I seriously just have to shake my head and laugh sometimes. Oh London, you're so tricky with your obstacle course grocery shopping!

Thatcher started an after school club of Martial Arts today and he starts Football, not American Football, as Thatcher says, after school tomorrow. He is really excited about both. I think it'll be good for him to do his own thing for an hour after school without Tagg. They are so close in age I am also trying to find things for them each to do individually because they are grouped together a lot and obviously spend a lot of time together.

The boys are not looking forward to us leaving them on Thursday night. This has been a little difficult for me, as I get anxiety anyway about these kind of things. It is our first time leaving them in 7 years, and the first time they remember and they aren't happy about it at all. They don't understand why in the world we would want to go away without them!  How dare we! I had a long talk with them today about how it is important for moms and dads to get away alone sometimes because they love each other and it is good for them. Yeah they still don't get it, we will keep talking over the next few days.

I am exhausted now and will sleep like a husband tonight. :)

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Today began with the normal school day routine! Yeehaw! These last two weeks with the boys all home have really done a number on me. It's probably because we have much less space here than we do in Texas, the boys make a lot more noise here and there isn't a backyard to send them out to. Ay. I am going to have to think of more things to do for the kids when there are more breaks in school.

The boys got off to school and Tate and I went to the Tesco by our house and picked up a few groceries. We dropped off the groceries and then went for a long walk through Regents Park. I listened to conference while Tate napped, it was heavenly.

After coming home, getting ready, playing with Tate and cleaning up the flat, it was time to pick up the boys. They each had good first days back at school.  Thatcher still hasn't presented his WWII poster, and is anxious to do that. We went to the park for about an hour on the way home for the boys to get some energy out and then came home.

We had dinner, FHE, and now the kids are all bathed and in bed and it is all quite in the flat. Except for the traffic we hear outside our open windows. I thought I'd be used to it by now, but I am not.

Good day today, nice to be back into a routine.  I have so much to do tomorrow and Wednesday in preparation for leaving on Thursday.

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We take a car to and from church every Sunday.  It's just easier with three kids to have a car take us rather than spending 45 minutes on the tube and transfering lines. I enjoy it because we don't have to bring all our stuff or our stroller. Sometimes I just really miss my Sienna. Other times I love the convienience of the Tube and buses.

Church was good today. Tate is getting to that point where he will not hang out for more than a half hour before getting crazy and wanting to walk around, so it's kinda hit or miss what meetings Todd and I get to listen to.

Today the Bishop and his sweet wife invited us over for dinner.  Our Bishop is a really nice guy, and his family is great. We had a nice evening with them visiting and getting to know them better. Thatcher and Tagg LOVED playing with their kids. They are a little deprived here, not too many friends around their age.  They always have each other, and that is a great thing and a bad thing all rolled into one.  I can see how they have gotten closer since we've been here, but I can also see how they have been fighting WAY more. Brothers. Got to love em.

Today I went to make Texas Sheet cake for dessert to take to the Bishops house for dinner, and after I had everything pretty much mixed up I rememebered that I didn't have my sheet cake pans here. Ayyyy! I had to improvise by making it in two cake pans.  Oh London, you did it to me again!

This week will be a big week!  We are getting ready for my Dad to come on Wednesday night and then we leave for Italy Thursday evening.  Eeek!  I am excited and nervous all at once.

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Today was one of those Saturdays that we SWORE we wouldn't have in London.  We promised ourselves that we wouldn't let one Saturday go to waste, that we would see all that we could while we were here, and that we would make each Saturday special with a new outing.  Well...we didn't do that today.

Today we woke up, lazed about a little while, Todd made crepes (our family fave!) and then when Tate took his 10:00 morning nap, so did we.  And by we I mean Todd and I, Thatcher and Tagg played computer. Yep.  Tate actually took a extra long morning nap today, so we did too. When we woke up at like 12:15, we thought about maybe heading down to Portobello Road, but then decided against it and thought we might as well make this truly a lazy day, so we just hung around the flat.  Are we boring or what?  I guess all this sightseeing did us in.

We did go out for a little while today, we went to Oxford Street and did little shopping.  We came home and ordered take out and watched some Studio C's with the boys, then we did the whole Saturday night getting ready for Sunday thing.

Time for some relaxing before bed...

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Today my friend Jen and I were supposed to go to Borough Market, but it was raining, and I was at the end of my rope with these boys, so I didn't feel like wrestling them all morning in the rain. We decided instead to take the kiddos to McDonald's and indulge in some good ol' American food and fun.

You would have thought I told my boys we were going to Disneyland by the way the reacted when I said we were going to McDonald's. They were thrilled.

It was a great afternoon of hamburgers, french fries, playing and chatting with friends. Jen is moving to Texas soon, and I will miss her here. She helped me so much with all her info about moving here, and she is a wealth of London knowledge.

After we got home I declared nap time for everyone and we all took a nice long rainy day nap. Bliss. It really did make me so happy that we all got to take a nap. It's the simple things.

Todd was getting off work early today so we decided to do an early date night and go to the London Dungeon.  We saw it when we were at the Eye a few weeks ago, and it looked kinda fun/interesting.

We had a lot of fun there.  It isn't like the BEST tourist attraction ever, but it was a good time. It is basically this re-enactment place where they retell the scary/gross parts of London history. There are actually two "rides" that you go on, intermixed with many actors scenes along the way. It is kinda cheesy, but we had a great time. It was kinda like a haunted house and I was clinging to Todd most of the time and I actually did get kinda scared a few times.

After the London Dungeon we headed over to our favorite place, Wagamama's. Yum. Never get tired of this place.

We had a great date night all in all and got back early, at 9:00pm with the kids all in bed and the house clean. Love that Eleanor!

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This morning we hung out and got things done around the flat.

We headed over to one of our favorite bread shops after lunch and picked up some donuts and went to the park for a little while. These boys need daily outside time or they, and I, go cray cray. Seriously.

While we were at the park Tate wandered around picking up cherry blossoms that were on the ground and threw them. It was a fun little game he was playing and I was having fun watching him. Well, this older British lady that was there with her grandchild was watching us pretty closely. After a few minutes she came up to me and told me that Tate was too young to be out of his stroller and he shouldn't be toddling around the park and most certainly should not be playing with cherry blossoms because he could eat one! Oh Brits, got to love them! I thanked her for being concerned but reassured her that this wasn't my first rodeo and pointed to the two rambunctious boys climbing the tree behind us (which probably didn't reassure her).  She was quite taken a back that I didn't heed her advice and left. Too funny. I have started to notice that the Brits don't let their toddlers out of their strollers very much. If I did this I would have one grumpy, screaming babe on my hands. No thank you.

After playing for a while Tate started to pick up trash on the ground and try to eat it, so I decided we better head out before I get yelled at for me crazy child and parenting style again.

After we parked it up for a little while, we headed back home for a bit and then met our friend Amy and her two cute kids to go to the zoo. We live really close to the London zoo, it's right by Regents Park, actually it's kinda in it. We hadn't been yet, and I've been wanting to get a zoo pass, so we headed over.  It is a good walk from our house, and the boys were getting on my last nerve complaining about the walk. You can tell it's been a long two weeks of no school. Let's just say I won't be shedding any tears come Monday morning.

We wandered around the zoo for about an hour admiring the new baby tigers that were so cute, and the gorillas which are kinda freaky. Thatcher was DYING to go to the aquarium part, so we went in there for a little while. I got our zoo pass and that will come in handy on afternoons where we don't have anything to do.

When we walked the 40 minute walk home the boys kept begging me to stop and grab a taxi, but we didn't, we persevered. The walking around is so good for all of us here.  I actually really love it. It's been one of my favorite things about living here, all the walks and fresh air. Does you good.

When we all got home everyone was tired from the walks and the long day out. Todd had just gotten home from work so we ordered pizza and gathered around our coffee table, ate and watched Studio C.  It was a good night.

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Who said that having two weeks of school off for Easter was a good idea anyway?  Yeesh!  I am straight up going crazy up in here!

Today Elenor,our favorite British babysitter came over for a little while while I went and did some errands that had to be done alone. Girl stuff.  Like get my eyebrows threaded, so glamorous! I also paid waaaay too much money for a pair of Sunday shoes for Tagg. You kill me London sometimes!

After I got back Elenor told me that the boys have literally been bouncing off the walls, so I immediately rushed them out the door to the park.  We hung out there for a few hours as the big boys ran, and jumped, and climbed. Tate and I were on the baby playground playing in the choo- choo train.  He loves it.  I can't believe how old he is getting.

Todd worked later than usual tonight and so it was a fun night of wrestling boys to bed. Brings back memories of the good ol' days, and when I say good ol' days I mean three months ago in Frisco. Now I am going to sit for 10 minutes in silence and then turn on a show!

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Today was a lazy, recouping kind of day.  The boys are still out of school and since we just got back from Paris we just un-packed, did laundry, cleaned, grocery shopped (online), and just hung about all day long.  It was pretty great to just lay low with no plans and let the kids play.

The older boys played Minecraft on the computer and Tate wandered around being grateful I am sure to not be in the stroller!

We have so many adventures and trips planned while we are here I feel as if we get back from one and start planning the next!  Todd and I are heading to Italy in a few weeks for a 10 year anniversary trip and so I was online planning that today too!  Can't wait.

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I loved this little shop with all it's pretty desserts and sweets. So so fun.  They also have a tea room where you can get breakfast and lunch. Would be so fun for a couples trip, or a girls only trip. But since I am surrounded by burly boys, I didn't think they would go for a fancy tea time lunch.












After taking a peek inside the pantheon we hurried across the street to the Luxembourg gardens. They were gorgeous.













After playing at Luxembourg gardens for WAY too long we rushed back to our hotel to pick up our things so we could head to the train station.

We hurried grabbed a taxi to the train station and when we got there we were behind schedule a little bit. We rushed through customs and the passport control place, and thought we made it just in time, but we didn't!  The train seriously left 10 minutes early!!  It was CRAZY.  A whole bunch of tourists that were supposed to be on that train had also missed it and so we waited around for the Eurostar people to fix this gigantic problem.

Luckily, we got bumped to the very next train and actually upgraded to first class, which was cool, so we were living the high life! But honestly, Todd and I were suuuuper stressed when we missed that train.


We got home, and it was funny to us how homey London and our little flat felt.  Doesn't take long to acclimate to new life.  We had a BLAST in Paris, and we are so glad we took advantage of the long weekend and went over.

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