Tag Archive | UK

Hello Karyn!!!

August 25-31

We had two days before the next big excitement… so lets jump right in. We started with the Wild Kratts and sharks.101_9364 101_9365

Dinosaur story starters…101_9366

And a sneak off to Target to continue our back to school/new year shopping. Every year the kids get a new pencil box and crayons and the like. This year the twins are getting their own markers and pencil crayons – no wax and Emanuel gets wax and pencil crayons. I love the pencil box we found for Echo… set up for her to colour it!101_9367 101_9371

We had a visit from a lovely fairy princess.101_9369

And created a man out of the puzzle shaped blocks a sweet friend back in the UK sent us years ago!101_9370

Our time in the pool is winding down so I gave up and let them go crazy clothes on and everything.101_9374 101_9375 101_9376

Midweek we were prepped and ready for our next visitor… after a game of Munchkin (the twins can be quite brutal!).101_9377

So, the new guest fresh from Canada… AUNTY KARYN!!101_9378

The next few days were full of fun: boardgames, parks and playing around. We even left the twins home alone with strict instructions on how to use the phone, what not to do (touch the kitchen), and Minecraft on the computers.101_9379 101_9381 101_9385 101_9388 101_9390

So much fun and we squeezed in SOME schoolwork. And decided to delay our back to school until after we say good bye.

And then on Sunday night we went over to Chris and Renee’s for dinner, bonfire and a good visit. (somewhere in the week we ALSO went to a Norwex party at Karen’s so Karyn met Karen as well!).101_9392

Mystro the kitten made a nice showing as well. Karyn had been missing her kitties.101_9395

It has been so much fun having a dear friend for over a decade meet the people who have become dear here. Add in baby and kitten and talk about cuteness. Oh and a fire for the menfolk to play with.101_9393 101_9396 101_9397 101_9398 101_9399 101_9401 101_9407 101_9408 101_9409

The Army Doctor’s Baby… a Book Review

I am absolutely in love with these contemporary romances by Helen Scott Taylor. She has an amazing way with words and I absolutely love how her locations are in Britain. There is something absolutely lovely about stories based in the UK. The Amy Doctor’s Baby is unique in that not only is the mother Olivia a single mother but the father of her child and all the male members of his family are a part of the military. Active service in fact… including the patriarch the Brigadier.

The story begins with the eldest son Radley coming home on leave from his stint as a specialized military doctor only to find new mother Olivia in his parents’ sitting room with darling baby George. The ex girlfriend of his brother Cameron, she was left in dire straights when he questioned the parentage of her son. luckily Sandra, Radley and Cameron’s mother steps in and helps out leaving Olivia safe and able to continue her studies left out of necessity when she had complications in her pregnancy. 

With her emergency c section Olivia is left unable to watch George alone and Radley is home to help. Our romance goes from there. What I love about this story is that the pace of the romance is slow. The history of both characters is examined in some detail and the relationships of ALL the principle characters are taken into consideration. 

You absolutely feel for Olivia and fall in love with baby George. Even the errant Cameron is redeemable while Radley is a knight in shining armour! A lovely romantic read… Be sure to check out others by her: A Family for Christmas (HERE) and A Family Forever (HERE). The Army Doctor’s Baby is considered a novella as well, so a must have for those rainy days!

The Army Doctor's Baby

The Army Doctor’s Baby

What a Day

It was definitely an interesting morning! I woke up to relatively quiet and somewhat well behaved kids after sleeping past 9 (yay)… and then a quick glance at my laptop left ANOTHER smile on my face – a PACKAGE! From the UK! Something very special for Emanuel that we simply could NOT find here in Canada and were so sad we had not picked up years ago when it WAS available (here’s a hint – it has to do with Pocoyo but is NOT Pocoyo himself!). 

Package!

Then I sat down to do my usual run through on the internet and remembered I had entered into a bunch of draws in a wonderful 12 day series set up by a friend of my mom’s… well I won one days back that I am gifting as I can’t use it myself BUT TODAY… today I won something I have never done before… an hour long drive in a a fancy limo!!!!! AAAAAAAH! So guess what Ken gets as part of his Christmas presents? We are going to set up a date, get sitters for 4 of 5 (probably) and go from there. I think we have to do it in the city but that is not impossible! I have sent in my info and am waiting on all the info but WOW! This was run by an amazing woman and her company Premiere Event Management. Seriously talented lady who worked hard to create a terrific 12 days of draws! My mom and Mike each won something as well!

We have been hard at work cleaning up for our Sunday party… And chasing Echo away from the areas we cleaned! We rearranged the baby toy area, swept everything, shook out our rug… etc etc.

Christmas Baby

We made Santa collagestoday from yesterday’s Advent day. Lots of glue and mess and fun! 

Santas!

Today’s craft was a gingerbread man themed craft. We substituted coloured glue with anything they wanted in our craft mess and they went nuts! 

Creating gingerbread men

All done

The boys spent a large portion of their day outside. It was practically warm out! Their fort is making some amazing progress. 

Fort!

We had to show off the Polar Express lapbooks that are now completed as well! 

Done!

And now for today’s video!