Wow, I can hardly believe our stay here is half over...it has gone by quickly, yet in a strange way it doesn't feel like "just 3 weeks" that we've been here. We've done so much and seen so much it feels like we have months-worth under our belts. It's amazing how quickly you can acclimate to a completely different environment and way of life. I can't fully say that we are "living here" as the kids don't go to school here and we haven't had to do things like hook up electricity/cable, find a doctor/dentist/apply for healthcare...we are sort of in limbo between our American life and our short-term British life. Mike is off to work everyday (and this entire weekend was gone overnight for 3 nights, as the big start up of his company took place--and it went extremely well! Kudos to Mike and the rest of the team for months of hard work!) He has been driving to work every day and has gotten quite used to driving as opposite as they do from us in "The States". We have our regular places now--our cafes that we frequent, the grocery stores of which the kids will ask, "is it Marks & Spencer or Waitrose today, mom?" Depending on where we are headed that day they will happily skip ahead of me there, knowing the way. I realised (woops I really typed that without realiZing I typed it the British way!) just today that we haven't stopped at a drive-thru (haven't seen one!) nor been at a store after 6 pm (they close very early here...and I kinda like that!) The weather does not hold us in--because it's not extreme AND because, well, if you have some place to go you just go--that's what umbrellas are for! The kids have not complained much about all the walking--although just today one of them asked why we don't ever drive to stores anymore...but for the most part they have seemed to adapt well to our little life here. We frequent a park just around the corner and there have been a few regulars there that the kids happily play with...I try not to think about the day when it will be the last time we do all of these things, when our little time here is done. So I will just try to look forward to the fun that we will still have here! So in the days since I've posted we've been out and about everyday. I took the kids on a short little cruise on the River Thames here from Windsor to the Boveney Locks and back. They've also enjoyed bungee trampoline-ing--where they bounced attached to bungee cords high up on a trampoline and attempted a few flips in the air! Skylar, age 9, and Braden, age 6, had a blast but Miss Ava, age 3, was a tad more reserved--which always surprises me as she can be the craziest one of the bunch! But she insisted on being the first to go and I think if she would have watched her sister and brother go first she would have allowed herself to go much higher! We've enjoyed a lot of time at the park and the Long Walk that leads up to Windsor Castle; watching airplanes take off from nearby Heathrow; the kids have come to play hide-and-go-seek tag behind some big trees at the park; we feed the swans at the river; walk the footbridge to Eton...all on our "easy days". I took the kids to London again as well. This time to the Natural History Museum. The museum is expansive and takes up an entire city block. The architecture of this building was stunning and I could have just looked at it forever...but alas the attention span of my offspring wouldn't allow for that so in we went. There was a very long line just to get in--this was a free museum, as many of them are in London, so I was not that surprised...especially since all of the kids are (finally!) off school here for their whopping 6-weeks of summer holiday, which means everything has become much more crowded in the last week or so. Well the wait was worth it as we got to see dinosaurs (Braden's fave), minerals, gems and crystals (Skylar and Ava's favorite), and mammals, Darwin's theories on evolution, and many other things. I also am really intrigued how this museum, as well as the Natural History Museum in Washington, DC (Smithsonian) and many other museum here in London (and probably other places as well) are free, yet the Natural History Museum in Chicago (The Field) has a high entrance fee...one of these museum websites in London that I visited said that the museum's collections were a gift to the public--I loved that. I think I'll boycot The Field now. I am also looking forward to my friend, Sara, arriving tomorrow morning! We have a week of London fun ahead of us and I'm so excited that she gets to experience this with me...I can't wait to show her around here! The kids are really excited, too! I would like to extend this opportunity to anyone else who would like to visit here as well :-P C'mon...I cook AND do laundry...what more could you ask for? ;-)
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