Wild in the Woods

Good morning/afternoon! How was your weekend? Did you have a wonderful Memorial Day? Ours was lovely, thanks! It was the weekend the kids have been waiting not-so patiently for. We took them to that forest-park thing I told you about. It's called Bewilderwood. It's this crazy fun adventury-type treehousey park based on a kids book series.

The kids were super excited! Like, seriously, you have no idea. We told them we were leaving the house around 8:30 because it takes an hour and half to get there. They were up at 5:30. I practically have to drag them out of bed at that time for school but they popped out of bed with no problems yesterday. Lol! 

Of course, our GPS was so kind as to remind us, yet again, that it is a giant pain. Instead of taking us around Norwich, we got to go straight through downtown. (So nice of the GPS.) The upside is that Norwich is really pretty & it was kind of fun getting to see a place that we wouldn't visit otherwise.

But we did eventually get to the park & the kids were in heaven! There's a ton of hidden things in the trees for them to find - stuff that I'm pretty sure has to do with the book series (that we haven't read of course). They loved it anyway.

 

The park is almost entirely made of treehouses that they could climb on and explore and go crazy on. Going crazy = kiddie love!

There were rock walls and rope walls and rope spider webs...all kinds of stuff for them to climb on. Balance beam type things for them to walk on. Ziplines and mazes.

 

The downside, for me anyway, was that my dear sweet little children expect me to do all of this with them. And while this shouldn't have been an issue, it was. Why, you ask? Well. Did you know I have a serious fear of heights? Like really. And like I said, everything was up in the air.

See that rope bridge? Yeah. That looks innocent enough. It was not. I actually didn't go on that one. The one I did go on was about 30 feet off the ground, barely the width of my foot and liked to move diagonally every time I took a step. (I thought I was going to pass out.) 

And after that, I bowed (gracefully) out of the rope bridges. Partially out of fear of them. And partially after realizing they all led to ginormous slides. Slides that you couldn't have paid me to get on.

Brian and the kids loved them though. Lol! The slides were just too much *adventure* for me. I very gladly volunteered to stay on the ground to take pictures. :)

My favorite part of the day was probably towards the end. Brian took the girls to do the zipline, while Hayden and I hung out on a log bench to wait. And to entertain him while we were waiting, we took crazy selfies. Lol! He was hysterical & was just cracking me up!

Finally, though, our adventure time came to an end. We had to climb back into the car and head back home. We fully expected the kids to be worn out and fall asleep. That did not happen. They talked and giggled the entire way home. However, as soon as we got home, I did go right upstairs, climb into bed and slept for 2 hours. (I seriously need to find a way to bottle their energy for myself.) I woke up to 2 sweet girls poking me in the face, telling me dinner was ready and that I need to hurry up so we could eat and watch a movie. Lol. 

All in all, it was a great day. Tiring, but great. I hope yours was just as wonderful!

Until next time! Much love! <3

Weekend Fun in the Sun

Can you believe it's already Sunday again? Well, actually, I can. This has been a seriously busy week. Like running with the bulls busy. Buuuttt...it's been great! I'm finally done with school for the year, so no more studying, or writing, or anything else for a few months. (yay!!) And it was really good timing too. I don't think I would've had time this week. Like, at all.

But anyway. So, did I tell you that Kierstin had her London trip with her Girl Scout troop last weekend? She did. And it was awesome. Well, except that this mama...and Brian too...had to be up 5:30 on a Saturday to make sure she had breakfast (something more than toast) and was ready to leave by 6:30. But it was worth it. She had a great time. 

We gave her our "point & shoot" camera to take pictures since we haven't used it in like 2 years. And £20 for food & souvenirs. She came home with 415 pictures on the camera (and 2 dead batteries), a double decker bus keychain, a mini phonebooth replica, a mini snowglobe, 16 postcards to use in her scrapbooking stuff, and 1 pound of M&Ms. (Yes, you read that right. One pound.) I asked her what she ate for lunch and she said they went to McDonalds and she had water and a cheeseburger off the equivalent of the dollar menu. (Are you laughing? I was.) But she had fun - that's all that matters.

At some point, she's going to put together a little slideshow on PowerPoint with all of her pictures from the London Eye, the History Museum, and M&M world. I'll email it as soon as she gets it finished.

In other news, yesterday Cambridge was having some sort of festival-type-thing at the Botanic Gardens so of course, we went. We never miss an opportunity to go into Cambridge. I wish I could show you all of the pictures I took but there are a lot. I can email them to you if you want, though. It was really fun & the kids had a blast. They got to rent little explorer backpacks with magnifying glasses and bug catchers which made the day so much better. I just wish we would have thought to bring sunscreen. Lol We're so used to it being overcast and grey here that it never occurred to us. And after 3 hours walking around the gardens, I now have a lovely sunburn....in England. Who knew. Some friends went with us, and they introduced us to a "gourmet" burger place for lunch. I'm not sure what makes it gourmet, but it was tasty. If you happen to find yourself on this side of the pond, we will definitely take you to visit both.

I don't know if you can read the sign, but that tree is a descendant of Sir Isaac Newton's apple tree. That's pretty awesome.

Checking out some tadpoles in the pond

Explorer Hayden

Walking through a simulated tropical jungle...it was incredibly hot! 

Pretty flowers!

No idea why there's bricks in this tree, but that's pretty cool

And despite being utterly exhausted from our Cambridge fun, today was our village festival. I was totally having flashbacks to episodes to Gilmore Girls. There was a parade and a fair and all kinds of stuff. The parade was a hoot! (Yes, I said hoot!) In Florida, parades consisted of big trucks pulling boats. Here, it's tractors. No joke.

See, tractors! Lol

So, yeah it's been busy. And I am seriously ready for a nap. Except that I have to make dinner. I think the kids might not appreciate me skipping out on my "motherly duties". Ha!

But I hope your weekend has been wonderful. Much love!! <3

Science Fun!

Hola! How is your Wednesday going? Good I hope, considering it just started. Mine is kinda...eh. It's research paper week for me, which will be quickly followed by finals week, so I'm in serious study mode. Well, except for right now. 

So the other day, Kierstin came home super excited about her homework. (Are you scrunching up your face, wondering why? That's ok. I did too.) But it's science experiment week for her. She is one excited little princess.

Way back when,...pretty much as soon as she realized that the tv didn't revolve around Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba...she developed a serious fascination with the Discovery Channel and all things science. She was 4. (Yeah.) Remember the other day, I told you she'd rather watch Cosmos than some OneDirection thing? I was not exaggerating. She really LOVES science. 

But anyway! She came home so excited about her science homework. She had to find a science experiment that she'd never seen or done before...one that could be recreated in the classroom. That girl was on a mission! She scoured the internet for the perfect one. And I should go ahead and tell you that it wasn't all that easy for her because we're big on the experiments here. She finds stuff for us to try all the time. We've made clouds (a.k.a fog), dissolved eggshells, made tornados in bottles,...oh, and there was a thing about soap repelling black pepper. You get the idea. 

So she searched & searched and found one eventually -- inflating a balloon using baking soda and vinegar. She can't wait to take it to school and show her class! 

I am so proud of her! And I'll go ahead and admit that I'm a little amazed. After she came inside last night she went right back to Google, trying to figure out if the vinegar to baking soda ratio was the right one & what she could do to make the balloon bigger. (She's so awesome!)

Anyway, that's it for today. I just wanted to stop in really quick to share her latest science adventures. With summer break coming up, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to tell you about.

Happy Wednesday! Much love! <3

Be Happy

Happiness Is....

* seeing my kids happy. Hearing their laughter, seeing their smiles...it just brightens my day

* family time curled up on the couch, watching movies and sharing giant bowls of popcorn (And I'm going to go ahead and tell you that I'm pretty sure Walking with Dinosaurs was just a reinvented version of A Land Before Time)

* taking the kids to the garden center (or centre since we are in the UK) to pick out flowers. They love gardening & have really missed all of the flower & veggie gardens we established in Florida

* steps toward unanswered questions (wow, I couldn't have more vague there if I tried, huh? lol)

* Kierstin being brace free - yay!! Her arm is finally healed enough to take the brace off. Although this news did come on the same day she saw the doctor for a sprained ankle.....I'm really thinking bubble wrap might be her next fashion accessory.

* soaking in the sunshine and warmer weather...which basically means flip flops and open windows (though, I could do without the bugs)

* 2 more weeks until my summer break and 3 whole months with no studying!!