Monday 25 May 2009

these always make me cry...

Fun day out

We had it all planned out... Every so often, we get a magazine from Natalie's school outlining all the different things to do as a family here in Cornwall. On page 4 there was an advertisement for "Dr. Who Day" at Treasure Park. Perfect! The park isn't too far from home, parking and entry are FREE and the kids and Shawn are obsessed with Dr. Who and they were going to have Daleks and Cybermen and the Doctor and it was going to be great. I was so determined that it was going to be a fun day that I kept it all a secret from the kids until this morning in case something happened I wouldn't have two grumpy kids on my hands. The drive there was nice and the kids were excited.

Then we get there and there is a sign that read, "Due to unforeseen circumstances... Blah blah blah BLAH BLAH! Oh the shame!

There was a backup attraction of Sci-Fi and Superheros, but it WASN'T Dr. Who. We still had a fun time though and Natalie got to have her picture taken with Princess Leia and both kids had their picture taken with Spider Man (I'll have to scan that one because it's the one we had to pay for). We tried to get Robbie to pose with Darth Vader, but that wasn't going to happen. I was in heaven because it basically is a HUMONGOUS jewellery store. There was loads for the kids to do, but even though "entry" was free, most of the attractions were not and of course, the jewellery was all for sale. Oh, well we ate some yummy food, kids did a bouncy castle and a merry-go-round, we made our very own Cornish teddy bear, we painted ceramic animals and finished up by having some ice cream.

Natalie with Princess Leia
Shawn and Robbie with the time machine from Back to the Future (they also had James Bond's Ashton Martin from Goldfinger)
Robbie's penguin (that Shawn did most of the painting on while Robbie tried to eat the paintbrush)
Natalie's unicorn that she painted all by herself with NO help from anyone else
Clay's turtle that I painted
and lastly, Kernow, our Cornish teddy bear that we made all by ourselves.

Our garden

On Friday evening, we spent time cleaning up the garden and planting some flowers. Now, I know what you are thinking that it is silly to plant flowers 2 months before moving, but we enjoyed it, we still have 2 months we can enjoy the flowers, and having a clean and tidy garden area will make spending time outside more enjoyable. We had a lot of fun and the kids love to water and weed.
The front of our house.
One of my hanging baskets that I planted.
Our herb bed.
Rhubarb
My favorite thing, fresh clean diapers hanging on the line. A must in our new house is a clothesline in the backyard. (ignore Robbie scratching his bum)


Blackmail photo :)

The other day, we bunked the kids' beds so now Robbie and Natalie share a room. I had a feeling the first couple of days would be an adjustment and we would have "slumber party syndrome" to deal with and I was right. The first night we put the kids in their room and in bed at 7:30 pm and I go in at almost 9:00 pm to investigate the giggling I heard. This is how I found Robbie...








Saturday 23 May 2009

Video of Clayton Giggles

Random Pictures

I've been such a slacker! It has taken me 2 weeks to get Clay's blessing on here and then there are all the other things I'm sure my mom wants to see :)

Not much is really going on here other than we finally got our orders to move to Virginia, we knew back in October we were going to VA, but the official paperwork finally came through this week so we can get the ball rolling and get organized for the move. I can't believe it's already time and even though 2 months feels like forever away, it will be here before I can blink! There is so much to do and I am terrified of going back to the states with 3 kids aged 5 and under by myself all the while Shawn gets to stay here an extra 2 months. Then once we get to the states, we need to find a minivan (for less than $10,000 so if anyone has one they'd like to sell us let me know!) and a house and register Natalie for school and beg a school to allow Robbie to attend preK. Kids and I ship out the end of July because my visa expires 3 August :) .

Yesterday we cleaned up our garden, it looks so pretty now. It seems silly though that we planted some flowers, but we can still enjoy them for a couple of months and our landlord will appreciate them when he moves back in after we leave. Then today we bunked the kids' beds in Natalie's room so the big kids are now sharing a room and we moved the pack & play into Robbie's old room so Clay can try to sleep on his own in his own room. He's been sleeping 8 hours at night now so we'll see if I can now get a better night sleep. It worked with the other 2 so here's to hoping!

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks.

Last week I bought some fruit. I found the most beautiful, juiciest strawberries and they were HUGE. I just don't want to know what chemicals caused this to happen though because it just doesn't seem natural. Here is a comparison with a Royal Gala apple and a normal sized strawberry.
Another of Natalie's outfit choices. She does have shorts on and NO, I did NOT let her leave the house looking like this! The coat is still too big, but she got it as a hand-me-down from a friend she worships so she just HAD to wear it NOW.
Clayton's smile :)
Robbie's creepy face
Robbie took this picture of Shawn
And this picture of me
Robbie trying to hide from the camera
Natalie trying to hide from the camera
More smiles
See, it does get warm enough here to go swimming (ignore the mess in the background). Funny thing is, it's was only like 70 F and we were hot, we've gotten too used to the cooler weather here and we are going to be in BIG trouble dealing with a Virginia heat wave when we come stateside!

Monday 11 May 2009

Clayton's Blessing Day

What a wonderful Mother's day! We were able to have Clay blessed and it was such a nice blessing and he was completely silent through the whole thing. I was a little panicky just before as I was getting him dressed because I didn't realize how much bigger Clay is compared to Robbie at the same age and Robbie's outfit barely fit him. I squeezed his big cloth diaper bum in as best as I could and it was all good. He was really grumpy at the end so I wasn't able to get a good picture of just him in his outfit so I'll have to try that another day but enjoy the pictures I was able to get.


Monday 4 May 2009

Chugga Chugga CHOO CHOO

Today we went to Lappa Valley Railway. Robbie LOVES trains and has been begging to ride on a train for a LONG time. It's ironic though because when we first moved to Cornwall we lived just a 10-15 minute walk from this place and we never went. Boy, we missed an opportunity and we had such a nice time. We got on the little steam engine train, just like the ones I remember from the zoo when I was little and it took us 3 miles to another little station where there was a boating lake, a really nice playground, a maze, a nature trail, 2 other train lines with one to a soft play area with trampolines and ball pit, and crazy golf. In total, the kids got to ride 3 different kinds of trains and we had a great afternoon out. Robbie was in heaven and Natalie enjoyed herself as well.
Our littel train
Robbie anticipating the ride
Natalie anxious to go
A rare picture of me (sorry you can't see Clay)
One of the spare engines
Natalie insisted on taking a picture of the ticket and MADE me put this here on the blog, she was excited to because the guy came just after this and punched our ticket like on the Polar Express!
A tower
A really cool maze made from bricks, Robbie cheated and didn't really finish
The trampolines & ball pit

The kids were acting really silly on the ride back from the trampolines. Robbie with his Home Alone face
Natalie too
Creepy eyes, yuck

Clay loves his swing



Random pics of Natalie and Robbie

Here's Robbie with one of his favorite poses. He's sucking his thumb with a finger up the nose, gross! Then he has to play with his belly button. At least his "free" hand (the one playing with his belly button) isn't down his pants playing with something else, if he wasn't in a diaper, that is where it would probably be. How do I break him of this?
Natalie in another interesting outfit choice.