How we have spent our first 2 weeks

The London Eye - the slow moving, gigantic ferris wheel.

Thanks to the Niblocks, who were passing thru London, we were able to take a ride in a not as crowded "pod". Logan's favorite part was seeing some guy on the street dressed as Iron Man.

Tate Modern Museum

Their favorite part... putting money in the donation bin and watching it fall down.

Brighton Beach

We took a day trip to a beach town just south of London. When preparing to leave, the kids insisted on wearing their swimsuits even though I warned them that this beach is not like the beaches in Florida/South & North Carolina. Once we got there, their first observation was that there was no sand only pebbles, lots & lots of pebbles. They managed to stick one toe into the water but that's as far as we got. The swimsuits never saw the light of day. So we moved on to the Brighton Pier for fun and games.

Swiss Cottage

This little area is not too far from our apartment. They managed to play in the water for a few minutes before the lips started turning blue.

Side note, the weather has been great for the most part since we have been here... warm, sunny and very little rain. So I'm thinking this isn't so bad then I hear on the news that London is in a severe drought... this is not normal weather even for summer. Bummer!!

We'll enjoy it while it's here.

Piccadilly Circus

The kids had no real impression of Piccadilly Circus. It is more fun at night but seeing how it doesn't get dark right now until 9:30 (sorry, I mean 21:30) they won't be seeing it anytime soon.

National Gallery

I had no great expectations of taking Isabelle & Logan to the National Gallery. I mentally gave Logan 5 minutes before he would beg to leave. They didn't disappoint but did manage to last 10 minutes. Logan very calmly said, "Mommy, can we leave? This place is booooorrrrinnnngggg".

Lunch with Daddy in Covent Garden

It was fun meeting Tony for lunch. Even funnier that the kids saw a Pizza Hut and begged to go there. Guess where we ate lunch?

The London Zoo

This has probably been their favorite place so far. Mom & I enjoyed the walk through Regent's Park to get to/from the zoo!

Natural History Museum

There were dinosaurs, space shuttles, bugs, jewels, volcanos and a lot of things to touch. Need I say more...

Hampstead Heath

We live in an area called Hampstead. Not too far away is this VERY large park.

There are lots of areas to roam and trails to explore. My kids favorite part of the park... the swings!!

That's a pictorial review of our first two weeks. Surely, Isabelle & Logan will look back on all these places/experiences one day with some appreciation.

Nah, probably not : )

Observations from our First Week

We've been here one week and though it's not enough time to be settled in, I do have a few observations...

• Hard Water -- did you know it will stain your best pasta pot?
• Garbage disposal -- never knew how much I loved it!!
• Daylight -- It is light outside VERY early and stays light until REALLY late. Try explaining that to children who are already having sleep problems. I especially love my own words coming back to me.. "You said we sleep when it's dark and play when it's light"... words of wisdom that worked well in Charlotte, NC. I went by this theory the first night until 10:00 rolled around and my children were adamant they could still see a sliver of sun. My new words of wisdom... close the lovely black as night darkening shades/curtains in your room and use your imagination that you see stars and moonlight.
• No AC during heat wave -- I grew up without central heat and air but I have come to love the finer things in life. I will be adding AC to that list.
• Heat Waves (i.e. 80-85 degree weather) -- are far too short (and apparently there are few of them). Yes, I want my cake and eat it too!
• Apartment living -- I am constantly worried about being too noisy. I never realized I gave birth to elephants!!
• Getting "stuff" home -- On our way to a home store, we passed three twenty something girls carrying a 6' ladder down the street. These girls were not carpenters or painters unless their attire here is a cute dress that flows all the way to the sidewalk. I smirked to myself "I bet they wished they had a car" (of course, with the size of the cars here I'm not sure it would have fit). One hour later, I am carrying 2 heavy fans, an iron and a Brita water pitcher (remember the hard water... yucky!) down the street. Love Karma!
• Getting "stuff" home (part 2) --Hire a taxi!! Which is exactly what we did to get home from IKEA.
• Food/grocery store challenge -- it's like a game... can you guess what something is called here? Anyone know the name for hamburger buns? Baps... uh?
• Walking Hazards -- I got honked at (& called a stupid woman) because I looked the wrong way when crossing the street so I stepped out in front of him (to my defense, the traffic was back up and he had nowhere to go). I got honked at for standing near a crosswalk without crossing the street. So apparently my biggest obstacle so far in a new country is learning how to walk down the street.
• Our Kids -- are learning to lean on and play with each other because they have no one else. It's a beautiful thing to experience (right up until Logan has had enough of all this togetherness and whacks Isabelle in the head, stomach, back... take your pick).

Our Journey Here

Here are a few pictures from our journey to London..

1. The truck to take all our stuff to the ship.
2. Logan "helping" the movers by sticking his head thru the cushion they just wrapped.
3. After getting rid of the t.v. I had to come up with something because Logan was driving me crazy... searching what was left in the house I found a trash can, the ottoman and a portable DVD player! It served it's purpose.
4. Our bedroom/living room/dining room all in one. We spent a week in the house after the movers took all the stuff so we lived (and slept) in one room.
5. This is a picture of our car as we left Charlotte... I'm pretty sure I couldn't haven't gotten one more thing in that car!

First Weekend

Well, after months of preparation we have finally arrived at our new home.

In Orlando on July 8, it's time to go to the airport. Somehow, we have acquired a lot more stuff since leaving Charlotte a month ago. How does that happen?? Not surprising most of the new things are Toys!!! In the end, we arrive at the airport with 7 pieces of luggage to be checked and 4 carry ons... so much for traveling lightly in order to make it easier on me : )

The flight was smooth. The kids did a great job. Logan slept for a few hours but Isabelle decided that trying to watch every movie and color in every book she brought was more important.

Once we arrived at Gatwick airport we had to manage all that luggage. They had really nice trolley but it cost 1 pound (hmm, my computer doesn't have a pound symbol guess I need to change my location). I had 3 dollar bills and 4 quarters to my name. Luckily, there was an money exchange kiosk. I felt like a child trying to buy candy... I laid my crumpled up bills and my 4 quarters on the counter and asked her what will this get me? What it got me was 1 pound 85!! Oh well, that was enough for the trolley.

For those of you who have been to London you may know that Gatwick is pretty far south so the car ride was loooong! So much so that the kids lost the battle with their eye lids.

Now we're here and Isabelle's first priority is to ride on a Red Double Decker bus... so we got on one (on the top of course) to ride home from the grocery store. The problem with riding on the top is getting down before the door closes. We didn't make it. Isabelle got stuck in the door... and screamed loudly "Mommy it's got me".

The next day we became tourist. We took a tour on an open top red bus and a river cruise. To welcome us, London had one of the hottest days on record.

So many things to see and do. Lots of Museums and Parks, so what exciting adventure do we go on our first outing without Tony... a trip to McDonalds (it's the black front across the street)!!! I feel like I'm back home again!