A Trip to London

A few weeks ago, I headed to London to see my friend Stephanie. Stephanie and I were roommates are senior year at Greenville College. Besides being roommates, we also took a trip together in 1998 to England, Ireland, Scotland and Whales. Stephanie and Jen, another friend from college, were on a holiday to France and then came over to London.

We had great plans to see all kinds of things, but it rained and rained and then it rained some more. So we were limited to inside activities. So we headed to Harrods. Harrods is a very famous department store in London. It is the largest department store in the world. It sits on 4.5 acres and is over one million square feet and has 330 different departments. It has a food hall that has everything from fine chocolates to sushi.

After Harrods we headed to Notting Hill, which is a unique part of London. We had dinner and then I caught the train back to Cambridge.

A picture of Harrods.

At the Harrods Cafe.

A row of houses in London

The pizza place in Notting Hill. They had great pizza.
Yes, the pizza is stored in the car.

Playing in the Courtyard

Everyday about 4:00 kids head out to the courtyard to play. Most of the time they all ride bikes or scooters. Recently this odd shaped scooter showed up and it has been a hit. The front tire is flat, but they don't seem to mind. Everyone hops on then someone pushes.

Jacob loves to push.

A walk in the rain.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day. The kids had an idea to make a leaf mountain. The problem was we didn't have a rake. But with the help of a scooter and lots of little hands we gathered as many leaves as we could to make a pile.

Surveying their hard work.

After about an hour, the kids decided they wanted to move the leaf pile to the other side of the courtyard. Here is the leaf throwing party. Kiah had lots of leaves stuck in her hair.

Miniature Trains

Once a month May - October they have miniature trains rides in Cambridge. Sunday was beautiful so we headed to train tracks to take a ride. There were several hundred people there, but the line moved pretty quickly. They are little steam engines and ran by coal.
The kids loved it. Also Jacob didn't scream when he got off this time and he was so proud of himself.

Matriculation

Last Friday, actually two Fridays ago, Jon attended his matriculation. You may be wondering, what is matriculation? It is term is used for the ceremony at which new students are entered into the register (in Latin matricula) of the university, at which point they become members of the university. Here is a picture of Jon in his MA robe heading off to matriculation.

Kiah's Thoughts

Today as Jon and I were talking about the Presidential Debate and all the financial problems in the world, Jon said "I would not be surprised if Jesus returned today." Kiah was sitting there and had a very curious look on her face. We told her that someday Jesus would come back and get those who love him and take them to heaven. Kiah in her little 4 year-old mind said "How will he carry all the people, he only has 2 hands."

A New Thing

This week we experienced a new thing. The apartment complex we live in has all nationalities including Malaysians, Chinese, Indians, Israelis, Jordanians, Brasilians, British and us, the Americans. On Tuesday, it was Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year. My new friend Daniella, is Jewish. She brought us a plate symbolizing their new year. It had honey bread, honey, apples and pomegranate. Typically they would dip their apples in the honey as a symbol of a sweet year. The pomegranate is a symbol of fertility. Jon and I had no idea what a pomegranate was or what to do with it, so we looked it up on Wikipedia. It says that have them in the US, but I don't ever remember seeing them. I took a picture of the inside of one, but found this one on the Internet that is much prettier than mine.

It kind of taste like a cranberry, but sweeter.
It has the same color staining effect as a beet.

Kiah's First Day of Homeschool

Today is Kiah's first day of home school. I am sure many of you are thinking, your just now starting school?? Yes, we are just starting. We have been living out of suitcases since the end of June until we got here on September 16th. So now that we are good and settled the school bell rang today. We did phonics, math and handwriting today. Kiah did very well!!