Today after dropping off the boys for their last day of school before Easter break, I hurried home to get ready quick to meet my friend Jen at the tube stop to go to Victoria Gardens and lunch with some of the other girls in the ward.  I had never taken the tube before with just me and Tate.  I've been totally nervous to take the stroller on the escelators in the tube stations, and also having to carry the stroller up and down some flights of stairs.  Well this morning was a great induction!  Jen and I acidently took the wrong tub, switched trains twice, and ended up going up and down more flights of stairs and escelators than I thought possible!  We ended up at the wrong place and then realized we had to go back almost how we got there and that there would be more flights of stairs and more carrying the strollers (or buggies as they call them here).  But we did it!  And we, especially I, survived.  I was grateful she was with me giving me tips and tricks and now I feel pretty confidnet I can do the tube by myself and not be a chicken anymore.

Once we finally got to where we were going for lunch, we walked around a bit at Covant Garden Market.  I saw this guy being crazy/scary...I love these crazy street performers.




It is so neat with lots of shops, and cafes and restaurants.  I want to go back soon for sure!  We ate a little place called Shake Shack, it's a burger place.  Now, having come from Texas where there is every great burger joint in the world, I would rate the food so-so.  But the best part about the lunch was ordering a large (which was more like a medium by the states standard) Diet Coke WITH ICE!  I enjoyed every single sip and was in all seriousness sad when it was gone.  I miss ice.  I miss sonic.  I miss my route 44's.  I will admit I am a adict.

I had just enough time to come home and pick up the boys from school and then run home, drop off their stuff, and get them a quick snack and bathroom break, before heading off again to Todd's office for the BCG Easter party.  They put it on in the middle of the square where the office building is and it was so cute and charming.




They really did a cute job with this party with the clown who did balloon animals, a face painter, Easter Egg Hunt and visit from THE Easter Bunny.  It was really a great family party and the boys absolutly loved it. I am a fan of BCG London.  Just saying.















We bought the fast track tickets because we are lazy like that and also when we saw the line we guessedimated that it was probably about 1-2 hours to wait.  No thanks!  There were also tons of obnoxious american teenage school groups, and if I had to stand behind them and listen to them talk about Miley Cirus while they giggled and gaggled I would have probably punched one of them and then it would have caused a scene.  So just to avoid all of that, we just decided to just fork out the extra dough and get on!

The fast track tickets are great because you really just pay, and then go to the front of the line and step right on.  While we were waiting for the 2.2 seconds we had to wait, we met another american couple and found out they were from Oklahoma!  We obviously instantly bonded and they were super nice, which wasn't a surprise.

The Eye never stops, so you just kinda hop on when it is still moving.  We got into the pod thing and started to go up!  It is really, really cool.  Highly recommend.  The views were incredible and it was really fun to see everything at dusk.  I will admit, once you start getting to the top, it is a little freaky. The pods actually do shake a little because of the wind I suppose, and also how they are positioned on the wheel.  So yeah...I had to talk myself out of a little anxiety, but we were good after that!





So we headed back up closer to home and found a little place that serves Pho.  What is Pho you ask? It is some vietnamese soup that Todd has come to love after he was introduced to it by some of his colleges at work in Charlotte.  So he wanted me to try it out.  I wasn't a fan, just to let you all know. But I am picky like that. Oh well, I gave it the ol' collage try!

It was a great day.  So busy, but packed full of firsts and fun things!  It's hilarious that date night now ends at like 10:30pm for me.  I am not kidding, I can't last longer than that anymore!

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I really hope that the guy on the motorcycle is okay.  I quickly got ready and then met some friends at the park for lunch.  It was so good to get out of the flat and eat and chat!

After lunch I left Tate with a babysitter because I had some errands I needed to run. And by errands I mean I needed to get my eyebrows taken care of!!  It had been almost 4 weeks since I had done any maintenance on them and I was looking like some amazon woman or Marla Hooch from A League of Their Own.

I found out about this place in Selfridges called Blink Brow Bar, which seemed really convenient and neat, so I decided to check them out.  I headed there to get my brows threaded, which I totally hate while doing it, but I love the results.  It was great!  I really love this place and will be back!  I also wandered around Selfridges for an hour just looking around and found myself at the Bobbi Brown counter and bought some new eye shadow.  With my eyebrows done I really feel like all is right in the world again.

I picked up the boys to a good report again for Tagg (yay!) and so off we went to get some fro-yo from our favorite place, Snog, for his treat.  We also decided because the weather was too unbelievably nice so we headed straight to the park.

Here are some more pictures of the gorgeous trees because that is what I am obsessed with lately...


The boys found friends from school and started up a football (soccer) game.  They played for about an hour and half before I told them that it was almost time to go, which they were devastated over.  They LOVE playing low key football with their friends after school.  I was watching them and even since being here I have noticed that their form has improved.  I think they've picked up a lot from the kids here.  It's funny.




He is such a funny kid.  Not walking too much yet.  He can do it, but he prefers crawling fast to his slow walking.

His shirt says, "Mommy's Little Monster".  Well, I had two different British ladies come up to me and tell me how horrible that I would call my precious baby a MONSTER!  I am not kidding.  I died laughing.  I assured them that it was endearing, but they would have NONE of it!  It was hilarious.  I love the Brits.

We went home after wearing everyone out at the park and had dinner and baths and now the kids are sleeping peacefully in their beds and Todd and I are going to watch some American TV and fall asleep to the sound of traffic outside our window because it is warm tonight!

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Not the best pic, but you get the idea.  I'll get a better one some day...

Here are some cute ducks Tate and I found on our walk this morning.  So cute! Seeing them reminds me of Bambi for some reason. I know that is random.  But you know it being spring and all, and all the new little ducklings, and new baby animals. "Good morning little prince!"


What would this blog be without some mention of the amazing spring that I can't get over?  Here are some more pictures of trees blooming to prove it!


Today Tate and I did a lot of lazing around playing on the floor.  Who doesn't love playing with the Fisher Price people and all their cute sets?  I love it.  Tate loves it when I pose the people and animales all around, and then he comes and knocks them all down.




I really love lazying it up and playing on the floor with Taters.  I am sad to admit that this is something that I took for granted with my older two.  I was way too caught up in my own days and my own time back then.  I blame it on my 20's. No but seriously, I blame it on me being stupid.  Good thing I learned a lesson.  It came in the form of a realization that I might not be able to have any more kids and I squandered a lot of precious time.  I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy my two other boys as babies and toddlers, because I did.  I just don't think I slowed down enough.  I was just a different mom back then. Thank heavens for trials of faith, they really do help us to be better.  So yeah...I love playing on the floor with this cute kiddo as much as I can, along with his two big brothers now.  I can thank my 30's for that one.



I was thinking about Tagg all day and PRAYING that he could keep it together today and zip his sass up so that he could get a good report from his teacher.

When I went to pick him up he was all smiles and I got a good thumbs up from his teacher and she said he was MUCH improved.  Thank heavens!  We got Thatcher and we were off to the gelato shop like I promised.  I think the instant reward will work for Tagg, and he will want to keep it together long enough each day to get his ice cream.  And lucky for Thatcher who doesn't struggle with this sort of thing at all, he gets the reward every day as well.  And me too, because if I have to stress about Tagg and his sass and The Trunchbull every day, I certainly deserve a gelato in the afternoon!

Tonight Todd got home from his little jaunt away up north somewhere and we ate dinner, cleaned up, and now it's time to do a little planning for our upcoming anniversary trip to Italy next month, and then off to bed.  This Italy trip is two years in the making, way before London was ever in the picture, and I am very excited!

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So today started off like a normal day.  Got up, got the kids off to school, and went for my morning walk with Tate through Regents Park.  I really love exploring that park and finding new little places to wander.  It is so beautiful.  Spring in London is absolutely enchanting.  There is no other word to describe it.  I cannot even handle how beautiful it is.  It is straight up out of a movie, or fairytale land. It's gorgeous, simply put.  And I won't stop talking about it, even though I bet everyone is getting sick of hearing about it!

Today it was raining a little on our walk, but I really don't mind.  Tate is protected in his rain cover, or as the boys call it, his "force field", and just falls asleep and I wander around listening to conference.

Today I saw this on our walk and it made me happy...and a little freaked out.  Always a good combo!

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I can't believe some of the pictures I have been seeing on people's Facebook pages back in the states!  It seems like winter is the new spring this year!  Not here in London.  Today was a gorgeous, picture perfect kind of day.  The temperature was perfect and we had clear blue sky.  Everything is blooming and it is so incredibly beautiful.  I can't even describe it.

As I was walking to Tagg's school to pick him up I just couldn't help but take these pictures.  The gardens, flowers, trees, ivy, everything here is so gorgeous.  It really is so picturesque.

After school since it was such a nice day, we went to the park that is close by the schools and our home.  I let the kids play on the playground for a while, and then they wanted to go over to the big grassy area to play "football" with some other kids.  One of the little girls that was playing with Thatcher on the playground came up to me and told me that Thatch looked like Edward.  At first I was like, "what? Edward WHO?"  But just as I thought that, I connected it, and realized she meant Edward the sparkling vampire.  Yeah, she was 9 and told me this about my son. Ayyyy. Nope, definitely not ready for that world yet...

The boys ran and played and had a great time.  Even though the other kids have much better skills than the boys do, our boys are quite the celebrities because of they are American.  The other boys kept asking Thatcher and Tagg questions about Texas, it was cute.




Todd is away for the night, so after the kids were sufficiently run to exhaustion, we grabbed some dinner on the way home at a little cafe, ate there and then stopped and got a gelato for the walk home. As we were walking home eating our gelato and the sun was setting I couldn't help but think it was a perfect European afternoon, going to the park, eating at a cafe, and grabbing gelato on the way home.  I know it may sound totally cheesy but I fell in love with this kind of living 13 years ago, and it is so fun for me to now live this with my kids.

Now I am tired and sitting in an apartment without Todd overnight for the first time since we got here. I haven't fallen asleep alone without the TV on in four years.  Weird, but true.  Hopefully, I'll be able to tonight.

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