Disneyland Paris

A trip to Disney doesn't need a big blog post introduction. Most of us have been there, experienced the magic, waited in line for 45 minutes to ride Dumbo for one minute, and bought the 4 dollar ( well, here in europe it is 4 euro) soda.   So I'll keep it brief and share a bunch of pictures.

Disneyland Paris (originally known as Euro Disney until everyone realized that putting the European currency name 'Euro' in front of the word Disney just calls out how expensive it is), was smaller, but pretty much exactly the same as our Disney Parks at home. For our family with small children, the small compact size was perfect.

We rode as many rides as we could 

Avery and Mom on the Toy Story Parachute Drop

After Avery loved the Parachute Drop, I decided to take her on the Hollywood Tower Hotel that drops you from the top floor to the bottom. Let's just say the first drop was accompanied by Avery yelling "Get me outta here!" louder than anybody else on the ride could scream. 

It's a small world afterall..... enjoy the rest of the day singing this tune. Your Welcome.

We oohed and ahhed at all of the characters in each parade 

And we fought and elbowed our way in to give hugs and high fives to as many characters as we could find 

You will notice all of the character pictures above are only of Avery. Here is how Stella felt about them:

"Uh mom, I dont want to do this...."

"Get this Princess Away from me"

"I dont' want to touch the rat either!"

It was such a memorable trip for our family. Upon arriving home, Avery kicked Lane out the door first thing the next day and told him to "go make more money so we can go to Disneyland".

  

Dreams coming true, 

~L, L, A&S 

All Things Mum

It seems only appropriate on Mother's Day weekend to make a post about all things in our lives right now related to Mum.  Luckily for my non-creative self, I have had lots of recent Mummy moments to tell you all about. (And since it is the US Mother's Day, and the fact that I am not actually British, just living here, I am going to quit the whole "Mum" thing right now.)

My Mommy (Nanny)'s visit -
Mom left everything (and everybody, sorry Dad and Mullady's) at home and came to visit us for a week. It was a fantastic week of having her along as a side kick to me and the girls as we just lived our daily life. When she was here in December we were still getting used to London and settling into a routine, so it was fun showing her how our days go from school drop offs, to parks, to ballet. We did get a few sight seeing stops in, but mostly we just got spoiled with her gifts from home, extra hands around the house, and home cooked meals. As all visits do, the time went too fast and we already miss her now that she's gone.

We got to spend a sunny Saturday at Windsor Castle just the two of us. It has probably been since well before Avery was born since we had an entire afternoon alone together. Needless to say, it was my favorite day of the visit.

Avery and Nanny in "their" London telephone booth

Mother's Day 2013 -

Since the UK celebrated "Mothering Day" back on March 10, and I sufficiently got spoiled that day by the girls and Lane, we are keeping it low key today. This forfeiting of my own US Mother's Day is leaving us the entire day to think about how lucky we are to have our moms back in the states, how much they do for us and our girls, and how excited we are to go home to visit with them in June ( okay, let's be honest... we both are talking about how we are going to let our Mama's spoil us rotten while we are home, but that should show you how awesome they are).  In our six months away from home, we have gotten an even greater appreciation for these women and how much they do for us. They are the women that never miss sending us a holiday card ( I think BeaKay even sent the girls a St. Patricks Day Card!), that bring trunkloads of stuff from home when they visit ( including at least 100 baby spoons and 8 containers of makeup when I only asked for one!), and that we see so clearly in each of our girls ( Stella looks like my Mom and Avery has BeaKay's blond locks streaking through her hair).  As they are most definitely  the only two people who stalk our blog on a daily basis - Happy Mothers Day Moms! We love you so much and can't wait to be with you soon!

Stay at home Mama - 

One of the hardest things for me in the entire transition to London has been all of the sudden staying at home with my girls all day, every day. I would be lying if there were not a handful ( or two) of days that I gave Lane the " I wish I could leave and go to work like you" evil eye as he walked cheerfully out the door for a days work with adult conversation.  Although I do long for the morning walks to coffee with Coworkers, the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and of course the paycheck, I am finally settling into this "stay at home" thing.  I feel I can safely say from experience that both staying at home and being a working mom are equally challenging. At the end of the day though, I am so blessed to be spending these years in London with my girls and wake up every morning to their smiling faces that are ready to start a new day with me ( I couldn't say the same about my old co-workers every day!). 

Speaking of smiling faces.... Since it is Mother's Day I feel I am allowed to show off a little by sharing these picture we got done a few weeks ago while my mom was here. 

Hoping all the American Mums out there are sleeping in this morning, 

~L, L, A&S

Dublin girls in Dublin

I imagine everybody reading this blog is well aware that I come from the lush green, Irish fields of Dublin..... Ohio. ( Okay, so lush green and Irish isn't really accurate, but I do hail from the suburban town named after the capital of Ireland that hosts one of America's largest Irish festivals).  It seemed only natural to me, that when Elizabeth Cronic emailed to say she was planning to visit me in London and then wanted to take me away from my flat on a girls weekend (no kids or husband!) that we decided to head North to the actual Ireland.
(from here out I will refer to Elizabeth only as "Cronic" as it is hard for me to even think of her first name as I've been calling her Cronic for the majority of the 20 years I've known her).

We headed out of London at the crack of dawn... a 6 am flight out of a smallish airport here in London. For all my high school girlfriends reading my blog, Cronic is surprisingly perky at 4am when her alarm goes off. I was worried. One thing I've learned about her on our venture together is that when it comes to exploring Europe, she is ready to go and wants to do anything and everything...... we are great travel buddies.

We were at the home of Guinness, St. James Gate Brewery by 10 a.m.... because as I already told you, we are Dublin girls (and like to drink!)

We are both certified, Guinness Draft pourers - certificates and all to prove it!

Beers in the rooftop bar at Guinness with a 360 degree look at the city.

Dublin is a fantastic, clean, super friendly city. We were lucky enough to have beautiful weather the entire time we were there, which is pretty unusual mid-April.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The beautiful river view right outside of the amazing hotel Cronic hooked us up with!

The Irish Coast - amazing how blue the water was.

And of course, Ireland wouldn't be Ireland if we didn't find as many pubs as possible. We were so fortunate to have Cronic's mom, a seasoned Dublin visitor ( who knows the bar scene well!), join us for a night and show us the most memorable pubs in Ireland.

The Temple Bar - fantastic music!

After years of going to The Brazen Head in Dublin, Ohio, we finally got to the real one - which is said to be the oldest bar in Ireland!

We got to listen to the most fantastic, what you think of when you think of Ireland, music at The Brazen Head on Sunday afternoon. It was just a group of Irish loving people, of all ages playing a bunch of instruments from guitars, to fiddles, to spoons.

The long weekend spent with Cronic was just what I needed. We could have stayed in our hotel room the entire time and I could have just laughed and gossiped with my old buddy all day. It was so nice catching up with both Cronic and her mama, and I look forward to planning my next euro-adventure with her!

P.S. As a little last insight into Cronic. She is the fun friend of Mommy's who brings gifts to the girls that look like this once opened. Obviously, a favorite visitor for the girls, and I am continuing to curse her under my breath as I find each strand of confetti and trinket toy around my flat three weeks later!

Looking forward to my next visit to Dublin and more days with Cronic, 

~Lo