Abi bits and pieces

Abi's been busy over the past couple of weeks. She had a project at school to build a simple machine that had to have at least 2 working machines in the design. She decided to do a rescue truck. After quite a few arguements it did get built. Abi always thinks she is correct - I'm not sure who she gets this from in the family?! Anyway it was a good truck and hopefully she'll get a good score for this project. So there's a photo from school of her in her pod showing her machine.

Abi has also joined the cheer team. She had her first game to cheer at on Wednesday. The whole team were great. They were so enthusiastic although I don't think they watched the basketball team what so ever - neither did I! She is entering a talent show at school as part of the team too, she's also being a magician's assistant - I'll let you know how she does.

Abi has also been busy with Girl Scout cookie sales, we really need to get rid of all of the cookies from our house as they are not helping my healthy eating campaign at all!

Allen's Birthday

We celebrated Allen's birthday a day early so he could enjoy a whole day skiing with the family as, on his actual birthday, we were in the car for 12 hours driving back from skiing in France!

We had a lovely meal out in the evening, I shared fondue with Louise, Allen and Stuart had a set meal and Grandma and Cameron had raclette - the meal on a hot stone thing. I have included a variety of photos from the night.

During the day we enjoyed the skiing, meeting at the top of one mountain for lunch so as to include Marion - lovely food again. From all this food talk you can probably guess we are now on a healthy eating stint. I've been to aqua fit and pilates this past week - not bad after a 3 year break!

Rachael.

Christmas 2011

A little late, I know! We were lucky enough to have 2 Christmases. The first one was the weekend before Christmas. We went back to the UK on a flying visit to my parents. It was our first opportunity to see the new house they have had built. They knocked down the bungalow I grew up in way back in April 2011 and started work on a new 5 bed house. They have sent us regular photos but we did not go and visit during the build as Mum and Dad lived on site in a caravan. So driving up and seeing this huge house was a bit of a shock!

The house is beautiful. Katharine and co moved in early December and it is nearly all complete. The next time we go back I'm sure it will look different again. I've included a photo of us on arrival night by the Christmas tree. We spent the weekend with the family, having Christmas dinner and a brunch the next day. We got to meet Tiami, a new cousin and to also catch up with our other cousins too, plus Annette and Joe. It was great to see everyone and, of course see the house. Also did a little shopping!

We got back here on the Sunday, so it was a quick trip back. We then had to get ready for Christmas for real down in France with Grandma Melrose and the Turners. We drove down on the Thursday, stopping on the German Swiss border. We stayed in a lovely hotel with an excellent restaurant. We arrived at our appartment, just outside La Plagne 1800, Friday afternoon. It was a 3 story wooden house, very modern with a great view. Our Scotish family were out so it gave us time to get unpacked and go and rent skis for the kids. We had a wonderful week, Jacob and Abi loved having Finn and Cameron around 24 7. We enjoyed good food, skiing and great company. Abi really got into rummy, the card game, and has continued playing it back here! We generally had blue skies and excellent snow. I still prefer skiing in America but it was excellent being with the family, just need to all go to America next time! The food was very good, I'll do another post of Allen's birthday - we went out for a meal.

So both Christmases were good fun.

Rachael.

Odd photos from Oct and Sept 2011

Hi

A few random pictures. In October we had a book parade at school. They do it as a way around Halloween so the children can get dressed up but it is meant to be related to a book. This year Abi chose Ella the Rose Fairy - she's into the Rainbow Fairy Books, well now she's into any girlie chapter book. Jacob went, once again, as Harry Potter. He's still trying to persuade us to let him read the whole series. He's in the middle of the 5th (I think they get a little too grown up for a 9 year old). I was Max from Where the Wild things are. My class had a wonderful time and they all took part too, not back for 10 year olds! So there's a photo of each of us. I have also included one from a pig roast we went to to celebrate our friend's, Nadine, 30th birthday.

Rachael.

Luxembourg

Hi

Back in October we took Marion to visit Luxembourg. None of us had been before. It's about a 3 hour drive from our house and is a beautiful place. Luxembourg city is a mix of modern and old. We stayed in the modern part but it's only about a mile to the old city. We did a bus tour - much to Allen's annoyance, however I thought it was worth it! The streets are pretty small and the bus driver did hit a post. The first thing we visited was an amazing play park. It had a pirate ship in the middle and a water feature where the children could damp parts and then release the water. Jacob and Abi had a fabulous time, we ended up going back to the park the next day. There was also a lovely chocolate shop that sold delicious hot chocolates, the ones where you stir the chocolate on a stick into the hot milk. The cakes weren't bad either! We also toured the old underground castle, a maze of tunnels where people actually lived and defended the city. Marion wasn't keen on looking over the egde as it was quite high up! There were beautiful views and great gardens too. There are a variety of walks you can do and I want to return, either with Ruth (she's visiting in Feb) or with the family again. I would have loved to have explored the shops but the only one we went in was a toy shop - surprise, surprise!

Rachael.

Kinderdyke 2011

Hi

Grandma Melrose came and visited back in October. We did a few trips out and about. These photos are from when we visited Kinderdyke. It's an area in The Netherlands near to Amsterdam, so a two hour drive from us. To make the trip a bit easier we stopped at an excellent pancake house that was 30 mins into the trip! A great place and we will definitely go back.

Kinderdyke is an area that contains 18 working windmills all on one flood plain. They have one windmill turning, you can go in and have a look, then another that turns and the other 16 are stationary. They would all work. They were built to drain the area and to keep it free from water. It is an amzing site and kind of gives you the feeling of what it would have been like to live back then. Marion took Jacob and Abi in the one that was working, Allen refused to go in as you had to pay! I kept him company, it didn't take them long to look around. We had all seen inside a windmill that wasn't turning before and Marion said it was pretty similar so I think Allen made the right choice! They then got to watch a film about it all which Marion said was very good. A good day out.

Rachael.

Halloween 2011

Hi

I know the next few posts are completely out of order, as in date not weird! Due to full time teaching I have found it very difficult to keep up with things like housework and my blog. This is all soon to change as I finish full time on Friday and go back to good old supply. I have really enjoyed being back in my own classroom but I am ready for a break! I don't know how people work full time with children and a husband. I don't know who has found it the hardest with me working out of them all!

Anyway here's a photo from Halloween. We had a fun time. On the Friday before we went to Trunk and Treat on the American base. We did this last year too and it works very well. People have candy in their car boots on an easy walking route around the base. They all decorate their cars and there are extra decorations on the route too. They also do a haunted house and an area at the end with Halloween activities for the children.

The photo is before we started, outside our house. Abi went along with Haley(in the photo) and Jacob met up with his friends once we got there. I like it as much as the children! Allen couldn't join us this year as he was returning his mum to the airport - see next post! We also did trick and treating on our British street on actual Halloween - Allen did that one!

Rachael.