Jumping sumo spy camera.

Look what I found at the Whole Foods!

Yes! It's true CLOTTED CREAM! Or at least Devon Cream which is as close as I'm going to get. But still heaps better than when I thought I was going to have to make clotted cream. Cream tea anyone? 😀

Ps yes that's a downton abbey calendar in the background. Thank you Linda!

Dinner

We always eat the same few dishes for dinner. Tired of the same thing every night I tried something new today. I made scalloped potatoes and eggplant parmesan. Mistake. Ellis has been crying for 20 min because we are making him try one bite of each before he can have a peanut butter and jam sandwich. He has even tried arguing that he is allergic to it. He Why do I even bother!!!

Visit to Crabtree Nature Center (not Centre - we aren't in the uk anymore!)

Unanswerable Questions from Ellis

1. Mum, if there was no gravity, would your food still go down your throat?

2. Mum, if you threw an iceberg in a volcano, how long would it take to melt?

3. Mum, is 'as quick as a flash' a minotaur? (He meant 'metaphor').

4. Mum, how come its not ok to kill people, but then if its a war, it IS ok to kill people?

And one from a mum who volunteers at the school and was working with Ellis on his 'sight' words.
He wrote his 's' backwards and she pointed it out to him. He said 'That's how we write an 's' in England'. She wryly smiled and said, no that's not how they write 's' in England. He replied 'You're right, that's complete rubbish' and erased it and wrote it the right way.

There is hope!

Apparently there is at least one Chicago establishment serving cream tea with real clotted cream! Life in America just got significantly better. :)

From a Chicago Tribune article:
Lobby, The Peninsula Chicago, 108 E. Superior St., 312-573-6760: In the Lobby of this grand hotel, gracious servers led us over the cushy carpet to our table in the elegant room filled with hushed chatter and the soothing sounds of live chamber music. The only dissonant note was when we announced we were there for afternoon tea and our host piped back, "So you're here for high tea?"
Still, it's hard to get too uptight in this plush room at twilight when you are sipping lovely fragrant assam tea accompanied by finger sandwiches, fancy sweets and--the pieces de resistances--warm buttery scones topped with luxurious clotted cream and strawberry jam. Servers will not just bring you more of this ambrosial trio, complimentary, upon request, they'll actually offer to do so--and it's hard to resist.

 

As far as the Devonshire versus clotted debate goes: The menu says Devonshire, but our server insisted it was clotted. We think he was right. In fact, this yellow, fluffy cream was so decadent that my dining companion actually referred to it as butter. Afternoon tea: $28. Served Monday through Saturday at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. seatings, and from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.

For the whole article:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-11-30/entertainment/0611290404_1_cream-cheese-afternoon-tea-clotted-cream

Americans don't understand tea

I asked for decaf tea. Sure no problem, I have chamomile. No, I want regular flavoured tea but just decaf. They brought me Earl Grey in a tiny mug with a massive soup size spoon. Ahh...missing England's green and gentle shores.

They do however, really know how to make coffee. Loving Starbucks for two bucks! At home the same coffee costs £6.

Downtown Chicago! Ellis says 'the magnificent mile isn't really that magnificent'😃

Chicago skyscraper across from Navy Pier

I left England for this???!!

Brother Love - rare but beautiful!

Wake me up when its all over

Hough Street Halloween Parage

 

Bryn is about three quarters of the way through wearing a red coat and jeans. Ellis is almost at the very end wearing a blue snow suit, helmet and climbing gear. Loved the variety and detail of costumes. And Mr. Aalfs the Principal as Olaf from Frozen (on the fire truck) was pretty good as well.

Bryn's Knex roller coaster took a serious amount of engineering, patience and perseverance. But we did it!

Lock down drill

Here is a message from our principal:

Good afternoon Hough Street Parents,

This afternoon we conducted a lock down drill here at Hough Street School.  The Barrington Police Department was here and walked through the building to ensure that all doors were locked and that it was quiet in the classrooms.  I am proud to announce that our boys and girls did a wonderful job!

During the morning announcements I briefly talked about the drill and conveyed to the boys and girls that this was simply a drill to practice securing our building in case a "situation" had occurred inside or outside our building.  As a staff we will come together during our staff meeting this afternoon and discuss any concerns or thoughts they may have.

If your child were to mention that we performed this drill today, I would encourage you to have a conversation with them.  We want them to feel safe here at Hough Street School.  Reassuring them that drills like this one, or a fire drill that we have already performed, are important measures that we need to take in order to be as safe as we possibly can be.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email, call or simply stop by the school to talk.

Have a wonderful day!

Mr. Aalfs

 

Bryn said that the kids had to hide and be quiet during the drill. He said he did not feel scared but I don't think they really explained what a 'situation' meant. 

This is something different about the USA. We never had a lock down drill at north hinksey school. Let's hope they never need to use what they learned!!!

 

Sent from my iPhone

Good thing I put studded tires on my bike yesterday!

Fun with Dudley! Went for a walk at a nature reserve with our neighbours and got to walk Dudley!

Bryn's first tooth

Lost first tooth!

The Hough Street School Halloween Parade. They close the streets and the kids in costume process behind the principal riding on an old fashioned fire truck. Cool!

Our sea shipment arrived yesterday! Was a bit emotional to see bit of home coming out of boxes and being put somewhere new. But wonderful too. Starting to make a new home!

Dressing gown and slippers arrived with our sea shipment today.

They're just not the same! On the left proper baked beans lovingly carted back from the uk by Kevin. On the right American baked beans.

First day back and this is what Kevin does. Of course! Brian and Margery won't be surprised.

Single track biking fun!

Happy to have joined the Borg?

Nope, happy to be headed home - home is where the heart is!

Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. That white vortex in the background is a tornado simulator. They also have a lightening simulator, but that was a bit too scary. Ellis asked if the tornado was strong enough to pick up children.

Gratitude for Neighbours

Fear not faithful blog readers, I am doing much better today. Mostly thanks to two lovely neighbours who reached out and included me and the boys in an outing to Sonny Acres:
http://www.sonnyacres.com/things-to-do.html

We had a wonderful time feeding the lama, getting good use out of the playground and going on a hayride. Then we went for dinner at Chipolte's. The group contained three mum's and 6 kids (5 of them were boys). There were some tricky moments as you would expect with that much testosterone and kid energy. For example, remaining seated at the restaurant after you'd already finished eating, but overall the outing went really well.

We have been so incredibly blessed over the years with our neighbours. First, Colin and Mavis when we lived at Kestrel Lodge, then Margery and Brian at Long Close and now the McGee and Blue families at Westwood Drive. Its as if God or our guardian angels or the universe knew that we needed support living so far away from our with our family and provided for us in the most miraculous way. Truly we could not have survived without them. I am so GRATEFUL!

hard day

Generally on the blog I like to keep things positive. But this sometimes presents a skewed view of how things are going. In the spirit of honesty I will tell you that today was a hard day. The loneliness was crushing. Its been building for a few days. I've been trying to keep it at bay by staying busy but in the end, what I need is a friend to talk to over coffee, and that is just not going to happen because I don't have any friends here yet.

I have been trying to practice gratitude and remember that I am healthy, my kids are healthy, they like their school and are making friends, we have a roof over our heads and food to eat. In the big scheme we are doing fine. This helps for a little while. But I also have to be mindful of the hard feelings and letting them come. This journey has not been easy. I knew there would be difficult times. Today was one of them. But its ok right? As Glennon says, 'We can do hard things!'

Benefits of having a basement. Dance a thon!

Lauren and Ellis on our new (ish) piano

Lauren stopped by on her way back from Chicago. Was so nice to have a few hours with my dear friend.

Lovely visit with Lauren!

Is it winter yet? We're ready!

WeDo Lego workshop at the library. Cool!

The barrington library blowing my mind again. Although the neighbours say this isn't the biggest or best library in the area. Holy cow!!! Very different from our botley library with a few bean bags.

Volvo in Sweden

Off to work corner

Lots of thoughts

Guess who I bumped into :)

Fwd: No problem! Go Winnie!

No problem! Go Winnie!

The latest

Many people have been asking for an update so here is the status:


House:
We moved in on Friday 10 October. The house is gorgeous! Photos to follow as soon as I get internet access. AT&T is coming to set that up on Friday. So appologies if I am not that connected for the next few days. Tricky to do everything on my phone (am at the Barrington Library today).


Car:
We bought a Honda CRV on Thursday 9 October. On Saturday we noticed it was leaking oil. Another bit of stress we did not need. Ellis and I took it back to the Honda dealership on Monday and after two frustrating hours it was fixed. Apparently a faulty gasket. As the car was 'certified' by Honda we did not have to pay for the repair which was good.


Have decided to name the car Winnie in keeping with the magic theme (because Honda's have 'magic seats' which fold down in a unique and really cool way). Winnie the Witch is a character in a series of children's book written by an Oxford author. Thought it was a nice way to honour Merlin, our red Honda Jazz now in the care of our friends Abhi and Meeta. So those of you in Oxford might still see Merlin zipping around.


School:
Continuing to go well. Bryn has two teachers named Mrs Haradon and Mrs Soszko who job share. Both are amazing and have made us feel very welcome. Bryn is enjoying his classes and is learning the names of his classmates and how everything works at Hough.


Ellis likes Mr. George his kindergarten teacher and is excited to go everyday. It is a bit odd for him to be only going half days. Feels like a step backward for both of us as we have already been through this process of moving from half days up to full days. But on the bright side, we will have more time to spend together just the two of us. Need to figure out some fun things to do in our mornings. Maybe swimming, tennis or music classes?


The school bus stops in front of our next door neighbors house although we have not ridden it yet. Plan to wait til everyone is a bit more settled.


Neighbours and the School Community:
AWESOME - our street is chalk full of kids and families that go to Hough School. Many people have come over to introduce themselves and we have already made friends with Matt, Renee, Griffin (third grade) and Quinn (first grade but not in Bryn's class) and they invited the boys over for a playdate last night. The 4 boys played in their basement (with only some minor squabbles over the nerf gun bullets) for 45 minutes as I made dinner at ours. I went over to pick them up and as we went to leave Renee gave me a chocolate chip pumpkin loaf she had baked for us. I burst into tears. It is SUCH a relief to know there are people around caring for me. Especially with Kevin in Europe at the moment.


Another family right accross the street has also reached out: Karen, Kevin, Owen (in Bryn's class) and Ella (in preschool). I have also had several offers of playdates and any other help I need from several other of Bryn's classmates parents via email. I am feeling well supported at the moment. This was one of my major fears so am so, so, so, SO grateful that that is all working out.

Jolly ole England

In case you are interested in convertors

British jammies to remind us of home.