'________ (fill in the blank with cathedral, castle, minster or tower). As for York, we would definitely go back to spend more time there. There were a lot of things that we did not get a chance to see and a lot of different museums that you could spend an entire day in. The picture of the family together is in front of the York Minster. Happy birthday, I mean Mother's Day to everyone!

A typical day

Last weekend we toured old mansions from the 1700's. In complete contrast, today we did what we would have done on just a regular typical day in.....America. We went to Costco and then went to a mall. Now I have to clarify, they don't have that many malls around here, but they do have a giant one that is fairly close to where we live. We all needed new trainers (tennis shoes), so we decided to go check it out. We had heard a lot about the Trafford Centre - this mall is amazing and includes a Legoland Discovery Centre and mini theme park, a movie theater, a lot of places to eat, tons of stores and the mall itself is very modern looking. We got our trainers, ate at Pizza Hut, the kids got cookies, ice cream and balloons and then we topped it off with a trip to Build-a-Bear. Gerbie picked a bunny that she named Crumpet and Bean picked a unicorn that she named Rapunzel. This seriously could have been a typical day back home.

Playing take, accents and hen-do's

The other day we were in the play ground area of the school, waiting for the doors to open so the kids could go in. Bean asked me - "can I go play take with William"? I asked her what that was, I have never heard of it. She said "well, in America we call it a game of chase". Ahh - ok. Yes, you can go play take with William. Every day it is one more thing that we learn about this place we live in. And Bean is sounding more and more like a little British girl - she flits back and forth- some words come out the way we know them, others come out sounding like she has lived in England her entire life. Hubby and I just look at each other in amazement when she is talking to us. And for those wondering - Gerbie is finally starting to pick up the accent, ever so slightly. She called me mummy the other day and yesterday when I picked her up from school they were still having tea time and a lot of the kids were asking for more bread - and she repeated their request and said it exactly like they did. I had to get down face to face with her and look at her to see if those sounds were really coming out of her mouth. It is hilarious though, when the kids are home playing they almost always at some point get on a bike, in their wagon or even in a cardboard box and pretend to drive back to America. Hubby and I just laugh and say -let us know how driving to America works out for you!
And this morning when I was taking Bean to school, one of the British mums invited me to a hen-do. A what, huh? She explained this is what we in America would call a bachelorette party or a girls night out. I will probably go - I would like to see what it is like to have a girls night out in England. How do you dress for a hen-do anyway?

The news today

I opened up one of the local online newspapers today to check the weather, as I do every day. Here is a surprise! There is a rain probability of 85% today. Every day when I check the weather, the rain probability is between 85% and 87%. Without fail... every day...it never goes lower or higher than that. They literally change it to be 85%, 86% or 87% every day. It does rain almost every day, even if for only 5 minutes, so they could just save time and put it at 100%--they would be more right than wrong. So, why do I even bother looking? Well, I like to see the temperature. But alas, every day it is in the 50’s - never higher, sometimes lower. So yet again, why do I even look? I am fairly certain this is spring - my calendar is telling me it is May. However, it does not feel like the May that I am familiar with. We are not having warmer days, or even that many sunny days. The trees are getting leaves, the flowers are blooming, but it is still very cold here. So I suppose every day, I open the website up, hoping and praying, fingers crossed, that it will magically jump to 70 degrees? A girl can wish. Bean asks me every weekend if she can wear her cute summer dresses. At this rate, there might be two weeks in August that it might hit 70 degrees.
And the headline in the same newspaper today: Cheeky Thieves Cut Off Exhausts In Car Parks. Really, I don’t think I need to elaborate on this one.
And finally – that gosh darn volcano is in the news again. Yet again, wreaking havoc over Scotland and Ireland. I am really hoping the ash does not blow over England again.
And that, was your weather and local news report today.

Pride and Prejudice

Today is the early May Bank Holiday in the UK. This means that hubby is off work, Bean does not have school and Gerbie's nursery school is closed. But I, officially, should be working today. I work for a US company, so I would not be entitled to UK holidays. Some of the holidays may match up. However, there are quite a few that don't. And then there are holidays that I will get off, that the rest of the family will not, including the Fourth of July. Even though this holiday falls in the summer, Bean will still be in school. Her school year does not end until July 15th. As for today, I ended up taking a little holiday of my own -- a vacation day, so that I could spend the day with my family. So what does my title have to do with any of this? Well, today, we saw the mansion that was used as the backdrop of the movie Pride and Prejudice, when Darcy meets Elizabeth. This mansion was originally built in the 1500's. It is an impressive mansion and the way we saw it today is how it looked in the 1700's. I think the dining room in this place is bigger than our entire house. I have a picture of the front of the mansion, the side view which includes some of the garden and the back view, which also includes the pond. This mansion is located at Lyme Park. We toured inside the house, walked through all the gardens in the back and saw the flower maze. It was chilly and it rained on us quite a few times, but in England, you can't let rain stop you or you would never do anything! I even attached a picture to show that Gerbie had her buckeye spirit in place today. OH-IO.

Quarry Bank Mill/Styal Estate and Jodrell Bank Observatory

We had a busy day today! We were going to head to York, but the weather report made us think twice about driving that far away. However, after the morning got started it became clear that it was going to be a really pretty day. We have just become members of the National Trust, an organization that protects and preserves a lot of historical sites in the UK. As a member, you can gain entrance to a lot of these places for discounts or at no cost. So we looked through the book, picked a few places and off we went. The first stop was Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate. Quarry Bank overflows with atmosphere of the Industrial Revolution. We visited the cotton mill, powered by Europe's most powerful working waterwheel. Bean liked watching them spin cotton but Gerbie did not like the noise of the machines and walked around part of the mill with her hands over her ears. They also had a beautiful garden...waterfalls, flowers and a scenic path made this a really nice walk. Since we had read that pushchairs (strollers) would be hard to use on the paths and were not allowed in the mill, Gerbie discovered her new found freedom and enjoyed walking. The picture of the four of us was taken in front of a 300 year old tree. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them). As we were leaving, we decided to go to Jodrell Bank, which is home to the world famous Lovell Radio Telescope and the UK's National Radio Astronomy Observatory. This telescope is HUGE. I have attached a picture, but I don't think the picture even does it justice. I also took a picture of Bean, standing beside a model of the sun, and you can see the telescope in the background, which may give you a better perspective. They also have a scaled planet path and Bean enjoyed reading the names and finding all the planets. We had a great day! This is a three day weekend here in the UK since Monday is a Bank Holiday, so we will try to do something fun tomorrow also.

Traditional British Food

We get a magazine that hubby's employer signed us up for, called Focus. It is a magazine directed at expats to assist them in successfully getting settled in the UK. This is a direct quote from their magazine, in an article about their food, written by someone who is British: "As Brits, what are we known for? The Beatles, Winston Churchill, lacklustre weather, our odd and perhaps sometimes unhinged sense of humour? What about our food on a global scale? Brits and good food definitely do not go hand in hand. Who can blame anyone for perceiving us like this? With dishes like 'Toad in the Hole', 'Bubble and Squeak', 'Bangers and Mash' or 'Faggots and Gammon', we were just asking for an International incident". End of quote. I was laughing so hard as I read this. I think the food is awfully strange here. Pork pies, fish and chips, and the above mentioned things -- I have seen them all on menus in the straight up traditional British restaurants. Is it no surprise then, that picky eaters like me and my daughter were excited to see a McDonald's and a TGI Friday's?