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!!

The answer is.. and more

A hob. You may ask what is a hob. This is what dictionary.com says "a projection or shelf at the back or side of a fireplace, used for keeping food warm." For you culinary type people, the whole thing is called a "cooker." It has two parts, the hob and the oven.

Here is a picture of my refrigerator and freezer. Yes, you are seeing things correctly, it does fit under the counter. I can fit about 3 days of groceries in it. The freezer is about 8 inches tall.

Here are some pictures we took last week. We went to the city centre for the Cambridge Food Festival and a walk around town.

Typical Saturday downtown, people are everywhere.

There are musicians set up all along the streets. This man along with his dog played all kinds of music. He had trained his dog to howl at certain parts of the songs.

At the festival, they had a small Thomas train to ride. Jacob saw it and took off running. When the ride was over there were many tears.

The kids and I at Parker's Pieces. A park downtown.

Just a really cute picture of the kids.

Our new home

Here are some pictures of our new home and of Cambridge. I will be posting more things tomorrow, we just got our internet hooked up today.

Here is the entrance into our apartment complex.

Our flat is the first floor on the left. They number floors differently here. We were told that we would have a 1st floor flat. When we got here we learned that 1st floor is actually the first level up. What we call the first floor they call the ground. We should have asked for a ground level flat.

The kitchen.
To see how much you actually read the blog or just look at the pictures, here is a question. Post a comment if you know the answer. This is a picture of our stove with an oven. What do the English call the stove part, that is the part with the burners?

The family room.
If the couch looks a little wild to you, you should see it in person.
But despite its looks it is comfortable and that is all that matters.
We also have two chairs to match. The place came furnished.

Jon and the kids on the other side of the family room.

The office and home school room.