Welcome to number 32

I finally got around to taking some pictures of our place.  Of course it is a cloudy day so the lighting is lacking...but what do you do?  Our neighbor told us these houses were built about 1903.  We are lucky it has newly been renovated but still possesses some fun charm.  So follow me as I take you on a tour of #32 with all of its 36 stairs (if you can't go out you go up).

 Living room

Living Room

 Entry with its awesome crown molding 

 Dining Room

Dining Room

Fireplace in the dining room.  Most of the other fireplaces are boarded up since the builders didn't put hearths in it's against code to burn in them.  We could take the boards off but there is only one other one that looks this decorative.  Plus baby makes a big mess of herself in them so we decided to leave them alone.

 Kitchen

 Play Room/Guest Room

Bigger Girls Room

 Baby's Room

 Our 3rd floor loft or Rapunzel's room as Letty calls it

 Our room

 The skylight from the loo.  I often hum "chim chimney" while showering :)

 Our odd rock garden.  The landlord wanted no maintenance.  It would have been nicer to just pave it but oh well.

Good bye.  I hope you come and see us soon!

First Day of School...again

Letty was so so so excited to finally start school.  She loved her first week.  She is somewhat of an American novelty, I'm not sure if there are any other Americans in her school.  Their uniform is the school sweatshirt or plain blue sweater, white or light blue shirts, grey or black skirts or trousers.  I LOVE uniforms, so easy.

She did it!

Gracie went and turned four on us!  We celebrated a day early since we moved on her birthday (good thing she is still young enough to not be upset by this).  The following day was Sunday so we loaded up into our newly acquired car to head to church.  About five minutes later we were heading back home since Gracie got sick all over herself and the car.  Poor girl, my friend reminded me that she was sick last year on her birthday as well, stinkin' winter!  

We are so blessed to have Gracie in our family!  As a four year old we are working on not having a melt down over how our clothes feel especially our underwear and also using the toilet before it's an emergency.  One of my favorite things is her amazing laugh.  She has had it since she was a baby and I'm so glad it's still around.  We were at our neighbors house and the kids were playing and laughing.  "Who is that laughing?!?" our neighbor exclaimed.  "Oh, it's just Gracie" I replied.  She was pretty amazed at her deep, loud laugh.  

We love you baby girl!

 "Is this how many fingers I am now?"

Trying to be a nice sister and put up with the hair brushing.  It didn't last too long.

                                                   All of her spoils

                                      Random pic of another awesome slide

Waiting around

We've been waiting to move from Corporate housing to another place.  Letty hasn't started school yet because we don't have an "address" but... we have found a place and we are scheduled to move in on Friday the 27th!  (Keep your fingers crossed that they finish remodeling work in time.)  As much as I dislike being a slave to the school schedule I am looking forward to it so we can have some normalcy in our lives.  Plus the kids are driving me and each other crazy....too much vacation.  We need to get rolling with things and be rid of this limbo state we're in.  Here are some pics of life here lately.  A couple weekends ago the girls and T-man enjoyed skating at the Royal Pavilion rink.  I've never seen so many adults that didn't know how to ice skate.  It was really funny as they all crowded along the wall, I wish I would have taken a picture of it.

 They had these cute little penguins for the kids to help them skate.

 If you're not careful you'll fall right off of the bottom of this slide.  Especially if your sister is going faster and pulls you off.  Letty had done that to Gracie just after this.  After that she stuck to the sides so she could slow herself down.

 Nice big sister giving loves.

 Sprout loves the geese.  She laughs and points and especially likes it when they go bottom up looking for food below.

 I don't think England is as worried about liability.   They had this awesome zip line also at Queen's Park not too far from T-man's work.

Next stop, England!

The Royal Pavillion in Brighton.  This palace is just outside our current apartment in England.  It was built for the Prince Regent later King George IV between 1787 and 1823 it pretty much was a party place.

Before I get completely back logged. Here is an update: We flew to London on Dec. 22nd, drove down to Brighton and are currently set up in our temporary housing. We had a simple Christmas here and flew to Spain on the 26th. We returned to Brighton on the 31st and have been adjusting and exploring. We are in the process of finding our semi-permanant housing. Letty can't start school until we have that address so she will have an extended vacation although she has asked me everyday when she can start school. It's nice to finally be on the correct time, I think it took us over a week to adjust. I thought Sprout (aka baby A; I figured since she is one now, she should graduate from "baby"and T-man has been calling the kids vegetable nicknames lately) would have a hard time with it but she did the best.  Here are our photos to date.

Santa in Spain...lots of nickle and diming going on here.  This one caught us in the busy Plaza Mayor in Madrid, sort of carnival like.

Eating traditional Spanish paellas. Richly flavored rice dishes.

Royal Palace in Madrid

Hand feeding the flamingos at the zoo

"A scout is trustworthly, loyal, helpful and can be found at the Madrid zoo?"  We had to go all the way to Spain to see a Boy scout founder Baden Powell.

Awesome view from the city of Toledo, ancient capital of the Spanish kingdom of Castille.

Playing on the shores of the Mediteranea Sea, we could see Africa in the distance!
                                     

The amazing architecture and detailed work of the La Alhambra.  It is located in Granada and is a palace and fortress built by Moorish rulers in the 13th century and was their last stronghold in Spain.

La Alhambra

On Christmas we took a walk around Brighton.  This is St. Nicolas Church, the oldest building in Brighton. While most of what we see today is from 1400, the original building was built at least 300 years earlier.

Brighton by the shore

Looking for rocks on the beach.  Yes rocks, this is not a sandy beach.

The clocktower (minus the clock) up the road from our place right now

.  The girls really wanted these masks at the gift shop but they were about $22 a piece so we passed.

On the Brighton Pier

The girls loved this little little ride.  I think we let them go about three times.

Enjoying a milkshake from Moo Moo's.  After this and a belgium waffle, we still hadn't had enough sweets, so we got some fresh donunts.  You were right Jamie, they were so awesome.  I think it was one of the best donuts I've had.  I was so busy devouring it I didn't take a picture.