Happy Christmas 2014!

Merry Christmas everyone! This year, for our last Christmas in the UK, we decided to spend time here in Cheltenham as a foursome with a nice church service on Christmas Eve and a quiet dinner in on Christmas Day. While we really miss being around family, especially during the holidays, we made a point to cherish this time together with a quiet Christmas waking up in our own house. Next year will most certainly be a noisy, jolly Christmas full of love and laughter but this year was special for being just the opposite--quiet, peaceful and equally special in its own right! 

We had a great time picking out and decorating the perfect tree....I'd say this is the best one we've had here in Cheltenham! Nice and full but not too big! In addition to meeting Santa during our wonderful trip to Bluestone, we also ran into him in town and snapped an adorable picture of the girls all bundled up to visit the Cheltenham Christmas Market. We've shared a few highlights of our holiday season below.We hope you enjoy them! Wishing all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas! Stay tuned for birthday updates soon....we have a very busy few weeks coming up in the Schmidt house!

The girls picked the perfect tree!

We saw Santa in Cheltenham

Looking good on Christmas Eve

Riley took this nice shot of everyone ready for church

Family selfie after church

Sprinkling reindeer dust to help the reindeer find their way!

One of our only pictures of Christmas morning...the girls were so happy to read the letter from Santa before they even opened their presents!

Our Trip to Bluestone's Kingdom of the Elves--by Riley

We just got back from a trip in Bluestone. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

On Monday we arrived at Bluestone and went straight to the Adventure Centre. We had some delicious lunch while we were there. Riley really enjoyed her chicken for once! Lyla and I (Riley) had so much fun we got more bruises than ever. We particularly enjoyed the mini golf and the bouncy castle.

After that we walked loudly to the village. Lyla and Mommy discovered a playground. We played on it for 5 minutes while daddy went to check to see if the pub was children friendly .IT WAS! We all entered the pub and found an Elf and Jack Frost doing crafts. The Elf was called Sparkle and Jack Frost’s name was Jack Frost. We made magical pinecones with magic dust. After that Sparkle read a story called The Jolly Postman Christmas. First we had to find all of the letters that Jack Frost hid. After we found all of them we read the story. It was so much fun then we had dessert. I had oreo sundae, Lyla had vanilla ice cream with a 99 flake and Mommy and Daddy shared Toffee apple crumble! It was delicious! Then we went home and went to bed. My bed was the comfiest, Lyla’s was springy and mommy’s and daddy’s was too hard… Mommy was jealous!

Cool snake sculpture

Sparkle reading us a story

In the morning, we went straight to the blue lagoon (swimming pool).When we entered the pool, it was so warm. There was a lazy river that had a strong current. Also there were 4 water slides but one was closed, 1 of them was childrenish and the other 2 were dark all the way and went outside. They were so fun! There was also a gigantic, strong wave pool. Me and Mommy loved it but Mommy was too much of a scaredycat to go on the water slide. Daddy did!







After we were finished swimming, we went back to the cabin and took showers. Next it was time to go to story time with Santa! We were all so excited! When we got there we ate lunch/dinner. The elves called our colour (silver).We saw all the reindeers including Rudolph. There were elves to help called Tinsel and Bauble. To make Santa come out we had to sing his favorite song. Can you guess what it was?
SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!
The first time we sung it we weren’t loud enough so we tried again and we were perrrrrrrrrrrrfect! Finally he came out and sat on his throne. He read a story to us about an owl and a lonely Christmas tree. After we made reindeer dust to make them fly! Then we had photos with Santa! Then we went to the village.





























Next it was time to go to the Kingdom of the elves! We were welcomed into the elf mailroom and got our uniforms. While we were in the room we got a letter from a boy named Charlie. He had a red door and wanted an elf toy for Christmas. It was our mission to help make the toy for him.
First we headed into the magician’s room. A train was stuck and we used our magic fingers to make it go. The elf could make toys come alive from the wall! We built the elf toy in that room and named it Elfie Tinsel. I came up with the surname Tinsel!

Lyla drew a train with a special super power...it flew and sparkled!

Next we went to the frozen ice and coldness room. We saw Jack Frost again! There was a snowman stuck in the wall along with other toys and he came alive. His name was Frosty. We were throwing snow balls into different machines! It was one of our favourite rooms. We shrunk Elfie to freeze the magic in him.















After that it was on to our least favourite room under the floor boards. This is when we were small and we had to change back to normal size. We spun around on a button to see if we could face the maid.

The flames were not hot

Lyla popping the bubbles from the maid's mop

The next room was decorating the box. We had to solve many puzzles to make each side of the block a different colour like a Rubix cube. Me and Lyla showed off our brill dance moves. Daddy’s dancing was pretty ridiculous but at least he tried.

Lyla striking a pose

Finally we were in the disco room!!!!!! We got to celebrate our hard work. We had to check the check list to see if we did every thing… WE DID! Now it was time for a party!!! We even had our own DJ. It was awesome!

Going through the checklist

Celebrating with a dance party!

Afterwards we stopped for a quick dessert. After we went back to the cabin. My sister Lyla had to go to bed while me, Mommy and Daddy watched ELF! We had a brilliant last day at Bluestone and would love to visit again.






Written By Riley Schmidt

October Half Term Cruise 2014

This October we embarked on a cruise with friends to explore some new places on our last October half term in Europe! We started off with a short flight to Milan, where we spent two days exploring the city and enjoying delicious pizza and wine! The exploring was very nice and the food was amazing, making Milan a monumental success! We even got nice weather! The highlight was seeing Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper painting but, unfortunately, no pictures were allowed!

Riley took this pic with my phone as we were flying over the Swiss Alps!

We discovered that Milan had playgrounds...

pizza....

And pretty scenery!

After our two days in Milan, we hopped on a train to Venice, which was pretty easy and, a few short hours later, we arrived in Venice. Since we've been to Venice before (and loved it!), we made our way straight to the Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas, where we were lucky to take some beautiful pictures on the sail away from Venice.

Riley and her class' bear, Barnaby, enjoyed the train ride

Lyla snoozed

Gorgeous sail away views

Sunset

Venice is gorgeous!

 Then it was off to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we spent a beautiful sunny day walking the walls, counting the stray cats and posing for beautiful pictures!

Posing outside the walls of the city

Gorgeous sunshine and gorgeous smiles!

Walking the walls and checking out the sea views!

Wow!

A break along the walk to refuel with some Croatian beer for Wayne and ice cream for the girls!

We loved it here!

After Dubrovnik, it was off to Ephesus, where we visited the Shrine of the Virgin Mary and the ancient ruins of Ephesus.

Outside the Shrine of the Virgin Mary

Lyla filled her bottle with Holy Water....and then drank it. Oops!

The girls added their prayers to the wall

Group shot among the ruins at Ephesus

King of the World

Big smiles!

Next up was Santorini, Greece, famous for its beautiful white buildings and gorgeous blue water. The day was slightly overcast, with a few showers and some scattered sunshine but that didn't stop us! We took a personal tour where we stopped for a quick dip at a black sand beach, sampled some local wines, and visited the beautiful city of Oia.

The sun poked its head out a few times

Wine tasting with amazing views

Smiles!

That's alot of wine!

Postcard perfect in Oia

Family shot!

The girls and Barnaby

Lyla took a dip in the water at the Black Sand beach

Our final stop was Olympus, Greece, where we visited the site of the ancient Olympics and imagined life during ancient times. We even got to run around the first Olympic track!

Channeling their inner wrestler

The boys tried a reenactment

Gorgeous blue skies

A quick race on the track!

We had a wonderful time exploring Italy, Croatia, Turkey and Greece and hope to be back to visit again soon!