7th Birthday Fun!

7 years old already? Where has the time gone? We celebrated Riley's actual birthday with some ice skating and cupcakes in Cornwall and then celebrated with all of her school friends the next weekend with a disco party. Riley donned her sparkly attire and her dancing shoes and we headed to a nearby hall where a children's dj led the kids in group dances, Pass the Parcel (an awesome British game similar to Hot Potato except that you want to end up with parcel), the Conga, and Musical Bumps (aka Freeze Dance). Riley enjoyed boogieing with all of her friends and showing off her best dance moves. We stuffed the kids with sandwiches, crisps and ice cream cone cupcakes before sending them off to do the Hokey Cokey (that's not a typo...it's slightly different than the Hokey Pokey). It was a fabulous day to celebrate a fabulous girl...is there any way to keep her 7 forever?

Birthday Girl!

I seriously cannot get enough of this video of Lyla doing the Cha Cha Slide.

Imitating a frog for a game

Max did an awesome monkey impersonation!

Conga!

Elliott loved it!

The moms all loved the Macarena!

Even Lyla had a sparkly dress!

Yummy cupcakes

My beautiful girl

Turning 3!

Our lovely Lyla turned 3 on January 3rd. I was very sad to have to say good-bye to "tooth and a half" but Lyla is quite excited and reminds us regularly that she is getting bigger and bigger. We spent her birthday playing with our new Christmas toys with friends and had dinner at TGI Friday's at the girls' request. Lyla requested we go there because of "the funny man" who is a borderline annoying waiter who the girls find hysterical. He blows a horn in your ear, sits on your lap, sneaks up on you and makes balloon animals. Who could ask for anything more? He did come through with a special Happy Birthday song for Lyla, during which she remained very serious, staring at the candle and waiting patiently to blow it out. This is serious business, this birthday thing!!!

One advantage of not getting to see everyone for your birthday? People mail you presents and you get to open them during birthday breakfast! It's like Christmas Part II!

We celebrate birthdays with ice cream for breakfast...no wonder they're smiling!

TFI Fridays in England...a little taste of home!

Lyla had a birthday party with her little friends after Riley and the other big siblings returned back to school (much to Riley's dismay). Lyla's only request was a"blue party" so we had her friends over for breakfast in their pjs and Lyla sported a fancy new pair of blue princess pjs (complete with tutu). The kids had fun playing and eating and being together....3 year olds are definitely easy to please!

She remains serious during the singing

Best friends

Snuggles!

These two snuck away during the party and this is where we found them

Ben and Ethan hamming it up!

Max got the blue party memo ( :

Aurelia loved eating the Fruit Loops off her necklace...until the girls started feeding them to her super fast and her cheeks filled up like a chipmunk!

Rufus making a necklace

Kate didn't want to wear pjs but did try out all of the toys in the playroom!

Even Baby Elena joined in on the fun!

Happy happy birthday to Lyla, the funniest and sweetest three year old around! She had a fabulous time celebrating with all of friends and playing with all of her new presents! She now tells everyone that she's "tree" and is very proud that she can now go to "big girl school" at Riley's school. And how cute is she in that uniform?

Cornwall

To celebrate the end of the term break, we decided to head to Cornwall with friends for a long weekend. Cornwall is a beautiful beach area in the southwest of England we had heard alot about but had never visited. We were able to find a wonderful off season special at a great cottage in Truro, which was about a 3 and a half hour drive from Cheltenham.

Loving ice skating!

Getting the hang of it...

Beautiful skating spot with the Cathedral in the background

We started the weekend with a visit to Tesco (a grocery-type store here) after realizing that we forgot Lyla's winter coat. Oops! Then it was off to visit the beautiful Truro Cathedral, and do some ice skating. Riley tried to venture off on her own for the first time and ended up with a wet bottom and sore ego but she did terrific for her first time skating solo! Lyla was all smiles and thought it was a piece of cake, especially since she had Wayne holding her up and her new coat keeping her warm! After that, it was back to the cottage for dinner and fun, along with birthday cupcakes to celebrate Riley's 7th birthday. We just can't get enough of the celebrating around here! (Both girls celebrated birthdays last week so stay tuned for some posts with pics of the festivities!)

7th Birthday cupcakes

On Saturday we set off to explore Tintagel Castle, a medieval clifftop ruin rumored to have been the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur. While we found no evidence of Arthur, we did find some absolutely stunning views and some sunshine! The girls all had fun playing amongst the rubble and testing how close they could get to the cliff's edge before one of the adults freaked out. What a fun game! Our friend Aubrey blogged about our day in Tintagel here.

Riley & Ella playing among the ruins

Posing

I think this is her, "Man, I'm cool!" pose

Riley & Lyla with their buddies, Ella and Kate

So pretty

Family portrait on the cliff

Not too close!!

That's a workout!

Riley with her man sized Cheese & Onion pasty

Then it was time for a pasty lunch and back to the cottage for some swimming and movie time! The next day we were off again, this time to explore the Minack Theatre, an open-air theatre on the edge of the sea. I think this was my favorite part of the trip! It was such a unique concept and exciting to explore in the winter when there were so few other visitors. The girls loved climbing among the seats, which were each engraved with the names of shows that have been performed there. I have vowed that we will return to see a show there before we leave!

The water was such a pretty shade of blue!

I will go to a show here!

So awesome

Pick your seat

We loved the engravings.

The entire gang

Posing in her wellies

Another family portrait at the Theatre

After the theatre, it was a quick stop at Land's End, the westernmost part of the island, where we waved to our family and imagined swimming the 3,147 miles to NY. We took our picture and then it was off to a pub lunch, as there wasn't very much to see there aside from closed tourist shops. Then it was time for a beautiful drive through the countryside that brought back memories of Ireland and lulled the girls for a quick nap. Victory!

You could pay to have your town posted with the number of miles. We are lucky to be from NY so ours was the featured sign. 3,147? Is that all?

Cornwall in winter far exceeded our expectations and we can't wait to return....without our woolly hats next time!

Christmas 2012--Our Top 25 Moments!

This Christmas season was full of lots of fun, laughter, friends and joy! They say a picture is worth a thousand words (maybe a million with the help of some captions!) so here goes....the Top 25 Moments of the Holidays 2012 (in no particular order!)

25. Petting the Fake Animals in Santa's Grotto!

Ben, Lyla and Chloe....I'm not sure they knew they were fake!

24. Wayne doing the Gangham Style dance at his work Christmas party!

No proof of the dance (although lots of phones were out!) but proof that we were there!

23. Picking out our Christmas tree!




22. The Return of Carlos (our Elf on the Shelf)


21. Having breakfast with Santa

Santa was in a big rush but Lyla didn't mind!

 20. Sledging without Snow!

Lyla and Chloe loved it!

Yay Riley! You ride the tubes down on a white surface that feels kind of like a toothbrush

19. Watching our big angel perform (Check out the video at Solo #1 and Solo #2 and make sure to check out the accent!)

Riley was the angel that visited Hawaii...how lucky!

18. Watching our little angel in her playgroup's Nativity

17. Wayne went to his 1st "Football" Match! Go Liverpool!


16. Enjoying American treats at RAF Lakenheath

We spent the night at RAF Lakenheath and bowled, ate and toured nearby Cambridge. Here  is Lyla enjoying her Baskin Robbins!

15. Our first ride on a punting boat!

We took a boat ride through Cambridge. It was cold and wet but very fun. Riley was disappointed in the size of the boat...I think she was expecting our cruise ship!

14. Spending time with friends on Christmas Eve

We went to a friend's house for some fun festivities!

How cute are they?

13. Singing Christmas Carols...especially "Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney"

Lyla's favorite song this year was "Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney"...She learned it in playgroup and taught us all the words! She was very excited to see the cake that our friend Brienne made for Christmas Eve! Amazing!

12. Making lots of different Christmas treats!

Melting Snowman Cookies...thanks GG!

Gingerbread men....thanks Grammy!

Riley made ice cream cone Christmas trees with her friend Zach

 11. Ice skating in beautiful Cornwall

Lyla loved it!

How lucky we were to get to skate with Truro Cathedral in the background! You'll get to see more of Cornwall in a future post...this is just a teaser! ( :

10. Opening many, many Christmas Crackers (and wearing our crowns)!

We love our crowns from the Christmas Crackers! And our random prizes too...you never know what you're going to get! Some of our favorites included nail clippers, a keyring, a notepad and a mini screwdriver. 

Still in our pjs for Christmas dinner. Shhh...don't tell!

9. Exploring Cambridge

Cold but beautiful!

8. Decorating the house

Riley helped decorate the mantle! Looked great until the stocking holders fell and beheaded the poinsettias! 

7. Christingle

Riley had a Christingle service for school and Lyla got to hold her own at Christmas Eve Mass. Do you remember what these are? Check out Last year's post

6. Ringing in the New Year with friends! Both girls made it up until midnight!

We celebrated with friends...Can you tell that the parents were having fun!?

Watching the Countdown in London in front of Big Ben and the London Eye!

5. Singing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"!

Need I say more?

4. Making cookies

Baking Christmas Cookies is not big here like in the US so we baked a bunch and shared our tradition! Yum!

3. Enjoying movies with friends

School break means lots of down time. Here we are relaxing with our friends on New Years watching Madagascar 3 and comparing notes on the Colosseum. What a life! 

2. Enjoying dance parties!

One of many dance parties! What a way to ring in the New Year!

1. Opening presents!

Christmas Morning!!

Lyla needed to stop and play with each toy she opened!

Riley prefers to check everything out first! She's been desperate for glasses but doesn't need them so Santa got her some fake ones just for fun! Turns out she wants to wear them to school because another girl got glasses and feels sad being the only one. Too sweet but is that against dress code??

Another fun Christmas in the UK! Thanks to everyone back in the US for the cards, gifts and well wishes! And thanks to our wonderful friends in the UK who made this a wonderful Christmas season that we will never forget!