Back to School

After weeks of back to school posts on Facebook, it was finally time for our boys to head back to school. Autumn Term started on Wednesday, September 5th for James and John. Jude and Jonah both had their first days of school on Thursday. 

John is now in Year 2 and is in the classroom above his Year 1 classroom. He has two teachers this year plus a class aide. On Monday and Tuesday, his teacher is Mrs. Sloan. Then the rest of the week, he has Mrs. Fenton. Both women are excellent teachers. John seems to have settled into this school year much faster than last term. This term he is continuing with Performing Arts class and has begun taking Piano lessons. 

James is now in Year 4 and is in a classroom just down the hall from his Year 3 classroom. It's a huge room and the kids have a lot of room to spread out and learn. James' teacher is Miss Nancolas and he really likes her. This term James is continuing with Judo and has added Rock Climbing and trumpet lessons. 

Jude is in Tuskers and is having a wonderful time. He's really learning a lot in his three days of school each week. He's really come a long way with potty training. He's now recognizing when he needs to pee and goes to the potty on his own. He still hasn't made any progress with pooping in the potty but we know it will come with time. Jude tells me each day who his friends are and the list is ever growing. He even has best friends - Oliver and Felix. 

Jonah is loving nursery school. He still cries when I leave him but only for a couple of minutes. He has so much fun there and loves playing with the other children. They have all sorts of toys and he gets lots of outside play time. They even go out when it rains! He loves the food and often has two helpings of lunch and loves the pudding (dessert). He's also getting better about napping there. At first it was only 30-45 minutes but now it's getting back to his normal 2 hours. 

Overall, the school year is off to a great start!! 

Longleat Adventure and Safari Park

After all of my traveling, we had some much needed family time. We heard from several people the Longleat was a must see so we loaded up in the car and made the 90 minute drive out there. Holy cow, they were so right. It was incredible. So many things for the kids to do.

The first thing we did was the drive through safari. I remember doing one of these as a kid and feeding the giraffes from the car window. Longleat is very similar. We have yet to make the stop at the beginning to feed the giraffes but will one day. After the giraffes and zebras, you get to the monkey enclosure. The monkeys love to climb on the cars and can remove anything that isn't screwed down. We've seen them take off the windshield wipers and weather stripping off the cars in front of us. Thankfully, our car didn't sustain any damage. After the monkeys, you go through the big game park which has ostriches, rhinos, and two-hump backed camels! The next section has a variety of deer species that you can stop and feed. Along the way, they also have vultures, flamingos, an elephant, and pelicans. Next up are the big cat enclosures. Believe it or not, they let you drive through these huge enclosures where the cats are hanging out in the grass not far from your car. There is a tiger enclosure, two lion enclosures and a timberwolf enclosure. I'll have to post a photo of the warning signs they have to make sure people stay in their cars.

Besides the safari park, there are so many other activities. We ended up upgrading our day tickets to a year membership because there was just too much to see and do that we couldn't fit it in a day. That first day we did the Adventure Castle, fed the deer and did Postman Pat's village. The older boys had a great time running around in the castle. There were tons of things to climb and explore. The little boys enjoyed seeing all the Postman Pat characters while the older two were playing. One of the great things is that everything is included in the price of your ticket so you don't have to tell the kids no because something costs extra. The only thing you have to pay for is food but they let you bring in your own if you want to picnic.

We decided to call it a day after lunch and those activities since it was a long drive home. We came back the next weekend and did several more activities. We did the jungle cruise which was super cool. There are sea lions in the lake that like to swim alongside the boats. They take you out to the gorilla island and to see the hippos!! On the way back to the docks, you can buy food and feed the sea lions. During this trip we also did the mini zoo. They have all sorts of animals including red pandas and giant anteaters. We also went to the monkey temple where they have several other monkey species including the cute little monkeys that were in the movie Rio. Since it's free we also hit the Adventure Castle for a bit before heading home.

We went a third time for Jonah's birthday. We did the safari again, the Adventure Castle and took the train ride that time. We still have to explore Longleat House (residence of Lord Bath), stop at the African village to feed the giraffes, and find out way through the hedge maze. Thank goodness for our year passes as I'm sure there will be many more trips in the future.

Scentsy UK Convention 2012 - Leeds

So I landed back in the UK on Monday morning and was off again to the UK Scentsy Convention in Leeds early Friday morning. Brian dropped me off at the train station in Reading and I was off to London. After a quick trip on the tube, I was at Kings Cross Station (no, didn't have time to visit Platform 9 and 3/4) ready to board my train to Leeds. I must say, after this trip, I've become quite the fan of trains. I made it to Leeds with plenty of time to get checked in for convention. They events team did a fantastic job of picking a wonderful hotel to host us. The Queens was absolutely beautiful and as a bonus, a super short walk from the train station.  

This convention was far more intimate than the big production in Vegas. There were less than 150 consultants there and we all got lots of time to talk to Orville and Heidi. I found the speeches to be just as moving and inspirational the second time around and I was glad to be able to receive the message twice. As far as the company/products go, we didn't get either of the new brands (Velata and Grace Adele) but we did get a Personal Care line (shower cream, body lotion, and hand cream to join the solid perfume) and wonderful improvements to the warmers. All in all, things are moving in a very positive direction here in the UK and I'm so excited to be spreading the Scentsy love in my little part of the country. 

This trip was much more brief. Convention ended Saturday late afternoon and I was on a train home shortly afterwards. This time, I connected in Birmingham and it was a pretty fast trip home. AND the train had wi-fi meaning I could check e-mail and Facebook while traveling. Once I was finally home, I was done traveling for quite a while. Just ready to be home and enjoy the rest of the summer with my boys.

Scentsy Convention 2012 - Las Vegas

At the end of July, I was able to attend my very first Scentsy convention in Las Vegas. It was an incredible experience!! Brian drove me to the train station early Tuesday morning and I make the long train journey to Gatwick. The train ride was rather long but so very convenient. It took me right to the terminal and after a short walk, I was at the check in counter. I flew Virgin Atlantic which was a first for me. I've decided that I judge airlines/flights based on their entertainment system. The flight over to Vegas was great! Huge movie selection and great food. We got in a little late which worried me since I knew I had go find Jocelyn at another terminal. I got through immigration, got my bags and took the shuttle to the other terminal. Once there, I discovered that Jocelyn's flight was going to be really late. I have never been more thankful for free wi-fi!! I was able to check my e-mail, Facebook and read before she landed. We had planned to do some fun things that evening but with her flight coming in super late, all we had time to do was get to the hotel, check in and grab dinner. We met up with our director and super star director and had a FUNTASTIC dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Forum Shops at Caesars. I so missed American food!! After dinner we headed back to the room for a much needed good night of sleep.

Our first day there was rather relaxing. We got up when we felt like it, got dressed at a leisurely pace and walked to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. After that we got all checked in for the convention. As expected, the lines were long and it took quite a long time to get all checked in. I know I didn't blog about it before but I was having a super tough time getting registered for US convention after I transferred over to the UK. In the end, they registered me "manually" and said I was good to go. Alas, I wasn't in the computer system and after getting Jocelyn checked in, we had to go to the help desk to get me registered and all set up.

I'm certain I'm not doing the trip justice but convention was full on amazing speeches not only by the speakers brought in but especially by our President, Heidi and our CEO, Orville. I think the highlight of the whole event was the reveal of our newest Scentsy Family brand - Grace Adele. All of us consultants had been waiting on the edge of our seats to find out what it would be. While several consultants weren't excited about selling purses and jewelry, the overwhelming majority of the room was overjoyed. Of course, it didn't hurt that they (Heidi and Orville) gave everyone (over 11,000 attendees) a purse and accessories.

I had a fantastic trip. I so needed a break from life as a mother of 4. It was so great to be surrounded by my Scentsy family and getting energized for the upcoming months. It was also wonderful to spend some much needed quality time with my sister who is also a new Scentsy Family Consultant. I really look forward to going again in the future.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to Jackie Kirby for watching the boys so Brian could go to work while I was away!!

Jonah's trip to the Ophthalmologist

We definitely had our first experiences with the long waiting time for appointments when it came to getting Jonah seen by the eye doctor. His first appointment was July 19th with the Orthopic department. This is the group that focuses on kids. They did a few tests to check his overall vision and said we next had to see the ophthalmologist. Thankfully there was a cancellation for the following day and I was able to get him seen. He wasn't very cooperative and the doctor wasn't able to get an accurate prescription. Thankfully I brought his prescription from Houston with me so he was able to write him a new prescription. I asked around for the best place to get glasses made for kids. Off to the optician we went and got him all fitted for glasses. They took about a week to make and our sweet Jonah was finally starting to see better again.

Sports Day

We got lucky and had field day twice this year. At the beginning of July, James and John had their Sports Days. James' was done with the Main school (Years 3-8) and John's was done with the Lower School (Reception - Year 2). The Main School sports day was quite an experience. The mom's from each year got together and put together a picnic of sorts. The year 3 mom's put on quite the spread. I have never seen so much food before. The weather is always sketchy so we put up canopies to keep everything and everyone dry during the various rain showers. Jude, Jonah and I had a great time watching James compete in his various events. By far, the most incredible thing was the House Relay. I think I posted earlier how the school is divided up into 5 houses. Well at the end of the sports day, all the kids from each house compete in a relay race. It was just incredible to see all the kids from 5 different grades run and pass the baton to one another. In the end once all the points were tallied, Welsley house (the house James belongs to) won! You should have seen all the kids jumping up and down! They were do proud of themselves. 

John's sports day was the day after James'. Unfortunately, the boys and I got there late and had the hardest time finding a place to park. Thankfully we didn't miss John's first race. It was so great to see him running and having fun. At the end, he told he that he didn't win but there wasn't a trace of disappointment on his face. I think he was just happy he made it all the way to the finish line. It was so cute to see the young kids doing their races. There were some super cute ones for the littlest kids and the mini hurdles were hilarious. They finished all of their races just before the heavens opened and it started pouring down rain. We all headed to the Performing Arts Center for a little awards ceremony. The boys and I had to duck out early because Jonah was getting restless and both boys were getting hungry. We found John and said good-bye before heading out. 

All in all, both days were loads of fun and we can't wait for next year!  

Harry Potter Studio Tour

I must admit, I had been looking forward to the Harry Potter Studio Tour since it was first announced online back at the very beginning of the year. Alas, you have to book tickets well in advance and it was extremely hard nailing down a date when there was nothing going on. We were finally able to get tickets for the evening of June 16th. Unfortunately we later found out that James and Brian were supposed to go camping that weekend so it looked like John and I might not be able to go. Brian's grad school classes had been wearing him out so he decided to skip the campout and so I was able to go on the tour and ended up taking James with me instead of John. 

First and foremost, if you love Harry Potter and you are coming to London, this tour is a MUST. It was just incredible right from the moment you pull into the car park (what they call parking lots here). James and I collected our tickets at the window and headed inside. We then walked into the lobby. Holy cow!! There were photos of the various characters around the room and the flying car hanging from the ceiling. James and I arrived in time to grab some dinner and hit the gift shop before starting our tour. We got our little headsets and made our way into the queue. While we were queueing, we got to see the cupboard under the stairs!!! The first stop was a room showing the various movie posters for all 8 movies. We watched a little film before heading into a larger auditorium to watch another film about what we were going to experience. After that, they raised the screen and we were introduced to the doors leading to the great hall. I was on cloud nine!!! Next stop was the great hall. Only one of the house tables was set up. The rest of the room was filled with costumes of the various houses and teachers. There was another tour guide in this room asking various questions and telling us all sort of interesting facts about the films. 

After this we were allowed to wander through the remainder of the tour at our own pace. It was so great to see all of the costumes, props, and sets they used to make these incredible movies. There was so much to see and do while we were there. Once of our favorite things was trying to find 15 hidden golden snitches. There was a little book that the kids got before the tour that had various things to look out for during the tour. James and I had to ask for help on a couple but for the most part, we found them on our own. 

The only complaint I had was that I felt a little rushed. We were one of the last tours of the day and as the group progressed past certain points, the staff sort of closed off the area. James wanted to do this broom riding experience that added quite a long time to our tour. When we finally finished with that, they had closed off the Burrow. :-( Thankfully all the workers were incredibly kind and pulled aside the ropes so I could take a closer look and take photos. After that, I was sort of half looking at everything and snapping as many photos as I could. The remainder of the tour was incredible. We got to see 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow and most importantly, Diagon Alley. James had so much fun running up and down the street looking at the various stores. We then breezed through the model section and ended at the most incredible sight of all. The model of Hogwarts Castle. It was just awe inspiring. I was brought to tears, first because it was just the most beautiful thing I've seen in a long time and second because my memory card was out of space. 

After seeing the castle, it was a quick walk through Ollivanders and back through the gift shop. We picked up just a couple more things before headed out. It was just a wonderful evening. We got home really late but it was so worth it. 

Again, photos (and loads of them) will be coming soon.