Summertime in Paris!

We have thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Grampy and Grammy Reardon! Maggie and Kelte have been over the moon since they arrived. We have taken some wonderful day trips together about England: Cambridge, Ely, Bury St. Edmunds, and have enjoyed our little village of course! We spent five days on the southern coast of Ireland in County Cork, which was just beautiful. The weather has been absolutely perfect here in the UK since my parents arrived. We just got back from a three day trip to Paris via Eurotunnel. We biked, walked, ran, and ate our way through Paris! What an amazing city! The girls enjoyed what I assume to be the first of many trips to this magical city for them! Mom and I even took time out to take a French cooking class... It was so good! Every time I say that I will be a better blogger, I don't write for a month... well, it looks like that may be the case again as we are off again on our world adventures... back to the States!

The ducklings continued....

So.... It just took a few weeks of feeding our duck family at the pond for them to realize where we live. We woke up a few mornings ago to "quacking" on our door step! We've been utterly amazed at how quickly ducklings grow (apparently they are one of the quickest growing bird species... In only about two/three months, they are full-feathered ducks!) Since their birth, I have bought an extra loaf of bread at the grocery store, and now, I fear they are here to stay since they've found their meal ticket! Pretty fun for the girls to wake up to ducklings on their doorstep... as long as they stay outside!

Our ducklings!

So these are the ducklings born to the duck that lives in the pond out in front of our house. She started with thirteen little ducklings, but now four weeks later, only has seven. We also have a heron that spends a lot of time at the pond and I am afraid he has been feasting on our little feathered friends. We try to feed them every day when we can, and it has been a lot of fun watching them grow up!

Mother's Day in Holland!

Hello friends:

Spent a wonderful Mother's Day in Holland with my two lovely girls, and a very brave friend Janell and her son, Chase. Driving through three countries in seven plus hours with three kiddos, three and under, is borderline crazy... But we enjoyed every minute of it! Here are a few pics from the famous Keukenhof Gardens.

Easter Weekend in Belgium!

Hello friends! Again, I dragged my feet writing this blog... I do not know why, Belgium was awesome! We had an amazing time, and are learning more and more on each trip (not just about Europe, but how to travel with children)! I spent much of Wednesday packing for our trip, which ended up being pretty easy, since we just got back from Wales and had a pretty good idea what we needed, what worked with the girls, and what we could have used but forgot to bring. Therefore, there was a lot more food packed The Bugaboo stroller proved essential on cobblestone sidewalks, and our kiddo backpack (thus, all children were accounted for at all times). We spent one night in Brugge and two nights in Brussels with our good friend, Tom. We got a wonderful taste for each city, and that meant lots and lots of chocolate! To all you fellow chocoholics out there, you MUST go to Belgium. You may never have American chocolate again after sampling some of the REAL DEAL! We made a train ride to Antwerp to Brussels and checked out the zoo, conveniently located right outside the train station. Here are a few highlights from the trip in photos! In one of the photos, Kelte makes her first discovery of the European delight: a chocolate croissant! Judging by her smile, I think she liked it! Also, please check out the elephant mating exhibit photos. We had a lot of good humor over those photos... Mind you that this exhibit was for young children... disturbing.

Trip to Wales

Hello friends:  

We spent the last three days exploring a different part of the UK... Wales!  What a beautiful country!  Our friends, the Matwicks live in the town of Rhosneigr on the Northwestern coast of Wales (just a ferry ride away from Dublin, to give you an idea of where it is).  Their house is pretty much on the beach, so it was just a beautiful spot to enjoy the sand and surf and play with the kiddos and their dog, Toby (Ellie would have loved it).  We spent some time on Saturday exploring Holyhead with its breathtaking ocean views and Roman ruins.  On Sunday, we took a little detour before we went home to see parts of Snowdonia.  We made a pit-stop in a quaint Welsh town called Betws-y-Coed and had lunch in Conwy.  Although we saw many castles while driving through Wales (said to have the most castles in the world), we actually went inside our first one in Conwy built by King Edward I.  We had a great time climbing up into the towers for some spectacular views.  The kiddos did really well considering it was about a five hour drive from home... I think they were happy to find their own beds again... Rest up... We make the trek across the channel to Brussels in just a couple of days!  Stay tuned!

Saturday in Cambridge/ Sunday in Tuddenham

These are some photos from the weekend.  We drove to the Park 'n Ride on Saturday and took the bus into Cambridge for the day.  We had a ball playing in the park, strolling the markets, shopping at some American stores (loved seeing a Baby Gap), and checking out a Science Festival at Cambridge University (Maggie received a personal demonstration from a scientist on how a mushroom gets its spots... Pretty cool).   We spent Mothering Sunday (the UK's version of Mother's Day) at home, visiting with friends, and playing in the neighborhood.  We've taken full advantage of having a duck pond and a playground just a short walk from our house.  The girls love the chance to wear their rain gear!