It's a Holiday, I must be sick

There are two bank holidays in May. And I've had strep throat during both of them.
My timing is nothing if not impeccable. At least this one was cold, rainy & dreary so we didn't feel like we were missing out on much. I think Michael has it now, so I'm taking him to the doctor this afternoon. Poor little guy seems miserable.

We did venture out of the house on Saturday night for Chris Rock.
He set a Guinness World Record for the largest live comedy audience in the UK!
I gave danny tickets for his birthday, and we had really been looking forward to the show. Our friend Beth was kind enough to watch the kids, so we had our first evening out since Michael has been born! Of course we didn't get to go to dinner or drinks, but at least we got out of the house sans stroller and three year old.



He was hysterical. Danny & I laughed so hard!

Stealing with Pride

Another blog I like to read has recently added a feature that I love.

Check out "Kate Says" for the latest hilarity, straight from the three year old's mouth.

Kew Gardens

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.

Michael and I visited Kew Gardens last week.

He didn't think too much about the giant lilypads, but did enjoy tasting mulch for the first time.

Kate's SuperFun Birthday

We celebrated Kate's birthday by meeting our friends Mike & Beth for cake & pizza at our favorite pub.

They were so sweet and gave her a Princess Scooter, which thrilled her to million tiny pieces. Many children here ride scooters as their means of transport, and she has been asking for one for awhile. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of steering it, or how exactly to make it go, but she loves it.

On Saturday morning, the celebrating continued as we headed down to Surrey to visit a real working farm.
We got to feed baby lambs, which rudely got pushed out of the way by the aggressive older sheep. We watched a pig race, petted donkeys, horses, goats, rabbits, chickens, guinea pigs and ducks.








Although she has a long way to go to catch up to her cousin Clara Anne (who will likely be a world champion rodeo queen by the time she is 6), Kate felt ready for her first pony ride. Er, donkey ride. We didn't tell her it was a donkey...didn't want to deflate her enthusiasm. She absolutely loved it, and kept asking to do it again. We're going to look into seeing if we can sign her up for riding lessons.


There was also a huge play area with humongous trampolines, which Kate had a blast jumping on.



We were experiencing unusually warm weather that weekend, and it was HOT out! I think it almost hit 80 degrees that day. Unfortunately, it is now back to the regular low 50s. Booo.


Too young to ride the pony, too young to jump on the trampoline...poor baby Michael.

Kate is Three!

It doesn't sound as good as "Kate is Eight!" does it? Only 5 more years until it rhymes!

Kate turned three on Friday, and she had a spectacular birthday. I'm working on a post of our activities of late, but that will have to wait for now.

Here are some pictures of Kate as we've known her.

Brand Spanking New:



1st Birthday:





2nd Birthday:






3rd Birthday:


You will see that cake is a very important part of our family celebrations. :)

Down, but not out

I got stricken with Strep Throat over the Holiday weekend. Lucky for me, I'm not allergic to penicillin and after day two on meds, I'm feeling much better. I just hope I didn't pass it along to the kids. I'm pretty sure that I got it from Kate, since there was an outbreak of Scarlet Fever at her school last week. I thought that Scarlet Fever went out of existence around the time Little Women was published, but apparently not. Let's just hope we don't get Scurvy next.

I just received the CD of the photos we had taken of the kids when we were back in Arkansas. They turned out so cute! Here is a sample:



Mom, don't worry about printing these b/c I'm ordering prints to your (& grandma & linda's) houses.

Almost-3 Year Olds are Funny

Kate is so hilarious lately. Some of the things she says just crack me up.

Here are a few of them, so I don't forget.

-Every morning she comes upstairs to our bedroom, where I am usually feeding Michael in bed. This morning she climbed up in bed, and before I could even say anything to her, she sighed and said "I know Mom, you love me. You don't have to tell me anymore."

-Forget imaginary friends. She has an imaginary mouse. Apparently, she told her teachers and her friends at school that the Easter Bunny brought her a mouse (and they believed her). Now, she has to examine her boots before she puts them on, because her mouse is usually hanging out in there. So she takes the mouse out and puts him in the dresser drawer while she is wearing her shoes. I have to give the mouse lots of kisses and pets every day.

-Yesterday, she asked me what Daddy was doing at work. I told her I didn't know, and she replied that "Daddy has to go to work to get some pocket money. Then he'll buy me some ice cream".

-I have this little handheld video game thing that has long since broken. Kate as taken it on as her blackberry/iPod. She carries it around and shows me & Michael pictures on it. (Danny does this with his BB & iPod). She'll push a button to advance between pictures and tell me who is in each picture. She showed me a picture of Lesley this morning. I asked her what Lesley was doing in the picture, and Kate told me that Lesley was making cookies for Kate. CHOCOLATE cookies.

-She is very into picking out her own outfits. I'm trying to teach her about how to match colors so that she doesn't look like a clown. So now if she is wearing a purple shirt, she has to wear purple undies, purple socks, purple pants, and a purple bow. Polka-dot dresses need a pd shirt, pd undies, pd tights and a pd headband. So much for not looking like a clown!

-Last night, during her bedtime prayers, she asked Jesus to make her a princess.

She is also picking up some very British terms. Diapers are "Nappy", pants are "trousers", other kids are "children" , trash is "rubbish", trash can is "bin", potty is "toilet", going pee is "wee-wee", and cleaning up is "tidy up". I get strongly corrected if I use the wrong word.


Michael is still too young to say funny things, but he does have deliciously chubby thighs. Look.