Happy Halloween and Happy Anniversary!!

Well everyone...it's been one year yesterday that we arrived in London...31 October. Wow. The old cliche "time flies" may be unoriginal but it is indeed true. Last year we were corralling the girls onto the airplane and this year hauling their rear ends up and down the streets of London in search of some sweets!

Earlier this month we participated in a little Halloween parade through the Hampstead High Street with some fellow expats in the area. It was a kick seeing all the kids dressed up on a Saturday early in the month. I think we confused a lot of the Brits since half of them don't pay much attention to Halloween and they all probably freaked thinking it was that night and they had no sweets. The kids were able to show off their "fancy dress" which is what they call it out here. Avery dressed as Stephanie from the television show LazyTown. She won "Best Costume" at the parade and brought home a big bag of goodies to play with which she was really "chuffed" with.


As for Sloane...well, Sloane didn't get to pick out her costume. I took the liberty of picking it out for her because I felt it absolutely necessary that she dress as her alter ego.

The Devil.

The Devil and her daddy.

The next day after the parade we decided to head out of the city and delve into the countryside. Actually it's more like going to Long Islands from New York City but I have to say that it felt like the country. We found a farm that allows you to pick your own fruit and vegetables and they had a pretty big pumpkin patch. We spent the day walking through the fields trying to find the best pumpkins that would look nice on our front stoop. We also managed to grab some gourds, squash and sweetcorn. Growing up in a small town (me) and suburbia (Matthew) we never truly understood the concept of getting out of the city. We never could figure out why city folk were in awe when they came across cows grazing in wide open fields. That is until we lived in London. The air smelled cleaner, the sky was clearer and our pace was slower. It was a nice break from craziness of London despite being only 18 miles away.

Our fabulous pumpkin pickers

We LOVE pumpkin picking without freezing our butts off!!

Avery's Choice!

Sloane's Choice!

A little bit star struck....

It's a little early to be posting another blog entry but I can't help it. I'm just a little bit star struck and I have to share the news...

Walking back from Starbucks this morning, I walked past, smiled and said "Hello" to none other than....


As I was approaching him, I kept thinking to myself...why on earth do I know this man? And then getting within 2 feet of him, it hit me. OH MY GOD....that's SIR PAUL McCARTNEY!!

He was incredibly friendly albeit the only thing he said to me was "Hello". But he could have completely ignored me and he didn't. He even smiled...why does that make me giddy? So far everyone around here that I've told is like "yea, so what...he just lives down the street." Well far be it from me to act nonchalant about this. I think it's huge. If I'd had my wits about me at the time I would have asked for a picture and struck more of a conversation than just one word and a smile.

Next time for sure...

Back in the good ole US of A

Well, it has been awhile since my last post. What can I say??!! It's not that nothing has happened that's for sure. I suppose it's simply because things haven't stopped happening. Here's just a brief synopsis of the past 3 1/2 months:

- First, my computer crashed (also one of the reasons no blogs were sent: I lost everyone's address!). Perhaps I should have heeded the warning I received the morning prior to the crash. I came home to an enormous black crow sitting on my kitchen island. As I tried to extricate that freakishly creepy bird from my home, he found a way to poop on the ceiling. Now how a bird can poop upwards, I'll never know...but if that can happen, then I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when my computer managed to crap out on me the very morning I set up the external hard drive to back everything up. Not only did my beloved laptop crash...it literally imploded and with it, destroyed every file I had. There was no rescue available even after an $800 attempt by experts to retrieve at least the pictures. Sloane suddenly ceased to exist digitally...poof...gone! So...beware of black crows in your kitchen and if your computer starts clicking when you turn it on, you should probably skip the web surfing and start backing up!!

- Avery was invited to join the prep-elite team at Heathrow Gymnastics immediately following the club championship in May. Now that means our two-hour (or more depending on traffic) round trip drive now occurs 3 times a week instead of just one. Our little 5 year old trains 6.5 hours a week. So far so good but we'll see what happens when the homework starts piling up after Year 1 really gets going.

- Sloane turned 2 in May! T-W-O!!! I could have sworn by her Academy-award winning temper tantrums in the grocery store that the big 2 came a few months before May. If it weren't for those tantrums though I wouldn't have realized how much more wonderful the shoppers are in Waitrose than Sainsburys. I think I'm banned from Sainsburys but in Waitrose it's a different story altogether. I get the most wonderful, understanding and been-there-done-that smiles and pats on the shoulder by the little old ladies while they watch Sloane roll cantaloupes down the aisle as if they 1- are hers to play with and 2- bowling balls. At least she hasn't knocked any of those grannies down. It's only a matter of time. Ah well...the joys of motherhood, right? Isn't someone supposed to remind me that when I was working 16-hour days that I would cherish these easy days of no shower, no morning meeting, unlimited PJ wearing and not having to rush through a grocery store in 15 minutes during a 20 minute lunch break? Someone...please remind me!!

We celebrated twice with Sloane's best mate Tommy.

- I was invited by a couple of girlfriends to attend the Royal Ascot horse race in June. If you've never heard of this incredible racing event, click here. It's not necessarily about the race itself but about getting ready for the race and of course, finding the right hat. And boy, did I find the right hat!! Despite my complete lack of skill in terms of betting, odds and knowing the rules of the sport, I have to admit my choices based on country, namesake and the ever-successful method of "who's got the cutest jockey colors" were spot on. I even went so far as to tap my military roots and bet on Soldier's Tale and Dark Missile, both of whom pulled in some cash for me. I won quite a bit overall that day. We all wound up trading our winnings for bottles of champagne and pints of PIMMS but it was well worth it. Especially on the last race when I won the most on a horse called "Enjoy the Moment"...and boy did I ever. That was until the bookie that I bought the bet from disappeared from the field and I was forced to leave with no dough. Thankfully I was able to claim my money through "the post" and after about 6 weeks I had a nice "cheque" waiting for me. It was quite an English experience and one that we will definitely be returning to. Next year I might just ask Matt to get in his top-hat, waistcoat and tails. No...he doesn't have his own. Not yet at least. There is just something about a guy in a top hat and tails. On the flip side, there's something about a guy in pointy shoes and skinny jeans. Eck, let's just not go there.

Laura and I sportin' the posh look...

Hey guess what...it rained! Surprise surprise.

- In July, Avery finished her first year of school in London. It culminated in a school-wide performance of "Under the Sea" where she was able to play a purple mermaid and sing lots of songs. Did Matt and I see any of this play? Not really...just as I always choose the wrong checkout or toll charge line, I chose the wrong seats in the auditorium. We did have a lovely view of every other kid though. And the back of their parents' heads. We don't even have any photos. Shucks, we're such good parents.

- We prepped for our trip back to the states. Since there hasn't been much of a summer in London, we were really looking forward to getting back to the states for some dime a dozen spacious parking lots, wide driving lanes, gigantic SUVs, overly friendly people and a weak dollar. Once we arrived we were greeted with incredible humidity, pushy people and lots of traffic.

Admittedly, upon our arrival at JFK airport I was a bit annoyed by all the American accents around me. The guys at the McDonald's drive-through at Avery's gym at Heathrow would think I was insane since according to them, I have one of the strongest "American accents" they've ever heard. I drive in, place my order and almost every time I hear over the loudspeaker: "It's the American!" Perhaps it's my overuse of the terms "right on", "dude", "rock on", "you rock", "sweet" and "no doubt" that gives my origin away. Hmmm, I do believe Matt read somewhere that once you turn 30 you should never use the word "dude" or other similar sayings for that matter. Since I've never been one to follow the masses and I stopped having birthdays in 2005, I'll just chalk it up to my age and maintaining my American authenticity. Yes, I know I'm not from CA...leave me alone. Regardless, being surrounded by all the Americans took a little getting used to.

Driving in the US was another experience to get used to. I actually had to remind myself...GET IN ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CAR and GET ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD!! But after a few near misses I got it together and made it to NJ to visit our friends from the neighborhood and Avery's old school. It was so nice to see everyone and as soon as we arrived, it was as if we'd never left.

We then had a whirlwind tour of NY, Canada, MO and IL in just a few short weeks. The time ticked away far too quickly and we did way too much to bore you all with the details. Needless to say, we were very sad to say goodbye to our friends and more importantly our family. But we had an incredible time and we'll just have to do it again next year.

Can you tell who spent their time in the sun??

Avery...5 going on 15.

This is soooo not right...but still so funny. (no worries, it was filled with water)

The official River Rats

Giving video a shot. Let's see how good blogger really is...

So here is my first attempt at placing video into our blog. Of course, it's probably not going to work 50% of the time for those of you that try to watch it...but I figure it's worth a shot. Hopefully someone will be able to get a glimpse of my terrible #2 terrorizing the pavement in the park.

We decided that since we were too lazy and too cheap to give Sloane an extravagant birthday party with 40 friends, we thought she deserved a fun present. So we bought her the ever-present and over-priced micro-scooter. I'm not quite sure what we were thinking...this will shorten our walks because she'll be able to keep up? We can ditch the stroller finally? We purposely want to piss the British off with our unruly, out-of-control and now entirely-mobile child? Or is that we really want to spend some good, quality family time in the A&E at the Royal Free Hospital? I'm still not sure but I do have to say that watching her finally figure this thing out was a riot.

Watch out London...here comes Sloane! Now...if she can just figure out how to steer!