Pictures Galore!

A quick post to wish everyone an early Happy Halloween and share some recent photos. Riley is on half-term break and we have been keeping busy with pumpkin picking, horseback riding lessons, playdates and, most recently, a Halloween party! As you can tell from the pictures, both girls have been doing lots of playing and are really enjoying their time together! Riley finished up school on a high note, with a great Parent Teacher Conference and two more certificates (one for excellent reading and one for great behavior)! She has definitely earned this break! Lyla is learning more words every day and has been a good girl too...even though she still will not stay in the creche (childcare) during Mommy's Tuesday morning class! Last night the girls had a babysitter so Mommy & Daddy could go to dinner and both stayed up until we got home at 10:15 eating snacks and doing puppet shows! We leave on Saturday for Scotland...we can't wait! We've had GREAT weather here...pray for the same in Scotland!

Pigtails!

Wild hair after the bath!

Giving Riley's shoe a ride!

Lyla LOVES to have tea parties!

Lounging with every blanket we could find!

At the pumpkin farm with Owen, Charlie & Chloe

The pumpkin patch had a GIANT inflatable slide!

Picking her pumpkin with a little help from a random puppy!

Horseback riding lesson...here we come!

Lyla had to wear her wellies too!

I was in charge of Lyla and Chloe during the lesson...spent the 90 minutes feeding them,chasing them & playing referee!

Didn't get many pictures of Riley riding but she did great! She even got the horse to trot!

Lyla riding in her shopping cart (and pulling off my tablecloth)!

Spooky bananas!

The Lion Tamer/Ring Master

The Lion and the Tamer

Training Lyla!

Fancy Face Paint!

Riley & Isabella

Lyla tested out every toy there. Here she is playing cars with Eleanor.

And drawing with Adam.

Wardrobe change for Lyla!

Fall Fun!

Happy October! We've been really lucky here and are still enjoying lots of great weather! We haven't done much sightseeing over the past few weekends and have, instead, been setting up our house, going to birthday parties, and running back and forth to the base! Lyla was very excited to celebrate her friend Chloe's 2nd birthday and even sported pigtails for the occasion!

These girls have places to go!

Yummy!

Mommy, Daddy & Lyla celebrated Columbus Day with a long hike with Chloe and her mom and dad while Riley and the other big kids were in school. With Lyla on Wayne's back, we embarked on a 5 mile hike from Winchcombe to Belas Knap, which is a large earth mound from around 3000 BC that was used as a collective tomb. Along the way, we saw Sudeley Castle, as well as lots of horses, sheep and cows. Parts of the hike were along the Cotswold Way, which is a National Trail through the English countryside that is 102 miles long. It is very strange because it's not actually a trail...as you can see below you hike right across fields filled with cows and sheep, through kissing gates and over stiles! We accidentally veered onto private property after a wrong turn and upset some horse owners but it was nearly impossible to tell what was the trail! We rested and ate lunch at Belas Knap, a beautiful but unlikely spot for a picnic lunch! Whoever heard of a picnic on a collective tomb!?

Sheep!

The "trail"

Can you spot the sheep?

Chris & the girls in the tomb

Riley is continuing to enjoy life here and sang in her school's Harvest Festival and joined a rugby team! She was nervous to join in but spotted her friend Kasper from school and was fine after that. She did a great job hitting the tackle bags and doing her drills and loved that the coaches squirted them with water guns at the end of practice! Here she is in action.

School is still going great! She had two field trips--one to the park to investigate forces for science and another to her Teacher Assistant's farm. Here are some pictures Mommy stole from the school's website!

The girls have also had alot of fun lately playing at home. Our swingset is now here along with our little trampoline, which has already proved to be lots of fun! We are looking forward to half term, when Riley is off from school for two weeks from October 24th to November 4th. We are going to stay in town for the first week and are planning to go horseback riding and have some fun playdates. We will spend the second week in Aberfoyle, Scotland, which is inside the Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.  We are very excited to explore the park and visit Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, all of which are about 60-90 minutes away. Stay tuned for more pictures & updates after our trip!

Our First Visitors!

What a whirlwind week it has been! Uncle Timmy and Emily came to visit and we learned that having visitors is wonderful but saying good-bye stinks! ) : We have had beautiful weather here and took full advantage of it this past weekend. On Saturday, we visited Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean. Puzzlewood is basically a big maze of paths in the woods with a very magical, Pixie-Hollowish vibe. It is said that Puzzlewood was Tolkien's inspiration in creating Middle-earth for the Lord of the Rings. Some even say it is the inspiration for the Forbidden Forest in the Harry Potter books. The area was apparently a super old natural underground cave system formed in limestone that was later exposed through erosion and mined for iron. The paths were built there in the early 1800s by a local landowner and are still intact but covered in moss...we especially loved how the trees were growing around the bridges. Pictures didn't come out great...hard to capture it all...but we'll share a few.

The girls' favorite part of the trip was pony rides! They were adorable in their "gear". While there, Lyla came face to face with another GIANT pig (named Lulu) and conquered her fear. Phew!

We took Uncle Timmy and Emily downtown on Saturday evening to check out our 'hood...they were quite impressed! On Sunday we headed to Cardiff Castle in Wales (only about 90 mins away) for the Great British Cheese Festival. It POURED during the drive there but cleared up and turned out to be a gorgeous day! We ate lots of cheese, tried lots of wines, beers and ciders and even got to tour the castle. Daddy, Timmy, Emily and Lyla climbed to the top of the keep (pictured below) but Riley and I only made it about half way...the crowds and very steep steps scared us away! Very pretty though!

We got to tour the rest of the castle too...we especially enjoyed the weird monkey themed library. We somehow joined a group of French tourists and learned from their tour guide that the library was some kind of anti-Darwinian statement. Either way, Aunt Fran would have loved the monkey paraphernalia! Lyla loved the tour so much that she snuck under the ropes into a restricted area but was caught by Daddy before security noticed. Thank goodness!

Our camera battery died during the day but not before I got these cute pics of the girls playing with matchbox cars with the castle in the background.  Only in England!

Riley keeps on insisting on giving the peace sign in photos...which apparently means very bad things in England. Oops! Tomorrow she performs in her school's Harvest Festival...let's hope she saves the peace signs for another day! She has been practicing her poem and it is hysterical to hear her accent. She is still loving school and went on a field trip to her Teacher Assistant's farm today. She had a great time but was pretty sad to have cow poop on her wellies. It isn't easy being a diva! We now have all of our belongings and are working hard to set up the house and unpack our stuff. Stay tuned for more updates!