John's Birthday

Last week was John's birthday.  As is our usual custom... the celebration extended over several days...

- On his birthday, he arrived home in evening (after an overnight in Ireland) to find his two very excited children excited to give him birthday hugs and kisses... and presents!  His "big" gift was an espresso maker from the extended family!
- On Friday, it was date night (no kids)!  John and I checked out The Ferry (a restaurant in Cookham) and went to see the new Bond movie.
- On Saturday night, we had family birthday dinner at GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen - best burger we've found in the UK so far).
- On Sunday, we had friends over for lunch and all of the kids sang Happy Birthday to him and he got, well, sort of a birthday cake...

Welcome home and happy birthday, Daddy!!!

Photo by Lane Ludwig ;)

Happy birthday, HWC John!

School Days

Lane and Aggie walking to class

This was our first week back in school after half term.  Wow... when the house emptied out, I realized that I had a lot of catching up to do!  Yet I am so grateful for these week-long breaks in the middle of our school terms.  School here is rigorous and demanding - with long days and hard work.  (I am shocked when my 6-year-old brings home a spelling list that includes "escaped" and my 8-year-old needs to do math word problems that require complicated division.)  When we get to the half term, we are DONE, and all need a break.  And then, after some family time, travel and a few mellow days of play, we are all ready to be back in the "school days" routine. 

Happy Halloween

It was our first Halloween here in the UK and we weren't sure what we were going to do...  The holiday here is a bit darker (more ghouls and ghosts than we usually see in the States), so we didn't want to go overboard, but we did want to get in some trick-or-treating!  John ended up getting Lane and some friends tickets to the Monster High Ball (fun!) in London, then we came back to the house to meet up with John and Ryan for dinner and trick-or-treating on our cozy little close, and wrapped it up by watching Spookly the Square Pumpkin!

Shuttled by limo to the Monster High Ball

Beauty stations, crafts, activities...

...and dancing!

Our Little Skeleton

Trick-or-treating in the rain!

Italy

It's hard to believe that we were in Italy this week!  The weather was chilly (and rainy), but we made it to got to the top of the Duomo during a break in the rain, visited Piazza di San Marco just days before it flooded, and ate lots of yummy pizza!  Here's our whirldwind tour of Pisa, Florence and Venice in pictures...

Pouring in Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Lane climbed the tower with John

Salud!  First night in Florence!

Photograph by Lane

Family Photo - Lunch in Florence

Climbing the Duomo

View from the Duomo

Piazza della Repubblica

Boar's Market

Lane - Ponte Vecchio in the Background

Gelato!

Venice - Rialto Bridge

Piazza di San Marco

Highlight of the Trip: Feeding the pigeons!

Waiting for the Water Bus

Murano, Venice

Venice Sunset

My Autumn View

View from Our Front Yard

Ryan's First Soccer Match

Ryan could not have been more excited last week... He had his first football match against another school.  Mind you, this was supposed to be a "friendly" match, with no one keeping score.  But he was so excited to travel on the mini bus to St. George's in Windsor (amazing... with a view of the castle from the field) to play a "real" match.

He started out as goalie, which was a little rough.  They scored on him a couple of times.  (I have to say, the boys on team they were playing looked like they were all a year older than our boys!)  Later, he got to move into an offensive position which, I think, suited him better.  (Funny how kids are different - Lane loves to play defense!)

Ryan and his buddy, Dilsher

 

The Mystery of the Missing Swimsuit

So, while there are many wonderful things about St. Piran's - no place is perfect.  Lane had her first brush with others' "imperfections" a few weeks ago...

When it came time for swim class, her bathingsuit was not in her bag.  However, another classmate found her name label on the classroom floor.  It had been clearly cut out of the bathingsuit.  :(

Our guess is that someone (who forgot their swimsuit and is of average size in Year 4), panicked and took Lane's suit.  We are choosing to believe that it was not someone who did it to her specifically for any reason.

The school handled it all very well - gathering the girls on more than one occassion and giving the culprit the chance to fess up, and giving anyone who knew anything the opportunity to anonymously write down that information.  The school also very quickly replaced the swimsuit at their expense.  Quite honestly, I think that the head of the middle school was a bit horrified at the whole situation. 

Unfortunately, the mystery is unresolved.   As a momma bear, I wanted the perpetrator to be found and punished.  However, Lane is pretty unfazed by the whole thing, so I'll (reluctantly) let it go...

The Seven Stars

Although not everything has been perfect at St. Piran's (I'll save that for another post...), the educational experiences that the children are having there are incredible.  For the first half of this term, Lane has been working in her design technology class on a custom sandwich.  Her sandwich is the Seven Stars and comes with a baguette, ham, turkey, cheese, lettuce, flora (margarine)... and pasta!  She had to do taste tests with classmates to decide what combination would work best, design and create the packaging (complete with price, barcode and "use by" date), and put it all together.  When she brought it home, she sold it to me (I negotiated her down to half price - pointing out that I had provided the ingredients for her to take to school) and she, Ryan and I all tried some.  I have to say... it was pretty tasty! 

Seven Stars Sandwich

Baguette, Flora, Ham, Turkey, Cheese, Lettuce and Pasta!

Ryan gave it a thumbs up!

Egyptian Day

Well... I've gotten a little bit behind in my posts due to an iPhoto problem - but I'm up and running again and wanted to catch up on all that's been happening since school started.

Earlier this month, all of the Year 4 classes participated in Egyptian Day.  A wonderful company called History Off the Page comes into the school and runs an all-day Egyptian experience for the kids.  They get to spend the morning working on various crafts (pressing olive oil, carving soap, making wax perfume cones...) then spend the afternoon at a feast in the royal court.  Ryan's class did a Seaside Day last year and it was also spectacular.  The kids have a great time and learn so much!

My Little Egyptian

Bread-making

Carving

Pharaoh's Court

Lane's Amulet

 

The Start of School

Last week, the kids started school.  I have to admit, I was pretty excited (see photo).  We had a great summer break... playdates with friends, the Olympics, our trip back to the States, and then just enough time to adjust to being back in the UK before we were all ready to get back into the routine of school.

And now, at the end of the second week, my little girl (ahem, big girl) is off for a weekend with her classmates.  They are headed to an outdoor adventure camp to make apple cider, work as a team on a ropes course and fly through the air on a zip wire.  Unfortunately, she is just coming down with a cold - so I'm saying special prayers that she'll feel well and sleep well.  It was a little tough to see her go.  (Literally, it was a little tough because she wasn't looking out the window of the bus... She was already busy playing a card game with her seat partner.)  I think she'll have a great weekend...