Half-term happenings

Unsurprisingly, the school year here is different than what what we are accustomed to back in the US. The school year consists of three terms: fall, spring and summer. Summer vacation is shorter, with the summer term not ending until the beginning of July. However, there are more frequent breaks during the school year, including a four week break between the conclusion of the spring term and the beginning of the summer term. There are also weeklong "half-term" breaks around the middle of each term. So towards the end of October, Olivia had her fall half-term break. The week it occurred was far from optimal as it happened to be the week that Geoff was back in Houston for work and my nanny that comes several days a week was also away on holiday, so no breaks for this Mama. To make the days go by quickly, I tried to keep our days full of activities. Here's a recap of some of the things we did:

Pumpkin Painting
As soon as pumpkins began showing up in the grocery store, Olivia started talking about getting one to paint as she thoroughly enjoyed painting last year (See here). So we pulled out the paints and she got to work.

Shake Shack & London Transport Museum
I don't usually ventured out of our surrounding neighborhood very much with the girls by myself as managing alone with the both of them on the Tube is challenging. It involves carrying Ashton in the stroller up and down stairs at the stations while also making sure Olivia doesn't get get run over or lost within the shuffle of people. However, in my need to get out of the house, I decided to put my brave face on and do it. We went out for lunch at Shake Shack, the famous New York burger joint that just opened up here, before heading to the London Transport Museum. The museum was pretty cool with lots of full size replicas of various carriages, trolleys, trains and buses. Perfect for my small child that likes climbing on anything and everything.

Playdates
We had four different playdates with four different families from school/church in two days. No pictures from them, but Olivia had fun playing with her friends and I enjoyed have adults to talk to for a little while. Although I have to admit, by the fourth one, I couldn't remember which mother I had told what to and was probably repeating myself with various stories and pieces of information.

Tea Party
One morning during Ashton's nap, Olivia and I enjoyed a tea party together along with some of her invited friends.