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Hi Everyone,
If some of you are checking in once in a while, sorry. I’ve been posting images on FB as of late. I may come back to this blog in the future, but for now, all will be over in FB land.

If its better to be over here, just leave some comments and I’ll go back to posting over here. Thanks!

Westfield Mall

Well it looks like Westfield has made it to London. They took over almost all the malls in IL, for the better I think, and now they build a new one in apparently what used to be a really bad neighborhood and turned it around. It is a fairly impressive complex walking up to it, and on the inside.

Walkway to mall.

All along this walkway were restaurants. The immediate building to the right of the picture has a large Waitrose (Yuppie Grocery Store) and brand name shops such as Dior, Prada, etc. The main mall is all the way at the end.

Entrance shot to Waitrose.

Through out the mall there are these interesting looking Touch screen kiosks to guide you through the mall.

Kiosk

Had to throw in this picture of the All Saints clothing store. It is pretty interesting, they have all these vintage Singer sewing machines hanging on the whole face of the store.

All Saints

We walked around to a disastrous to your pocket, amount of stores and Gia stopped for a photo shoot with a princess haha.

Disney Store

It was about tea time when we walked into the mall so we sat at this cafe that was situated in the middle of the walkway of the mall. We had the most amazing strawberry cake and chocolate cake, but sigh… I’m so bad at remembering to take pics of the eats we have. Sorry, I have no drool inducing pics to share.

Inside of mall.

Taking a break.

Gaming on the phone.

They have these great little rug and coach areas where you can sit a take a break from all the crazy shopping. Upstairs is this great food court, and if you had babies, they have this fantastic little room of changing tables and a rest corner with a carpet and some toys for toddlers to roam a little free. Nice! In general the U.K. is quite nice for mothers and young children.

They have so many support groups and activies that are usually free for a mother of young ones. It may be because it is so difficult for women to work here once you have kids. Gosh… the kids have so many strange weeks off, instead of the big summer break. It seems they are off almost every month. I’m wondering even if you got your kids into a before and after school thing, would they be able to deal with these 1-2 week off holidays. Hmm…

Beginnings of Snow

So Sunday there were strange burst of snow that came down during the day. Almost as if a cloud stopped by and spit a bit o’snow down. Went to bed not thinking much about it since it is still in the mid 30′s and then awoke to this:

Ah... snow!

It only about a foot of snow, but all things are at a stop here. The airport is shut down, no buses, limited tube, and schools are shut down. The one morning Eli decides to head out early he got stuck waiting for over an hour and decided if he were to manage to squeeze onto a train, he may not be able to come back. Good thing he did turn back. His office shut down today as well. It’s still snowing… wow. This is apparently unusual for here. Hmm… maybe my kids were doing some voodoo… they have been missing the snow from home, something fierce.

Getting ready for some snow play.

Building a castle.

Fall snow, fall!

As a little update, apparently it had not snowed here like this in 18yrs. As one man said it on the news, “We are the laughing stock of Europe. We have absolutely no infrastructure to deal with bad weather.” About a 5th of the working pop didn’t go into work yesterday so billions of pounds were lost. Hmm…

The kids enjoyed a few birthday parties. It looks like people rent a gym at a church or community center and either rent those inflatable play things or get an entertainer. Mostly the kids just like being able to play together in an open space for a couple of hours.

Team Work!

The kids have been really good with playing together. Most mornings before school and after a period of workbooks we do at home after school, the kids play with plastic army men and build elaborate forts with wooden blocks. It’s fantastic. It occupies them with relaxed, joint, quiet, play time. I couldn’t ask for more.

For a time I wondered if it would have been easier to have the girl before the boy, cause of the whole maternal instinct thing, but I’m glad it happend the way it did. I guess in general girls mature a bit faster mentally and I see it first hand. So even though they are 2 yrs. and some change different in age, they are in maturity, very similar.

A little cagey?

Aim fire!

This weekend the kids earned a fun day at BrentCrossings: Topsy Turvy. It is one of those hampster cages… I mean children’s play centers. It took about 35 mins. to get to North London to this mall. Its interesting 35 min. doesn’t seem like a lot in a car, but on foot with pub. transportation, it does seem like a bit much when coming back. Ah well… the kids had fun.

Buttermilk pancake batter.

On sunday I decided to go all Martha Stewarty and make Blueberry Pancakes from scratch with the help of my sous chef Gia. Yes, me miss non-baker. O.K. so technically its not baking, but close enough in concept yeah? Haha… I followed a receipe of Martha Stewarts, but it was a bit too… savory for me. So I added a bit more sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg to the batter. Then I made some with only blueberries, and then some with chocolate chips. Yum! Luckily it was a hit.

Finished Product.

Another playground

Our fail safe excursions with the kids has been the Greenwich area. They have great restraunts there, a great book store, and amazing playgrounds. However, doesn’t cease to amaze me, on how every time we go, we find new things like this hideaway playground that is close to the museum. I always hear some kid’s voices behind the tall thicket, but we were always so focused on heading towards the big playground we never saw it.

Balancing act.

We decided to take their scooters along and explore more of the park this time and the observatory.

Scootering along.

Cheese.

Inside the courtyard.

Meridan Line

Here is a little excerpt about the Meridian Line: “It is known at Zero Longitude and it is the line from which all other lines of longitude are measured. This includes the line that runs 180� away from Greenwich also known as the International Date Line.” – http://wwp.greenwichmeridian.com

Royal Observatory.

After the observatory we decided to follow the paths around the place. It was so nice. It seems like a great area for biking and if your into it, roller bladding.

Ancient tree.

We stoped along the path to catch a pic of this amazing tree. The gnarled trunk and branches would look simply at home in a Tim Burton movie, don’t you think?

Tea House.

At the beginning of our walk we passed this really cute looking Tea House. I wanted to go there, but at that time we weren’t really hungry. By the time we finished our exploration, we were already on the way down the hill and weren’t in the mood to turn back towards it. Ah well, maybe for another time. Luckily though, we found another little Tea House near the far backside of the museum and decided to head over there. Even though we were a bit chilly Russ took one look at the icecream bar and decided that was for him. Gia opted for hot cocoa and scone.

Hot and cold.

Then decided both hot cocoa and the chilly cone sounded like a good idea. Ah… such bliss.

Not again...

Russ’ commentary about Gia polishing off his snack as well.

This day Eliot decided he would man the camera and played around with some of the settings. So here are some of his artistic endeavors ^_^.

Y'ello

View in the courtyard of the observatory.

My scary closeup.

Ballet pose with her new leg warmers from Grandma.

Our little monkey has officially turned 4 on Jan. 13th. We had a mini party for her in Disneyland, but couldn’t resist an extra night of cake on the actual day. She got some great presents in the mail a few days before. Some leg warmers from Grandma, pink PJ’s from Emo which she really appreciated haha since I always make her wear her bro’s blue and green hand-me downs, and other pink clothes which she is waiting to wear.

Cake

So we decided to get her, her coveted princess cake. Hmm… you know it was a part of that scary cake section that isn’t frigerated. I was a bit weary of it, but daddy talked me into buying it. It tasted ok, if you don’t mind a seriously dry cake. Hmm… I guess that is how they keep it out on the shelf.

Blowing out the candle.

Cheese

Eliot was still off at the time, so we made a trip to Hammley’s the toy store that is popular here. It was a sad trip that had me going up and down the 5 some odd floors. It was just so hard to find anything decent to get. I finally ended up getting her a 4 in one box puzzle set. Lame… I know, but hey that was the one present she still plays with today. Later we found some other things to get her, but man its tough. I guess one redeeming thing is that we bought that crazy expensive princess dress for her when we were in Disneyland. I’m still wondering why we did it, but hey I guess us parents are allowed a lapse in sanity occasionally.

Puzzle time with daddy.

Russ decided to kick back with a magazine, while Gia and daddy were hard at work.

Checking out a magazine.

Next day Gia was still lovin the puzzles. While Russ decided to build a lego creation to show to his cousin Shaun.

Puzzle fun.

Russ' creation.

A few days later still playing with the puzzles.

Pink PJs

And Russ decided to get in on the puzzle fun.

Puzzle fun.

Eurostar

The train ride was roughly 2 hours long. Going there was fairly easy. Everyone was excited despite the early hour.

Our greeting at the hotel New York.

Walking into the gates.

The castle during the day.

Disney Village

Peter Pan Flight

This is one of the most popular rides in Fantasy Land. In general the rides were in French, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. They were just so interested in the rides and the excitement.  Although it did seem Russ knew Bonjour. Apparently they had a mock trip session at school a few months back. They each got a Eurostar ticket (The Train that takes you too France) and pretended to go to France.

Cheese

Eiffel Tower, Small World Style

Buzz Cafe Fun

We had pretty good eats on the trip, minus the Buzz Cafe. The pizza looked cute with Mickey ears.

Lion King Show

This was definitely worth going early for. They had English versions and French for this show. Luckily the English one fit our schedule. It is almost an hour long show and is a full on musical. It was fantastic. Too bad Gia was zonked out for more than half of it. She would have loved it, but she started taking up her naps since the beginning of the trip.

Buzzlightyear Ride

The wait for the rides weren’t too bad. The worse one was probably 35 mins., but basically since it was cold outside and the kids energy levels couldn’t take a long day. We went at a slow pace, but we were lucky. We hadn’t done things during the night, but on sunday we decided to just go for it. Good thing we did. It seemed like the weekenders left on sunday so we got to get on our fav. rides up to 3 times. The kids were so happy.

Ahhh the warmth

We had just ridden the Tower of Terror. It was great. Right next door was the tram ride through the studio park, so we hopped on. There were two parts that had an explosion simulation. Needless to say the warmth was highly appreciated haha.

Christmas Market

They had this great Christmas market all along the side of the Disney Village. They sold mostly nick knacks and food.

Cafe Mickey

We decided to celebrate Gia’s birthday a little early and had a nice dinner and ordered a birthday cake for Cafe Mickey. She said she wanted to meet all the characters, but she really wasn’t having it, unless the characters were small like Mini and Mickey. She thought those big characters were creepy haha.

Cars ride.

Mr. Mater

Animagique

This was another great show. It was a black stage and the characters had bright glowing colors on stage. Gia stayed up for this one. She really loved all the singing and dancing.

Stunt Show

This stunt show was just crazy. They had 5 cars on this small stage speeding and nearly colliding with each other. They had barely 3 ft. in between them I think. It was crazy. I wonder if they do this in the states. Anyways, once again Gia missed this one. She fell asleep on my lap. We were on bleechers. Lucky for us we had bought a Mini blanket so our bums weren’t freezing off.

Arg... it's cold!

Night at x-mas Disney.

Beautiful street lights

15th anniversary x-mas lighting.

Bummer

What a bummer, Russ so wanted to go on this ride. We assumed he would be able to go with Eliot, but wow, I think you have to be 4.5ft tall at least to get on. So we had to walk away. Oh well… at least we got to go on the pirate ride 3 times since there were no lines.

Ello me hardy...

We hopped on the train and went to a neighboring town. The Sealife was actually really well designed. It was also attached to a fantastic mall. Needless to say, the last day we were there was also a mommy day. I got some great accessories. Yeah! I had to break out my really poor French from many moons ago. What surprised me, was that I actually remembered the keys words and that people understood me.

Fishies

Children's decor shop

Pucca Display

After my shopping spree, we hit the kid’s part of the mall. The children decor shop was so adorable. They had such great things. Also, the French seem to really be into Pucca. Funny… I think they believe it is a chinese or japanes thing, when in fact some of the bags they have on display is written in Korean.

Pit stop at the local book store.

Funny, we stopped at the book store. I guess even though they were in Disney Paradise, the kids just missed plain, sitting down and playing with blocks. They spent a good 30 mins. relaxing here. Gia also found a princess book. It was a beautiful book. Unfortunately she forced me to read it to her. I’m sure the girl watching the register had a nice laugh at my attempt. Haha.. I kept telling her I don’t know what most of the words mean. So I kept it real short. I put the book back, but a couple of days later at home she asked what I did withe that French book. Opse…

Sniff...

Sad Gia… as we were waiting for the train she had a few tears dripping down and told us she misses DisneyLand.

Cheese

Today’s funny:  Gia had  a day off from school and was sitting on my lap while I was on the computer. She turns and stares at my face and comments, “Mommy I want those. What do you call them, I want those.” as she points to my eyes.

So I turn over to the mirror and ask what are you talking about? She points to my eye lids, at the crease and she says, I wants those haha. “What do you call them?”

I answered in Korean, “San cuh puhl,” which mean eye crease, then I told her you have little baby ones.

So she looks carefully at her face and says, ” No, I don’t like them, they look cracked. I want yours!” hahaha… just thought I’d share.

Rudolf Russell

Russell's class

News on the Russell front: Kid’s are so funny. I think Russ has a thing for possessive girls haha. There is this really cute girl named Leyla that is really sweet on Russ. She is quite a loquacious little girl and is one of the girls that greets him with a big smile every morning. Russ’ always telling me about his little girl buddy everyday. Well things have been on the rocks for those two lately. It seems Leyla doesn’t like Russ playing with other kids haha and begs them not to play with him. Last couple of days he has this crumpled little face telling me he is very very angry at Leyla because she wants to play with him only. I can’t stop laughing, so I’ve been telling him not to be mad and just understand its because she likes him very much that is all.

Gia Angel

Peaking through the angels

Posing

News on the Gia front: I had teacher/parent conferences last month and the teacher basically said everything was good and that she seemed very advanced for her age. On the flip side she did notice she was a little reserved. Alex her teacher, felt that most of the kids weren’t on the same level as her, so she didn’t relate to them too well. I was a little worried about this, because thinking back I realized she back at the gym in the states, she usually either liked taking care of the babies or playing with kids that are older than her. Anyways I’m happy to report she has been finding more of a connection with at least a handful of kids. Especially this little Tommy boy that keeps giving her a kiss telling her she is so~ cute haha.

I wonder what it is with my kids. Ah…but they are so~ cute. Well… at least all of this is cute now…

Sand Santa/Tree

This past weekend was the Frost Fair along the Thames bank side. It was only Friday and Saturday. I wanted to take the kids on Saturday, but it rained like crazy so after a trip to the library we jumped on the tube to a nice warm enclosed Canary Warf mall. I lucked out. I originally took them there to eat lunch, but they were having some holiday festivities there as well.

Face painting

Holding still

We made it there around 11:30. This is one instance being early was a good thing. We were lucky that people don’t really stir that early here. There was no line so we were the one of the first to get face painted by this lady. She was really skilled and took the time to add shadows and lighting. It was really nice.

It tickles.

Snowman view

Tree view.

Together

Sharing the love.

Christmas here in London seems like such an eventful time. There is a Winter Festival that goes for about a week and a half along the Thames, there seems to be a lot of Christmas markets, and theater specials. We are sure to have some fun. In a week the kid’s grandma and aunt will be coming into town for x-mas so we will be sure to partake in a lot of the events here.