Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night = Fireworks!

On the 4th and 5th of November in Great Britain, there is a big celebration called Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night. It all started about 400 years ago when Guy Fawkes tried to kill everyone in Parliament and he was caught as a traitor. Now they celebrate that event here by having community celebrations with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy. Last year we saw fireworks from our window and this year we decided to get in on the action (though no burning effigies for us)! There is a fireworks display near our house so Tim got home early and we packed a picnic dinner and went to watch. It gets dark here already by 4:30 so the fireworks were able to start in the pitch black by 7.

Abby got a glowy necklace at the party and also ate dinner with Tim. Two rare events!

Abby and I enjoyed the mild evening in Chiswick Business Park - waiting for the show! There were plenty of food stalls, beer and wine for sale, glow necklaces to buy and giant white fairies walking about in the crowd. We're putting this on our list to do again.

This being our first time at this event, of course we chose and obstructed view! It wasn't so bad though because Sophie was not into the loud booms that go along with the bright lights... maybe she'll like it better next year!

With our busy schedules, this was one of the best family events that we've been to in awhile. We were even home by 7:40! :-)

Fall in London

The big change for us this fall is that Sophie is participating in more of her own activities rather than following Abby to all of hers and watching. Sophie attends a music class on Monday mornings and a ballet class on Tuesdays. She loves them both and really enjoys feeling like a big girl!

In other news, most of you may already know that I chopped off my hair that was well-below my shoulders in the midst of a moment of insanity. I rarely put a picture of me on the blog, particularly one of JUST me. But, here you go.

Once in awhile I will find myself in a good enough mood as I roll out of bed to admire a sunrise. Of course it needs to be a sunny morning - which takes a little luck in London as well. When the two conditions occur, its time to take a snapshot!

Look at how big she is. Look at how much she looks like her daddy. Not an ounce of me in her looks! Here she is modeling her favorite sweater, I mean "jumper", from Noni.

Everyday I pick up Abby from school at 3:15 and we walk back to Sophie's school near our house and the park to pick up Sophie at 4. We always have a bit of time to wait. Sometimes we work on homework, sometimes we go to the playground. On this day we spotted Sophie out for a walk with her friends!

Happy Halloween!

Eek! Our neighbor, the Witch Baby! Actually, its just Vivienne from next door. She is wearing Sophie's costume from her first Halloween. I think she's just as cute too!

Decorating Halloween cookies over half term: way more fun for the girls if I would have let them go just nuts. I must learn to let them instead of being so controlling! They had fun decorating two cookies and eating lots and lots more that were hygenically frosted by me. :-)

Abby had lots of fun carving the pumpkin this year with Tim. She also likes roasted pumpkin seeds. I think most of the things she likes are because Tim likes them. They would do anything for each other!

There's my lover of all objects she can personify: Sophie!

On the 30th we went to a Halloween party at Chiswick House, an historic estate in Chiswick near the Thames. Although my general attitude about living in England is quite good, I have to say when it comes to Halloween, there is much work to do here! Party was lame. It would have been better if Sophie hadn't been napping in her stroller and Abby had a couple of friends to play the English yard games with. And maybe some wine. Wine or beer might have made the party less lame. ;-)

My very own kooky goblins.

Here we are the next night - Halloween! Kind of a bust last year, but it went better this year. The key, we discovered, is to leave Montgomery Road. The willingness to participate in trick-or-treating is severely lacking in England. However over one street (Antrobus Road) we had a bit more success. We ended the night with finding about 10 houses, which is about right for a 2 and 5 year old.

Abby's 5th Birthday

I remember Abby's 4th birthday last year as a low point for me. Of course it was lovely because my parent's were generous enough to time their visit to be here and we also had a few new family friends come for a party, but it was the first realization (after Easter and 4th of July) that things will never be the same while we are in London. Our normal big birthday parties we have for the girls can never be like we had them in Eagan. Not this year! While it was smaller than other parties she has had, Abby had her first friend party. She did not have to rely on family friends to fill the spots allotted - she had plenty on her list and I had to limit the number of people we asked. What a difference a year makes. Above are two of Abby's greatest friends in London: Ailish and (her future husband according to Abby) Joe.

Abby was excited to open her presents from her friends - most of them lined up on the sofa to watch.

Joe had to have a more sauve position for himself as the official "ladies man" of the event. He made most of the adults giggle!

Here is Abby on her real birthday getting ready to go to school. It was a busy time of day, as usual, but we made the time to let her open a present or two before rushing off for the day!

First Days of School

After Sophie's taste of school this summer, she was happy enough to start at a lovely neighborhood school, Caterpillar Montessori. She goes for two hours a day and had to quickly give up her afternoon naps to accommodate her new schedule. The British government thinks a pre-school is so important for kids that they actually subsidize the cost of pre-school for children after their third birthday for 15 hours a week. Sophie will continue attending montessori through the school year but switches to mornings after Christmas because she'll be three.

Happy to be a big girl!

Abby had to wait another week past Sophie's start date because there was a drawn-out process to acclimate the reception children to school. Here is a picture of Abby at school right before her head teacher, Mr. Prebble, addressed the new reception students and their parents. She was definitely excited but nervous too! The nerves didn't return the next day though.

Two big school girls!

I think Abby was just as proud of Sophie as she was of herself!

Abby and Ailish - best friends!

Five Weeks in America!

After our seven month absence from the US, its hard to tell who is happier to see the other. Noni or Sophie? The first few days of the trip home are always the most exciting, but also the most difficult. The girls do much better with jet lag coming back to the UK. I say "boo" to having the girls wake up at 2:30 am for the first couple of days. Its much easier to have them sleep in until 10 am, right?

This isn't Abby's first haircut, but definitely her first time under the fancy drier. She went to Papa's hair stylist to get her first cut since moving away from MN. It was time, although we kept most of the hair.

This was Sophie's first and long overdue hair cut. Her hair is still crazy, but in need of a serious trim. She did great! She is a lot older than her sister was for the first official cut, so there weren't any tears... just a proud smile!

Papa had organized a family day in Hastings to go to a pioneer village. The kids had a fantastic time and loved seeing the "olden days". Here they are standing in front of a school bus!

These dudes made an appearance many times during our visit. They are the newest residents on Phalen Place and have made themselves quite at home in the neighbors' yards. One day Abby spotted a fox stalking them as we drove by and we gave ourselves a pat on the back for scaring him away and saving Tom and Tina's life. Another day they were surrounding my parents' car in their drive way and were not too concerned about moving out of the way. They were big too - I'm thinking if they were carnivorous Sophie might have been in trouble.

The Kleins came to town to see us (even without the lure of Uncle Tim as he was still in London for the first 3 weeks). Here are all the cousins outside of Como Park on a nice summer weekend. Colin might have been hungry in this picture...

This action is a first for Sophie and she even agreed to do it multiple times to allow for evidence gathering. She seems to know something about Michael that the rest of us don't. What are you hiding, Uncle Mike? Hmmm....

One more shot of all the cousins at the Johnsons. No sad good-byes yet - we'll see you all again before we head back to the UK.

Another sibling that made a major effort to clear their schedule to see us as much as possible was my sister Kristin. We met them this day in Woodbury at Coldstone Creamery. Yummy! Sophie had a hard time not smothering poor Henry!

Ahh, a hot summer evening in MN. We went to a National Night Out event at my parents' church. Here the girls are showing there face/hand painting. Abby also tossed water balloons with Papa, had ice cream, pet greyhouns rescue dogs and we watched a Tai Kwon Do demonstraion.

Abby's unsure of her ability to catch a wobbly water balloon!

Grandma Anne was the next family member to make a special trip to see the girls (and I'd like to think me, too!) without Tim being around yet. Sophie, Abby and I packed up and moved over to Minnetonka from Maplewood for the weekend to have a proper girls' weekend (plus Colin). It was incredibly hot - much hotter than what's really possible here in the UK and we melted when we played at the nearby playground and the ice cream melted quickly during runs to Dairy Queen! Holy Moly! But we still had fun. :-)

I'm not sure who would be stupid enough to snap a picture of downtown Minneapolis while they were driving, but its one of my favorite views ever. What a pretty downtown it is and seeing it made me miss MN even more.

Sophie got to see one of Abby's good friends, Aidan and his brother Liam. Abby was enjoying 5 days a week at Country Day Summer Camp, but I wanted to catch up with my good friend Molly and see her adorable boys. The three had a great time at an indoor playground together and Sophie became enchanted with their really quite charming boy behavior. Aren't they cute? Totally different than the girl drama we have in the Farrell house.

There's my little Sophie at the indoor playground - sitting in a little locker. She just couldn't help herself and I couldn't either.

All good things must end! The girls spent the first three weeks of our vacation in MN at a summer day camp named Country Day which might be more accurately named "Heaven on earth for Pre-Schoolers". There is a swimming pool, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, bunnies, burros and two huge playgrounds. Sophie had never been to school before and so I thought Country Day might be a good introduction to being away from home. I knew she had a good time, but I never thought she would be so devasted to say good-bye to her teacher, Sandy! When Sophie was beginning at her montessori here in London, she was sure Sandy would be there... Sandy, move over here, please!

Sophie wanted one last go on the horse swing at Country Day!

Abby and her teacher Carrie were fast friends. Henry was such a great cousin to introduce Abby to all his classmates - I think those three weeks were the best of her life. Country Day is nearly Disneyland.

Before those 15 days at Country Day, I never would have believed this picture. In theory, Abby likes animals but not normally in practice. This is Walker - a four-legged angel. He gave daily rides to all the preschoolers at Country Day.

My dear friend Angie with her gorgeous daughter Lauren at their home in NE Minneapolis... Sophie was sulking in the corner. Later that day I picked up Angie for a proper girls' night out. Eat, Pray, Love and drinks afterward. Capped off with my mom waiting up for me because I came home after midnight... yep, I'm 35. Love you mom!

I am so glad the girls and I got to spend some time with my good friend from high school, Allison and her daughter Eva. Allison always makes me laugh and we seem to pick up where we left off. The Farrell girls think Eva is pretty great too!

A true measure of good-sister-ness: having a family of four stay with you the night before school starts for the year. Ben and Katherine were excited and Jenn and Ray were gracious hosts!

The girls really looked forward to a task at Great-Grandma's farm that they remembered fondly from last summer: picking up fallen fruit for the cows to munch on.

We also enjoyed the cooler breeze in the screened in porch and waited for the hummingbirds to visit. We weren't disappointed!

Hugs for Great-Uncle Marlon! Sophie (and the rest of us) think he's pretty fantastic!

As the girls grow up, Tim and I really hope they have as good of memories of time spent at Great-Grandma's like the rest of us do! Looks like they are well on their way!

Grandpa Mike was able to spend some nice time with the girls as well.

Ahhh... Grainbelt Premium! That was my theme of the summer. I hardly ever go for a beer - but I had plenty at my parents. What's not to love about a Premo? Especially enjoying one out on the deck with your dad in the MN summer!

Oh Colin, the Wild Child! Julia, Michael and Colin were able to come around for one last family dinner. It was fun and Colin showed off his cute boy energy!

One last snuggle with Auntie Julia.

Abby and Henry were complete loons with one another this summer. They saw each other almost every day and got to be quite good friends. Henry is possibly the funniest and cutest 4 1/2 year old you'll ever meet!

Maya had a week-long day camp at the MN Zoo that ended around lunch time, so the Farrell's picked her up and made a day of it. Here are the girls waiting for the bird show. Maya is very patient and sweet with her younger cousins!

It was another hot day (of course!) and so we had to indulge in bomb pops on the way out of the Zoo. Mmmm... one of my favorites!

The MN State Fair is something that I regretted missing last summer on our trip back to the states, so this year I made sure to schedule our departure around being able to attend with the family. It was worth it. Who doesn't have a perfect day at the Great Minnesota Get Together? You just have to be patient with crowds and be willing to consume inordinate amounts of calories and spend ridiculous amounts of money. That's me! The girls loved it too and Tim, I think, likes it better now that we have kids!

We met up with the Barleys. They had never been and enjoyed it too. Pam was a total trooper. You can't tell from this photo, but she was about ready to have another baby... congratulations on Baby Quinn!

Farmer Sophie on Machinery Hill.

I also met up with my good friend from volleyball, Jean and Karla. I totally miss them these days!

Last minute bike riding in Papa and Noni's driveway... with a little added protection!

Miss Aliza, whom I fear will never really know who I am besides this random crazy lady who drops in every 6 months or so. She practiced taking a few steps to me at least. That will have to do for now.

Her amazing big sister Greta knows me pretty well. She came to send us off right before our trip to the airport. Thanks dudes, for the great summer!