Our first thanksgiving....

It started with Eloise dressing as a native american complete with handmade necklace which said she is thankful for Olivia and Henry.... go figure.... as the americans would say! We have had a chat that her brother is called Harry.

We headed off for our road trip to NYC which was simply amazing! It has been 7 long years since Stu and I graced the pavements of the big apple at Thanksgiving and it was just as brilliant if not better with little people to share the excitement with. We had a great hotel in New Jersey looking over to Manhattan and the girls loved the swimming pool overlooking the city with all its twinkling lights.

We got up very early on Thanksgiving Day morning to get our spot on the pavement for the parade and watched in amazement at the balloons floated by.

The girls really enjoyed a visit to FAO Schwartz a huge toy shop to rival Hamleys. We toured the highlights of NYC including the many ice rinks.

We had a very interesting Thanksgiving meal that included amongst many strange things sweet potato with marshmallows!

The next day we enjoyed a really leisurely breakfast at the hotel with amazing views over Manhattan. Mum commented that maybe we were bringing up Olivia a little bit too well, when she loudly asked why her scrambled eggs did not have smoked salmon on the top!

Next stop was Radio City Music Hall for the The Christmas Spectacular which really was just that. The girls, well actually all of us, were completely enthralled in the Rockettes who did not put a foot wrong, with the flying Father Christmas, 3d sleigh ride and the end was an amazing nativity scene complete with real life cows, sheep and camels!!!!! Only in America.

But all in all an amazing break and it has completely put as in the mood for Christmas. Unfortunately for Stu when we turned into our housing estate most of the houses had taken down their pumpkins and replaced them almost immediately overnight with Christmas lights and twinkle..... I have placed our large box of outdoor icicle lights by the front door they have so far been ingnored.... I will keep you posted!

Cowboy Stu...

Well, since we last wrote Stu has been to Tex-ass (officially 2 words) and has gone all brokeback on us (he wishes to point out that is purely based on his purchase of a truck and his cooking with coca-cola rather than any man kissing).

As you can see above the girls thought it was amazing to be allowed to poor fizzy drink into dinner- and all before breakfast as it takes 11 hour to cook proper cowboy food.
As everyone knows, the road to becoming a fully fledged cowboy starts with buying a truck from a bloke on the side of the road (no exageration!). As you can see the neighbourhood kids think it makes a great climbing frame.
One of the many lakes that is on base.
It hurts a true blood cowboy to see his off spring watching 'come-dancing' on a Saturday night. It hurts even more when your 6 year old shouts every evening on return from work 'nice to se you, to see you...NICE'.
To post a letter in the States, simply pop the letter in your own post box and raise the flag, now that's magic!

Shopping at the Amish market

It was only our children that were playing with the hand made clothing on offer at the local Amish shop - think it was the first time ever a member of the Amish community had mentally sworn.

Halloween

The big day, and it is a really big day, started with a trip back to the nearby state park for 'The first Annual Monster Rock Fish Festival' or as Stu preferred to call it to his new work buddies 'Monster Rock Festival'. It kicked off with a designated safe trick or treat area so full buckets by midday were quickly confiscated. A spot of good old traditional (?) pumpkin painting and leaf art for the girls followed by some retail therapy for mummy in the craft market.We had to cut short our Monster Rock Festival because the rest of the neighbourhood houses were decked out in Halloween stuff whilst ours was not. Abby did think that my spiders web made and lit by xmas icicle lights was a little too english eccentric, but covered in the last $2 bag of web stuff from Walmart, guarded by a descending scary red flashing eyed triantula spider set of by motion sensors and you got a winning combo - especially if you cut a hole in the web and put the bucket of candy one side and the children the other. Only 2 crying children, but their parents weren't too mad. Next year Ab wants to create a 'tunnel of doom' along the porch - think that may be a step too far.

I returned from trick or treat duty with the girls to find Abby missing from her position behind the web. Instead she was sat on the neighbours front steps drinking their red wine, you can change a girl's country but you can't change the girl.
Our sweet pea in his Halloween costume (I am so very sorry son...)

Pumpkin Farm

Out here Halloween is big business, in the shops, in the schools and down on the farm. We think the farming side of the family should take note! Pick your own pumpkin patches out here are big, throw in the odd tractor ride, a corn maize and a cup cake shop and you just got about the best day out in all of St Mary's County, Southern Maryland.

Olivia got into our new set of family wheels this week, asked if this was the car that Daddy had brought and if so why did he buy such a small one. She has got to used to huge hire cars / dodge caravan as she sits in our 7 seat 4x4. She is going to have a real shock in 3 years time!

Greenwell State Park

Just 15 mins down the road is Greenwell State park, with woodland trails, beaches and fishing piers. Stu thinks it will be a family favourite as beach campfires are permitted to cook marsh-mellows. Another great weather day, in fact the weather / temp built and built until on the Weds it was 85F, the aircon was on and it started raining hard.

The next thing we knew the neighbour was on the frontporch telling us a 'tornado code red' was in place and a visit from one was likely (not F3 unfortunately). We decided to be very British about it all, refusing to follow the advice, we stayed at the dinner table to finish our meal - that was until it got real dark real quick and the leaves in the garden were literally blowing in circles. We then heard a world war 2 type siren and decided we would head for the basement. It was our first code red, so instead of taking cover - we watched out of the window for 10 mins, then carried on with our evening. The next morning at the bus stop some mums were saying they had had a pretty rough night sleeping in the basement...

FOD: The most extreme tornados can attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than two miles (3 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km)

Our new house

Well after just 10 days in hotels we moved into our new pad - Abby uttered a phrase I thought I'd never hear 'I can't wait to get out of 5 star hotels and into a proper house' - I'm seeing that as a green light to camping holidays for the next 3 years.

The move was slick and easy for the Mexican delivery team, not so for Stu who had all the pictures to put up (and of course all the underlay underlay, get it?).

The first week in the house saw us swelter in glorious Maryland sunshine - the first morning view from our breakfast table made us feel instantly at home.

Olivia was an absolute star, day 2 in the house and she had all the emotions of starting a new school and a new school transport system. She loves the school and her teacher (although she is not sure if she is as nice as Miss Spencer) and thinks the bus is 'really cool'. Day 3-5 saw Abby sprinting to the bus stop at the end of the street as the relief bus driver decided to see how fast people from the colonies could run by turning up 10 mins early - apparently bus drivers that turn up early are deemed to commit a worse crime than OJ did in American Mom's Law.

FOD: Every day 475000 school buses transport 25million American (and 1 British) children to school, equivalent to 10 billion journeys a year.