Christmas Break Catch-Up

Okay, so it's obvious that Christmas celebrations took over.

We had a great Christmas Eve brunch - 19 people, lots of food, and surprisingly not a lot of mess!!!

Some of us headed off to Richmond Park to enjoy some sledging.

There was Christmas Eve midnight service.

Christmas which incluced - stockings, Church, presents, Aunt Sue & Uncle Lee's house for food and more presents. (Was pleased to be able to Skype my family!)

Boxing Day - Church, then back to Sue & Lee's for a sleepover! (And of course more food!)

Monday - more food ('bubble & squeak') and family fun.

Tuesday we needed a good 'airing' so we met Uncle Russ and Aunt Katie and kids at Battersea Park for a good run. We had lunch at Nanny and Grandad's and then went out late afternoon to the city to see the lights. It was a Narnia theme this year - better than last year!

Wednesday a slow morning at home playing with new things and finding homes for new things. In the afternoon we went to see Gulliver's Travels. (It was alright, better for the older children...and glad we got 2-4-1 tickets.)

Not sure what the rest of the week holds but I'm sure it won't be dull.

Hope to post pictures soon. Same story again...computer not reading memory card and not quite sure where the lead is.

Hope you all had / and are having a lovely time!

Christmas Break Day 3

Woke up on time this morning! Dean and I were able to have 1/2 an hour quiet time before the pitter-pattering of feet made their way down the hallway.

On the agenda today-

-bake/decorate Christmas cookies
-decorate Gingerbread Houses
-laundry (of course!)
-make popsicle stick Christmas trees
-keep house tidy, at least until 1:00 ('flooring committee' coming round to evaluate flooring in all the flats)

Things that actually got done-

-bake/decorate Christmas cookies (although, the only ones that got decorated also got eaten on the spot!) I invited a friend and her 2 girls round to decorate cookies.
The kids all decorated at least one (some decorated that ONE cookie many times) and then they all asked if they could eat them. That was the end of the decorating!

-SOME laundry got done- although I don't really count it as done until it is folded AND put away!

-the house was 'somewhat' tidy...my plan kind of went out the window when I invited friends over. It wasn't bad at all...for having 6 kids in the house most of the morning (just glad no one looked under the kitchen table)!

-popsicle stick Christmas trees...AND a few snowflakes!!

The Gingerbread houses did not get done because not all the kids were up for doing it at the same time. 9 year old had a pretty rotten day - up for a while then crashing in bed for an hour or so. He wanted to start on the G'bread houses but older sister was out and youngest was having a nap. When oldest and youngest were ready 9yr old had crashed! Oh well, we'll save that for another day.

Really hoping that 9yr old gets better soon. He's very sad and frustrated that he isn't well.

Youngest 2 were climbing the walls right before dinner! So glad when Daddy came home!

Not a bad day. Thank you Lord, for strength and patient endurance...although I could probably do with a little more patience, I'm sure!

Christmas Break - Day 2

Slept through the alarm this morning! (Dean and I try and get up before the kids to have some quiet time and get our minds prepared for the day.)

Grabbed a shower (success) while Daddy got breakfast going for the kiddos.

Managed to get a few jobs done (the usual, laundry, dishes, etc) before heading off to Nanny's (Dean's mum) for lunch.

Nanny agreed to have the youngest 2 while I took older 2 to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with one of the cousins.
Had a great time at the movies...enjoyed Dawn Treader more than Prince Caspian.

Arrived back at Nanny's to happy little ones (youngest had a good nap)!

Back home for dinner - Chicken Pot Pie on the Fly! (yummo!)
9 year old feeling bad again- slept through dinner!

Kids had a nice play with Daddy before bed.

Oldest daughter started the Christmas baking for me! Planning on joining her in a little while to keep it going, and keep the kitchen somewhat in order! :)

Had a much more structured day today which is always a good thing for this house.

Would love to be getting ready to play games with family...Dutch Blitz anyone!?!

1st (Official) Day of Christmas (School) Break

Been busy - yes, lots of pictures that need to be posted about the last weeks!
But, I thought I'd better just get stuck in - I'm sure my family would love to know what we are doing since we can't all be together.

TODAY - MONDAY, 20th December :

Woke up with the same headache that I went to bed with - not a good start to the day.
Various children up at various times (they all have to stay in their rooms until 7:30).
One sick child sleeping on the couch.

Smallest child making LOTS of noise with a tennis racket that his loving brother kindly got down off of the TOP shelf in bedroom for him.

Early morning visit from Sister-in-law and niece stopping in while Mother-in-law was at doctor's appt.

Oldest child off with MIL and SIL for some Christmas shopping.

Had to take youngest child for immunisations that are almost 1yr over due!

Tried to clean 4 year old's room with her. She ended up back in bed and asleep while youngest (destroyed) and I finished the job.

9 year old fell asleep on couch - OBVIOUSLY coming down with whatever lurgee is lurking around in our home!

Hubby came home for lunch and fixed leaking washing machine while eating his lunch.
Fed 2 children lunch.

Oldest came home from shopping wanted lunch and 4 yr old woke up and wanted lunch.
Fed 2 more children lunch.

Put some washing on!!!!YES!!!!!! Success!

Vacuumed carpet in front room.
Watched a movie with 3 children (4th was napping) while folding laundry.

Cooked dinner! (We've had such a busy weekend I haven't actually cooked a meal since Thursday)

Bathed 2 children -with hubby's help!

Cleared up dinner.

Went grocery shopping in the snow! Prayed it wouldn't snow too hard so that I would be able to make it home!

Unpacked groceries.

Posting this on the blog and then this lady is headed to bed! (Didn't manage to have a shower today...ugh- that'll be first on my 'to do' list tomorrow!)

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a little less chaotic - I know that won't happen unless I have a plan, so before I close my eyes I'll have to give a few thoughts to my 'plan of attack' for the rest of this lovely break.

Pumpkin Hunt!

We went to the 'pumpkin patch'!!!

Today was first Saturday in a LONG time when we haven't had ballet class, or other plans that we needed to rush off to - so we did a little research and went to find some pumpkins...NOT at the grocery store.

The 2 oldest kids weren't too sure about this adventure but the youngest 2 were certainly up for a pumpkin hunt!

Just under an hour away from home we found what we were looking for. It was great! There was a children's play area, a farm store, an ice cream/coffee shop, and a garden and pet centre. In the farm shop there was also a few shelves stocked with American Goodies!! Dean was very pleased and we were even able to pick up canned pumpkin at a reasonable price! (Guess what I'm making for dessert tomorrow!)

The kids had a great time looking at the different variety of pumpkins and even though it would've been cheaper to buy a pumpkin at the local grocery store the experience was worth it, and we were helping to support the local farmers.

I'm sorry the pictures aren't in any sort of order - I couldn't get 'blogger' to cooperate with me tonight - but I did want to get the post out!

The kids are off school this week, so we'll be busy doing lots of 'bloggable' things - I hope! We also have to take a recently arrived 'Flat Stanley' to see the sights in London before sending him back to cousin Zander in FL!!! Stay tuned everyone!

Help

I seem to have lost my header for my blog, and there's a few things that seem out of place. I would love it if someone could give me a few tips as to how to fix this and also how to add colored and different fonts to the blog...maybe Kelli???

The Summer in Review

The summer came and went right before our very eyes!

July - Lots of end of school year activities like
-Year 6 trip to the Isle of Wight
-Year 6 production of Peter Pan (Abigail played the part of Mrs Darling, and a mermaid)
-Aleah's 4th Birthday (Beach Party Themed)
-Year 6 Leaver's Prom (yes, a prom for 11 year olds...and their families!)

-Our wonderful family holiday to Florida! This took us into the middle of August.


August - A whirlwind of activity
-Kris' birthday
-finishing off our holiday
-Contagious Youth Conference
-Groundbreakers Children's Bible Club

While we were away our bathroom was being renovated - a real blessing...but what a MESS! The bathroom is ALMOST completed flooring and a few other bits to be done in the next week or so.












While the work on the bathroom was going on a problem in the girls' room was being dealt with - damp and mold in one of the walls. This required the plaster board being pulled off and drying out the brick wall. (The source of the damp was discovered and dealt with via the bathroom renovation) It was a big wall and it was very wet! The builder is coming in soon to seal and replaster the wall. Which will then need redecorating as well.






AND THEN...School started back!

This is Abby in her new school uniform. Thames Christian College.

Watch This Space

I'm working on updating. Watch this space!

Half term Fun

Here's a few pictures of what we got up to during the last half term.

Fun at Richmond Park -
Kite Flying
Paddling in the stream
Climbing Trees
Eating strawberries

A day at the Farm -
Petting and Feeding Animals
Having a SPLASH
Fun on the play eguipment



































Oh yeah - Daddy had to work - Here he is finishing up his sermon sitting on the roof -

Hello all!

I still seem to be having trouble with camera/computer bits so no pictures from me today! However, I have updated the kids' school website link - so if you click on it and follow the links to year 6 (class information - year 6 - weblog) you will be able to see what they got up to while on their school journey to the Isle of Wight.

They return today (gone since Monday). Our house has been quieter than normal with her away. Aleah went on strike last night - not very happy about having to sleep in a room on her own again, so we let her sleep on the bottom bunk in the boys' room.

I have added a few other new links- great places to go for new ideas.

Also, I am thinking of having an 'indoor- Beach Party' for Aleah's 4th birthday. I've already started gathering ideas but would love to hear from you! If any of you have any great (relatively easy) ideas please leave a comment.

Hope you all are doing well! MOM -would love to chat sometime!!!

All Saints Dance Festival 2010

The children's school does a 3 year rotation of Dance Festival, Music Festival, and Art Festival. This year was the Dance festival. Every class works on a type of dance and then performs it at the festival. The teachers/staff usually join together and hire the after school dance instructor to teach them a dance. They work very hard and it's a real hit with the students and parents. The school also has a dance company come in to do a small performance as well.It is a lovely event.

This year the Nursery Class performed a 'Funny Bones' dance. One of the teachers with the help of a few parents painted the costumes and all the teachers took part in the dance. Even one who is carrying twins! She's not hard to spot - and a real good sport for joining in like she did! You will be able to spot Aleah - she's the little skeleton on the right hand side that stops to wave at you!



Samuel's class (Year 4) put together a Scottish Dance. A few of the boys, and their teacher managed to get their hands on some kilts as well! Sam's class only has about 8 or 9 boys so Mr Martin had to do quite a bit of convincing to get them to dance with the girls! They did a great job and really seemed to enjoy it too!



Abigail's class (Year 6) choreographed their own Street Dance. They did a really good job of it. Some of the boys/girls did a bit of break dancing and the girls put together their skills learned from their years of taking jazz dance after school. Their teacher did not take part in this dance but she did an amazing job with 'The Charleston' dance the staff did - proper costumes as well! (We were not allowed to take flash photography so I only have video clips of the kids' dances.)

Grrr - Camera/Computer glitches!

Sorry all, I know it has been a LONG time since I updated! I have quite a few things that I want to share it's just that I've run into a few glitches! I'm hoping to have it all sorted out by the end of this week and be able to post some fun things that we've been up to. As you may well know, a family with 4 kids means that there is always something going on!
Here's what you can look forward to -
*Nursery Cafe
*All Saints Dance Festival 2010
*Dryden Family Camping
*Half Term Fun

Hope to share with you all soon.

Love, Kris

Pictures!

Here are a few pictures from my trip!

Mom has a once a month 'hymn sing' with some friends. We sang songs in English and Chinese!


Having dinner with some very special Chinese student teachers.


Posing with some friends at Ancient Culture Street.


Climbing the Great Wall.


Enjoying a lovely dinner at a very nice 'hot pot' restaurant. (yes, we are wearing aprons/bibs!)


Anyone want a snack?


Yummy!

Sorry!

Okay, okay, okay! I know many of you are waiting for pictures, unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to post any while in China. :( Sad, I know. I didn't bring my cord to download them and none of the computers here have the right slot for my memory card.

So if everyone will have a little patience..."have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry"...I will post them as soon as I can.

Been hanging out at the school. Visited the early years center and was able to observe a 4/5year old class. Very interesting time. What an amazing facility they have here!

Went out to dinner with some Chinese students last night, again ate with chopsticks. I'm getting better!

Tonight we are going out for 'hot pot' with some other Chinese friends. Get to practice my chopstick skills again!!

Bright and sunny day here today. Have a great day everyone!

China

Hi everyone! I have arrived in China to visit my Mom!

I arrived in Beijing on Friday - after all the Volcanic Ash Cloud fiasco!
I have seen some amazing things (THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA) and eaten some amazing things with chopsticks! I got off the plane and my mom and her friend met me, took me to the hotel to drop off my things, and then we headed straight for lunch - Peking Duck!

I am now in Tianjin where mom lives and works. I woke up at 5:30 this morning so that I could go in to work with her at Tianjin International School. It is an amazing school! It's also nice to be here because everyone here speaks English - after spending the last 3 days not understanding a word it is nice to hear my own language!!

I hope to post some pictures later today - back at Mom's apartment. Keep checking back!

Easter fun!

The Lord is Risen - Christ has risen indeed! We try and focus the children on the meaning and purpose of Easter, as well as have a little 'fun' on the side. Abigail made an Easter card for us encouraging us to remember the real reason for Easter - but as she stated in her card 'she likes to fill her gob with chocolate too!' Oh, the honesty of an 11yr old! After the events of the weekend we didn't have much time together as a family so we were quite happy to hang out together today. We had a good clearing out session of the kids rooms this morning. I had promised the kids an egg hunt so that's what we did. The kids hunted for boiled/dyed eggs, plastic eggs with coupons inside, and an Easter basket each. I was quite surprised when my chocoholic daughter said she thought the coupons were better than getting eggs with chocolate inside them. In case your wondering, I put slips of paper inside the eggs that read things like: -get out of one chore free -good for 1 glass of diet coke -my choice for dinner (from our kitchen) -breakfast in bed -good for a wrestling session with daddy (when he's available) -DVD watching of my choice -Game of my choice The kids all had a great time, and next year Levi will not be content to just observe!

Levi in hospital

Levi spent from Thursday - Sunday in the hospital. Doc's put it down to a viral induced wheeze. Started with a cold on Wednesday, saw our GP on Thursday morning and be was reluctant to give Antibiotics because Levi's had them just about every other week for 6 weeks. After his afternoon nap he woke coughing and his lips started turning blue - Dean took him straight away to A&E. There they discovered his SATS dangerously low and started treatment immediately. Was put on inhalers every 2 hours initially, and on Friday night they had to put him on Oxygen because his levels weren't staying high enough. By Sunday morning he was off Oxygen and down to 3 hourly inhalers. By about noon Sunday they stretched him to 4 hourly inhalers and we were finally allowed to go home about 4pm on Sunday.



These pictures were taken on Friday a few hours before he was put on Oxygen. The doctors had put a line in his hand when he arrived at the hospital - they thought they might need it for medication. Levi was very angry on Friday night and ripped it out himself in the middle of the night!



Apologies to friends and family that are just finding out about this now, as you can imagine balancing life with 1 child in the hospital and 3 at home is pretty tricky. We are so very thankful to our friends and family who provided all kinds of help during this time. We are also reminded of how blessed we are to have healthy children that do not require regular intensive medical attention.

Music Recital

The kid's school held a music recital for the upper classes. This includes Abigail and Sam. All the upper classes had prepared a musical piece or two to share with parents at the recital. I went in with quite a low expectation knowing that the school does not have a 'full-time' music teacher. I also knew that Sam's class had ALL been learning the clarinet! Sam isn't too bad on the clarinet but the thought of 30 children of mixed ability all playing the clarinet together somewhat scared me! I must say I was quite impressed.

The choir, directed by our Pastor (he kind of inherited the position from me) sang 2 songs from the musical 'My Fair Lady'. He did a great job leading them and getting them to sing with 'cockney' accents for 'Wouldn't it Be Lovely'. (for some reason the video wouldn't load so you'll have to wait until I can figure out what happened)

Sam's class was amazing! Who'd of thought that 30 - 8/9 year olds could sound like this on the clarinet!! (you might want to turn your speaker volume down a tad)

The first clip is a medley of 'Oh When the Saints' there are 3 different melodies being played together and although it's not perfect, it is pretty impressive. Keeping in mind some of these children have absolutely no music teaching outside of the classroom. (Sam is the second boy on the bottom row - sitting down)


The next clip is a little bluesy number that they played.


Abigail's class did a music/rythm and poetry number that was quite interesting as well as a jazzy number on recorders.

Breaking News!

There's a bunch of stuff that I could blog about, but I don't have time to do that right now. So here's the latest breaking news in our house... Levi has decided to walk!! He's been on his feet since he was about 6 months old so we thought he would be an early walker. He tricked us and has put it off until now! For the last few months he has been walking holding on to just a finger or two and refusing to let go, but on Thursday afternoon he decided enough was enough. After coming home from picking up the kids at school, I set him on his feet as we got in the front door and he took off on his own down the hallway in into the front room! Since then he's been walking everywhere! Here's a video to prove it! (Sorry I can't seem to rotate the video so you'll either have to turn your heads or you monitors!)




Also - I got my passport back on Thursday! Unfortunately it was too late to get to China for the concert that I wanted to go to, but I am now working on getting a Visa so that I can visit mom after the Easter holidays. I'll keep you all posted.

10 Minute Talk

Just thought I'd take 10 MINUTES and post some of the things that we are up to/ thinking about etc.

I am still waiting on my passport (hopefull it will come in the next few days) so that I can do more paperwork in order to finalize my trip to China to visit Mom.

Abigial (actually WE) have been given a wonderful news of a GREAT offer for her to go to a PRIVATE CHRISTIAN SECONDARY SCHOOL (Thames Christian College)! We are amazed at how God has worked in this situation.

Levi is still NOT walking.

Aleah is still loving school. As she goes to bed each night she say...'In the morning, wake up, have breakfast, what are we going to do?' We respond on weekdays of course - 'go to school'. She clasps her hands and shouts 'yes'!

Sam loves playing with transformers, and legos. (either physically or on the wii)

Dean is not preaching this week! Whew!(He's preached the last 2 Sundays - due to the new arrival in our Pastor's family)

That's my 10 Minute Talk for today. Thanks for listening!

World Book Day 2010

Today was World Book Day at the children's school. I found out on Friday that they would be having a 'favourite book character' dress day. We have had a CRAZY few days - Abby broke her finger, our pastor's wife had a baby so Dean needed to preach on Sunday, funeral of a dear old friend, secondary school places announced...the list could go on, but I can't take time now.

ANYWAY, last night all the children were talking about what/who they wanted to be and I got into action!

Abigail new that she wanted to be 'Nancy Drew' - this seemed quite straight forward except that this Nancy Drew wanted to have all matching accessories etc. it took a while to convince her that she would still be Nancy Drew without EVERYTHING matching!



Sam wanted to be one of the 'Wild Things' from 'Where the Wild Things Are' but unfortunately lack of time and resources ruled that out. We finally decided on 'Billy Bonkers'.


Thankfully we have the resources of the church's playgroup dressing up box so I decided that Aleah could go as Dorothy from 'The Wizard of Oz'.


After a few improvises and some hot glue everybody was ready to go! The school had an assembly at the end of the day and paraded all those who participated on the stage. Many of the teachers also took part - which the children all love!

Sam's Birthday

We celebrated Samuel's 9th birthday a few weeks ago (16/02). The kids were off school that week (half-term) and Dean took the day off so we could spend the day together celebrating. We opened presents in our birthday tradition way - everyone piles on to our bed(I wonder what that will be like when they are teenagers?)- video cameras rolling etc. We had to rush a bit due to the fact that Dean had booked the bowling lane for 9:10 am!!! (1 pence a game before 9:30...bargain!) We picked up cousin Jonah and had a great time bowling.
Last time we went bowling Levi was happy to remain in his pushchair - this time is was a completely different story! It may be a while before Levi comes bowling with us again...it was hard work!


We then grabbed some lunch before heading of the cinema! (Levi was booked in with Nanny, thank goodness!) Sam had asked for gifts of money this year. There was a particular toy that he wanted that was quite expensive. He was told by his parents to save his pocket money. Word got round to family members and Samuel soon had (more than) enough money to purchase his 'treasure'! We still felt it was a bit much for a boy to spend on one toy, but after a little investigation I found a shop that was selling it for £30 cheaper than most! So the day after his birthday we took him to the shop to purchase his 'treasure' - he was thrilled that he had money left over!