Easter Monday

Easter weekend is a bank holiday in England, and that means London is pretty quiet and many small stores and businesses were closed.

We decided to head down to Southbank Centre to the Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl exhibit. 

It is an interactive guided tour through recreations of the different periods of his life, from his boyhood schoolroom, to the desert where he crash landed his fighter plane, to the places in his imagination that gave rise to books like the BFG, Matilda, and more.

Sadly, no photography was allowed within the exhibit itself.

Before we went in, Sophia needed a snack

Easter Sunday

We had a quiet family Easter, just as the girls requested. We initially had discussed spending the whole weekend in the Cotswolds, but the girls didn't want to miss the Easter bunny footprints and Easter baskets being done at home.

The Easter bunny made a mess as usual, but left behind some awesome goodies!

After church, there were board games...

And naps...

And then... THE Boat Race

The girls made signs and cheered!

G and O were cheering for Oxford, and Sophia said "I'll root for whoever wins"

We debated going down and watching the race live, as we did two years ago, but the intermittent rain showers made us decide to stay home and watch it on telly.

First we watched the women's race and then the men's...

Which blue are you?

And Oxford won the women's race and Cambridge won the men's race.

After was Easter dinner. Sophia decided to dress formally!

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park

We wanted to do one London holiday experience this year as a family. So, I asked around and many people suggested going to Winter Wonderland - a German themed winter carnival that is set up in Hyde Park for about six weeks each winter. I was warned that it was expensive, but worth doing. 

I pre booked tickets for an ice skating session and the giant Ferris wheel. It was a Sunday afternoon before Christmas, and we arrived about 4pm and the crowds were large and just got bigger throughout the evening. 

The girls (and Chris) were eager to do a thrill ride right away.

They liked the looks of the swings that go way up in the air, but changed their minds after further thought.

Some pretty excited faces, when they realised they were indeed tall enough to ride whatever they wanted!

They finally settled on this one - the XXL - as their first ride.

Olivia went on a super scary ride all by herself next.

Next stop - ice skating!

Next, we rode the giant Ferris wheel. The wait was really too long for the Ferris wheel, I thought, but we went for the whole experience. The view was pretty great!

Last stop... Cotton candy! Or as the Brits call it - candy floss!

Elf on the shelf - day 20

Elf on the shelf - day 19

No, it's not your imagination, there was no elf pic yesterday. I forgot to take one!

Elf on the Shelf - day 17

Elf on the Shelf - day 16

Teacher, Neighbor and Friend Christmas Gift

This is my current favourite gift for giving to those you would like to give a thoughtful little something that won't break the bank!

 Last year I did them in glass jars, because I happened to have a bunch,. This year, I priced jars and decided against using them, which worked out just fine.

You can find the link to these jars and the printable that goes along here - http://www.yellowblissroad.com/christmas-potpourri-gift-idea-free-printable-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+yellowblissroad+(Yellow+Bliss+Road)

This year, I used small cellophane food safe bags. Oops, they were a bit smaller than I had planned and the orange wouldn't fit. Not a deal breaker, I had also purchased small food storage bags (the ones with twist ties) for the nutmeg and cloves, so I bagged up the oranges in those.

The recipe is:

One orange

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

Cinnamon stick

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon whole cloves 

I decided on an assembly line approach. 

First I took my small food storage bags and cut the top half off to make them shorter - to eliminate bulk inside the gift when assembling. I put the whole cloves and nutmeg in each bag and tied them closed with red and white bakers twine. I love, love, love bakers twine!

Once I had all my little baggies, I started on the main part - using the cello bags, I placed inside one small Baggie of nutmeg and cloves and a cinnamon stick, then filled in with the cranberries.

(What a mess! Not really, though, you use up pretty much everything and clean up is a cinch)

I tied the tops of each bag with a long piece of bakers twine that I didn't tie completely, as I will use this to tie the bag with the orange together and add the printed tag.

Now, for the oranges.

Here, navel oranges are called navelina, apparently!

I used the small food storage bags and put in one orange and tied the bag closed with bakers twine.

The tag printable can be found here - 

http://lizoncall.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Potpourri-Christmas-Tags.pdf

Now, you could get fancy and print on card stock or glossy paper, but for me, the point of this is to keep it simple and not add any stress to the busy Chriatmas season, so I just printed on regular old paper and cut them out.

I use a small hole punch that works better than the standard size. 

Here they all are-