Eating American in Rome

In the past, when Super Handsome and I have traveled, we usually try to eat local. Super Handsome will always push for a McDonalds, run and he usually gets at least one in while we are away.  I think, so then, he can say that he has had McDonalds in every country he has traveled.

That said, we didn't eat a lot of McDonalds when we lived in the US.  We ate there when we traveled.  Even then I have been slowly pushing my kids to slightly healthier alternatives.  We love Chick Fil' A and we love, love, love 5 Guys Burgers & Fries.  In fact my kids talked about it at least once a week.  They wondered if there was one in Rome, sadly there was not!

While living in the UK, there are not many other alternatives to fast food.  So, often we find ourselves eating at McDonalds.  We also ate at a Kentucky Fried Chicken when we went to Oxford.  If possible we will eat something from a market vendor.  Sean ate a great sausage burger in Saffron Waldron.  In Cambridge, Liam and I shared an Ostrich burger and Sean and the other boys ate some good German sausage.

So, when in Rome and given the alternatives for American food to group of kids who are being dragged around, there were not many American choices.  We saw McDonalds and Burger King both.  Super Handsome and I were not impressed.  There was a Hard Rock Cafe, though.  So, on Wednesday, we piled on the metro and headed toward the Hard Rock Cafe.  One of my friends, was quite appalled and gave us a few other American options.  She is right, they are not the best tasting food and they are typically over priced.  We tried to find one of the alternatives that she pointed us to that was near the Hard Rock, but we had no luck.  So, we headed to the Hard Rock!

Youngest Son had a hotdog that he instantly poured literally half the bottle of ketchup on!  Everyone else had burgers.   They raved about the food and asked to come back later in the week.  The kids were in heaven, or at least as close as they could get.  We left with our craving partially satisfied.  They loved it so much that they asked several times to come back and they quite often talked about how good it tasted.  When you miss an American burger, you miss an American burger!

We did not take them back during our trip to Rome, but we did promise them to take them to the London Hard Rock Cafe!

The Vatican

Thursday was an early day as we had a "beat the line" tour of the Vatican at 8am.

We met our guide at the entrance.  We had a bigger group this time, with 12 people in total on our tour.  Our guide was very nice, her name was Barbara and she told us that she was from a little town near Venice.  Her accent was not really a typical Italian accent though, it seemed a bit Spanish to me.  Super Handsome noticed that it was different as well.

We wandered though kind of quickly and really just got a highlight of some of the statues, tapestries then the map hall.  We went though the modern art that was displayed without even a whisper, which was disappointing.  I did see a few really nice works by Matisse as we walked quickly through on our way to St. Peter's.

Before we got to the Sistine Chapel, we had spent time at the beginning of our tour learning the history behind the paintings on the ceiling and the walls.  She had to tell us everything before we went in because talking was not allowed in the chapel.  No pictures were allowed.  We got to the Sistine Chapel and it was a little chapel that was very full of people.


Then we headed to St. Peters's Basilica.  For beating the crowds and doing an early tour we learned quickly that there were lots of people touring.  So much for beating the lines!  Our guide told us just a very few things about the basilica and then met us at the end.  I have to admit that I was very disappointed, especially since as we were wandering around (with our head phones on) we were able to hear other tours that we going on.  Our tour guide ended up being a disappointment, she was from a different tour company then our other two guides and she ended up being the worst, especially since we did hear the other tour inside St. Peter's while she waited at the exit for us.

St. Peter's

 Then we headed out and tried to go back to the church where we saw the skulls.  We wanted to go in and do a tour of the items that the monks made with the bones.  But when we got there, there were nuns praying inside and there was no place evident of where they were displayed.  We headed back and decided to go for dinner.  We stopped at Dino e Tony's to find out that we were a bit early for dinner.  So, we rested back at the hotel and came back for dinner at 7pm.

We walked in and we were seated by Tony, I think.  Dino, we saw later, he was cooking.  He spoke little English and talked to us in Spanish, Italian and some English.  We started out with antipasti.  He brought us one of everything.  Regular pizza, pizza with gorgongaza and fish, prochuitto and salami, along with a few other dishes as well.  Tony came and cleared our plates and kept shoving things on Super Handsome's plate as the kids and I giggled.

Second course was pasta.  We got gnocchi with tomato sauce (reminded me of ravoli sauce) and then penne carbonra.  Kid 3 loved the gnocchi!  Youngest Son ended up having a small fit about the food and which we quieted down.  We told him that he better get eating as he was going to hurt Tony's feelings.  At the point Tony returned and found to his dismay, my younger sons were not so excited about the pasta without sauce!  So, he took away their penne dishes to add sauce to them, muttered under his breath the whole time.  We giggled just at the hilarity of the situation!

We were stuffed too full to eat the third course of meat and veggies.  But Tony did manage to get 3 of the boys to take a dessert!  Oldest Son and Youngest Son had tiramisu and Son 3 had PannaCotta.

Wine and two pasta dishes.  Wow!

We were telling Cian he needed to eat because he was hurting Tony's feelings.  Here Tony is trying to get him to eat!

Waiting for dessert.

Exhausted, What Next?

So, now it was Tuesday and after the last three days, we were pretty tired.  Two days in an airport and then one day long tour to Pompeii and Naples equaled some cranky Bearys.

Checking the schedule, we had Tuesday free.  We started looking at our tour vouchers and realized that our Colosseum/Forum tour voucher did not have the time of the tour on it.  The tour was scheduled for the next day, Wednesday.  I figured out how to use the phone and called the tour company.  It was a good thing that I did for two reasons.  First, because of the snow and bad weather, the Colosseum was closed and our tour for Wednesday had been affected as in canceled.  So, we were able to reschedule for Friday.  Also, it was with the same company (Dark Horse) that we had planned the night tour with, so while chatting with the girl on the phone I was able to get her to reschedule the tour without the additional 10euro booking fee!  Yeah!  The only bad thing ended up being that it was for that night, which ended up being the one of coldest night we were in Rome, or at least it seemed like it!

So, we headed out that day and just did some wandering heading toward the Pantheon.  We grabbed breakfast from a busy patisserie and walked. We were really close to so much with our hotel location.  We started out at the Vatican and then walked.  We ended up in a really pleasant square, Piazza Navona.  There we stumbled upon Super Handsome's favorite gelarteria, Grom!  It was a cold day, but the kids were eager to try it anyway.  Oldest Son, Kid 3 and I had a piccolo limone cona.  Yongest Son had a chocolate one (is he really my kid?) and Second Son had strawberry.  I ate the gelato out of mine and Super Handsome ate my cona.  He said that it was too cold for gelato.  What?  Who are you and what did you do with my husband?  While we were in Italy last year Super Handsome had gelato at least 3 times a day, not this time!

The boys in front of Grom.

Piazza Navona

Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

We wandered around a bit more and then headed back to the hotel.  Dinner subsisted of left over pizza from a tattoria that we grabbed dinner at the night before along with some good salami, crackers and parmesan cheese that Super Handsome bought Sunday.  Then we headed out for our night time tour.

It was a small group, just us an one other couple.  Our tour guide was good.  It was evident that he was not used to giving tours with kids though.  He kind of stumbled a bit when we were in Campo di' Fiori.  He was telling us about a radical monk Bruno.   During the dark ages, he was branded an enemy of the church for many reasons.  The reason that made our guide stumble was because Bruno claimed that Mary was not a virgin.  Bruno ended up being executed by the church as was many in Camp di' Fiori.  He also pointed out that there were no churches in this square, even though Rome has 918 churches!

This tour ended up being one of our favorites, even though the stories we heard were generally not good ones.  We learned about Madonnella's in Rome.  It was an ingenuous idea really.  During the dark ages, Rome was not safe at night.  The church placed images on Mary on buildings to "watch" the people and crime rate went down immediately.  So, when you are in Rome, look up at all the buildings. They are commonly located on the corners but not all the time. We have many different pictures of them.

We also learned about the church Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte.  The monks that founded this church buried abandoned bodies in Rome.  Eventually they ran out of room.  Their problems were compounded when the Tigris River flooded and the dirt was washed away leaving the bones exposed.   At the time, death was celebrated as an important part of life and it was joyful to know that loved ones were going to heaven.  Also bodies were buried or put into crypts so that they could be resurrected.   The monks began to use the bones to make things, in particular we saw pictures of a chandelier made of human bones.  This was done as art and well accepted as normal until 1870 when the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel put a stop to it.  Saying that it was important that Italy be civilized like the rest of Europe.  They were not allowed to make anymore bone artwork.

Note the skulls on the church!

This is when one of my children had to "tie his shoe".  At least that was what Super Handsome told the tour guide as he and the said child lagged behind.  Actually the poor kid had to pee, so Super Handsome found a place that it could be done discreetly which caused him and the said child to lag behind, considerably!

Then saw the site of the old prison and head the story of Beatrice Cenci.  She was from a rich family in Rome.  Her father was very good friends with the Pope Clemment VIII.  Her father was a very bad man and it was well known that he treated his family badly.  He beat his family and raped his daughter. The people of Rome wrote to complain about his bad behavior and he was mildly punished.  He sent his family to live in the country.  In desperation that family or Beatrice alone killed him and tried to make it look like an accident.  It was formally investigated by the papal police.  Beatrice was put into the jail for about 6 months.  The people of Rome protested her ill treatment and eventually she and her family, with the exception of her younger brother were beheaded.  Beatrice Cenci is apparently now a symbol in the campaign against child abuse in Italy.

This is Castel Saint'Angelo and Pont Saint Angelo Bridge, near the castle is where Beatrice was beheaded.

We moved on and learned about Aqua Tofana.  If you see Aqua Tofana, please do not drink it!  It is NOT some new fangled Italian water!  Giulia Tofana moved to  Rome from Italy.  She discovered a fantastic new poison that was odorless and tasteless.  She sold it to many wives in Rome that wanted to get out of marriages with their husbands.   It was sold as Manna of St Nicholas of Bari.  In the end, it is estimated that over 600 men were killed with the poison.

We ended the night tour with frozen feet and fingers.  We made our way back to the hotel with another free day in store for the next day, Wednesday.  We were slow getting up in the morning, thinking that we could catch an audience with the Pope.  It turned out that he was speaking inside and we had to get tickets, somehow Super Handsome missed that information when he checked the website, so we missed him.  So, we spent the time revisiting the things that we had seen during our night tour.  We had lunch on the go which, was when the kids tried crepes with Nutella for lunch.  It was an instant favorite.  Liam and I also had a panni.  I managed to get a little shopping in, I picked up two scarfs.

For dinner we headed to a little market and picnicked.  We picked up fruit and some disappointing bread.  We also headed to the grocery to get a few things that the market did not have.  We also picked up cherry tarts for breakfast as the next morning we were touring the Vatican bright and early!

Social Responsibility

So, there was a little incident that I left out that I would now like to share with you.  It is important and I know that if you are reading this, you probably share my feelings.

Let me take you back a bit.  As you know, we were on our way to Rome and our first flight had been canceled.  After a bit of a circus, we were put up into a hotel (at the airlines expense) fed and a flight was rebooked.  It was a long 24 hours, to be sure.  We did not really make friends with fellow passengers, but we were a small community for a short time and many faces had become familiar.

So, after we got to the airport in the morning, we got our breakfast vouchers and had our breakfast.  Then we waited for our gate to be called.  Remember since we were flying the budget airline EasyJet without any seat assignments, we were paranoid about sitting with each other and so we were tried to get to the front of every que.  When our gate was announced, we headed to our new gate.  Another note about the budget airline, we were only allowed one item on the plane and it had to be a certain size.  Anything additional had to be checked and there was a fee for checking extra bags.

We handed the staff our boarding pass and went to stand in another que.   At this point, they board the "Speedy Boarding" people.  Those are people that have paid for the privilege, which we did not.  There was a specific seating area for the speedy borders and an area for the regulars passengers.  At this point many did not care and moved into the speedy boarding area, and hearing that conversation take place I moved up into the area as well with 2 of the kids.  Super Handsome stayed back with the two others.

A man, his wife, son and daughter (both teens) walk up to the speeding boarding area, I think that they all had two bags each (oops!) and they were being trailed by a staff member who said "Sir" at least twice to the man.  There was an angry confrontation, mostly on the side of the fellow passenger regarding their baggage.  The staff member had to be a bit forceful as well.  We all watched as the family was led back to where my husband, and my older sons were waiting and it looked like there was a bit of repacking done.

I turned my attention back to where we were and waited.  All of a sudden there was a scream and I heard Super Handsome yelling at someone.  I looked back in alarm and took a step or two toward the commotion and then stopped to watch what was happening.   The teen girl was on the floor crying, the scream had come from her.  My husband was yelling at the father.

Something happened that made the father so angry with the teen girl that he had grabbed at her as she tried to move away, he forcefully grabbed her and ended up pushing her on the floor.  At this point Super Handsome stepped in and grabbed the man's shoulder (he was taller then my husband) and Super Handsome told him "I don't care who she is, leave her alone".  She was on the floor by this point and that is when I saw what was happening.  The wife then stepped in and "told my husband off".  She said that her husband was extremely tired, and he had had an extremely stressful day to which my husband replied "Yes, we all have, it's no excuse".  In the meantime the man helped his daughter up and hugged her as she cried.

One of the ladies that we had been standing the day before turned to me and said something to the effect of "Unreal".  I agreed.  It was a bit upsetting to watch for sure.  I am proud of Super Handsome.  I am glad that he stepped into the tense situation and tried to diffuse it and I think that his intervention did help even though it was not appreciated.  Discussing the whole thing later, we learned that our oldest son was not really not even very aware what was happening until my husband started yelling at the man.  My 13 year old had no recollection of it at all.  My kids are really unobservant I guess.  The other thing that my husband mentioned was the wife seemed very unconcerned with the situation with the husband and daughter and was more consumed with my husband and watching what he was doing.  We both still find that concerning....

I know that when we see things like this happen, it is sometimes hard to step in and do something about it.  Super Handsome and I obviously feel that it is the right thing to do.  This is the second incident that I have watched my husband step into in the last 12 months.  The one before was at my 9 year old's dive meet in Fort Wayne.  A parent was verbally abusing a teen coach.  The father that Super Handsome spoke to then turned his anger onto my husband which brought me out of the observer mode to an active participant.  That father was rewarded for his bad behavior and received a life time ban from the facility.

We have a social responsibility to step in and not let people bully or mistreat others.  Period.  

So, We Made It To Rome, Went to Pompeii and Learned About Antique Porn!

Yes, we made it to Rome!  Finally and yipee!

Youngest Son on the plane!

I need to preface all of this information about this trip by saying that we did all of this on our own.  No help from Rick Steves or really any guide books and overall I am satisfied with how our trip turned out.  We did have a friend give us some suggestions for tours, but by the time I got them, I had made all of our plans.

On our arrival, it was very evident that it has snowed recently.  There was snow on the ground on our way to the hotel and some of the parked cars were covered with snow, though the streets were clear.  The temperatures were really chilly but the sun was shining!

Upon our arrival, we took an over priced taxi from the airport to our hotel, Residence Candia.  The hotel was located very close to the Vatican City.  We stored our things and checked out our room.  It was just what we needed: three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a little kitchenette!  It was decently furnished, definitely kid friendly.  It was not a luxury hotel by any means, but it was fairly comfortable and warm, very warm.  Along with not being able to handle the snow, Rome is also bad at the cold.  The gentleman at the front desk told us to turn up the heat in our room as we were checking in.  After we were all settled, we grabbed our map and headed out.

Sunday was meant to be a day for us to just walk around and check things out.  We walked around a bit to check out the neighborhood and made it to the Vatican.

 My dad has traveled to Europe quite a bit and he had told me that Europe was nothing special, that there was trash all over and the people smoked.  He is right, the cities that I have been in have trash all over and there is a lot of smoking not only in Italy but in the UK as well.  The neighborhood that our hotel was in also had a lot of graffiti all over the buildings.  We had seen this in Milan, last May as well.  It is always disappointing for me to see it emblazoned all over the walls, especially when it is done on the beautiful stones that are used in building.  Despite the graffiti, we still felt relatively safe in the neighborhood where our hotel was located.  Safe enough to wander around several evenings!

We ended up grabbed dinner in a little passterrie that had a little restaurant attached.  On our way out, we grabbed a few things for breakfast and then found a little grocery store to grab a few other things.  We went back to the hotel and settled in for the night.   We had to be up bright and early, because I had scheduled all day Monday to be out.  We were headed to Naples and Pompeii.

I emailed Dark Horse, the company that I had scheduled our Saturday night tour, The Dark Heart of Rome.  The were willing to rebook for a 10Euro each fee, WHAT!!!

Here are the boys at the end of the tour

We got up the next morning and paid for another taxi to take us to meet up with the tour group.  We could have gotten a ride for free, but I did not make the arrangements in time. <poor planning, sigh>

So, off to Naples and Pompeii we went!  The Naples tour was very short, we spent about 45 minutes and we stayed very close to the bay.  We saw just a few things while we were there.  The most interesting thing was the excavation of the old port.  We could see evidence of the old port and buildings, it was fascinating!  They discovered it when they were digging to put a metro stop in that location.

We then headed to lunch and our tour of Pompeii.  Lunch was ok, we started with a choice of soup or lasagna.  Our second course was pork or fish with potatoes.  For dessert we just had vanilla ice cream.  It was ok, but really kind of disappointing.

Here is a picture of the volcano that caused all the destruction in Pompeii.  It is still considered an active volcano and last erupted at the end of World War II.

Pompeii was really interesting and we had a good tour guide.  He showed us the main things to see in the city and it was fascinating.  We saw many of the artifacts left behind by the residents and a few of the plasters of the bodies.   Pompeii is a bit unique as it was buried before Christianity took hold, so their is no evidence of Christianity in the city at all, just of the Greek gods.  We were also told important things about the architecture, specifically how to tell if the bricks are Roman by their unique appearance!  If you look in the picture, they are very flat and small compared to what we are used to seeing in the US or UK.

Pompeii was inhabited by 22,000 people and had 24 brothels.  Seriously!  We walked by two and went into one that had frescos, antique porn!  It was very amusing to Super Handsome and I because the tour guide was trying very hard to make the tour PG, even though he showed us two of the brothels.  The tour guide seemed to be assured that my older boys were knowledgable about brothels and such because they had the internet available to them.  He asked Second Son (in front of the group) if he had a computer and the internet and assumed that because he did he would 'know all this', I was not sure if I should have been offended or amused.  Super Handsome and I choose to be amused.  Funny thing about the antique porn and visiting the 'red light district; of Pompeii?  It was one of the most memorable parts of the tour for Oldest Son... (covering my ears and singing lalalalalala!)

Starting Out On a Flat Note, er Tire...

As most of you know by now, in our lives, or at least my life we live it by the expectation if something can go wrong it will.  Sean and I have seen this pattern repeated so often in our marriage that it seems to be the rule not the exception.  Heck, the day that we were married our limos did not show up!  I decided to drink (actually guzzle or chug) champagne while someone else figured out what to do (and I have pictures to prove it).  When bad things do not happen we are always happily surprised and grateful.

So, we decided to go to Rome for the kids half term.  The doctor determined that three weeks before we left Youngest Son had strep with scarlet fever.  Everyone else seemed fine until the Tuesday before we were to leave and Second Son started with a fever.  Sure enough, it was strep and scarlet fever, despite the Dr telling me that there was no way he could get it because he was "too old".  We got him on antibiotics and crossed our fingers that no one else would get sick.  Youngest Son ended up missing two days of school with a low grade fever probably some minor virus, and was back in school Friday.

Friday, Super Handsome had a flat tire both in the morning and at night.  His car, The Tank, is our family car and therefore very important for the trip to the airport.  To compound this issue, he has no spare but he does have an automatic tire pump that he was using to re-inflate the tire.  Saturday morning he filled the tire and put in something to help seal the unseen hole in it.  He had checked the tire thoroughly to see if he could find a nail or screw, but he could not find any reason that the tire would continue to go flat.  So, he put in the tire sealing stuff and after a quick chat with the dog sitter we headed off to the airport.

Mind you that I live two miles from one of the three major London airports, Stansted.   Did we go out of Stansted airport?  Of course not!  The airfares were double the price and not worth it, even with what we had to pay in the long term parking at Gatewick.  So, to Gatwick we went!   Gatewick is about an hour and 15 minutes away from our home.

It has snowed Friday night for the second time in a week and we were a little nervous about being able to get anywhere Saturday morning, they are a bit crazy here when it snows and Super Handsome's car does not handle well on a lot of snow.  We flew one of the many budget airlines and our flight was not until something like 2pm.  But, since we did not know that airport, we got there very early.  The budget airline did not allow me to get seat assignments either, so we wanted to make sure that we at the airport in plenty of time to get our seats together.  We arrived at the airport by 11:30am, plenty early.  We grabbed McDonalds for lunch and waited for out gate to be posted.  As soon as it was, we rushed to the gate and we were rewarded as being first in line.  Hooray!  Right?  Not so fast...

We waited and they delayed our flight, not just once, but many times.  The flight was full, very full with over 150 people on board and part of it was a group of students!  Great. Since we were first in line Super Handsome got to hear what the staff was saying about the situation.   He found out that Rome had been getting snow that day.  It rarely snows in Rome, the last time it snowed was 30 years ago.  The airports do not have equipment to deal with the white stuff or even ice.  So, the airport we flew into, Fiumicino (Rome has three airports) asked the airlines to cancel 50% of their flights going into the city.  As each delay grew longer and longer people came up to the desk showing the staff their computers and to prove that at that time there was no snow falling in Rome.  Super Handsome listened to the staff talking about how the airline really wanted this plane to end up back at Gatewick that day and it seemed a major concern that they would not be able to get the plane back.  I think that the staff at the desk were a bit intimidated because they asked the airline captain to come and speak to us.  So, yep, we were canceled!

I spent time on the phone with our booking agent and we kind of followed the que of people around the airport.  Some people went home with the urging of the staff to contact the airline, we continued to hang around.  At one point though, I was told by the booking agent on the phone that the next flight was not until TUESDAY.  Um, yeah, I don't think so buddy.  I am so glad that we hung around and waited.  They ended up rebooking the flight for the next day, but because I had booked through an agent I had to get them back on the phone before the airline staff would rebook us.  Seriously!  Once we were on the rebooked flight, we also got vouchers for a hotel and the promise of food!

I had to cancel the night tour of Rome that I had reserved for Saturday evening.  The booking agent also canceled Saturday night at the hotel for me.  We ended up extending our trip to Sunday the 18th so that we could stay the full week that we had planned.

We arrived at the hotel, the Copthorne and checked into two rooms.  The family suites were all taken by the time we arrived, go figure.  The hotel seemed to be a nice one, it even had a pool, too bad we could not enjoy it as we neglected to bring swim suits.  Dinner, well, was just not so hot.  We were envisioning food vouchers, so Super Handsome and my older sons were planning to have steak!  The hotel basically a buffet and provided penne noodles in a spicy red sauce or a choice of chicken with gravy, rice, fresh steamed veggies and potatoes.  We did not get served any other drinks except for water.  The hotel was definitely over extended for the evening as at least one of the front desk staff was pouring water into glasses for fellow diners.

We headed to bed with the expectation that we needed to be on the shuttle bus to the airport bright and early.  We had to meet the shuttle bus by 6:05am and we wanted to be sure to be on that bus as the next one was an hour later we felt it was cutting our time to close.  We were also worried that one bus would not be enough for everyone and we wanted to get on the first bus out.  The early leaving time also meant that we missed the breakfast that the hotel was serving, not that we were really bothered after the dinner disappointment.

We got to the airport and we were sent to the fast ticketing area!  Yeah!  We saw the many now familiar faces of the people that we had seen for the last 12 hours.  We were also given breakfast vouchers so we headed to the food area to grab something for breakfast.  We all got our things to eat and then waited again.  They posted our gate and we headed over to prepare to board and depart.

Thankfully, all went well and we managed to get to Rome on the 9am flight our of Gatewick.  But seriously, what next?  <Grins>, you will have to read more to find out!

Kid 3 Turns 9 and How We Found Out Our Oldest Son has Super Human Strength

Well, my little sunshine turned 9 on 28 Jan!  So, I guess that he is not so little anymore.

If you know our Kid 3, then you know what makes him special to us.  He has a brilliant, sunny disposition and he is loved by most everyone that that he meets.  He is an optimist.

When we lived in the US, he was not particularly sporty in the sense that he did not want to play football.  Here in the UK, he has found that he does enjoy playing football/soccer.  He enjoys being in the UK, most of the time.  He enjoys drama, art and French at St. Nick's.  He has also found some good friends along the way.

My husband and or oldest sons were at a scout event on his birthday, we had all planned to go as it was on the American AFB Lakenheath.  We were planning on eating pizza and bowling when the event was over.  Instead, my younger sons, and I spent the morning in the car to retrieve Chip from Heathrow Airport.  It also turned out that my youngest had scarlet fever and strep throat earlier in the week, so it was good that we did not schedule a party, as we would have had to cancel.

My little sunshine had his party February 3.  He had an Angry Birds party and a sleep over.  As per usual in our house, any plans that we made (and I did not make many) got blown away.  But, we made some nice friends in the process and I think that the boys had a good time, I hope so anyway!

Monday, my youngest son's teacher asked me to help out in his class.  He was studying the big London fire in the 1600's, and one of the other mom's canceled.  So, I happily agreed.  Little did I know I signed myself up for the full day!

Mid-week before the party, my husband announced that he had to go to Warminister for the day on business.  That was OK, I still had my older two to help out.  Sure.

Wednesday, I canceled meeting a US friend in London, turned out to be a good thing even as disappointing as it was.  Wednesday, I went looking for party things in Bishop's Stortford.  I did not have much luck.  Thursday, after a long day of getting things for the party in Harlow, when I was picking up my youngest son, his teacher told me that I needed to pack my lunch for Friday as it was an all day affair.  What?  No way!  I was counting on doing some party prep that day!

Friday, I realized that my oldest son's field trip to the London Art Gallery was going to be a problem as he was arriving back at the school when the kids from the party were arriving here at the house.  Quick text to my girlfriend saved the day.  She grabbed him and held him until my husband could get him. Phew!  Can you say POOR PLANNING!  Yep, that probably would pretty accurate, curse you AT&T, I want my smart phone back!

The kids arrived and things were going well.  One set of parents,  seemed very concerned about leaving me with all the kids, so they stayed and we chatted until my husband and oldest son walked in around 20:00.  My husband was in a horrid mood, I totally got an earful about poor planning.  My oldest son helped with the kids for a bit by playing the Wii, which was not really any help.  Then, he mysteriously disappeared into his room.  My second son and I, well, we Kept Calm and tried to Carry On.

I managed to feed the kids some grapes and dough balls while I chatted with the concerned parents.  I started dinner, but we really did not eat until after 21:00.  The Angry Bird games that I had planned?  Well, sadly, we did not have the time nor did I have the energy to do any of them, I cooked until after 22:00.   One of the boys, left at 22:00.  It was then, that we found out my oldest son has "super human" strengths.

We have 4 doors on the house, one for each side, no joke.  We use two, the kitchen door and the patio door.  The front door has a massive locking system with multi-keys and the door in the formal lounge is just not located anywhere near our living space.  The child that was leaving early, his grandfather arrived at 22:00 to pick him up.  He knocked at the front door and my oldest directed him to the other door.  The grandfather headed to the door in the formal lounge.  My oldest tried to open the door and between him and the grandfather, the door ended up on the ground with the hinges ripped off and broken.  Huh?  Yeah.  Keep Calm and Carry On, my mantra for the night.

My husband helped the birthday boy try and get a game of 7Up going, but I think that it fell a bit flat with the others.  My husband then wrestled with the door for a bit and then came in and finished up the cupcakes.  We finally got the kids though the evening and then ready for bed.  I had them all sleeping by 23:30 by threatening no pancakes in the morning if they did not sleep.  My second oldest son was a great help though all the party.  He stayed downstairs and helped keep them under control for the most part.  He also slept down in the lounge, aka the living room, with them.  He was such a help to his Mom that I rewarded him later!  I would not have been able to make it through that night with out him.

Morning came and my husband and I made pancakes and sausages for them and the kids were picked up pretty promptly at 10am.   They all left with the party Angry Bird party favors that I made, minus the king pigs since I managed to burn them Thursday night.

I need another weekend to recover from the weekend!  Oi!  Oh, and no other doors were sacrificed over the weekend.