Schmidts in the UK!: March 2012

We've been busy here in Cheltenham counting down to the end of Winter and welcoming Spring! February was a month of being "poorly" and all four of us were struck down with the flu and tonsillitis! Yuck! Here are the two sick girls enjoying ice pops and still smiling!

We recovered in time to celebrate Valentine's Day. Lyla celebrated with her friends at a Valentine's Day playdate. Didn't she look adorable?

Riley has continued to love Rainbows and went on a field trip to Cadbury World...yum! She made her Rainbow Promise and is now an official member with her uniform and all! They've had tons of fun...this week they had an Easter Egg Hunt! She also celebrated World Book Day at school and looked fantastic dressed as Pinkalicious! All of the other mums got a kick out of her explaining that Pinkalicious is American like her (in her best British accent!)

Pinkalicious

England is known for its beautiful snowdrops, which are pretty white flowers that fill up entire fields in the month of February! We visited Rococo Gardens to check out their snowdrops and enjoyed a fun day of pretty walks, complete with a hedge maze and pub lunch.

Feeding the birds with Elliot at Prinknash Bird Park

March has been full of the usual fun...playgroup, birthday parties, parks and adventures! Lyla has been getting together with her little friends for various adventures, including the aquarium, the bird park, bike riding at the park and a St Patrick's Day playdate! Aren't they cute? We even had time for some overall silliness!

Cool kids

Buds

Checking out the fish at the Bristol Aquarium

This is so cool!

Turtle!

Sulking

Friends

Lyla seriously loved this trash can (aka bin)!

Playing dress up!

Lyla's favorite spot to play....in the shower (with no water)

Lyla and Mommy outside the Pittville Pump Room while bike riding at Pittville Park

Our little leprechaun!

Cute pigtails!

We also celebrated Mother's Day last weekend. Mommy took a photography class and visited Chatsworth House...so stay tuned for some amazing new pics! ( : Lyla made Mommy this fancy purse craft and Riley made this beautiful card.

Lyla's purse craft

To Mummy

We had Riley's Second Parent Teacher Conference and learned all about how wonderful she is doing in school. Her teacher told us how sensible she is and how much progress she's making. What a good girl! She is still loving school and learning so much while having tons of fun! Here is a sample of her work and a picture of her and her friends doing a science experiment. So cute!

She has also been going on lots of field trips, most recently to Gloucester Waterways Museum, where she dressed up with her friend Lily.

Her class also did an assembly on London, where they taught us all about the Great Fire of London and Riley played the part of the baker's wife.

She also performed at her school's Spring Show, singing as part of her school's chorus, The Singing Squirrels. I thought there was nothing cuter than little kids singing but I was wrong... little kids singing with British accents takes the cake! You can spot Riley front and center, singing away!

It's been a busy month and it's about to get even busier! Riley is now on school break until mid-April so we will visit the Jurassic Coast next weekend for a few nights and then it's off to NY for Uncle Craig and Aunt Karen's wedding. We can't wait!

In addition to all of our birthday celebrating, we also served as tour guides for GG and Gramps' three week trip to visit us during the month of January! We started out showing them London and then did a few day trips around Cheltenham, most notably to Broadway Tower, the panto in Bristol and Warwick Castle. We wanted to share a few pics of our adventures during their visit! What a fun time!