Giving Thanks!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We celebrated the holiday here in the UK with a fabulous dinner (courtesy of Wayne) with new friends! This year we are especially thankful for this wonderful opportunity to see new places, spend more time together as a family and embark on exciting new adventures! In addition, Riley says she's very thankful for British words, her friends (in England and America), jacket potatoes, babies and her teacher. Lyla is thankful for sheep, cars, and her friends Chloe and Ben. Wayne adds that he's thankful for the commissary, the slingbox and Mommy for our Vonage phone. Life is good!

Unfortunately, Mommy didn't do much picture taking on Thanksgiving. ) : The lone photo from the day is this one of Lyla's back (in a very cute dress) with her friend Elliot, who is playing on an ipad. His Mommy & Daddy had to give him the ipad after he declared that our playroom was only for girls & babies. ( :

Riley had school on Thanksgiving and she made adorable little treats for her friends with notes explaining that she was thankful for her new school and new friends. Mommy forgot to take a picture but the cookies were meant to look like this.

We had to improvise without the availability of Fudge Striped Cookies and substitute with Digestives instead. Still adorable. ( :

Afterschool, the kids joined us for a cute turkey craft and a full Thanksgiving feast, complete with pumpkin, apple and chocolate pudding pie and pumpkin cupcakes. Yum!

In addition to celebrating Thanksgiving, we've also been busy getting ready for Christmas and birthdays! Riley recently starred as Goldilocks in her school play (it was only for students so no pictures!) and finished up her Rugby season until after Christmas.  Check out how she goes from sweet, to naughty to yikes!!!

Lyla is her biggest fan, cheering her on from the sidelines! Check out the sisterly love!

Riley also celebrated Spotty Day at school and she really rocked those spots (and left her rugby face at home. Phew!)!

Mommy & Lyla finished up Mommy's 8 week Mondermums class, with Lyla having never made it to the creche! She is one stubborn little girl! She did visit the Play Farm, an indoor playcenter and really enjoyed a Monkey Music class there so Mommy is thinking about pursuing her music career! Can't you see the potential? She even has the fashion sense of a rockstar! Check her out rocking the giraffe print!

 Mommy also kicked off her book club and got to meet a bunch of Riley's classmates' mums at a dinner at The Tivoli last week. Daddy has started biking to work and has no injuries to report yet. We are now beginning to get ready for Christmas, hitting up the Cheltenham Christmas market, writing letters to Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus) and introducing our Elf on a Shelf, which Riley named Carlos. He is a cheeky little elf who has been hiding all around our house and doing naughty things, like making a mess of the toys and plastering Riley's school reading log with stickers.

We're adding a new feature to our blog this time--check out the videos below of Lyla being cute and Riley reading to us!

Stay tuned for more pics and updates to come as the next few weeks are jam packed with holiday preparations and fun! Riley is certainly ready!