How come so many Europeans smoke?

We hear this questions posed by both boys a few times a day. My answer just doesn't seem to suffice, which is generally 'I'm not sure' or 'They always seemed to have' or 'Maybe they don't realize what a bad decision it is' - come to think of it, I can't blame them for asking it over & over again! It is one smelly thing about Europe.

Well, after 19 days in a hotel, tomorrow we are moving into our new house in Hove!!! Jeremy tops us though, he's been in this place for 50 days! Seriously, it will be so great to have space, settle in and best of all, eat real food! We've found ourselves skipping meals as we are so tired of eating out and spending all sorts of cash on dining out. Seriously, it will be so, so appreciated.

Since we will be settling into our home on Friday (our stuff from home will arrive that day!) the boys and I decided to do something special in honor of Walter's big 5th birthday today. We got out the kid's London map he received from Great Grandma Donna & Great Grandpa Bruce and he got to pick out where ever he wanted to go. He chose the London Aquarium, so we headed there after breakfast. It is right on the Thames, just across from Big Ben and the House of Parliament. It was an absolutely perfect day out and with the sun shining, it was a great way to see the big sights. After going through the aquarium (which the boys loved!), we walked along the London Eye and the Jubilee Gardens where we watched a few street performances. After, we walked along another bridge and made our way back by double decker bus to Victoria Station, where we caught a train back 'home' (aka, #475 at the Arora International Hotel!). Again, I found myself pleased to not be rushed in this huge, beautiful city. We'll be back and explore more soon. Here are a few photos from the day...Walter was a bit on the silly side today:

Pretending they are swimming with the sharks!

For now, we are so jazzed to be moving in! If I haven't said so already, it will be great to get settled and make real food. :)

Is that the 'y' shaped country?

Alright, brag time...the other day at a train station, we met a man from Somalia. He asked us where we were from and we told him Minnesota. He smiled and said "I'd fit in there well, I'm from Somalia, they have the largest population of Somali people in the U.S. in MN." We talked for a while and went on our way. As you learned in my last post, Owen later was processing the conversation and wanted to talk more about why there were so many people from Somalia in MN, etc. We talked about war, about refugees and the general location of Somalia in Africa. After some thought, he said to me "Is that the 'y' shaped country?" I honestly had no clue what shape it was and told I didn't know but we'd have to look on a map soon. Well, this morning, we pulled up google maps and sure enough, Somalia is the 'y' shaped country. Pretty impressive if you ask me! (Here's a photo of Owen showing us the Africa puzzle map at Sunny Hollow in 2009...see 'y' shaped Somalia on the Indian Ocean?!)

Of course, I will tell you it is one of the wonderful things about a Montessori education. Not only do the children work with maps of the world, but they also learn their shapes, major landmarks, capitals and I'm sure so many other things I'm not privy to.

Yesterday, the boys and I made a trip down to Hove to visit the boys' school. It was so great to meet the guides, the children and many parents! We were welcomed with many smiles and eager handshakes. The boys both got to go in their respective classrooms for a tour from their future classmates. They were happy and confident in doing so, which made me at ease. It was really wonderful. Owen's guide, Stephanie, invited him to join the class at a couple of upcoming going-outs (Montessori's version of a field trip). The first one is a day at the sea rock pooling, which I thought was their phrase for rock climbing. I learned its not, instead, rock pools are areas by the sea that when the tide is low, there are small pools of water left behind, full of creatures and sea life. They will spend the day there catching creatures and exploring. The next one will be in the English country side, but I don't remember where. What a fabulous welcome!

What do you mean?

We graduated from the infamous 'why?' question when the boys were about 3/3.5, but nobody ever told me about "what?" "what do you mean?" and "I don't get it mom, what?". Owen is really trying to understand EVERYTHING he hears and he wants to hear EVERYTHING you talk about. Its made our reunion here a bit challenging to have any sort of full real adult conversations. It also shows me its another stage in our life as a family; its always changing.

Today the boys and I decided to get out of Crawley and go into London for the day. We hopped a train after breakfast and headed toward Victoria Station. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, which was blockaded as they were cleaning up from the Diamond Jubilee extravaganza. We caught a small glimpse and decided to come back another day for the changing of the guard and all the other sites.

From there we headed to Hyde Park (which is enormous) and spent a good chunk of our day playing at the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Park. It is inspired by Peter Pan and the boys had a great time climbing to the look out, exploring the ship and building sand turtles and crocodiles.

After a late lunch, we took the tube toward Piccadilly Circus and the famous Hamleys toy shop. There are 6 floors of toys and we looked at them all! Of course, we couldn't walk out empty handed, I couldn't resist.

After making our way from the toy shop, we took our first double decker bus ride along the designer shop lined streets back to the train station. I told Jer he was lucky the boys were with me...I could have done some serious damage! :)

I am starting to understand the draw of London. I'm also grateful that I will have many opportunities to explore it even more. There is just so much to see and do.

I can't wait to go back to Minnesota and say 'Trousers'.

The boys and I did our house hunting tour yesterday. We have narrowed it down to the following two: Queen Victoria & Goldstone Way. (Please feel free to weigh in with your opinion!) We will go see them again tomorrow, this time with Jeremy, before we make our final decision.

At the first stop we made, it was raining and while we were exploring the green space for the boys, we got a bit wet. At the second house, while we were waiting for the showing agent, I commented in the car that my pants were wet. The agent said to the boys "Be sure you don't say pants in school, you need to say trousers" as it turns out, pants are underwear here.

Today at lunch we were talking about all the funny names for things here and Walter said "I can't wait to go back to Minnesota and say 'Trousers' to my friends" He thinks he will really trick them with that one!

Here are a few photos from our final MN good-bye...good bye to Sunny Hollow & to Grandma Joanne, Uncle Moogs & Auntie Kindi.

And here is Walter signing his passport at the airport to make it official!

Double-Decker!

Well, we are here! We arrived at Heathrow Saturday at noon, after flying through the night. The boys did wonderfully on the flight; Walter fell asleep 2 minutes after take off, Owen after a couple of cartoons, and they both slept until I woke them up for landing. We were met at the airport by Jer and lots of hugs and kisses. It was wonderful.

Saturday we spent the day exploring Crawley. Sunday, we trained down to Hove to see The Montessori Place (the boy's new school!) and explore the city and sea. The whole day as we walked around, Walter would yell "Double-Decker!" whenever he'd see a double decker bus.

Sunday we went down to Haywards Heath to a co-worker's home for a BBQ. The boys had a blast playing with some other children and running around the garden.

Monday we spent the day in London, where we focused our efforts on London Bridge and the Olympic Park. While we were there, there was not one mention of a double decker bus...the novelty has already worn off!

Tomorrow the boys and I are being picked up and taken to Hove to see some house options. Fingers crossed for a great option that is available soon...I'm not sure how much longer they will let us stay at this hotel when things like this are happening in our room:

I ran so fast it dropped out of my brain.

Walter came running up to me the other day excited to tell me something. When he got to me and I asked what it was that he wanted to tell me, this was his response.

We are down to two days. We leave Friday evening - I think 9pm is our scheduled time of take off! It has been a few weeks of good byes... Here are scenes from a few:

Good-bye to the MN Twins with Grandpa & Uncle!

Good-bye to best buddies!

Good-bye to da U.P., eh!

Good-bye to Grandma & Grandpa Harala

We have a few more good-byes to say, but we are so ready to say hello to this man...

and yes, it does feel like its been since Christmas since we last saw him! We're coming, Jerry!!!

How many more days until London?

The countdown is on. Jeremy left 3 weeks ago tomorrow and we are missing him dearly. Yes, we are busy prepping, packing and saying our good-byes, but we can't stop missing Jeremy. This is a question asked daily around here and today's answer is 12!

The day Jer left, we took the boys out of school at noon so we could have lunch together and an afternoon of fun. We played baseball, went on bike rides, and went fishing at Lake Nokomis one last time. It was a perfect way to end our time together before this stint apart. We leave Friday, June 1st to start our adventure in Europe. We will start it off celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...which means a four day weekend for Jeremy! Perfect after all this time apart. Pretty soon we will be counting down the hours...

Mat

Walter surprised me this afternoon and read me his first book, Mat. He then read 3 other books! His teacher told me he was on the cusp of reading and he was home sick today so I thought I'd pull out the beginner reader books to see where he was. He blew me away and made me one proud mama.


Owen had his first coach pitch baseball game last night and loved it. He loved hitting, running the bases, playing first & in the outfield, but the best part about it all was playing catcher. He beams when he talks about it. Unfortunately I didn't get to go as Walter was sick, but luckily Grandma Joanne & Uncle Moogs stepped in and were his number 1 fans. I'm anxious so see him in action next week.

We are busy prepping for our move to the UK. Jeremy has been there over two weeks now and has already taken a trip to Spain for work. It sounds like the sun of Spain was a welcome change from rainy England...no wonder he already booked our 10 year anniversary trip to our honeymoon spot of Capri! Last week I was questioning my dream and what in the world I was doing to our family, but I am again so confident this will be so great for our family. I'm really counting down the days...we leave two weeks from tomorrow!

We all live in a Yellow Submarine

As a kid, my cousins and I would listen to this song on my grandma's record player chest over and over again. The chest was in her dining room and we'd parade around the table singing and waving our arms up and down. Owen has discovered the Beatles and now plays this song over and over on his new CD player in his bedroom. He and Walter sing and dance and wave their arms up and down...and sometimes I join in. It is fabulous.

Our family has some simply amazing news, fitting to this song; we are temporarily moving to Crawley, England! This is my biggest dream come true! We are still in the early stages of planning and there is a small chance it may not happen, but I am confident it is happening. Jeremy is being temporarily relocated for work. We have committed to two years, but one never knows, and our plan is to move over in mid-June. Jer will begin traveling in March and will be able to stake out neighborhoods and schools for us. More to come, until then, Cheerio!

I dreamed I lost my pillow pet.

Walter woke me up in the middle of the night a few nights ago to tell me he was very scared. I asked why and he told me he had a very scary dream. I asked what his dream was about and he told me "I dreamed I lost my pillow pet."

If you asked Walter his favorite Christmas present he received, he would either answer his Pokemon set from Santa or his pillow pet, who he named Squirtle, from his uncle Moogs. If you asked Owen what his favorite gift was, it would be his Ninjago Lego set from his uncle Moogs. Jer says its because Moogs never grew up. Anyway you look at it, uncle Moogs scored some major points from the boys this holiday season!

Here are some photos from our time in Dallas with Joanne's family. Its funny even with such a mild winter how lovely it was to walk outside in t-shirts and jeans! Its freeing to walk outside without bundling up first, that's for sure. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins they don't get to see much. The wedding was beautiful and all the food was delicious. Nothing was spared, it was true Texas style if you ask me!

Besides the wedding activities and hanging out with all the family, a big highlight was New Years Eve day at Six Flags. Jer's cousin Dylan joined us and was such a treat to have with. He was entertaining in the lines and offering piggy back rides left and right in between. We all had a ball and Owen proved he is so, so, so much more brave than his mother. Walter pretty much is, too. The first ride of the day was the Titan. Here's a video clip of someone riding it (not Owen & Jer). Walter sat back with me and got into a sword fight with Porky Pig. By the end of the day, Walter was ready to hit the rails, however, and made me go on the Judge Roy Scream with him. You can ask Jer, I was so nervous I wasn't talking.

Look - sleigh marks & reindeer footprints!

We woke up Christmas morning to two very exited boys. Santa had made the special trip to Grandma & Grandpa Harala's and left them all sorts of goodies. Later that day, we went out on the ice to skate, play broom ball, ice fish & sled and Owen called us all over. He had found sleigh marks and reindeer footprints on the ice, as well as some giant footprints that had to be Santa's from getting out and back into his sleigh.

We had such a wonderful holiday season, starting with a winter concert at Sunny Hollow, followed by many family gatherings in MN and the U.P., and ending with a family road trip to Dallas, TX! We are filled with all sorts of joy from the end of 2011 and are so excited to have it spill into 2012!

Here are a few photos from Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's...there will be more from the other events to follow: