Halloween Fun

What a fun Halloween we had this year! Tim and Collin dressed up as skeletons, and Maddie was a black cat.We once again went to the Halloween festivities on base. They had all sorts of kids' games and crafts, and even face-painting. (And yes, they take their face-painting very serious around here.)On Halloween afternoon, we enjoyed carving our pumpkins. Maddie and Tim each designed their own (Tim got his idea for a puking pumpkin on-line), and I carved Collin's into a Yankee symbol.
And on Halloween evening, we joined our good friends in the village for some food and drink, and then went out for some trick-or-treating. I think I blogged about this last year, but it's worth saying again: trick-or-treating in our little village is such a wonderful experience. Actually, trick-or-treating is not much of an English tradition. But since there have been several Americans in the village over recent years, we have started to "Americanize" it a little. Anyway, it was such a sweet time, and had such a sincere community feel about it. It's one of those things I hope my kids never forget about our experience here.

A (mostly) British Wedding

Near the end of October, Ethan and I were invited to attend our friends', Ellen and Steve's, wedding. Steve is an American that Ethan knew from work and church, and Ellen is a local gal, that we've gotten to know from the church home-group that we attend. She's got a lot of spunk, and we just love her.

I was so excited about attending a British wedding! Although, I have to admit, I was a little nervous about what to wear. In all of the British wedding movies I had seen, there were women wearing big, frilly, feathery hats. In the end, I decided against the frilly feathers, and found that thankfully, the women wearing those kinds of hats were a minority.

The wedding was so lovely. It took place in a small, village church that Ellen attended as a child. Ellen looked incredibly beautiful, and the ceremony incorporated a lot of the personality of the two of them, which was so nice.The reception took place at a luxury castle hotel (I wonder how many "luxury castle hotels" there are in the US?) called Swinton Park. Both the exterior and interior were gorgeous!The elements of the ceremony and the reception were very similar to what we've been to in the states, with a couple of exceptions. The cake was more of a fruit cake, which is traditional in the UK. Thankfully, the bride, knowing that this might be a problem for the Americans in the crowd (including her new in-laws) actually had two cakes: one British, and the other was more of a sponge cake, like we're used to in the US. The other main difference was the toasts. Apparently at British weddings, more people other than the best man and maid of honor are asked to give toasts. At Ellen and Steve's wedding, toasts were given by Ellen's father, Steve's friend, and Steve himself.

It was such a wonderful occasion. The only sad part about it all is that Ellen doesn't yet have her visa, so she can't move to the States to be with Steve until that is finalized. And yet, we'll be sad when that happens too, because it will mean that she will be leaving us.

But of course, we are so happy for them both and wish them all the best! Congratulations Ellen and Steve!

Charlie and Lola

In October, the kids' school took part in World Book Day, and the students were allowed to dress up as book characters. Since Maddie had just lost her first tooth, it made us think of a Charlie and Lola book called "My wobbly tooth won't ever NEVER fall out." Hence, Tim and Maddie became Charlie and Lola for the day!

Happy Birthday Collin!

Back in September, our Collin (our baby- sniff, sniff) turned 2! As much as I didn't want to admit it, I have to say that he was already showing signs of the terrible 2s, so he was ready!

On his actual birthday, we had a small family party. Our big present for Collin this year was a new Little Tykes Car.

He got a lot of other wonderful presents from family including a car ramp, a Little People farm, and plenty of cars and trucks (he loves cars!). And of course, he had some extra fun with the bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts.The following weekend, we invited a few of Collin's buddies and their families over for a party with a farm animal theme (he was really into naming farm animals and making their noises at the time).

Collin was so kind to help me make his barn cake for the party. Thankfully, it was nothing that a little hay couldn't cover up.

And, in true kid form, he ate the icing off of three cupcakes at his party (without really eating any cake).Happy Birthday Collin!!!!!

Proms on the Hill

This September, we once again attended Proms on the Hill.

Proms is an annual event at the base where Ethan works and has been a British tradition for many years. Here's a little history about Proms from Wikipedia:

Although earlier promenade concert series had existed, the first Proms concert was held on 10 August 1895 in the Queen's Hall in Langham Place, under the auspices of impresario Robert Newman. Newman's idea was to encourage an audience for concert hall music who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere. In addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were all allowed. He stated his goal as follows:

"I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music."^[2]

So basically, Proms is an less-formal orchestral concert for the layman. For our Proms, the orchestra is seated on an outdoor amphitheater. The Americans are encouraged to invite our UK friends for the evening, and we all gather and bring along food, chairs, etc.

This year, we invited some of our closest British friends, who all happen to be families from Tim and Maddie's school. We all brought along food and drinks, and had a wonderful evening. I should note that a big part of our enjoyment was the perfect weather. Last year, I remember I sat there shivering in the Yorkshire wind, and the concert seemed to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r. But this year, there was no wind and no rain (yes, this is noteworthy for this region).

This year also happened to be the 50th Anniversary for the base, so there were a few added surprises to the event. They had a stunt plane flying over us at the beginning of the concert. (As you can see, Collin was entranced.) They also had some extra fun fireworks in the middle and end of the concert.

It really was a wonderful evening. I love community events like this where people all gather just to be together. We brought along glow-bracelets for the kids, and let them run around the nearby field (always being able to see where there were even when it got dark!). It was a fun night for all.

As we were leaving, our friends asked if they could come again next year. They are of course welcome to, but I can pretty much guarantee that the weather won't be quite as nice as it was this time. (But then again, they're the ones who are British, so they're used to it!)

First Day of School

I know these pictures are a few months late, but better late than never....

Here are a couple of pictures of Tim and Maddie on their first day of school this year. Tim is a Year 4 this year, which is the equivalent of 3rd grade. He is the only student in the school who is a Year 4, and he is in a combined class of Year 3-Year 6 students. This works very well in his favor as it challenges him to do work above his grade ability.
Maddie is a Year 2 this year, which is the equivalent of 1st grade. She is in a combined class of Reception (4 year-olds) through Year 2s, which means this is her last year in the younger class (sniff, sniff).We went to a parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago, and both kids are doing great! Tim is excelling in Math (no surprise there), and Maddie is a fabulous reader! We are so proud of them both!

I thought I'd throw this picture into this post too. Maddie lost her first wobbly tooth back in September!

Ripley Scarecrow Festival

Ever year, at the end of August, the local town of Ripley hosts a scarecrow festival.

I have to mention that it was much different than I expected, but so much fun!

I've blogged about Ripley before, because Ethan and the kids and I went to the grounds of Ripley Castle last year. While there, we learned that an Inglby family ancestor (the Inglby family still resides in the castle), apparently fought off some wild boars that were attacking the King at the time. Thus, there is a boar theme throughout the village of Ripley.

That history should shed some light on the scarecrow festival, as all of the scarecrows were in fact boars! Scattered and hidden throughout the village were scarecrow boars of all kinds. Villagers who wanted to participate would make a scarecrow that characterizes a famous person/character, and give it a name that has "pig" or "boar" in the title.

When we arrived at the festival, we purchased a quiz sheet for a few pounds and began our search. We had to walk all around the village and find as many scarecrows as we could (we had to look high and low as some were even on roof tops!). Our quiz sheet had all of the names for the scarecrows, so we had to match the number of the scarecrow with the name. It wasn't always easy, but it was a lot of fun!

Here are some of our favorites:

Pig-nocchio
The Red Boar-on

Boar-atThis was one of those festivals that was so sweet and so simple... it makes me want to bring the idea back with me to America. What do you think... Do you think Americans would be up for a scarecrow festival like this?

Gillen Highlights

Alyssa Gillen was one of my college roommates, and is forever a friend. She lives in New York, and has three children who are pretty close in age to my children- Caleb (8), Cassidie (6), and Serena (3). She and her husband Kevin were brave (or crazy) enough to bring all three children over the ocean to visit us this past summer! I know it's been a few months since they came, but I am still pinching myself at the thought of it!

Here are some highlights from their week-long visit.

Fountains Abbey- The kids made their own paper versions of stained-glass windows, and got their faces painted.Ripon Cathedral
Day trip to the Lake District- We visited Beatrix Potter's Home (Hill Top), and The World of Beatrix Potter AttractionGirls' Day Out in Harrogate for some shopping and lunch at Betty's
Day Trip to York
We started our day at the National Railway Museum

Outside the museum they had a lot of fun activites for the kids, including the human hamster ball. (I was practically crying-laughing the whole time the kids were in there-- too funny!)

York Minster

Knaresborough Rowing on the River NiddWe spent the last few days of their trip in northern Wales
We really had a wonderful time being together. Yes, we saw some wonderful sights, but it was just so nice to be together with good friends. Alyssa and Kevin are the kind of people who are so much fun -- I kept wondering if I really knew how to have fun without them! Yes, we had our fair share of "moments"- kids throwing up in the car, waiting in long lines, waiting for food with cranky kids, etc., etc., but we always seemed to find a way to laugh out of the situation.

Until our next adventure together.......