Pop and Grandma Jan Day: 2

Today was the day of the Floatilla! I had been so excited to see this event as it was the largest boat float in the history of the Thames. The floatilla was in honour of Her Majesty the Queen's 60th year as Sovereign and in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee. It was something that I had anticipated and looked forward to for weeks. Unfortunately for us, the weather doesn't even make exceptions for the Queen. Today it was very cold and pretty wet. We made a great attempt to see the floatilla, but the crowds, the weather, and some various family health issues made it difficult for us to wait around and see it through to it's completion. We were however among the 1.25 million people in London that day.........yes, 1.25 MILLION. It. Was. Crazy. When we got into Central London we headed toward the Tate Modern museum where there was a lot of room.

*snicker*

Joey, Pop, Jan, John, Nick, Adessa, and Will.

The same only with me :)

After we decided to pony out of the floatilla we headed  to 221B Baker Street and visited the home of Sherlock Holmes. On our way we got a shot of the fog around the tallest building in London. This may also be the place where we lost Pop, who like an obedient child waited in 1 place until someone from our group went and found him. Love you Pop.

Crowds of people by the Borough Market for the floatilla.

Elementary my dear Watson......elementary.

We had a nice gander through the shop and enjoyed looking at all the different little trinkets. John and I are really into the BBC's new series "Sherlock," seriously can't begin to say enough about this series. We decided that we were ready for a bite to eat so John and I directed the tired and famished to a Pizza Express across the street.

Documenting the dinner at Pizza Express :)

My Swede.

Wearing her dessert in the corners of her mouth.

Sharing his dessert with me.

Beautiful Grandma Jan.

They were all troopers for taking on London for the first time on the busiest day of the year. We had a nice, cold, wet, time wandering around and were very much happy to return home and warm up.

Our Visit from Pop and Grandma Jan - Day: 1

A great big welcome to Pop and Grandma Jan! We were lucky enough to have Pop (John's father), Jan (John's step-mom), and two of our nephews Joey and Nick here to visit us for a week. Ads and Liam were so excited to see their grandparents and also to have some cousins to wrestle around with.

Joey, Ads, Nick

We were also very excited to see them. The kids hadn't seen Pop and Jan in a year and a half since we had moved here, and were bursting at the seams to spend time with them.

Pop came bearing gifts. A new Utah t-shirt for Liam and a Utah zip up hoodie for Ads. Pop also brought the kiddo's a nice pair of cowboy boots......a true red Utahn/Talbot must have.

The kids were so excited that it wasn't 30 minutes into the visit when Ads and Nick went bouncing on the trampoline. It had been a while since Ads had jumped with someone 3 times her size and didn't realise that sometimes little people can fly really high when bouncing with big kids. The end result was a pretty big sprained ankle and a couple hours in A&E. As a parent I totally know that accidents happen with kids and she was really okay, sore and swollen, but okay. The Dr. told Ads to only jump with kids her same size........I think Ads figured that one out.

Whilst we were gone the family enjoyed a nice traditional cottage pie, some bangers, and a sticky toffee pudding. We started the trip out with a very British dinner and welcome. Ads and I had leftovers and all around we were so happy to have family with us.

William's 3rd Birthday Party

Na na na na na na na na - Na na na na na na na na - BATMAN!!!! William or "Liam" as he calls himself has tuned the big 3! The binky fairy came and took away his binky and he potty trained.......what. a. day. We celebrated big with Batman themed treats at school and an evening of sweets with Franks, Hugh, and Mary. Since my Cheeky Cherub is our major choc-aholic we had a nice chocolate cake.....store bought....for us all to enjoy. I was too pooped from making his school treats to make the cake.

Home made treats are less common........ but I feel that they send a message to your kid telling them that they are worth the time and energy and thus build more confidence in them. This is of course according to the gospel of Ashley........ a gospel of which I have a lot of crazy and possibly random ideas and beliefs about people and child rearing. Here is the rice crispy treat complete with chocolate drizzles in black and yellow and blue culinary glitter. I printed off the logo's, cut them out, and taped 2 backed together on tooth picks.

We'll just say that it truly was a labour of love, but his smile and how proud he felt of his treat was worth every minute I spent.

For Liam's Birthday I made him a Super Man and a Batman cape.......he will only wear the Batman one.

Pizza, pasta, cake, and Ben and Jerry ice cream made for some great eats.

I obviously have the tired mom glazed over look in my eye. 

John was in Scotland on Liam's actual Birthday so we celebrated twice, once with dad, and once on his actual Birthday with Hugh and mary.

The BIG 3!

My Cheeky Cherub is very into the Avengers so we got him a few Avenger toys to go along with the capes that I made for him.

I stole the balloon tradition from Sherri my SIL and the kids LOVE it. When they wake up on their Birthday morning the bed is covered in Birthday balloons along with the special Birthday pillowcase that he is sleeping on.

Uncle Hugh and Aunty Mary came over with Franky for William's Birthday and celebrated with us. 

Franky and Ads

Hughey

Mary

Hugh and Mary bought Liam a Captain America shield that shoots disks and Aparna and Prashant and Adi and Mao bought him a big toy helicopter. He loved his gifts very very much.

William had a great Birthday and we were blessed to have friends who we have adopted as family to share it with us. What blessings! I love this wild child and though he is a lot of constant care and watching I feel blessed daily to have him in my life.

The Queens Jubilee

Today we celebrated the Queens Diamond Jubilee at The Highway School. When Aparna and I dropped the kids off at school in their patriotic red, white, and blue we realised that we had nothing Patriotic to wear to the Jubilee picnic. So, we headed off to Tesco. Aparna and I were both drawn to this fine t-shirt with the shield of St. George's flag on it. We both decided to buy the shirt and instantly I started to chuckle at the idea of the pair of us sporting around our matching shirts like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Twins".  Could we look more different in our matching shirts? Still laughing.

We headed over to the school for the picnic and festivities and immediately found Adessa enjoying herself on the bouncy castles.

Ads and her friend Lauren

Ads decided that she wanted to do the face painting. I took her over to the face painting table where the kids could choose what they wanted to have painted on their faces. Ads chose the Union Jack. I nearly died laughing. I could only imagine the heat I was going to take from her grandparents about my Yankee Doodle Dandy sporting a Union Jack. This picture was also selected by The Bromley Times and used in the newspaper for their write up about the Jubilee celebration. I now have 8 copies of the newspaper with this mug on it sitting in my home for the grandparents to receive when they come and visit.

William was eager to head out to the field and play a little football.

William decided that the best way to keep the ball away from others was by throwing himself on it.

Ads then used her next token to have her nails painted red, white, and blue.

My little piggy and me.

Ads decided that she liked the pink bouncy castle the most.......hmmmm......I wonder why?

Me and Sally posing for Aparna. 

Maria and Annette

Carol

Sue and Ruth

Aparna 

Heading up to the picnic decked out in our most Britishly Patriotic digs.

The Hubby and Liam (which is what William calls himself)

The families of the children came to the school with blankets and snacks and sat and mingled whilst the kids jumped and played. There were many sweets to be purchased as well as nail painting, coloured hair spraying, temporary tattoo's, and bouncy castle's for some good fun. We enjoyed the sunny day and had fun chatting with friends and taking pictures of the kids. The Diamond Jubilee is celebrating the 60th year of Queen Elisabeth II ruling as the Monarch. London was all decked out in flags and patriotic decor. We have decided that we are pretty lucky in that we will have lived in London during the Royal Wedding, Diamond Jubilee, and Summer Olympics. Pretty good timing eh?

A good time was had by all.