Sunday, November 17, 2013

Halloween, London, Toilet Training and Dinner 50's style...

So, for those of you who know me, I am the creative Mom. I love to cook and bake, I make lots of hair bows, clothing, home décor and other things. I have even started a shop on Etsy called "Coffee Needed" So this year, like Halloweens past, I made my girls their costumes...AL wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and AJ was Rainbow Brite. So I spent a good amount of hours making these costumes, I even purchased a new sewing machine to do so! Come Halloween morning, AL informed me that she no longer wanted to be a Ninja Turtle and that she was going to be Rapunzel instead! This, my friends, was the first time since having her that I was really sad, I actually had my feelings hurt by my 3 year old. Now, I know that this is not going to be the last time that this happens in our lifetime together but I didn't expect it to, #1 start so early and #2 hurt that bad! When she told me that she didn't like the costume I made because it was stupid, I was crushed!  Anyways, once I got over the whole, "you are wearing it" attitude and realized that it was a 3 year old that I was arguing with, we proceeded to enjoy our first British Trick or Treat, and let me tell you it was AWESOME! (insert sarcastic font here) There were a total of 10 houses that the girls even went to and out of the 10 houses the people at the door said that our girls and their friend Alice were #'s 3,4 and 5 of the amount of kids they had this year...Now, the locals thought this was a great haul and AL didn't know the difference, and the "mom" side of me thinking about the cavities thought it was great! However, what is the point of having Halloween if no one participates?

The next adventure we experienced was a child free trip to London!! Yes!! I said CHILD FREE!!!  WHOOO HOOO!!!!  E and I celebrated 5 years of marriage by spending the weekend in London, we ate Indian food for the first time, on a street called Brick Street where there were more Indian restaurants than I have ever seen! They had guys walking the streets and heckling you to get you to come to their restaurant! We (2 of our friends included) ended up with a deal that altogether consisted of 2 free beers, a free bottle of wine, 4 free appetizers and 4 entrées for $10 each! The 4 of us ate for just over 40GBP!!!!  What a deal!

Prior to the Indian dinner we spent 4 hours on a bike tour through London seeing the sites, including Kensington Palace (yes, I was INSIDE Kensington Palace!!! Where Kate, Will and George live!!!!), Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, The London Clock Tower (the home of Big Ben), Westminster Abbey and a few other places that I can't remember the names of...however we did the majority of the tour in the rain so I may have mentally blocked some of the history of what I was seeing! Later in the evening we continued our tour of the city on foot and I cannot wait to get back to see more!
 (Big Ben)
 (Kensington Palace)
(Westminster Abbey)
 
 

Toilet Training is another portion of my title, now some of you may think I am crazy or insane for trying to toilet train a 17 month old....but in my opinion, when a kid starts to hide when the poop or can tell you when they need to be changed, they are smart enough to learn to use the toilet. AJ is and has been doing all of the afore mentioned things for about a month now. So we purchased a Mickey Mouse potty chair that says "hip, hip hooray!" when she pee's in the toilet and I have stocked up on lots of candy to keep in the bathroom. She is doing pretty good so far, she love wearing underwear but prefers to run around the house naked, and she has yet to poo on the potty but we are getting there. Hopefully the next time I blog I will be able to tell you that we are all finished. (Hey, I can hope right?!)

Friday night we went to this cute little diner in Runcorn, where E works called Rockwell's. Because we were heading to this 50's themed diner I decided to get out the sewing machine once again and make the girls poodle skirts to wear. Oh my goodness were they cute! They LOVED the music and the milkshakes, the food however was less than satisfying. The bathroom doors however were an American flag and a Confederate Flag, not sure how that comes into play but, whatever works I guess.
(AL and AJ at Rockwell's)
 
 
Have a great week everyone! For now I will leave you with a few of AL's British-ism's (must read these in a 3 year old British accent!)
 
1. Daddy, may could you please consider playing hide and seek with me?
2. Mummy, may I play with Ol-li-va (Oliver) in the ga-den (garden)?
3. Daddy, that looks like fun! May I have a go? (when she wanted to crack an egg)
 
Until next time...
A.