Three

Three years ago we brought home this sweet 10+ pound bundle of joy...

And I don't know how it went so fast, but she has now turned into a still sweet sometimes, full of energy, goes to school 5 days a week, always making us laugh, three year old kid.

We celebrated this crazy girl all weekend long:

 Mommy Daughter date to the Little Angels Puppet Theatre in Islington for a puppet show of one of our new favorite books " Dogs don't do Ballet". We had front row seats, and it was neat to see the book come to life right in front of us. 

                    

We took a family trip to "The American Food Store" ( It is called just that) to buy some birthday celebration essentials - Kraft Mac and Cheese for birthday dinner, confetti cake, actual Motts applesauce and real American skittles. (All of the food below cost 34 GBP which is equivalent to about 54 US dollars... but so worth splurging for over here once in a while)

Avery loved her cake and of course the presents, and Mom's favorite memory of her big girls third birthday will be cuddling up on the couch with two forks and the remainder of the cake still sitting on the cake plate. We fought each other for every last crumb. That's my girl.

A new puzzle!

We had a great weekend and are so thankful for all of the facebook/email/twitter/instagram messages we received wishing Avery a happy day, the visits from friends ( well, we don't have many here but of course The Brown family came to celebrate with us), and the handful of Facetime calls we got to share with Avery from family back home. Even this guy gave us a ring to make sure he told his favorite gal how much he loved and missed her on her big day:

~Happy Birthday Avery Mavko Flood - We love everything about you more than you can imagine~

Hoping the years with our girls slow down,
L, L, A & S

Snow Days

Ahhh Snow.... It doesn't happen often in London and rarely sticks around for long, but it arrived Friday and lasted through Sunday evening. The city goes into shock when the slightest bit of accumulation occurs, but we knew exactly how to handle the fluffy white stuff collecting all around.

Backyard fun

Our family's first official snow friend ( Mud and all!)

Stella doesn't quite grasp the concept of big boots and gloves yet, so she stood in this position for no less than 10 minutes before venturing deeper into the white fluff. Could have been the plastic bags I had rubber banded over her boots to keep dry.

We headed to our back shared garden, dusted off the toys, swings and slides 

And since we are Ohio-born, we also know how to handle the post snowball fight cold - home made hot chocolate.

Avery had so much fun she wanted to go out again at night, so we again suffered through the painful hour to pile on the clothes and went to build another, street side, snowman (yes, those are grocery bags...we live in the city now and I wasn't about to have our real winter accessories stolen ... hey, I left the 6 pence worth of coins we used for eyes and nose for the bums!).

Avery told her teacher on Friday that she had never seen snow like this before. Last year the weather at home was so mild we never got a big snowfall to play in, and the year before she was too young to remember. So both girls' first experience was here in London. They are going to be shocked when we get home for a real, proper snowfall. 

Fun for a few days.. but praying for our mild London weather again,
L, L, A & S

Starting off 2013 with Grammy and Pa

Happy New Year! 

What could be better to start off a New Year than a holiday visit from Grammy and Pa?!?!?

Lane's parent's arrived on December 28th, forced themselves to quickly kick the time change issues and then were off! Seeing all they wanted to see in London, making sure we were fed, navigating around town on the tube, changing diapers (obviously this was Grammy), spoiling us with Christmas surprises, and hiking up and down hills all around our flat. They came with a list of things they wanted to see and accomplish while here and, in true Flood fashion, nothing stopped them from getting that list completed!

Grammy and Pa at Stonehenge

They had missed this on a previous trip to London so they were determined to get there this time! Stonehenge is about two hours from us by train, and basically just a beautiful country area with some giant rocks, so the girls and I decided it wouldn't be best to join them. We like to have our visitors take part in some of the things England has to offer that may not be so kid friendly so we can see pictures and hear all about them through others.

Spoiling us with Christmas gifts on New Years Eve- 

They even lugged over some in their luggage from our extended Flood family! We are so grateful for those that remembered us this holiday season all of the way from home!

It looked like Santa came again!

New Buckeye Shirt and Necklace from our Flood family!

Stella's new favorite toy - a barking, lovey puppy dog that she sleeps with nightly. We always wake up startled when we hear the dog barking in her room at 3am when she rolls over on it.

Avery's new baby Julia
 (and this baby cries.... alot. So realistic I often wonder if it is Julia or Stella needing attention......yea.)

Lane and Lo got spoiled too (and better prepared for rainy weather!)
( Next time you see Pa, ask him about the "finding Lauren's boots" adventure they went on to find me the perfect rain boots here in London. I believe there were some choice words at the end of it! I'll think about my adoring inlaws every time I slop through the mud and have dry, very fashionable feet! )

London Fireworks

We'd love to say that we spent New Years eve downtown in the people packed city to see the amazing fireworks show that London puts on... but we decided it was probably past Grammy and Pa's bedtime and they may not behave nicely if we took them out so we stayed in. I think we had the best view with the TV coverage and champagne in our jammies!

The TV viewing with the music to accompany was wonderful!

Don't believe me? Go to this link to check it out yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e8vfRTsFU4

London Theatre ( Jersey-style!)

Lane and his parents spent New Years Day at Prince Edward Theatre - tapping their feet and enjoying the sounds of Jersey Boys.  I never thought my husband would like the show as much as he did. He's been walking around singing " Sherry" and " Oh What a Night" ever since.

Walking, Seeing, Climbing, More Walking

We like to make sure our visitors get a feel for what our life is like here, so we drag them around on foot all over our area to show them everything we do. 

Lane (with girls in the stroller buggy), Grammy and Pa climbing up Parliament Hill 

The view from the top of Parliament Hill

Grammy Checking out the surroundings

Avery prefers to go by Scooter

And Slides faster than she walks

One of our favorite places to walk to is a 1/2 mile, straight uphill walk to Hampstead for daily needs and great bakery treats ( Pa can get his McDonalds coffee here too!)

Wembley Stadium

Grammy and Pa took an afternoon to check out Wembley Stadium. They took the tour and brought back some great pictures and interesting facts to intrigue us into going on our own someday soon! They've already made plans to come back next fall to see some American Football played on the European Football field (Lane's 49ers visit next October!)

Champs

The best part of Grammy and Pa being here was seeing the girls with them for the entire week. Our two little ones never let either of them out of their sight and forced them to watch their favorite television shows and do puzzles repeatedly all week. Thank you Grammy and Pa for visiting and for loving on us all always.

~ L, L, A & S