A Little Nutella...

Goes a long way!

No Groucho's?!?

So apparently they don't have Groucho's in England? It was a sad day to learn this piece of information. I mean, I even have the card!

And I'll use my money from my piggy bank (or my "earth money" as I like to call it...) because we have to go there. I NEED a sandwich and some 45 sauce. Who can make that happen?

I guess a boy can dream, right?

Oxford

Over the weekend we took a road trip to Oxford to visit some friends we made while we were in Mississippi! We love a good road trip!

Hooray for being in the car!

We saw some beautiful things while we were driving, like this amazing rainbow. We could see the whole thing! I think we even saw the end of it, but we did not see any pots of gold. Boo.

There were cool looking castles sitting on tops of hills.

And then ruins that I'm sure used to be beautiful places long ago.

We spent Saturday touring Oxford, which is a really old and really cool city. We needed a little break for a while, so we stopped off in a book shop. They had lots of Thomas books, so I was a happy camper! (Yes, Mommy does have bangs in this picture. She got a hair cut last weekend and learned what a fringe cut was... after she had one! So there is a bit of a language barrier, even though we all speak English!) 

We also went to The Eagle and Child, a pub where the Inklings (like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien) used to hang out. Too bad it wasn't opened yet, so we couldn't see inside.

This is a lovely picture of our family... it was a very bright day! For a place where it rains a lot, we were very thankful for some sunshine, even if it made us have goofy faces in our pictures!

Speaking of rain, we found some great puddles to play in! Good thing I wore my wellies! (That means rain boots--see how many new things I am learning!)

Riley Cates has been quite accident prone lately. She fell off of her chair at dinner the other night and gave herself the lovely black eye you see. And then as we were walking around Oxford, she fell out of her stroller (or buggy, as they call them here) and face planted on the sidewalk. You can't really see it too well in this picture, but she scratched up her nose and forehead pretty well. She also slammed her finger in a door at church yesterday! Poor girl! 

This is Christ Church. The dining hall here was the inspiration for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Unfortunately it was closed for the day. Mommy got to go see the cathedral though, and she said it was so beautiful.

We waited for her outside and had flowers for her when she came out!

I promise that we just picked up flowers that had already fallen! We were not picking new ones in the fancy gardens!

It was such a fun weekend! Somewhere there is a picture of us with all of our friends, but I don't have it right now, so I will have to post it later!

Different

So there are some things about life in England that are just different.

The plugs, for starters. They just don't fit the same.

And don't get me started on these pot holders. 

How am I supposed to get something out of the oven?

Wait, I've got this one!

And this thing. What even is it? And what is it supposed to do to this mushroom?

Oh, Mommy told me that it was never supposed to do anything to mushrooms. How should I know? I have so much to learn!

Yummy!

Riley Cates was pretty impatient while waiting on Mommy to finish supper tonight, so she helped herself to a little snack!

Yes, that is an orange pepper, and yes, she did eat most of it. Silly girl!

If she had only waited a few more minutes, she would have been as thrilled as I was!

Fish fingers?! They are the best! And mashed potatoes? Yum! And sauteed peppers and onions? Well, 2 out of 3 isn't too bad...

Trains

We were missing the trains from Belgium today, so we decided to make our own! We started off with a modest train to tour the countryside.

But that wasn't good enough.

This train was complete with a dining car. You know, so we can eat snacks and supper (that was what I told Mommy).

Riley Cates was being super spiritual this morning and reading her Bible while riding the train and waiting on her snack.

Then it was time for lunch, and since all of the chairs were in use in the train (and we didn't want to eat in the dining car), we pulled the small chairs up. Didn't quite work, but we were happy anyway! (And yes, we are still in our pjs. Yesterday was a busy day, so we were quite lazy this morning! Well, aside from the train building. That is hard work.)

Open House

Every Sunday someone in the church hosts an Open House for people to come eat lunch together and enjoy each other's company. Different families host each week, and this week was our turn! I worked really hard this weekend to make sure everyone had something yummy to eat! Well, I watched Mommy and Daddy work hard. Same thing, right?

We had 11 adults and 7 kids at our house for Grannie Pammie's spaghetti.

A few kids decided the floor would make for a fun picnic.

And then there were others of us who enjoyed the kiddie table. Much more comfortable than the floor, I think! Plus, it is just our size!

After lunch we got out the play-dough for a bit. Apparently this was very old play-dough...

But it was fun, nonetheless!

And then Riley Cates made Mommy very happy by cleaning off all of the crumbly play-dough pieces... right onto the floor. So helpful!

It was a fun day with fun friends!

Cookies for Breakfast?

A little cookie dough before 9 am never hurt anyone, right?

Right???

Because this stuff is delicious! (Oh, and don't worry, we did actually have breakfast first!)

Riley Cates was feeling the need to balance out the sugar intake, so she opted for an apple. Good girl!

I wouldn't object to everyday starting this way!

Exciting Day!

We had an exciting day in England today! Not only was it a beautiful day with lots of playing outside, but we had some big changes in our house...

Guess who got a big girl bed?!? She was pretty excited about it!

So was I! I told her that she needed to move on over and make room for me! Plenty of room to share, right?

And, of course, this post simply would not be complete without showing you the outfit I picked out for myself today... Fashion statement, indeed. (Like I told Mommy, candy canes make me happy!)

I hope your day was as exciting as ours!

More Walking

Today we went on another walk. Last time we went up the hill from our house, and today we went downhill to explore our village, Fourstones.

Close to our house is the filling station. (And for a fun math lesson from Mommy and Daddy... the gas prices you see are in liters. So if you convert that to gallons and then to dollars, we are paying nearly $9/gallon for gas! Yikes!)

Down the road a little ways is the local pub.

If you walk past the pub and across the railroad tracks, you come to a footpath right beside the Tyne River! It is so pretty!

We walked along the river back towards our house. The views I normally show you are looking out towards the river. Here is a view of our house from the river. We live in one of the houses in the middle clump of houses.

On our walk we saw some pretty cool things. And actually we saw two cool things at once: a train and some sheep! How fun is that?!

I mean, look how close we were to those sheep! They are so funny to watch!

**Yes, I do have a pair of socks on my hand. No, it was not that cold outside today. Yes, I do own a real pair of gloves. These were just fun because I am a 3 year old boy! :)