Independence Day at Buckingham Palace

My mother in law planned her third visit around my husband's birthday.  She has always spent his birthday with him and was not about to let something like being a long plane ride away stop her!  So, when she made her plane reservations to come over, I immediately booked us to visit Buckingham Palace and the Royal Mews.  When I was making the reservation I thought it fitting that we would be visiting Buckingham Palace on the 4th of July!

So, my mother in law arrived on 3 July and we headed into London on 4 July.  This picture was one of the first things that we saw in London.  On a hunch I took a picture.  I have seen a lot of Chihuly, he has a very nice exhibit in the Indianapolis Children's Museum, and this looked like his work.  When we got home I found out that it was indeed done by Chihuly!

We headed straight to the Palace to see the special exhibit in the Queen's Gallery, the Leonardo Da Vinci the Anatomist exhibit.  It was fantastic!  In the 1700's the royal family acquired Da Vinci's medical papers. The exhibit explained his work in detail.  The text below is quoted directly from the information about the exhibit.

This exhibition is the largest ever of Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of the human body.  Leonardo has long been recognised as one of the great artists of the Renaissance, but he was also a pioneer in the understanding of human anatomy.  He intended to publish his ground-breaking work in a treatise on anatomy, and had he done so his discoveries would have transformed European knowledge of the subject.  But on Leonardo’s death in 1519 the drawings remained a mass of undigested material among his private papers and their significance was effectively lost to the world for almost 400 years.  Today they are among the Royal Collection’s greatest treasures.

This was the book that the collection was bound in, I believe by his last assistant.

When we were done with the exhibit we headed to the Buckingham Palace and the State Rooms.  The Palace is a fantastic place to visit.  Particularly since the Palace has only been open to visitors since 1993.  My mother in law had not had a chance to visit the palace since it had been open.  It is open sporadically though the year but the summer time hours are a bit more planned since the royal family spends part of the summer up in Scotland in Holyrood.

Pictures inside the palace, like all the other residences are not allowed.  So, we bought a official visitors guide, got our audio tour and headed in to see the State Rooms and the other rooms that were open.  We were also going to see a special exhibit for the Diamond Jubilee, it is the Diamond Exhibit featuring some of the fantastic jewelry and other pieces that are owned by the Queen.

When we were done with the tour, we ended at the garden.  There is a cute little cafe and we stopped and had a delicious lunch!  We shared a tuna sandwich, a clotted cream and fresh strawberry scone with tea to drink!  Yum!  Here we are on the 4th of July in the garden of the Queen in the cafe with our matching Union Jack scarves!  Quite smashing, right?

We realized that we were going to have a hard time getting the kids on time, so I made arrangements with the school to get me youngest one late.  In the meantime Sean called and said that he would get the boys, so my mother in law and I decided to head to Harrods!

Harrods is an awesome sight to behold, for sure.  It is also confusing and overwhelming to the non-shopper like me.  I did get to see some of the fabulous design houses like Missoni and Alaia.  If only money grew on trees!  We settled for finding the Harrods gift store and grabbed some things out of it.  We left in kind of a hurry as we were suppose to be meeting Colin at the train station.  As we were descending the escalator to find the way out, we were not paying attention and ended up in the basement to find this sweet memorial to Diana and Dodi Fayed.  It is really touching and I am glad that we were lucky enough to stumble upon it!

We made it back to the train station about 20 minutes before Colin.  He was returning from his practice Duke of Edinburgh expedition.  It started out really crazy for him, the first day both of his pack straps broke off.  This was a brand new pack!  But thankfully, it ended well and he was able to borrow another pack to get him though the rest of the expedition.  My mother in law and I grabbed him and headed home.  But we did not get to finish all of our Buckingham Palace tour.  We had missed the Royal Mews.  Darn, looks like we have another trip to London planned!

The Royal Mews holds the carriages and horses that the Queen uses.  She has quite an extensive collection!  She also has 3 cars that she uses.  We saw the 1956 Rolls Royce which was really cool!

This is the Wedding Carriage and has been used by most of the royal brides.  Princess Diana and Kate Middleton both used it.

This is the most magnificent carriage in the collection, the Golden Carriage.  It is an impressive sight to see, the figures on it are life size, so the whole carriage itself is truly massive.  It is also the hardest to drive and apparently has the most uncomfortable ride for passengers.   It was last out for the Queen's coronation and will probably not see service again until the next coronation.  It is a beast to get out, the wall under the windows has to come down for it to come out of the this room!

My mother in law and I had a fantastic time in London.  In fact, because we loved the cafe in the Palace so much we used our tickets (that are good for one year) to go back into the Palace so that we could eat lunch there again!  After a purposeful stroll throughAfter a quick bite to eat we caught the tube and headed back to the school to grab the kids.

The 4th really passed us over as a normal day for the rest of the family.  The kids spent the day at school.  Sean was asked by his co-workers of he was going to bring donuts in to celebrate.  He told them that if he was going to celebrate the 4th like he does at home he would not be working and blowing things up, neither of which happened.  My mother in law and I did have a great day touring the Palace and it seemed a bit ironic that we spent it in the Royal Palace!  

Speech Day and the ball

My friends have been talking about Speech Day all year.  So, the pictures that they painted seemed to make the day itself seem a little tame.  They uttered words like hot, miserable and spending the morning in the school gym.  Luckily, the weather was at least cooperative and while it was warm miserable was not an adjective that I would have used!


Speech Day is St. Nicholas's award day.  It is held in the sports hall aka the gym.  It is usually one of the hottest days of the year apparently.  This year it was not so bad, thankfully.  We delivered the kids to the school by 9:15am.  We drove separately because Sean was taking Mark to Gilwell (the Boy Scout mecca)  for a campout when we were done.  After we arrived I realized that I had forgotten Mark's permission forms to camp at home.  So I turned around and went 20 minutes back home to get it.  I arrived back to the school just in time for the official start.

The Headmaster and all the school governors filed in and the president of the governors spoke.  It was his last year on the board of governors and he was resigning as president.  One of the things that he had done while on the board was to put term limits on service.  He had reached his limit of service at 18 years.

Then the Headmaster was given the podium and after his speech he started with awards.  There are 3 awards given in each year.  They are as follows; Outstanding Achievement, Best Effort and Most Improved.  My two middle sons received the Most Improved award.

In the case of my 13 year old I strongly feel that a lot of his award hinged on the fact that he started 2 language courses from almost zero and really caught up to his class mates.  Another thing that really went in his favor was how well he did on the end of year Maths test.  He had told me during the second term he was ready for the higher Maths class and they were not moving him up because there was not room.  After chatting with the his Maths teacher (who is a dear man) he assured me that he would give my son challenging work and when the end of year testing came, he would test him with the higher classes test.  It worked well in my sons' favor as he scored higher then half of the higher level class and has secured himself a place there!  My 13 year old also has come out of his shell as we were told by two teachers that he really enjoys drama and doing plays.  I have to admit I was in disbelief as this is one of my shyest boys!  Wow!

My 9 year old, the other recipient of the award also worked very hard over the year.  He went from being behind because he had not learned his multiplication and division facts.  He learned all of his multiplication facts and started on division.  He also greatly improved his handwriting and has the best handwriting in his class.  He made great strides in his reading comprehension which has always been one of all of my children's poorest abilities.  We also learned that he is very talented in his artwork.




But after describing how hard they have both worked, it was probably based on test scores or how many levels they advanced!

We ended the day with the school ball.  We had a really nice time with our friends and I got to do some dancing!

Sports Day

So, the kids had Sports Day in school last week.  What is Sports Day?  It is kind of like Field Day.

The kids spent the day doing Track and Field events.  One thing that I learned is that my older three boys need training to run distances and my youngest son is not a sprinter!

It was of course one of the hottest days that we have had here.  It was bright, sunny and very windy.  I put on sun cream and I still managed to get a burn on my arms and neck and oddly on the back of my legs.

The parents group sold food and drinks!  Alcoholic drinks at that!

The kids competed with each other by year in their event.  They wore different color vests which divided them into their respective houses.

What I did learn was that my kids can jump!  All of them except for my youngest ended up competing in jumping.  All three of my older kids placed in the top 4 for the events.  My oldest two did high jump and my oldest placed 4th my second oldest tied for 2nd.  In the long jump my third son placed second and my second son placed 4th.  I am not sure exactly where my oldest placed.  My third son also did a running jump over a pole and tied for second, which is really impressive considering he is one of the shortest ones in his class!

It was especially cute to see my boys cheer for each other and then the other kids that they were competing against.  When my second son was doing the high jump, the other boys in his year chanted USA when he was up.  My third son and the boys in his year were especially supportive of each other when it was there turn, cheering each other on and chanting each others name.

My youngest son had the hardest time during the day.  He did not compete until the afternoon and he only did relays.  When sprinting is not your best ability, and you consistently loose, the fun kind of goes away.  This was very true for him and we had some tears of disappointment when the day was done.

We were never  so glad to get home as we were that day.  All the boys jumped into the shower and we all kind of melted into the couch.  We were tired!

Getting Star Struck, Or Not

Yes, it's true.  My kids go to school with kids that have reality TV star for a parent.

I am not going to name names here, and I am not going to even divulge the ages of the kids that I am talking about... because honestly, the kids can be complete nightmares.  To be fair, they have their good moments as well.

One of them sings "I'm Sexy and I Know It" when he changes for gym.  The other?  Well he told all the other kids in gym that if you look at someone while you change, "You're GAY!".  I can't say that I was particularly happy to hear either of those proclamations.

One of the kids constantly bothers one of my sons.  He talks to him constantly during lessons, copies his paper and argues with my son telling him that his answers are wrong.  Surprisingly, my son takes it without punching him in the face, because if it was one of his brothers, my son would have undoubtedly punched him flat out, no joke.

One of the boys calls one of my sons a liar when he had not lied.  It was during a game in class.  My son was actually really hurt by the whole thing, especially since he knew that he was not a liar.  It was during the conversation about it that my son told me that he did not understand this boy.  He would say mean things to him one moment and then act like they were friends the next.  Talk about being confused!  I don't blame him, I admit that it is a hard situation to explain myself.

One of the boys kneed my son in the groin, in front of all the other kids while at football practice.  My son was laying on the ground, not crying but not feeling good.  All the other boys that were there promptly told the coach.  The coach asked the boy to apologize, which he did.  My son did not answer right away to forgive him which, that coach was ok with, and I still don't think that he has forgiven him yet.  Secretly, I am not sure that I blame him!

I know, these kids sound a bit like a nightmare.  And they can be.  But they can also be really nice.

When we first moved here, one of the boys always shared his after school snacks.  He politely asked me first if he could share.  I had no idea about the parents' celebrity status, I was just thrilled that he was being so nice to my son!

At one of the other boys recent birthday parties, both of my kids were invited to stay.  It was a very fun event for my sons.  During the party, which was a skating party, their celebrity parent was very thoughtful and tried to help my boys learn to skate.  I was touched.

When one of my sons was having problems in class, one of the boys was very nice and agreed with him that another kid was not being very nice to him.  This other child was taking things off their desks without asking.  Or asking to switch pencils when they had sharpened leads and his was dull or the worst offense was telling big lies either about himself or about the celebrity kid....

The celebrity family and I have a definitely disagreement on parenting styles.  It makes me laugh when I hear about a story something the celebrity has written, as the parent has their own blog as well!

The parent in question seems to try and maintain a low profile in the car park, which is fine by me.  I try to maintain a low profile (being the token American and all).  I do have to laugh to myself when I hear other mums talk the talk about the blog and other parenting articles have been written.  I also have a giggle when I see that other parents are following the said star on Facebook.  I have no interest in following him.  I am certainly not a fan of reality TV nor am I star struck.

Coming Out of the Haze

It is been a difficult couple of weeks.  For me, it was because I finally hit the proverbial wall.  I miss home.  It has taken 9 long months, but I miss my kitties and the food.  Buffalo Wild Wings is at the top of the list!

It started when we learned our kitties were wandering the neighborhood.  They are looking for attention and seem to have given up on us coming back home.  I was pretty upset about it and definitely shed a few tears about it.  I am lucky that my neighbors were interested in helping to find out who they belonged to and I had at least one offer to let the kitties stay with them.

Things amped up at school for my 9 year old again.  He had a bad week with a classmate that has been bothering him.  So much that I ended up talking to the school again and had to involve another set of parents since both boys were going to be at a birthday party.  I was not sure that I wanted him to stay over night at the party, but my sister in law insisted that if I sent him he should have a cell phone, which I did.  I am so glad that I took her well placed advice.  It provided me with a piece of mind knowing that he had the phone, even though I knew that he would not use it.  The parents at the party were very vigilant and promptly dealt with things that happened and a good time was had by all, phew!

Things then amped up for my 13 year old.  He had been having some small problems with one of his good friends for quite awhile.  Just a small but consistent problem.  My 13 year old has been trying hard to give him space since his friends' comments seem to indicate that it's what he wants.  Things kind of ballooned for my 13 year old when a birthday party for a mutual friend came up and he thought he was the only one in the group not invited.  To top it all off he has been wishing for his friends at home, I suspect because what has been going on with his good friend.  I told my son to back off things totally and go and sit with his brother at lunch, which he did.  Things have blown over about the birthday party, but his friend still seems to need space.  After an outburst at school in which a teacher apparently got involved, I told my son to either talk to his friend or leave it.  Less then two weeks left of school and we are planning to be busy running all over Europe for the summer anyway!

While all this was going on we determined that a ball joint was going in my car.  A friend of mine, that works at the school put me in touch with an excellent mobile mechanic that fixed it for me!   I am so lucky to be surrounded by such kind people.  I am happy to report that the car is working fine!

As all this unfolded around me I definitely had a tantrum or two about it all.  I hid in my house and tried to work through it without getting myself in too much trouble with others.  Now, after it is all over, I really feel like I have come out of some kind of haze.  The world looks brighter and thankfully we have had a pretty good start to the week so far!

Mondays, Hating Them is Universal

You gotta love Mondays, right?  Nope.  I am not sure what day I dislike more, Sunday or Monday.  Sundays are typically filled with dread and preparations for Monday.  Monday, well, Monday is it's own form of torture and today have been a particularly harried one for me.

It started out ok.  We just finished with the half-term break at school and I as I opened the lunches I realised that I probably should have unpacked them all and cleaned them out.  Thankfully, I was not awarded with something nasty and moldy in the boys lunch boxes, take that Monday!

My husband left and on his way out the door he told me there was no way that the boys were going to make it out on time.  Great, I thought to myself.  I glanced at the clock quickly and saw we have 13 minutes left, I held out hope!

We were all ready to go, 3 minutes late.  It was then I realised we had a problem.  My car keys were missing.  I misplace them all the time, no big deal.  But I did not drive the car last, my husband did.  So, my oldest son and I started to sweep the house, checking the usual places with no luck.  We expanded the search to his dresser and jacket.  Still, no luck!  A quick call to my husband, who was en route to work and wa-la they were found, on his person.  He had grabbed them thinking that they were the house keys.  So, now we were going to be late.

I made the notifications to the school and then we waited.  Finally, we got it all sorted and I got the kids to school.  Phew!

The roads on the to the school are not for the faint hearted.  I specifically dislike the road right in front of the school.  It is just barely two lanes.  There is another school right next to our school and traffic get CRAZY!  I figured today it would be no big deal, we were late anyway.  After I dropped the kids off and I was making my way to my next errand, I got the one finger wave from some white van man.  I am still not exactly what I did to deserve his rude gesture.  It was in a spot where cars park on the road and traffic has to proceed around it one lane at a time.  So, it is a give and take process in which the lanes are required to yield to each other and take turns.  The cars were parked in my lane.  As soon as I saw him I pulled over and yielded to him and then put on my blinker to signal my intention to proceed when the road was clear.  I got the one finger wave for my efforts.  Apparently his Monday had not been a good one so far either?

So, on to my next love-er-ly errand.  Dealing with the car.  I have two things to say before I start.  First, owning 4 cars stinks in the biggest way.  Second, I got penalized for having an "antiquated" swipe card.

So, I went to this place that had been recommended to us by people that my husband worked with.  They seemed nice enough and I got what I needed.  When I went to pay, I was told that they don't take swipe cards.  Really?  Because I just swiped my card and it is ready to process.  Oh, you mean you are CHOOSING NOT TO TAKE MY SWIPE CARD.  You say that dodgy people have swipe cards?  Oh.  Oh, well, you will do me a "favor" and take mine, because my face is "honest".  Well, thanks, I think?

Oh, he charged me an extra £5 to take my card.  My husband told me I should dispute it.  Nice thought, but there are two problems.  I never got a real invoice for the work and seriously, over £5.  It was annoying, not highway robbery.

Apparently, today was not just my turn to have a case of the yucky Mondays. In fact, in comparison, I think that my Monday sounds almost stellar.   One of my best girlfriends was just in a car prang aka accident.  She impaled her car on a parking gate and broke the axle.  I admire her as when she was talking to me about it she was remarkably calm.  I would have been bawling, uncontrollably.

Thank you Monday.  See you next week, hopefully on better terms.  Bring on Tuesday.

The Flotilla

Well, me and my oldest two sons made it to London to see the Flotilla part of the jubilee.  It was a cloudy, gray day.  The cloud cover was quite low.  My second son pointed this out to me, so I took the picture!

It was quite an experience!  We caught the train into London around 12:30 and took the tube (or the underground) directly to the Tower of London which was where the flotilla ended.  Once we got off the train, the city was quiet but there was a definite buzz in the air.  The feeling has been very similar to our 4th of July holiday.

I decided that we needed to head up the river to find a spot to a viewing spot that would afford us good visibility.  So, we started walking.  We headed toward Tower Bridge and there we found that we were not allowed on the bridge itself as it was shut off by the Bobbies.  But we stood and watched the Jumbo Tron and got to see the Kate, Wills and the Queen board the Royal Barge.  After that we took a walk.  Sadly, we headed the WRONG way.  Seriously, are you really surprised?  My sons were good chaps and they took my wandering in good spirits and with little complaints, thankfully!

We walked about 15 minutes or so and found a tube station.  I really wanted to watch from Westminster, so we got on the tube and headed that way.  We got off the tube and the excitement was amazing!  All the bells were tolling and we got there just ahead of the Queen, yeah!  Sadly, we were not able to get in anyplace to see her, boo!  All the streets were again blocked off so, we still could not get close to the river.

We walked down to Traflager Square and then as we were walking back to the tube station, passing the London Eye, we crossed paths with the Queen.  So, at least we were close to her at one point even though we could not see her!

Admiralty Arch

We waited for the crowds to die down a bit at Westminster and then hopped back on the train and headed back to the Tower of London.  We exited the tube station to pouring down rain.

With two teenage boys who had been exceedingly patient with their crazy Mum, we grabbed some delicious sugared peanuts from a street vendor and watched what was left of the flotilla with a very limited view from the Tower of London in the pouring rain.    After I decided that we were soaked enough, we headed to catch the tube back to the train to head back home.  Mission was not accomplished, but it was great to be down in London with all the crowds and to feel the vibe of the city.

This was the only trip that we made to London during the Jubilee.  The cool weather and rain was a deterrent.  I had fully intended to go into London on Tuesday, especially when I read in the official Jubliee program that the Golden Carriage was going to be used.  When I read in the news the night before that the Golden Carriage was not going to be used, and with the combination of a few other things like the weather, I decided to stay at home and watch the rest of the Jubilee celebration curled up on the coach under my warm blanket, warm and not wet!